Sunday, April 23, 2017

A Beginners guide for sharing your WordPress posts

Blogging. How To Serve Up Your WordPress Posts To A Hungry Audience When You’re Just Starting Out

Publishing your post having written a Great article shares the same stakes as inviting readers to come read your work. It’s a road many of us have taken and at one stage or another, all of us were new to this game called blogging. The thing is, it’s not a game. It’s a serious attempt to get your business noticed. It is also a very time-consuming task that not all of us can afford to spend too much time on. Then there’s the effort it takes to plan, broadcast and promote your new blog on social media platforms. Fortunately, someone gave this thing a lot of thought and there is a host of tools available to give you your time back and share your work as well.We’ll be covering techniques that will offer methods to help you share your WordPress posts and we’ll reveal some plugins, scheduling tools and most important, social networks’ built-in options.

Why Do You Need to Share Your WordPress Posts

Sharing WordPress articles can improve your reach providing you’ve got a solid social media marketing strategy in place. You will also drive traffic to your site and assist your site’s search engine optimisation. Facebook alone is the catalyst for reaching out to people beyond the realm which encloses many of us in a selected area. 76% of people use this platform not only to reach out but also to hunt down interesting content. It is also a fact that over 40% of people purchase a product they’ve seen or learn about on Facebook.

There Are A Lot More Tools To Include In Your Assemblage

Sharing occurs in ways that engage readers or through the use of plugins or even the settings that are built into the platform. With a little thought, organisation and wise usage of these techniques your content can broaden its reach beyond even that you imagined. It might seem so obvious, but adding share buttons to your posts is almost a no-brainer. And you can do this by using Monarch a dedicated plugin. Just having them on your site encourages your visitors to share your article easily and effortlessly and people love to share quality content. With Monarch, you’re able to utilise the power of social media to its full extent with these very up to date buttons that invite people to follow. And the beauty is you can situate them anywhere you wish to put them on your site. They’re prominent and they’re attractive but they’re also customisable so that you can have them as a draw-card that not only looks great but suits your site. There’s a choice of six button locations, six triggers for pop-up and these are the calls for action with a comment and can be time delayed to suit your preferences. We’ve offered Monarch to those who hold an Elegant Themes membership but there are other options for social media sharing plugins for WordPress. One we suggest as a free choice is MashShare which uses no external scripts and therefore load times are more rapid because all code is loaded directly from your website. And another we recommend is codecanyon, easy social share buttons for WordPress. Install and activate the Monarch plugin by navigating to Tools > Monarch Settings in your WordPress dashboard then you’ll be presented with a screen with the Locations tab and there you’ll be able to set your buttons where you want them. You click on your location and you’ll see a green check mark which will indicate all the locations you’ve chosen and then you just need to click on Save Changes and you’re finished. The next tab is Networks which enables networks you wish your visitors to share with. Click on Add Networks and a pop-up will appear indicating all the available social platforms that are available and this is where you select the ones that are relevant to you. There is an array of tabs that give you the opportunity to customise each location button you’ve selected and it’s here you can resize, reshape, alter colours and counts. You get to decide which pages you’d like the buttons to appear on from here.

Time to Link Your Social Media Accounts

Everyone who visits your site now finds it easy to share your posts, but what about saving even more time by using Jetpack? Imagine how every time you publish a post it appears on several social media networks automatically. This is what jetpack does. All you do is navigate to settings > sharing in your dashboard, click the connect tab next to the social network you want to connect to, log in to the social media site you want to share to and authorise the connection. When you’re ready to publish your post, just click publish and whatever services you chose, you’ll see it show up there. If you want to opt out from a particular network, click the publicise edit link, uncheck the services you don’t want and you’re done.

