Setting Up WordPress: Step 3 – Overview of CPANEL

Posted by on Feb 10, 2011 in Tutorials, Wordpress | 0 comments

Setting Up WordPress: Step 3 – Overview of CPANEL

Setting up your wordpress blog can be daunting and one of the reasons is navigating CPANEL.  CPANEL isn’t hard, but it is so feature rich that you can easily get lost.  This video is simply an overview of CPANEL and how it relates to your WordPress Site.

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Setting Up WordPress: Step 2 – Hosting

Posted by on Jan 31, 2011 in Featured, Wordpress | 0 comments

Setting Up WordPress: Step 2 – Hosting | How to Host a wordpress website

Ok so if you made it this far, GoDaddy probably wasn’t blowing you away in terms of learning how to register a domain name.  However, after registering a domain name, most business owners are lost.   This video will walk you through setting up your hosting account (aff link).  You don’t have to use HostGator you can use other hosting companies and many of them are very similar, but I’ve found that the speed with Hostgator as well as some other benefits (from a management side) that it’s just the best fit.

First off, when you got to HostGator you’ll notice the pricing models.  I tend to recommend the one in the middle.  Their budget model won’t offer you enough features, size and bandwith unless you’re planning a family only blog.  This is also true of most $8.95 hosting companies.  The hosting that is provided at that level will work just fine for non-commercial endeavors such as hosting a photo blog for the family or maintaining a Home Owners Association site.  You could opt for the baby plan at $7.95 then upgrade to the business plan at $12 or $13 a month.  When you start getting leads and real traffic, it’s time for a VPS or a dedicated server which just means more stability during peak surfing hours and MORE SPEED.
Basically if you are a business owner you need to look at your budget and the “why” of your website.  If it’s to generate sales, then go with the business plan to start off with.  If you have over 1000 customers, then you will need a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or a dedicated server.  It’s not important to know what these are, but here’s a computer analogy that works well.
Imagine you needed to take shower at your home.  Most days you hop in and get hot water.  However, now imagine if you had everyone over after a long day and they all wanted hot showers at once.   Chances are hot water would be gone and it’d take a while to come back.   That’s like hosting.  At the non “PRIVATE” or “DEDICATED” plans, you are sharing the hot water so to speak.  When you jump to a VPS or dedicate server it’s like having you’re own personal shower with your own reserve of hot water.
Enough about that, now you have your account but hosting does not work without a domain.  Good thing you have already gotten a domain.  Once you’re done signing up they will tell you some information about your service.  One of those is about the “nameserver.”  Don’t stress yourself out about what this is, but really it’s just like the phone number for your domain if you will.  Once signed up, you simply need to go back to your domain provider and click on “domain manager” (you might have to sign in) and put the nameserver in where it says.
Just a note about these companies. You can call Hostgator or Godaddy and get person to person, help and walkthrough. GoDaddy will actually help you even if you aren’t a customer of their hosting (which I am not).

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Setting Up WordPress From Start to Finish: Step 1 – Domain Name Registration

Posted by on Jan 7, 2011 in Featured, Marketing, Tutorials | 1 comment

Setting Up WordPress From Start to Finish: Step 1 – Domain Name Registration

It’s most common question and the most often over-charged for item by “gurus” and web guys alike.  The truth is, setting up worpress takes less than 15 minutes and it’s not all that technical.  The goal is to teach you how to do this on your own.

First things first, Domain Name

If you read our post about finding niche markets then you have some idea of where you are in the process.  Now it’s time to step up and name your product, service and make it a site.  Get a domain name.  Your first step is to head over to GoDaddy (aff – $7.49 Special) and get your domain.   There’s a lot to “buy” here but no need to sign up for anything but the domain name.

Tune in next time when we get to hosting!

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9 Free Keyword Suggestions Tools To Help You Nail Your Niche (Advanced)

Posted by on Dec 8, 2010 in blog, Marketing, Tools | 0 comments

Now onto some of the more “secret” tools that none of the “gurus” want you to know about.  Keywords are easy to come by but how do you know if they are profitable? These advanced tools will help you scope out your competition and find the best words.

  1. Wordtracker – Wordtracker has one of the coolest keyword tools.  You can type in your broad niche, like “carpet cleaning” or “real estate” and it will tell you how many times a day the word gets searched.  Although the free version leaves out some vital information it does allow you to click on your niche word and discover even more words. Carpet Cleaning for example yielded Carpet Cleaning Companies which yielded “atlanta georgia carpet cleaning companies” which gets searched almost 50 times a day!  When you look at the numbers, simply multiply them by 30 to get the “google” average, in this case,”atlanta georgia carpet cleaning companies” gets 1,500 searches a month. Not too bad.
  2. SpyFu – SpyFu is a tool that if I showed this too you first, you wouldn’t go anywhere else.  The information is overwhelming.  Watch the video to get a good understanding but it shows you what your competitors are doing, what related keywords (niche’s), what the results are, even the directories.  It’s actually very complete but again it’s a ton of information.
  3. SEMRush – SEMRush offers a more streamlined view of the niche.’ Related phrase, organic results, adwords and more.  Again, if you are looking for a niche finder, this is one of the better ones.  Spyfu is more complete from a strategic marketing standpoint.
  4. Wordstream – Wordstream Keyword Niche Finder is by far my favorite since it does exactly what we are talking about. You enter your niche and find all kinds of words that are being searched, simply click on the bucket to reveal more words.
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Pick One

Posted by on Nov 11, 2010 in Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

As a business owner (you are a business owner whether you believe it or not), you have many options to market yourself.  You have the entire world of print, direct mail, you can telemarket, network in person, network over the phone, network on the internet, you can put ads on google, ads on facebook, craigslist ads, the list can go on and on.

The key to success in marketing is actually very simple.  Business owners complicate the matter because they are already usually doing several people’s job so they must master all of these “tools” as well.   In truth, it’s the business owner with focus that will ultimately win, this is especially true of our service industry and consultants.  The key?

PICK ONE.

Pick one “tool” and master that.

If you have a clear message and an easy way to do business with you (do you have a call to action?), then pick one of these and learn it inside and out.  Don’t stress out about foursquare or twitter or linkedin if you and your business has decided to be on facebook first.  One thing at a time.  Even if you hire a consultant like us, we’ll want to walk through each of the tools.  Each tool, has a different use and a slightly different audience.  You don’t communicate the same way on linkedin that you do on facebook or myspace.

Learn to let go of needing to be it all, and just master one, then you can move on to the next one.

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