1. Ease of Use

WordPress is very easy to use and has an intuitive interface.  Adding new pages, blog posts, images, etc. on a regular basis is a breeze and can be done quickly.  Because the technology is so simple, time spent on formatting is greatly reduced.

2. Manage Your Website from Any Computer

WordPress is browser-based. You can login from any Internet connected computer and manage your site.

3. No HTML Editing or FTP Software Required

WordPress is a self-contained system and does not require HTML editing software (such as Adobe Contribute or Dreamweaver). You can create a new page or blog post, format text, upload images (and edit them), upload documents, video files, image galleries, etc. all without the need for additional HTML or FTP software.

4. Search Engines Love WordPress Sites

The code behind WordPress is very clean and simple, making it easy for search engines to read and index a site’s content. In addition, each page, post, and image can have its own meta tag keywords, description, and title, and be optimized for specific keywords, allowing for very precise search engine optimization.  You can also use tags to further enhance your search engine optimization efforts.

5. You Have Control of Your Site

No more waiting for your web designer to make simple updates to your site. With WordPress, you have control of nearly every aspect of your site and can easily make those simple updates yourself.

6. The Design of Your Website is 100% Customizable

WordPress acts as the engine for your website. The look and feel of the site can be 100% customized so your brand can shine through on your site and provide a unique experience to your visitors.

7. A Blog is Built-in and Ready to Go

Since WordPress was originally created as a blogging platform, blogging capabilities are built-in and are easy to integrate, if desired. Setting up RSS / email subscriptions to your blog, commenting capabilities, and automatically adding the most recent blog posts to other pages of the site (your home page, for example) are also very simple to set-up, and help to extend your company’s reach and make your site more dynamic and interactive.

8. Extend the Functionality of Your Site with Plugins

Want to add an event calendar, video gallery, Twitter Feed, Facebook Fan Box, and more to your site? WordPress makes this possible with plugins, most of which are free or very reasonably priced.

9. Your Site Can Grow as Your Business Grows

WordPress sites are very scalable. You can have hundreds of thousands of pages or blog posts on your site and the performance of the site will not be compromised in the least.

10. Have Multiple Users

As an administrator of a WordPress site, you can set-up multiple users for the website and assign access levels and capabilities to each user.

Fortunately, there’s a social networking secret weapon that can help you take your blogging power to all new heights: Triberr.

If you’re a seasoned blogger trying to increase your traffic and grow your readership, Triberr is a powerful tool that allows you to supercharge your blog’s reach and visibility. Part online blogger community, part content distribution platform, Triberr lets you network with freelance writers and industry influencers that share your similar interests.

Triberr consists of an online community of “tribes,” which are typically organized according to categories so that member blog posts are all centered on similar topics. Once you join a tribe, you begin sharing your content with fellow tribemates, where they in turn share it on social media  with their followers.

As an automated Twitter sharing tool, Triberr is all about driving more traffic for the user. So, let’s do some quick math here to show you exactly how this can beneficial this tool can be for your blog. Say you belong to a tribe of 15 people and you all blog about music festivals. Now, let’s say you have 8,000 followers and each of the 15 people in your tribe has roughly the same. So you write an awesome post about the amazingness that was TomorrowWorld and share your post with your fellow tribe members; they approve it, and share it – BOOM! You just grew your reach to 128,000! Get the picture?

Even if you aren’t an avid blogger, Triberr is also a great way to discover new content that you otherwise would never have found. Rather than spend a lot of time visiting other websites searching for articles about topics that interest you, why not let members in your tribe provide you with fantastic content instead?

Exploring Triberr

As a community, marketing tool, and social network all rolled into one, Triberr can take a little getting used to – even for pro bloggers! If you want to get the most out of your experience, watch the step-by-step video below to navigate your way through the world of Triberr.

Greenery is nature’s neutral. The more submerged people are in modern life, the greater their innate craving to immerse themselves in the physical beauty and inherent unity of the natural world. This shift is reflected by the proliferation of all things expressive of Greenery in daily lives through urban planning, architecture, lifestyle and design choices globally. A constant on the periphery, Greenery is now being pulled to the forefront – it is an omnipresent hue around the world.

A life-affirming shade, Greenery is also emblematic of the pursuit of personal passions and vitality.

What is the PANTONE Color of the Year?
A symbolic color selection; a color snapshot of what we see taking place in our global culture that serves as an expression of a mood and an attitude.

