Where possible use photos and images to enhance posts and add interest.

• Upload individual photos – they go in your media library.
• Upload a Gallery and it is managed through your Next Generation Gallery plugin
  

Edit images before you upload them

• Size I edit them to < 600 pixels wide before I load them up
• Name the Images – they should be named what they are – good for search engines and also makes them easier to find when they are in your media file once uploaded.  maria2.jpg is much easier to find that  image24395.jpg
• if you do not have images, use the ” Quote editing tool to create visual interest

Uploading images to your page

• Choose the point in the page you want to insert the image, click in the position.
• Click on Image – beside the upload/Insert tool.
• Click Browse if the image is on your computer – then press upload
• Select the size you want the image to display 300 is half the page, 600 is full page, 150 is a thumbnail, select if you want it left, right or centre.
• Click insert into post
• You can put 2 x photos side by side if they are 300 px wide, it is helpful to put a space between them
• Once uploaded onto a website: the photo remains in the media library and  can also accessed from there
• In some versions of WordPress Thumbnails are needed to be manually added in order to display in front page summaries.Thumbnails: should be <150 pix before you load them up.  Upload a thumbnail as above, copy the Link url, close the page (x in top right hand cnr)  Scroll down to Custom Fields select Thumbnail (this differs for each site) paste the link url you copied above. NOTE Any image already loaded into your Media Library can be specified to show a thumbnail of that image by adding  -150×150 before .jpg if it already in the media library.

Set up a New Generation Gallery

• Scroll down your left hand menu in widepress to Gallery, click on add new gallery/images
• Add a new gallery – name it with something that makes sense  eg <March ’12 Workshop> rather than <workshop>
• Select images for your gallery (remember resize and rename them first) – you can select multiple images to load
• Select the gallery you want to add them to and click upload
• you can also use this method to add new photos to old galleries, but just skipping the second bullet point
• You have now set up a Gallery you can use as a slideshow

Uploading a Slideshow or gallery into your post

If you would rather display a slideshow rather than just one or two images

• Click an insertion point where you want the gallery to appear
• In editing Tools select <Add nextgen gallery>
• Decide on which gallery you want to display – select it
• Decide which form of display you want – try each one and preview to see the effect, I find Image list or slideshow the most useful

Keywords – before you start :

Always think of keywords that will be used in your post that others might look for in a search on google etc. USE these keywords as much as possible in heading, text and in keywords and description at the bottom of the post, in permalink and in Tags and Categories.

What is the heart of what you are trying to communicate

• Heading: should contain keywords and be able to stand on its own as a description of the content. eg instead of New Workshop Planned  title it New Permaculture Workshop Date Set
• First Paragraph: should contain keywords and stand on its own as a summary of content. Insert a MORE tag after the first paragraph – editing text it is the 12 box in top row.
• TAGS: tags are like keywords – attach a few tags to a post – choose from popular tags or add a few of your own.  They form another way to navigate around your website
• Permalink - once you put a title on your post or page the words of that title becomes the permalink  eg New Permaculture Workshop date set becomes new-permaculture-workshop-date-set  If you write a long title, you have a long permalink and it is clumsy.  Edit the permalink to make it short and sweet and keyword rich eg  2012-permaculture-workshop
• Keywords/Description: PLEASE fill these out at the bottom of the edit/new post page. Remember keyword rich a short description – one sentence summary with lots of key words, then keyword phrases separated by a comma.

Hints on Layout and Editing

• Editing tools: forgotten what the little symbols at the top of a post mean – hover your pointer over them and they will tell you what they are for, as well as a short cut keyboard link.
• Writing: You can write the copy somewhere else and copy it to the blog post, or copy someone else’s writing, BUT If copying content from somewhere else – ALWAYS use the text paste (preferable) or windows paste option (this one keeps the formatting). WHY – otherwise a lot of extraneous code gets copied over.
• use the ” quote option in the editing tools to make a paragraph stand out
• Use Good Clear Headings, bullet points, bold and Italics where appropriate to make it easier to scan the information.
• Use photos and images to break up the text – hints on loading images here
• Web Links: always link to other sites you refer to. Select the Text/photo you want to link from – the name of the product or more info or image then select the link tool and type the link address in, remember to include the http://
• Email links: use the link maker, but instead of http:// put mailto: followed by the email address

Categories:

This is VERY important for navigation around your website and for displaying some posts on the home page.

