Hi Guys -

After seeing so many threads on blogging, Wordpress, hosting, SEO and local marketing, I thought I'd start a thread to answer specific questions about Wordpress, SEO and internet-based marketing strategies.

1. What are your top 3 Marketing with Web 2.0 questions?

I'll try to answer as many of them as I can with supporting resources...ofcourse, I'm hoping a few of your will chime in too

Andy

Some google searches go directly to my wordpress blog. I noticed there is no link from the WP blog back to the main site. Did my web developer just overlook this? Is it possible to link the blog back to the site?

Hi Bunkyhenry -

1. Can you post the link to your blog?
2. Is your blog hosted at http://www.yoursite.com/blog?

Assuming you are using your own hosted blog, you should have the full functionality with wordpress. A wordpress.com hosted blog has some limitiations regarding addtional plug-ins. Plug-ins are free pieces of code that add addtional functionality to your site.

It is easy to include a link back from your blog to your site using a Wordpress Widget.
The link back to your site can appear on the right hand side bar on all your blog posts. I do this on the coinmagictricksblog.com with supporting advertisements.
The same can be done with a simple link back to your main site.

One best practice that to include in all your blog posts is to include a call to action at the end of the blog post.
The call to action can include "Call me for your next party event" or a similar action to review your list of magic services.
The idea is the blog content acts as a magnet for target customers searching for a solution and the call to action generates a lead.

Another tip is to use an Author box plug-in (if your Wordpress template doesn't already support it) to include an About the Author section.
This allows you to include a photo of yourself with a brief professional summary about the Author of the article. I include several links to other sites and pages.
This way every blog post your write includes either a call to action or an About the Author link to your main site.

Hope that helps

Andy

Having a frustration with my new wordpress site at http://www.amazingcompanyevents.com. I want 2 videos in the sidebar. The top video currently uses a widget that seems to work consistently but cannot be used twice in the sidebar. The 2nd sidebar video down uses a 2nd widget (which CAN be used multiple times) but is HIGHLY inconsistent and often shows the error message "The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.". There must be a simple alternative that will work consistently. Thanks so much.

I did not build the site from scratch but I am refining what is being displayed.

Scott,

I've found the sidebar widgets t be very fussy. On one of my sites the text is a hyperlink. Not sure why, but I just noticed the problem and will be soon fixing it.

I am trying to get away from the sidebar and use full page width for my pages, with the goal of having all my text appear without anyone having to scroll.

Josh

I'm having similar trouble as Scott. I want my demo video in the widget box and when clicked to appear on the screen as a lightbox effect. Do you know how I can accomplish this?

Just out of curiousity, what plugin or theme are you using to manage your widgets? Also, what plugin are you using to display your videos?

Asking me? I don't built websites so I don't know much about themes or how widgets are managed (other than I DO manage them within my wordpress admin area). I don't know if you want me to tell you what video widgets I use as I am not 100% happy with either yet.

Hi Scott / Dearwiseone / Close-Up Dave -

I looked at both your videos and so far they are playing fine.

I've used the Strx Youtube Embed Widget plugin to display videos previously. Ofcourse, if you want two of them, you can always use the Custom HTML widget.

If you don't like how a plugin on the sidebar is being used, you can drag the Custom HTML widget to the side bar and simply enter the following HTML:
<object width="220" height="155">
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gPUCxb2tNEo"></param>
<param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param>
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gPUCxb2tNEo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="220" height="155"></embed></object>

I need to test if simply copying and pasting the YouTube URL in the custom HTML will convert into the player.

I would recommend putting a call to action (i.e. your phone number or an email capture form) on the sidebar at the top before the videos.
Your contact info should be readily available without having the viewer scroll or click.

My favorite source for WP themes are:
http://www.woothemes.com/woomember/go?r=32610&i=l16

These are professionally designed themes but the support is great and the documentation is very helpful in creating the specific look for your site.

Hope that helps

Andy

Andy,
You're awesome! So simple yet such a great solution.
Thanks for your service!
Sincerely,
Scott

PS - good call on the contact info - it has been added

Another great theme I've just discovered is Optimize Press. It offers
a huge variety of options for squeeze pages, sales pages, and the like.

If I was truly mercenary I've give out an affiliate link, but either
I'm not or I'm just too lazy to hassle with that:

http://www.optimizepress.com/

That's the power of Wordpress....once you get the design and site initially configured, you as the business owner can make changes without having to hire a developer.

(Off-page search engine optimization is another matter that I would outsource...but there are plenty of books that provide strategies magicians and other small business owners can follow)

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Andy

I've looked at OptimizePress several times. For the magic market, I'm not about to put a customer through a launch sequence but for my project management market, it would have a lot of value.

I can just picture a launch funnel for a kids birthday party

I use elegant themes for all my sites (visit http://www.joshlondonmagic.com) to see them. I will be changing a few things with the sites (like the homepages with the slide shows).

WP truly is amazing and anything really is possible.

I've messed with WordPress, but seem to keep going back to Joomla. From what I hear, a lot of people like WP, but Joomla seems to be easier for me to avoid the blog look. WP is a bit better on SEO out of the box, but with a few plugins and extensions, I'm getting Joomla working great on SEO.

Anyone else use Joomla, or why do you prefer WP?

Hi BBall5630 -

When I first started moving away from traditional web-design, I build several sites in Joomla. My main project management site is built entirely in Joomla and has a ton of great features. I avoided Wordpress mainly because they all looked like blogs. Fortunately, Wordpress has evolved and now with various templates you can have both a corporate / small business website with a blog all driven by Wordpress.

Wordpress has many plugins that faciliate marketing better than Joomla. Joomla has thousands of plug-ins as well but it requires a more technical hand.
For example, the Joomla SEO component is a little clunkier than the Wordpress All in One SEO plug-in or the SEO by Joast plug-in. I don't have to modify the .htaccess file with Wordpress...and its a bit easier to understand.

Wordpress also automatically pings website crawlers so you site is indexed faster.

Joomla is still a great content management system with built in support for membership sites....but for any of my future sites, I build them out in Wordpress and purchase a business themed template that allows both a blog and a home section.

Elegant Themese also has some excellent designs!

The bottom line is pick a platform you are comfortable working it. The website is a marketing tool...and unless you really want to get into the design and technical underpinnings, I'd focus on the blog content, on-page SEO, and social media to help promote and market your services. Ofcourse off-page SEO also helps!

Thanks for your input. I've been looking at doing WP on my next site, but it seems unlearning Joomla and re-learning WP may be harder as they seem to have different names for everything. I need to revisit WP templates, as I would really like to see some that have that "blog feel".

WP is actually easier to learn as they have a basic page and a post article type. Joomla has sections, categories and then the article.
The challenge I had with Joomla is creating separate published pages that are not part of the menu structure. Wordpress let's you do this easily.

Good luck experimenting!

Andy