Schedule Your Posts

Sometimes it’s better to schedule your posts whilst aiming at your target audience. Whilst you’re not driving everyone crazy with a bounty of incessant posts, you can maintain the timing and get posts out consistently and at a time that is inclined to suit the reader. You don’t want your posts aiming at the moon and landing among the stars. There are resources you can use to figure out when your optimal times are and when people are most likely to read your post. Using the right tool for this kind of application makes sense and when you’ve got a lot of posts to release at certain times of the day or night, Hootsuite might just be the tool you’re looking for. It’s an auto-scheduling tool that chooses the time to send out your articles according to your preference. Another auto-scheduling tool is CoSchedule which acts like a calendar and where you can get your posts out there from a ‘one-stop-shop’. Try Buffer, a free schedule and publish tool also located in the same ‘one-stop-shop’ and also acts as a secretary, getting your posts out for you while you focus on other tasks. Buffer is free for the individual application and gives you only one platform but starts at $10 per month and gives you ten social accounts.

Wrapping it Up

Whatever your choice of ‘secretary’ gives you a chance to keep up with social media demands and those of your followers. Whatever you choose to do, you’ve now got time on your side. Choose whichever application is going to fit your needs and you’ll find a whole lot more is done for you rather than you having to do it yourself. So your WordPress posts will be professionally handled, will go out on time and will reach those people all over the globe in time zones that won’t even cause you loss of sleep. Everything is on schedule and that’s being punctual because you care about your potential customers.

The post A Beginner’s guide for sharing your WordPress posts appeared first on Web Wizards.

via Web Wizards Perth Blog — Web Wizards https://www.webwizards.com.au/beginners-guide-sharing-wordpress-posts/

Monday, April 17, 2017

How to create a memorable logo

We’re Sharing The Secrets To Creating Memorable Logos

Logos. Who needs ‘em? You do. But they’re everywhere. I mean, they’re colourful, and they’re powerful but how is anyone going to recognise my business in an ocean of logos that often don’t make a lot of sense in any case? They may not make a lot of sense but they’re unforgettable, aren’t they? And that is exactly what the logic of this valuable exercise is all about. Memorability. Creating memorable logos is a combination of clever colour choice, relevancy to your business and identity. So where should you start?

Brand Identity

What you do may not be unique but who you are is inarguably unique. With your point of view in all you do, and in where your passions lie, this is where you begin. Regardless that you may be running a generic business that is certainly not unique due to its broad emphasis on commonality, how you present it to your customers is your gateway to accomplishment and attaining a loyal following. To make this process simpler, ask yourself how you define your brand. In other words, who are you? Your business reflects the elements that make you, you. What are two words that reflect you, your business and what you want to achieve accurately? Once you have them, you’re on your way. For example. You might offer your services as a life coach. Do you empower people; offer encouragement and hope, support and improvement? As a financial advisor, you’re offering financial improvement, abundant mindset and or budget sense. Brainstorm, write down your words then slowly go through the processes of elimination until you’ve arrived at the two words that inspire you.

Colour Behaviour

If emotions could be viewed in various hues you’d probably find a lot of reds, blues, pinks, yellows, greens, purples, golds and oranges are generated. Yellow, however, is the colour the human mind understands thus the eyes notice first. Then comes orange, being the central character between the yellow and the passion of red. Red is bold and commands attention while pink is gender specific and purple is the cousin of the primary colour blue. Blue is somber. Black is Authoritative.

  • Red is a powerful attention chaser. Once captured, it has the ability to stir emotion and hold the visitor to a page. However, overdoing it with too much red will chase away your customers.
  • Blue is trust. It is cool and unhurried. As a primary colour, blue lends itself to expansion and mixed with supporting colours will often offer the best results.
  • Yellow spells confidence. It is also a very powerful colour that commands the attention of your audience but also lets them know you’re capable of what you do.
  • Green is inviting, healthy, environmentally friendly and sends out a message of goodwill. It is also the main colour of many global currencies and reminds the subconscious mind of wealth.
  • Purple is royalty, elegance, and prestige and spreads a message of refinement. Purple is class, grace, and refinement. Not to be used haphazardly.
  • Gold is also aristocratic but with its reputation, holds more powerful energy than purple. With an element of power no other colour can surpass, gold is the epitome of heritage.
  • Orange is just full-throated fun. It oozes energy, seizes attention in a very subtle way and is a comfortable colour that makes visitors feel relaxed in the knowledge they’re dealing with a reputable business.
  • Black is easy to choose. It is also classically elegant and balanced with white can express dominance and authority. Go easy though, too much can send a message of emptiness.