• Choose the category/s that your post fits into.
• make a new category if necessary
• remember you can have sub categories under a parent category
• You don’t want so many categories that there is only one post in each!

Preview the page

Save the draft and Click on preview in order to see what the page looks like before publishing it
I always do this.  Check the following things and edit where necessary

• Does it look good?
• are the images in the best place
• is it easy to read and scan
• does in need more breaks, headings, emphasis
• Date of publication – by default it is the date you publish it, but you can change the date so it is published on some other date.

does it appear on the home page (if applicable)

What is a Sticky Post

Do you want to make sure a post stays at the top of the latest posts, even when it is not the latest post – eg something that you want to be a headline for a month or two or three – a major event etc. Make it sticky

• In the top right hand corner near publication Click on Visibility: Public
• click on Sticky post

Publish the Post/Page

Once published, check that the post displays on the home page, and all is OK

How many times have you had on your ‘to do’ list – WRITE A NEWSLETTER, and how many times have you simply delayed and delayed?

If you have a WordPress blog site, you will never have to do this again – All you have to do is write one new post a month and you can have a newsletter go out automatically to your mailing list.  Mail Chimp has arrived!

MailChimp Features that I love:

• Subscribers can automatically subscribe and unsubscribe direct from your website – you can get an email informing you or not, depends on you AND all the legal issues to do with spam and email lists are covered
• Using an RSS feed, you can set it up so that the newsletter is created by picking up the posts you have written in the past month, and automatically insert them into your newsletter. If you have not written a post in the past month, it does not go out.  IT’S AS EASY AS!
• Easy to use newsletter templates – set up your own, or have your graphics person do it for you, so your newsletter reflects your business.
• the best one – for up to 1000 subscribers IT’S FREE, after that it costs a few cents per email, but for me this is money well spent in exchange for a simple hassle free, hands free, newsletter system.

You concentrate on writing posts for your Blog/website – that is the important thing.  Once set up, the newsletter takes care of itself.

For more detail on how to use Mail Chimp,
check out Jo Couchman’s great blog  Click here

If you’re using WordPress, every one of your pages and blog posts is now its own standalone website with its own url, title and description and it’s own potential for a listing on Google.

This means that you need to optimise every single post you publish, not just the homepage for search engines. find out which are the best SEO plugins, what to write in your titles and descriptions and what the next steps are for optimising your website. Download my FREE SEO Planning Spreadsheet…

Read the rest of this excellent article here

Earthtalk@Awhitu

Purchased 18 years ago, it has undergone remarkable changes as the plantings and the land has matured and developed.

Charmaine is a well known writer and educationalist and Tanya a gifted photographer, but they were struggling with a website which was not reflecting their present business enterprise.  I was called in through my Web2Blog business and we have just launched their fabulous new website.

I worked with Tanya and Charmaine to define their business needs – a far more sophisticated and diverse enterprise than when their first website was designed many years ago.

Collaborating with Jo Couchman of Creative Web Ideas we designed a new WordPress website incorporating the following features:

• Genesis Theme for WordPress
• rotating photo on homepage using WP-Cycle plugin
• Mailchimp for automated email sign up
• Mailchimp set up for automatically mailing out monthly newsletter of latest posts on the site.
• rotating photo montage on every page

Visit Earthtalk on Line to see the new site

Aim for short and crisp. Online readers tire after 200 words and start dropping out at around 300. Keep most stories below this length although you can write some longer pieces.

Read Bill Bennetts 300 words on writing 300 words

The only qualification I would give to this is I think you can do longer articles if the words are broken up in some way. I think the reason this helps because it assists us in scanning the writing to see if we want to ‘dig down’ more into the detail.

