Can you create a good professional website as a business owner? Website building is not for everyone. But if you ask yourself the right questions, there’s no reason you can’t create a website that works well for your business. Even if you’re a non-designer, you can create a website site that’s a marketing asset without […]
WordPress for Business: 5 Must-Have Skills to Keep Your Site Fast, Safe and Reliable
If you use WordPress for business, congratulations! Setting up the software from WordPress.org and changing a theme takes hard work. Your reward: You now have a powerful publishing system at your fingertips. WordPress is the most affordable, capable and flexible tool I know for website design and marketing. Even better, this fast, feature-rich website builder […]
How to Find the Best Unique Selling Point for Your Business
How do you spark someone’s interest in your business when you have mere seconds? That’s a job for your unique selling proposition (examples follow). Before anyone can decide to work with you, they need to know who you help, and what problem you solve. What will stick in a future client’s mind when you only […]
Using the 4Ps of Marketing to Challenge Racism
I see much white privilege in web design and marketing. Just now I searched Google for images of “marketing professional” (June 2020). Among the top 10 results, 8 contained images of lighter skinned people. (The other 2 had no people.) As a white web designer, I see myself as part of the system. I admit […]
You’ll Find Typos Much Better With This Free, Easy Method
“Your spelling should be an embarrassment,” my professor wrote across my essay. I was an English major. My heart pounded and heat flooded my face. I just need some good proofreading strategies, I thought. I can learn how to proofread better. After college, I continued to write for my job. One day our client’s assistant […]
How to Benefit from Blogging If Most Readers Never Buy
Why is blogging so popular? What are the benefits of blogging in 2020? If you’re like many business people, you want sales. But as you look for sales from blog traffic, do you wonder, Where’s the ROI? What does blogging really do for a business? Why create blog content? How blogs are useful for a […]
7 Reasons You Should Use SSL for Your Website
7 Reasons Why You Need an SSL Certificate for Your Blog or Website of any size — Small business owners often ask: “Do I need an SSL certificate for my blog?” If you have a website, you should use SSL. It doesn’t matter whether you sell anything, or whether you ask visitors to fill in […]
Personal branding — How To Get the Unique Presence You Want
What is personal branding? That was the question on a recent Twitter #contentchat, hosted by marketing consultant Erika Heald. Is personal branding a trendy concept, or an important key to your success? Should you really bother developing your personality online, given everything else you’re doing as a marketer or solo entrepreneur? Why You Should Care […]
5 Ways Your Helpful Content Makes Your Business Stand Out (with proof)
I’ve talked with a few small business marketers who are scaring me. They’re looking for ways to get more web traffic, but don’t see the need for a website or helpful content. It seems that to bring in customers, they think all they have to do is get busy on social media. This is not […]
How to Set Social Media Goals (Free Template)
How can using social media help your business? The top reason for most marketers is to build “brand awareness.” That’s according to The State of Social 2016 survey of 1,252 marketers by Buffer. The top 3 social media goals (with the percent of business marketers who chose them) are: Brand awareness (85%) Community Engagement (71%) Content […]