Understanding the messages behind colours can increase your understanding of how colours affect people’s emotions and how far reaching their connection to colours can be. Colours spell the effectiveness of your business’ branding methods. Know also that people generally make a subconscious judgement about a product within 90 seconds of viewing it, so you need also to understand they make that judgement purely on colour alone.

Logo Simplicity

Again, it cannot be impressed upon enough, less is more. Enter the mind of a child and design from that point of view. Leave out the frills. When you’re done, your logo should be dispassionately edited. Forget the gorgeous hues the rainbow makes on your logo unless your business delivers rainbows door to door. Now, erase, erase, erase. Keep honing until you’ve got the power and the clarity of simplicity. Simplicity Is Impact. It Needs No Assistance. When you play with white space, you’re creating a puzzle. The human mind cannot help but try to figure out what’s behind the white space as it’s complimentary colours are introduced. White space is as valuable as any colour. When you allow a single letter or symbol to seemingly protrude, see for yourself how bold an impact it can make on the entire design, and how long you linger while figuring out what you see. Conclusion, If your logo never fails to deliver a pleasurable experience consistently, you’ve got yourself a winner. On the other hand, if your design is a constant reminder of a flat experience, your logo may be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

The post How to create a memorable logo appeared first on Web Wizards.

via Web Wizards Perth Blog — Web Wizards https://www.webwizards.com.au/create-memorable-logo/

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

How To Get Traffic With Your Website Content

It’s a mystery, and every marketing guru out there is still trying to decipher why blogging, written content, call it whatever you want, has the mere power to promote changeability. Mystery governs a niche. It alters the way people think about a specific thing. But like a pregnancy, if you don’t commit to consistency, the interest is only at its peak for nine solid months and after that wanes into nothingness. So why is it so controversial and why does it seem that unless you’re an insider, you have no privileges to the secrets of conversion, traffic and more visitors than you ever dreamed of? Ah yes, there are plenty of websites out there, all boasting more than 450K visitors and all of those visitors remain loyal no less.

  • So what’s behind the scenes?
  • Why isn’t everyone informed?
  • Isn’t everyone a deserving being?
  • Hell yes! But have you been listening?

That very same content you’re writing has been trying to tell you ‘Keep Up or Get Lost.’ Not Take a Hike in the literal, sarcastic sense, but if you insist on just keeping going in the same direction and doing the same thing over again, then you’re certain to have your wish and will surely get lost. There’s nothing pleasant about wallowing around in a cesspool of broken blogs or even soggier, poorly written blogs that have never been or will be read. The name of the blogging game has been and always will be, particularly in the future, to focus on the creation of engaging, interesting, cannot-put-it-down content for potential and loyal customers. To be able to reach out and retain visitors you need to encourage them to linger longer on your website. So, with all that said, do you know what you’re doing? Have you deciphered the mystery? Probably not and that’s why we’re here. Content marketing is what it is, it’s a necessary evil, but without the secret confessions having been revealed and the mystery unshrouded, how can one conquer complacent blogs?

There are 3 categories to Content Marketing Strategies

  • Just Blogging
  • Formats
  • Products

Every blog takes time and effort to give it flavour and interest and an element of unputdownable ness. Now you might think writing a blog is easy; and products, well, they’re part of your goods and services as a business. That formatting is just something expected, and once you’re done, you publish then sit back and wait for the traffic. We’ll put that myth to rest. We’re sorry to say; it’s not all it’s thought to be.

Just Blogging is

  • Easy to read blogs covering the basics of your business. A published article about a new product or trend.
  • Techniques you’ve discovered that ensure ease of use of a particular product you’re promoting.
  • Information about your business overall with a view to attracting visitors and making them aware of your services.

