If you don't know what you're doing!
Hey, JP here!
Let's talk about Wordpress, I've done a number of things with Wordpress and it can be a formidable marketing weapon if used properly!
We have Fox’s Thread here about the benefits of HTML/CSS pages and making it into a viable business by selling them to other people. Also, there is the major pro for having a single theme that can’t be tracked down and you can use it again and again. Which is a fantastic read and gets you a good insight on how to SELL a website.
Another input from one of Andy Black's brilliant insight buried somewhere in this forum about why a website sucks. You shouldn’t be thinking about a website if you don’t have a business or some sort of success that you can really reflect on and put on the web. I’m a former victim of this, I’ve built a number of WordPress sites just to make a ‘business’ or attempt to have a ‘blog’ that just falls through because I didn’t maintain it or keep a close eye on it. Thankfully, this led to my skills on WordPress being useful and marketable.
So my suggestion is if you already have a business and it doesn’t rely on a digital presence, you should go ahead with a static HTML/CSS site by grabbing a theme off Themeforest and going with a solid google Adwords campaign. You'll get much more out of it than trying to pay those website builder sites that rob your bank at like 50$ a month. From my experience building, a website with HTML/CSS is much easier than to do it with those buildrs and wordpress given some time to learn the languages.
However, there are many things that WordPress can do that basic HTML/CSS websites can’t do. And that’s what I plan on going into with this thread.
Building a website on WordPress might be much more time consuming than an HTML/CSS, but it’ll be dynamic and updatable. Wordpress should be high up on your list if you're thinking about e-commerce, portfolios, blogs, multi-user applications, security, and so much more.
And what can make all of those things happen is the MASSIVE NUMBER OF PLUGINS! They will help your business in the long run if you know what you’re looking for and how to use them. Since Wordpress is an open source software, there are a HUGE number of plugins and support systems to boot that can help you market your website. I’ll go over a few big ones that I tend to use on the sites I've sold.
Jetpack – One of the default plugins that is directly linked with WordPress, and it’ll prompt you to download and activate it. It’s a massive asset and it's an all-in-one system that includes a number of tools ranging from analytics, tools and different themes.
Google XML Sitemap – Awesome tool that will let Google and other search engine crawl around and see how the site is set up allowing the search engine find your stuff easier which will give you a better chance of grabbing spots on the search engines.
Lead In – Want to know who's looking at your website, the plugin will track people that are coming back to the site and you’ll be able to see what they are clicking on and maybe understand what they’re trying to find. So you can rearrange or make the system easier for them allowing for more conversions
Wordpress SEO by Yoast – One of my number 1 go to’s, SEO is still viable today and this tool will make sure that you’re paying attention to the right keywords before you start writing to hit better spots on the search engine.
Google Analytics by Yoast- These people are awesome, I know we already have Jetpack for analytical data but nothing beats the king (google). You can track the performance and how it’s doing on google directly from the dashboard to interpret the data you’re seeing and trying to convert it to clients.
OptinMonster- Trying to build an email list, this is the plugin you need. It’ll help you make an easy form for visitors to sign up and directly send it to a list on Aweber, mail chimp, and I’m sure much more. (also can have pop-up templates to force people to sign up)
Monster Insights – Another traffic monitoring plugin that can help you understand where most of your traffic is coming from. Nice and easy to use, highly recommended for WordPress beginners.
There are tons more that I’ve used in the past, but I think those are the most critical ones that can be applied instantly for results. I'll dig through more of my notes and update as i go along if I find other tools or systems that help me and my clients!
Keep in mind, a perfect website without a good marketing campaign is like a dull knife. I would still suggest you polish up on Google AdWords and SEO to make sure that you’re putting yourselves in the best position. There are tons of threads on here about those stuff from @Andy Black
Hey, JP here!
Let's talk about Wordpress, I've done a number of things with Wordpress and it can be a formidable marketing weapon if used properly!
We have Fox’s Thread here about the benefits of HTML/CSS pages and making it into a viable business by selling them to other people. Also, there is the major pro for having a single theme that can’t be tracked down and you can use it again and again. Which is a fantastic read and gets you a good insight on how to SELL a website.
Another input from one of Andy Black's brilliant insight buried somewhere in this forum about why a website sucks. You shouldn’t be thinking about a website if you don’t have a business or some sort of success that you can really reflect on and put on the web. I’m a former victim of this, I’ve built a number of WordPress sites just to make a ‘business’ or attempt to have a ‘blog’ that just falls through because I didn’t maintain it or keep a close eye on it. Thankfully, this led to my skills on WordPress being useful and marketable.
So my suggestion is if you already have a business and it doesn’t rely on a digital presence, you should go ahead with a static HTML/CSS site by grabbing a theme off Themeforest and going with a solid google Adwords campaign. You'll get much more out of it than trying to pay those website builder sites that rob your bank at like 50$ a month. From my experience building, a website with HTML/CSS is much easier than to do it with those buildrs and wordpress given some time to learn the languages.
However, there are many things that WordPress can do that basic HTML/CSS websites can’t do. And that’s what I plan on going into with this thread.
Building a website on WordPress might be much more time consuming than an HTML/CSS, but it’ll be dynamic and updatable. Wordpress should be high up on your list if you're thinking about e-commerce, portfolios, blogs, multi-user applications, security, and so much more.
And what can make all of those things happen is the MASSIVE NUMBER OF PLUGINS! They will help your business in the long run if you know what you’re looking for and how to use them. Since Wordpress is an open source software, there are a HUGE number of plugins and support systems to boot that can help you market your website. I’ll go over a few big ones that I tend to use on the sites I've sold.
Jetpack – One of the default plugins that is directly linked with WordPress, and it’ll prompt you to download and activate it. It’s a massive asset and it's an all-in-one system that includes a number of tools ranging from analytics, tools and different themes.
Google XML Sitemap – Awesome tool that will let Google and other search engine crawl around and see how the site is set up allowing the search engine find your stuff easier which will give you a better chance of grabbing spots on the search engines.
Lead In – Want to know who's looking at your website, the plugin will track people that are coming back to the site and you’ll be able to see what they are clicking on and maybe understand what they’re trying to find. So you can rearrange or make the system easier for them allowing for more conversions
Wordpress SEO by Yoast – One of my number 1 go to’s, SEO is still viable today and this tool will make sure that you’re paying attention to the right keywords before you start writing to hit better spots on the search engine.
Google Analytics by Yoast- These people are awesome, I know we already have Jetpack for analytical data but nothing beats the king (google). You can track the performance and how it’s doing on google directly from the dashboard to interpret the data you’re seeing and trying to convert it to clients.
OptinMonster- Trying to build an email list, this is the plugin you need. It’ll help you make an easy form for visitors to sign up and directly send it to a list on Aweber, mail chimp, and I’m sure much more. (also can have pop-up templates to force people to sign up)
Monster Insights – Another traffic monitoring plugin that can help you understand where most of your traffic is coming from. Nice and easy to use, highly recommended for WordPress beginners.
There are tons more that I’ve used in the past, but I think those are the most critical ones that can be applied instantly for results. I'll dig through more of my notes and update as i go along if I find other tools or systems that help me and my clients!
Keep in mind, a perfect website without a good marketing campaign is like a dull knife. I would still suggest you polish up on Google AdWords and SEO to make sure that you’re putting yourselves in the best position. There are tons of threads on here about those stuff from @Andy Black
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