• use headings – clear and descriptive
• use images – preferably connected to the text
• use the ” quotes” tool in the wordpress toolbar.  Depending on what theme you are using it provides another way of breaking up text and making it easier to scan.
• use bullet points
• use the More tag in the WordPress toolbar to enable people to easily see a concise summary and then have the option of clicking for more info if it grabs me.

Women Travel NZ

So working with Web2Blog, a new blog based news site has been launched: Women Travel NZ Blog www.womentravelnz.com In conjunction with women travel NZ on Twitter it helps me fulfill the need to have a news site – what is happening, women’s travel writing and more.

I love the WordPress platform for websites, once again working with Jo Couchman of Creative Web Designs, I have got a website which is dynamic, changing content, an integrated newsletter automatically sent out every month with new postings.  Its perfect!

Other Web2Blog WordPress Websites:

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I am proud to announce Web2Blog’s latest WordPress Website

Local Waipu woman Sharon Carroll had a vibrant personal training and fitness business, with a van covered in advertising and a great local profile – but she had no website.  Now that has changed.

I was able to work with Sharon to help her define the business needs and work with Jo Couchman of Creative Web Ideas to design the site. Since the launch I have worked with Sharon to teach her how to do posts and twitter and newsletter to support and enhance her business to build relationships through the web with her clients.

Web2Blog- our point of difference is to help you define your business needs and to train you to use the website once it is developed.  Putting the power back in your hands, and maximise the benefit of your investment of money and time in your website.

Other Web2blog Websites:

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Small WordPress websites involve an initial investment of between can cost between $2,000 and $20,000, as well as ongoing costs.  So it is good to do a Cost Benefit Analysis of whether it is a good thing for you.

The focus of this article is about why a small NZ business should invest in a website.

What are the Financial benefits of a website for your business?

• Direct income generation: simply speaking – your website generates direct income for your business.
• A Decrease in expenditure: having a website saves you money in other ways, or instance in wages or advertising
• Increased opportunity costs: having a website can give you more time to concentrate on other things. Working smarter rather than working harder – a challenge for all small business owners.

Making your website pay through:
Direct income generation

• Sales/Shop If you have a product to sell, selling directly on line will almost certainly increase your sales, and these days some people ONLY sell on line.  With WordPress based sites, we can set you up an easy to run on line shop for about $500 + gst.  All you need to do is take the orders and send them out.

You can even have a donations button for your favourite charity

• Subscriptions: Will people pay to have access to your website. This is a tricky one. For many people one of the benefits of the internet is that information is free, and there is a resistance to people paying for information.  However if the information has high value to me, I would be prepared to pay to subscribe to information.

For example I have friends who run Pink Prophets - and a 79 pound pa subscription gives you access to their financial research and investment information

• Multi Level Website – some people will pay to list their business on your website.  This can work well with a small business who has a generic website in which they advertise their own business, but have built the site in a way that it also advertises other similar businesses.  For many very small businesses, it is not economic to have their own website, but they can have an internet presence through being on your website.

I have several websites for which this is a major income earner

- Women Travel New Zealand where people pay $175/year to list on the website

- Bream Bay Community Website - I set up a mini website within this site for small businesses who do not have a website.  Its a cheap way for them to get internet visibility.  I charge $100 set up + $100/year for this + $60 for the cost of their domain name if they want their own unique domain name.  I offer this free for community groups.

For the following to work as income generation, you need to get a lot of people visiting your website.

• Google Advertising – you can have Google Sponsored Advertisments on your website – I am sure you have seen them all.  I find them annoying, but every time someone clicks on a sponsored link you earn some money and it can mount up.

Make sure the benefit of the amount you will get outweighs the potential negative impact on visitors to your site.  Not recommended for small website Google Adsense

• Affiliate Advertising- You form a relationship with a third party  and advertise their business or products.  You get paid when people purchase a product after clicking from a coded link on your website.  I have affiliates with Amazon Books, Nomads Travel Insurance, Hostel Bookers.

Recommended if there is a strong relationship between the products the affiliate offers and the visitors to your website.  Whenever you recommend a book – get  an Amazon affiliate link to it. On my travel sites, I sell Nomads Travel Insurance.