Formatting is

  • Infographics that are a vital measure to any blog and have the power to say a whole lot more than words ever could.
  • Animations that are not only entertaining but have the wherewithal to lend a boost to a person’s memory. If you’re out of inspiration, you’ll find what you’re looking for here.
  • Used to target your audience. Why not head over to Buffer who created a marketing tool called Pablo which is where you’ll find hundreds upon hundreds of images.
  • Videos that have become a customary trait offering more than words and graphics can in a heartbeat. With clever consideration, (think like a director) you can publish a video on your website that showcases your business in all its glory.

Products are

  • The blood in the veins of the business. Content marketing needs products, and those products include new stuff, new services and expansion of your reachability. All of this is a link in your business chain.
  • Have a product that lives in the Now rather than one that is more of a passing fad. Use your services to bring awareness to the fact that you’re here to stay and you have the goods to prove it.

Content is King

Blogs are published every moment of every single day, and their content is consistent. So you need an audience with a consistent interest. Ideally, topics like finances, health, weightloss and social media are topics that have that changeability element and people want to read about it. Avoid becoming stagnant and writing as though your vocabulary vehicle is just spinning its wheels. To avoid that from occurring, see if you can find an audience who is networked with each other. You can find common threads on social media and use those particular niches that are relevant to your business and products, to hurl a bucketful of awareness at them (after you’ve joined the group). Try to find other bloggers or podcasters or even some best-selling authors who have built their audiences. On the whole, there are generally about 8–10 influencers around who already dominate the niche space. There’s plenty to learn from them. Keep your blogs interesting to readers who are aged between 30 and 55 and with their interests changing and flowing, if your blog is viable you’ll have an audience you’ll enjoy writing for. That in itself is one of the biggest secrets to keeping a blog alive. Mystery unveiled simply says, if you don’t like your audience, your blog will suffer because you won’t have the incentive to write. You need to like your readers out loud.

Wrapping it Up

So the mystery has been uncovered, and you’re now aware that content marketing is so much more than just publishing a bunch of words to fill a stack of white space. Allow your content to reel in your customers by letting them know of the new approaches you’re taking with your business and products. Show don’t tell that you care about your audience but don’t pander to their every whim either. Keep your marketing strategies simple but make them exciting. You’ll never get lost if you use a little imagination like breathless, engaging content, video, animation, and infographics. More than anything, enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy the most. When your flavoursome blog has all the ingredients that your audience is searching for, watch out for the traffic jams.

The post How To Get Traffic With Your Website Content appeared first on Web Wizards.

via Web Wizards Perth Blog — Web Wizards https://www.webwizards.com.au/traffic-with-your-website-content/

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

What Is The Best Platform For Blogging?

It seems everyone is either starting a blog or writing one but if you’re still sitting there pondering the ‘hows’ we’ve got some step by step guidance to give you a head-start. Everyone has something to say and being able to shout it out to the world is easier than it has ever been. With a blog, you can write how you feel about the price of living, or you can give that a wide scope and opt to write how your business is booming since you designed and published your website. Blogging is fun, but it can also create quite a challenge if you’re just starting out. You’ve got to ask yourself what you’re going to write about, how you’re going to launch your blog once it’s finished and then there’s that decision you have to make on which platform to use. And how can you get yourself a growing bunch of readers? We’ll tackle the bigger picture first and suggest ways and which platform you can choose to blog from. We’ll ask you some of the questions you’ll finish up asking yourself when you get around to choosing a blogging platform and then we’ll walk through some of the successful ones while letting you know why one might be better than the other.

Think About The Blogging Platform

Ask yourself:

  • Do I want only a blog or do I want a website to work from?
  • Do you want to be hosted or will you self-host? Being hosted saves you from having to deal with code and a head full of technical knowledge. If however, you wish to self-host your own website and domain name, here are some guidelines.
  • How does your budget feel about monetising your blog? Self-hosted sites do require feeding, and you’ll need to pay for hosting and a domain name. There may also be monthly fees to keep your site live.
  • Are you looking to earn money with your blog? Because some platforms limit your ability to earn money from your blog, you may want to look at one that doesn’t present any restrictions.

