Web Training Wheels
teaching you how to market your business online
This past week these two major companies have provided a mini-study in a few do’s and don’ts of email marketing.
I hate to call people out, but, you know, a huge national company should really know better.
I signed up with Firestone to receive their email coupons (I’m way overdue for an oil change…..).
This is how their conformation email appeared in my inbox:
Well, actually it was in my junk mail folder. Fortunately I’m smart enough to check there ;)
But, yes folks “DO-NOT-REPLY” in all caps is really how they set up their “from” email address and “Confirm Sign Up” is really their subject line. If I hadn’t checked my email right away, and had seen this a few hours or a day later, I may well have not remembered that I signed up, or would have simply discounted this message along with the many other spam emails I receive every day since there was nothing about it that signified legitimacy. Read the rest of this entry »
How To Use The WordPress Gallery Shortcode
In: WordPress
10 Jul 2010
WordPress has an in-built image gallery feature which does not yet seem to be common knowledge even though it’s incredibly simple to use.
So let’s say you are writing a post that you want to include an image gallery in.
1) Using the usual upload/insert image button, upload any images you want to include in the gallery BUT make sure to just click “Save All Changes” instead of “Insert Into Post.”
2) If you want your gallery to have captions, make sure to fill in the Caption field when uploading your images.
3) To display the images you just uploaded, simply use the shortcode:
[gallery]
- (2) Comments
- Tags: gallery, images, shortcode
Free Webinar – Introduction to WordPress
In: WordPress
2 Jul 2010
My online workshop series is launching July 14th with a free introduction to WordPress. If you’ve been shy to get WordPress set up on your site, this is your chance to have a guided tour to installation, plugins, themes, widgets, publishing content and more. Or perhaps you’ve been considering WordPress for your site and want to see how it works before trying it out for yourself.
Get more info and register
The online workshop series will provide training on various aspects of WordPress and also general online marketing topics. Some workshops will be free and others will cost money, but will be affordably priced. There will always be time for question and answer so it’s a good opportunity to get help on a specific issue you are facing. If there’s a topic you’d like to have a webinar dedicated to, feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line.
- (1) Comment
- Tags: online workshop, webinar
WordPress 3.0 New Features – ‘Twenty Ten’ New Default Theme
In: WordPress
21 Jun 2010
WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” has now been officially released (as you may have noticed from the upgrade prompt at the top of your WP dashboard).
I’ll be doing a couple of posts about the new features – in this one I’ll be discussing the brand new default theme that you’ll find if you upgrade.
New Default Theme – Twenty Ten
Twenty Ten is the new default theme and it’s infinitely better than tired ole’ Kubrick. Twenty Ten serves as a demonstration of many of the new WP 3.0 features, making it much more functional and customizable right out of the box, but also making it a great framework on which to build child themes. Some of the new WordPress features aren’t obvious to the non-developer because they require adding some code in order to activate the features – Twenty Ten makes many of them visible to the ordinary user and provides a nice guideline for theme developers to understand and expand upon what’s now possible. See the theme in action.
Here are some of the main new features that Twenty Ten demonstrates: Read the rest of this entry »
Small Business and Marketing on Facebook
In: social media
25 May 2010
Head over to Small Business CEO to read my guest post on “Facebook Strategy For Your Small Business.”
I discuss the reality of using Facebook to market your small business organically – which is that it’s difficult! Facebook’s primary concern is creating revenue through their Ads, so they deliberately make it challenging to organically promote your page to a new audience. I provide some recommendations for shifting the way we use Facebook for small biz marketing and I let you know where I believe Facebook fits into a small business strategy. Take a look and of course let me know what you think, and what your experiences with Facebook have been.
*awesome header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/4300931777/
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- Tags: facebook, marketing, organic, small business, strategy
Should You Worry About Your Bounce Rate?
In: Online Marketing
13 May 2010
Should You Worry About Your Bounce Rate?
A low bounce rate is often cited as a hallmark of a good website – 40% or lower is typically heralded as the goal. But does it really matter that much? The answer is “yes” and “no” depending on your goals and your site.
What does bounce rate mean?
“Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page” – from Google’s Analytics help pages.
When does bounce rate matter?
- If you have a sales or conversion process which requires the user to follow through multiple pages on your site
- If exploration of your site is important to you
- If you are trying to turn new visitors into loyal readers or customers
- If yours is a retail site and want people to shop around and make purchases
- If your homepage is not inducing further clicks, particularly if it contains blog excerpts or other ‘teaser’ content
Read the rest of this entry »
- (1) Comment
- Tags: bounce rate, content, google analytics, keywords, metrics
Facebook Features To Help Your Marketing
In: social media
6 May 2010
Using some of Facebook’s native features will help you organically grow your audience whether using a personal profile or business Page.
1) Hyper target your status updates (personal profile)
When you post any type of status update you now have the option to control exactly who sees it. It’s a privacy feature but can be used for marketing to hyper target your messages.
Why would you want to do this?
If you have a personal profile that contains many different types of ‘friends’ – from work friends to clients to personal friends or relatives, not all your updates will be relevant to all your friends. Using this technique helps provide only relevant info to those who are interested in it, and filters out the unnecessary noise for certain segments of your audience. You can avoid saturating the wrong people with the wrong message. Read the rest of this entry »
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- Tags: facebook, target audience
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About this site
The goal of Web Training Wheels is to coach small businesses, entrepreneurs & non-profits in internet marketing and strategy so that you can take a hands-on approach to your own online efforts.In addition to this blog I work with people one-on-one or in small groups to provide the necessary coaching and direction. I'll give you the confidence and tools you need to effectively use the web to expand your business and express yourself online. Find out more.
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- LucyBeer: Actually I'm not sure how to do that! Is there a site you've seen that has multiple thumbn [...]
- Jason: Thanks for the reply =) Have not seen a site with multiple thumbnails yet...I thought it might be ha [...]
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- I Don’t Want To Blog – Is There Still Hope?!
- Email Marketing Lessons from Firestone and Bath & Body Works
- How To Use The WordPress Gallery Shortcode
- Free Webinar – Introduction to WordPress
- WordPress 3.0 New Features – ‘Twenty Ten’ New Default Theme
- How To Make Thesis Teasers Full Column Width
- How To Add A Thumbnail Image to Thesis Teasers
- Small Business and Marketing on Facebook
- Should You Worry About Your Bounce Rate?
- Facebook Features To Help Your Marketing
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I Don’t Want To Blog – Is There Still Hope?!
In: Online Marketing
29 Jul 2010I find that many people have heard that they ‘should’ have a blog, but worry that they are just not the blogging type, or don’t think they will have anything to say.
Is there still hope without a blog?
I would say ‘yes’. After all, a blog only works if you actually post to it and actively promote it. It’s no silver bullet and it does take time and commitment, and honestly, it’s not for everybody.
One of the main benefits to having a blog is that with well-written and targeted content it can attract search engine traffic quite easily. This is the main benefit you will miss out on by not having a typical, text-based blog. But search engines are not the only source of traffic. So while there are many benefits to having a blog, let’s consider some alternatives.
1) Re-think what a ‘blog’ means
The typical idea of a blog is a text-based site that you update at least once per week and ideally more frequently, with posts of several hundred words. But here are some variations on what a blog can be: Read the rest of this entry »