• Banner advertising on your Website – Similar to above, but you are paid up front for a banner, instead of by the click.

Recommended if you have strong links with particular companies and they are willing to pay for such a link.

Making your website pay through:
A Decrease in expenditure

• Do you or your staff spend a lot of time telling people about your products and answering questions about the product? This information should be available on your website.  When I opened my B&B 7 years ago, I was for ever being asked about what was involved in running it, where I advertised, where I got my linen, booking systems and more.  So I set up a page on one of my Websites that had all this information on it, and I was thereafter able to point people to it for more information. Read it here. An added benefit was that as it was a subject many people searched on the internet for information about, I got more hits on that page and therefore more to my Women Travel website as a result.  I also add at the end of the page, that I am available for mentoring or website assistance at $NZ60/hour in person or on the phone
• Advertising your business/product – A well designed website is the first and most cost-effective place to advertise. When people search for you on the internet they will find you, and the products you offer.  Many of their initial questions will be answered on the website, and you can deal with an informed and ready to buy customer – saving you time and money.  Your business cards only need the basic contact information and your web address, and they have access to everything they need to know about you.
• Some products don’t need an expensive shop front - they can be sold much more economically on the internet.
• Your budgetted spending on a website might have to be added to your budget, but you can often save money on staff, rent, advertising and marketting.

If you do not already have a WordPress based website, you are probably spending too much unproductive time managing your websites. For as little as $1800+gst you can have a WordPress website that makes it:

• simple to manage an automated mailing list of your customers
• easier to write about the latest that is happening at your business and to spread the news of about this
• easier to integrate social networking such as twitter, facebook, Utube and more
• CONTACT ME about how you can benefit from a WordPress website  read more here

Making your website pay through:
Increased opportunity costs – Working Smarter rather than harder

When I paid attention to the issues I have raised here,  my business became more manageable, more focused, and I had more time to walk on the beach without worry,  to walk the dog or to enjoy reading the paper over a coffee at my local café.  Spending a little more time thinking about my business, rather than always being overwhelmed with working in the business, means that I could do some strategic thinking about how to grow my business, and how to have a better lifestyle along the way.

What Web2Blog offers:

We help you to get a great WordPress based website to promote your business.

Web2Blog is a unique partnership between

Business Mentor and networker extraordinaire – Rosemary Neave: helping you define your business needs in relation to the opportunities a WordPress Website can offer you  AND to train you to use the website after it is set up

Creative Web Designer Jo Couchman: Jo takes her knowledge of what WordPress can offer your business, adds artistic and graphic flair to your concepts to designing a website that can be a true launching platform for your business.

CONTACT Rosemary about how you can benefit from a WordPress website  read more here

Tweet Deck makes twitter a breeze -  yes really!

If you think Twitter is something you SHOULD do for your business, but don’t get around to it, Tweet Deck can help – yes really!

How Can Tweet Deck help your business?

Instead of logging in to your account on twitter using a browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox for example) you open Tweet Deck, and this application can stay on your desktop for you to easily add something.  When you do, it is immediately posted to Twitter and to any of web sites which display your twitter.

• You can have mutiple twitters on tweet deck - twitters work best if they are focused on a particular area.  I have one twitter for each of  my websites, and the twitter feeds are displayed on those websites to add ever changing content.  NOTE: every twitter account needs a different email!
• You can also post  to Facebook and LinkedIn via Tweet Deck, making it easier to keep these pages up to date with local information
• You can simply post a photo or multiple photos on twitter using tweet deck.
• You can link to a post or page on your website with your twitterings, so that you are cross linking between your sites – (once I have written this post, I will twitter about it and link to this page)
  
• I have TweetDeck appication on my Iphone enabling me to twitter on the go.
• You can set up searches on your TweetDeck to keep in touch with what people are saying about – your business, your town, your product…
• Login in to all: Instead of logging in separately to each twitter/facebook/linkedin account, when you open Tweet Deck you are automatically  logged into them all.

When I sit down to work on my computer, TweetDeck is one of the programmes that I open first, along with my mail and Firefox Browser.

Download Tweet Deck here