AWS Cloud Front
Pros: Customer’s loved AWS content delivery speed, pricing, and the integrated suite of website hosting products. Cons: The unique AWS architecture leaves limited flexibility and control over your content delivery. Verdict: The fastest and rated overall best in our survey but experienced webmasters will have a steep learning curve while trying to become familiar with Amazon’s proprietary architecture. 

Host Gator
Pros: Host Gator is a great choice for small business websites and personal hosting because of their overall ease of use and user-friendly web management tools. Cons: Though they do have some prominent clients their service is not really geared toward large scale web publishers. Verdict: If you need to get your website launched quickly or your looking for a painless migration Host Gator is your best option. 

Rackspace
Pros: Rackspace is now and has always had the best customer support in the website hosting business. They are truly dedicated to solving their customers hosting issues and developing unique instances for custom deployments. Cons:Compared to the competition Rackspace is a bit pricey and their cloud service does not scale as well as say Amazon’s. Verdict: The best choice for those looking for managed Dedicated Hosting. 

Peer1 Hosting
Pros: Peer1 was viewed as the most flexible web hosting company in our survey, with a fully integrated suite of content delivery products and a tech team that will help you build and maintain your custom hosting environment. Cons: Not a good option for small businesses as Peer1 is better geared toward handling larger websites. Verdict: Best for large scale websites that require flexibility and great customer support.

Softlayer
Pros: Softlayer has fantastic backend technology and had the best uptime and security of any of the other hosts in our survey. Cons: The major negative of working with Softlayer is price. In fact, every respondent familiar with their service mentioned their high service costs as a major drawback. Verdict: Very good for large scale operations that can afford best of breed technology and have the in-house tech no how to manage it. 

Blue Host
Pros: Blue Host is considered to be one of the best options for small publishers as they offer easy setup, excellent customer support, and low and easy to understand pricing. Cons: Just like with Hostgator, Bluehosts is not really setup to handle larger scale publishing operations, so it might not be the best choice if you’re expecting huge growth. Verdict: One of the best web hosting companies for small business without question.

LeaseWeb
Pros: If you need a fully customizable web hosting environment, no one is better at helping you build it then Leaseweb, famous for hosting Wikimedia’s European operation. Cons: They have often been criticized for their confusing billing practices and survey respondents felt they might not be a good fit for smaller businesses. Verdict: Great hosts for experienced operations wanting to build and manage a custom environment.

GoDaddy
Pros: Many might be surprised to see Godaddy on this list, but they are still considered an excellent choice for smaller publishers. Their price, easy-of-use, and wide range of hosting products are the reason they enter our 2015 list. Cons:GoDaddy is exclusively focused on helping small business owners and therefore offers very few tools for larger enterprise customers. Verdict: Great place for smaller companies to get started.

If you’ve read anything online, undoubtedly there have been headlines about exploits, vulnerabilities, identities stolen and other compromises.

Are you one of the 9.3% using Internet Explorer 10 (IE10)? Hopefully, you keep your software updated, as Microsoft did squeak in a patch last Tuesday. However, if you haven’t, please stop reading this and update it and all other Microsoft patches immediately.

FireEye recently found a combination of watering-hole attack and drive-by download that utilizes the exploit in IE10.

You don’t know what a watering-hole attack is?

Let’s say the hackers find an exploit in a particular browser and they want to use that to infect the computers of people most likely to use that browser. They will find one or more websites that focus on that particular group of people. The hackers will then try to infect those websites with some drive-by download code. This means that anyone visiting those websites will be subject to the download which will infect their computer.

After the websites have been infected with the drive-by download code, hackers will blast out a series of SPAM emails that include a link to one of their infectious sites. The SPAM will be targeted to people in the targeted industry. This is called a watering-hole attack.

Just so you don’t think I’m focusing on Microsoft, these same types of attacks happen on FireFox, Chrome and yes, even on Macs.

Your best defense against these and other attacks is to keep your software updated – constantly. This doesn’t mean just your browser, but all Adobe products, your operating system and all other software programs installed on your computer.

April of 2014 will see the end of support for Windows XP and Office 2003. If you haven’t upgraded these yet, you should make plans. Without support from Microsoft, you will no longer get updates to that software. Hackers know there will be many people refusing to upgrade so not upgrading will make you the “low hanging fruit” for hackers.