So, now that those questions have been sorted and you’re clear on your direction, we’ll journey through some of the blogging platforms and from there you’ll be able to make a choice.

WordPress.org

WordPress has a self-hosted version. It’s called WordPress.org, and it’s a popular platform due to its adaptability. It’s quite clever. You can use it as just a blog from which to reach out to people with your opinions or you can expand it to become a website over which you can obtain full control and monetise it however you like. With themes and page builders available to use, you’re able to create stunning websites, and you don’t even have to know anything about HTML code or design. WordPress is free. All you’ll need to pay for is hosting and your domain. For further information

WordPress.com

This is a free and an easier solution, particularly for beginners. Hosting and domain names aren’t necessary as all you need here is a username and away you go. However, you’re pretty well controlled in what you do and changes that are afforded to those whose site is on this free platform. And if you’re thinking you might use this platform to monetise your business, WordPress won’t allow it. If all you’re wanting is a blog and a little enjoyment along the way, then this might be the way to go. For further information

Medium

This blogging platform is very different and serves the blogger well in that you get a built-in audience with Medium. Should any of your blogs become editor’s picks, they have the potential to go viral, but there’s a catch. You don’t actually own your blog at Medium, but it is free and hosted at medium.com. Another is you can’t customise it either nor can you monetise it but if you’re just looking for a happy platform to give your thoughts and opinions an airing then this is it. For further information

Ghost

Ghost is the new kid on the blogger’s block and looks and feels like a leaner interpretation of WordPress and is a blogger’s paradise. Ghost is downloadable for free if you’re going to host it yourself or you can opt to pay $19 per month. Fully hackable, this platform is for creating and running a consistent online publication. But again, it doesn’t offer the same flexibility as does WordPress. For further information

Tumblr

Tumblr is more for the image conscious and although it is a free hosted platform this one is not really too focused on text. If you want to tell a story, you tell it in pictures instead. This doesn’t mean you can’t use Tumblr for text, you can, but it’s the pictures that say the most. Tumblr also has its own built-in audience and with plenty of people to see your posts, like Medium you will lose the ability to customise and monetise if you’re going to use Tumblr. For further information

Blogger

Blogger used to be stepping out with WordPress, but for a few years now, it lost it’s dancing shoes and remains just another platform. It is a free hosted blogging platform, but again you’re compromising your ability to customise your site. You’re pretty much under the control of blogger. However, you can display targeted ads on your blog so that you can earn a little money while writing what you’re passionate about. Although focused on the written word, Blogger is easily integrated with AdSense; it’s all done for you when you display your ads. For further information

Squarespace

With Squarespace, you are able to create a blog and a regular website which is hosted, but you will need to pay for the use of this platform. For the business owner, this is a site that will focus on blogging and content. With everything in place to showcase your images, you’ve got a good choice of templates to choose from. This is more for the artist, the photographer and the chef. Musicians will get a delightful taste of what’s available here while wedding planners will also find this platform easy to use. Beginning at $12 per month its worth considering. For further information

Conclusion

The sites provided here are with the beginners in mind. Whether you’re the type that likes to journal your daily experiences or showcase a host of photographs, include audio or video, you’ve got the world at your feet. Sharing is fun and if you want to share your anecdotes, your dog’s daily antics or just your thoughts, consider working with Medium or Tumblr. For those who want to share more meatier blogs and don’t care for the monthly fees, then a blogging platform where facts, figures, graphs and strong advice can be included is often a better to one to run with like WordPress.com or even Blogger to get your message across. However, if you want absolute flexibility and freedom of move, then a self-hosted version of WordPress would be your better choice.

The post What Is The Best Platform For Blogging? appeared first on Web Wizards.

via Web Wizards Perth Blog — Web Wizards https://www.webwizards.com.au/best-platform-blogging/

Friday, October 14, 2016

How Responsive Design Makes It Easy

Familiarity breeds contempt, particularly when it appears you’re looking at the same website you looked at a few hours ago, a moment ago…

Wednesday, May 25, 2016