In addition to keeping your software updated, please let everyone you know to use strong passwords. This cannot be emphasized enough. About 30% of the websites we clean are the result of compromised passwords. Make it at least 9 characters long and DO NOT use common, related words.

A recent informal survey we conducted shows that many passwords end with either the year, 123 or the exclamation mark (!). If this sounds familiar, please change your passwords immediately.

One other key point that we’ve been “pushing” for some time now is to schedule daily full system scans with your anti-virus software.

Here’s why.

If the anti-virus company finds a new virus “in the wild” on Monday, they will analyze it and create a rule to detect that virus. Then on Tuesday, you update your anti-virus software – either automatically or manually, this means your computer is protected from getting infected by that virus from Tuesday moving forward. However, if your computer was infected by that virus on Monday, your anti-virus program won’t remove it until you run a full system scan.

That’s why it’s critical that you run full system scans – EVERY DAY!

Let’s be careful out there, huh?

Thank you for reading.

Although not many expected the Internet Explorer name to be retained for Windows 10, its death has now been confirmed. The old web browser will not be immediately going away in Windows 10 but will not be the primary way of browsing the Internet.

Microsoft marketing chief Chris Capossela explained that IE will still be included for use in some enterprise situations, saying:

“We’ll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we’ll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing.”

Codenamed Project Spartan, Microsoft’s new web browser is currently under very active development for Windows 10. Although not available yet to Windows Insiders, it is expected to be included in the next released builds for both desktop and phone.

Spartan includes a number of new features designed to make browsing easier and more enjoyable. It sports an all-new, more modern interface that looks good regardless of screen size and has thrown away much of the legacy Internet Explorer code so that it is faster and more responsive. In some leaked benchmarks, Javascript performance in Spartan has been the best of any browser available today.

Integration with Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant will also be a prominent feature of the new browser. A new reading mode will be offered to make it easier to interpret lengthy articles online and it will be possible to annotate websites with notes and drawings for later sharing with others.

Microsoft has tried for years to shake off the negative image of Internet Explorer acquired when the company let the brand stagnate and become mired in its own original success. It quickly fell behind competitive rivals such as Google Chrome when little improvement was made from IE6 right up to the release of IE9 with Windows 7.
The company is likely to include “Microsoft” in the final name of “Project Spartan” as market research on Google Chrome users — a browser which also has its maker’s name in its title — revealed that including the Microsoft brand significantly increased appeal.

We are unlikely to know the name of the new browser for some time. Work has now begun on the difficult decision but an all new brand must be created to bring Microsoft’s web browser forward and keep it popular in the years to come.

And yet, in its nine years since launch, Twitter has never released an official plug-in to make WordPress and Twitter play friendly. Until today.

I figure anyone reading this article knows what the words “WordPress” and “Twitter” mean, so I won’t be awful and explain what those two things are.

Here’s what the new Twitter WordPress plug-in does out of the box:

• Lets you add a one-click sharing button so visitors can tweet out your stuff
• Lets you more easily embed tweets, and customize the color scheme of embedded tweets to match your site’s look. You can change the link color, border color, and pick from a “light” or “dark” look
• Automatically builds Twitter Cards when you share stuff to Twitter
• Helps you add a follow button to your layout
• Tracks ad conversions if you’re running a Twitter Ad campaign for your WordPress blog

If you’re already happy with your third-party Twitter plug-in or custom-built Twitter solutions, this new plug-in … might not do very much in terms of new stuff for you. Hell, your current plug-in may even do more.

One thing it’s lacking, at least at first glance: the ability to embed your Twitter feed, or at least your last few tweets, in your WordPress layout. It’ll do individual tweets, but there’s no mention of feed embedding — and that’s a pretty popular use case for third-party Twitter plug-ins.

But this plug-in wraps up a lot of the basics in an easy-to-deploy package and makes it a bit less necessary to hunt through the forest of unofficial plug-ins just to find one that both currently works and is probably going to keep working in the future.

Why business directories for small businesses?

When researching a product or company, 8 out of 10 people will use a directory or an internet directory. Of those who use directory searches, 8 out of 10 of them result in purchase or intent to purchase.

Business directories are a great form of targeted advertising. Generally, when someone is using a business directory they already have a specific need for your service. All you need to do now is position your listing or ad in appropriate directories and design it so it catches the attention of your target customer before the competition grabs them.

For online directories, it helps to pick ones with high traffic volume and large ones with a high Google Page Rank (an algorithm that Google uses to determine the relevance and importance of a web page), it can help your listing appear higher in Google Search Results, thus increasing the likely hood of the user finding your company.

For print directories, look for regionalized or local directories and/or ones pertaining to your niche market. Look for advertising opportunities in the business directory section of a local popular magazine or newspaper, or in an industry/association directory.

Are business directories profitable for small businesses?

Maintaining your online listing or directory can bring a great ROI. A Patek Analytics Study found that businesses who maintained their print directory listing saw an average of 20% in growth over 2010-2011 (with 70% of respondents reporting year-over-year gains in call volume directly related to their directory ad). “Home service” and “emergency repair” businesses saw the highest average increases. The same study also found that 36% of customers who purchased after seeing a print directory ad are new, never having used the used that business before.

Ninety-seven percent of consumers research a product or business online, looking at an average of 7.9 difference sources, including directories, before making a purchase decision. As marketers we know that if we want to turn a prospect into a conversion, we need to remain front-of-mind to the consumer so when they are ready to buy, they think of us before our competition. This suggests that if they see your name often, for example in online directories, your conversion rates could increase.

Where can I find online and print directories?

It’s generally not effective to just “spam” your business into every directory you can get your hand on. You still need to ensure you are choosing ones that will give you the biggest bang for your buck, and for your time.

For small businesses, first look for directories in your niche and local markets. This is most likely where people will start to look for your services. Then, depending on your budget and resources, consider larger, more general-interest directories (like the yellow pages or WeZipcode.com).

It’s important to find the right mix of directories for your business. More and more directories are appearing every day. Some are free, some require a subscription or fee. Also consider directories like Google Maps and Google Places, so you can take advantage of people searching for local businesses using other Google services. If your business offers tangible goods, consider adding them to comparison shopping websites (42% of consumers use a comparison shopping website before making a purchase), and product listing sites.

Can online directory listings increase my web traffic?

Listing your company and company URL on online websites not only helps your ROI, but can also help your website appear higher in search results for certain terms. The more quality web pages that you can get your site listed or mentioned in, the more authoritative Google will begin to think your website is. When Google chooses where your webpage will appear in search results, Page Rank (the authority of the webpage) is one of the factors that can significantly increase your chances or being ranked first, or at least on the first page, for a particular search term or phrase.

What does my business need to do now?

Your small business should consider directory listings and advertising in their on-going marketing plan. First, look at your directory options based on your business niche and region. Also look up your competitors to see where they are advertising and see if it makes sense for your business to have a presence in these directories too. Aim to stay top-of-mind to the consumer as much as possible, without appearing “spammy.”

It may take some time to find the right mix of directories to advertise your business in. Implement some sort of analytics or tracking system to see which directories are giving you the best return, either in click throughs to your site, in direct revenue, or in call volume. This could include using special tracking campaign links for online directories, or a unique phone numbers or URLs for print ads. Over time, cut the zero- or low-performing directories and re-invest in new ones until you find a good mix of print and online directories that perform well for your business.

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that listing your company in directories isn’t just a one-time project. It needs to be maintained and your strategies adjusted based on what your competitors are doing, and based on your changing business goals. However, studies are proving the maintaining business directory listings as part of your marketing plan can be a profitable business strategy for your small business.

What is a call to action?
A call to action is simply the thing you want your users to do once their on your website. If you have a brick and mortar business your first thought might be “I don’t want them on my website, I want them in my store.” But even in that case, you need something for them to do from your website. Do you want them to call you and make a reservation or appointment? Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter to get more information? Do you want them to give you their email so you can contact them later?

Why have a call to action?
A clear, specific call to action not only helps you gain customers, it helps you focus your website, and evaluate your own success. If your call to action is asking people to sign up for your newsletter, then you’ll easily be able to see how successful the call is by comparing the number of new website visitors to the number of newsletter sign ups.

How to create a call to action?
This is one of those cases where the “how” is completely dependent on the “what” and “why.” Once you know what you want people to do and why, you can create a call to action. Keep the call simple and clear, both in terms of language and visuals. Keep the options limited. The call to action is simply the first step in building your relationship with your customer, you can get in to more complicated information later.