Blair Stover Designs

If you are a hard-core blogger, or just a casual Internet user who posts a few items now and then, Pinterest is a great way to blast your content into cyberspace. Even people who already use dozens of other social networking sites to build up their businesses or blogs are turning to Pinterest in droves. Early adopters of this new kid on the cyber block have wonderful things to say about its ease of use, effectiveness, and fun factor.

If you take a few simple steps right now to make your personal or business website Pinterest-friendly, you will be rewarded many times over for the small amount of time it takes. Here is the basic version of what you need to do to get set up on Pinterest and start enjoying the benefits.

First, understand that Pinterest is mainly a bookmaking site, though a very powerful one. Millions of users save and share items every day via its easy-to-use interface. But keep in mind that it is not another Facebook or similar social site. It is strictly a bookmark depot.

Second, be sure to use photos, videos, and graphics in your blog posts. That way, more people will pin your items and pass them around. Pinterest is graphic and video friendly, so try to use at least one non-text element in each post.

Finally, add a Pinterest button to your site. If you put the Pin-This icon on each page of your business website, users will be able to share product descriptions, sale items, and photos. Your overall aim is to make your website pinnable, as they say at Pinterest. The button also works as a reminder to readers, and customers, that all they have to do is click to share.

Pinterest is one of the simplest ways to get more users, readers, and customers to your online hubs.

Numerous businesses are making use of social media to promote their business online with Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook being the most popular social media sites utilized. These sites can really help a small company in their marketing campaigns. Some strategies, however, are more effective than others.

Creating a unique engine to use when on a social media site will make or break this aspect of your campaign. Viewers’ attention must be grabbed through ‘posts’ which are timed well. In addition to this, these ‘posts’ need be intriguing and of interest. By doing so, current customers may be inclined to respond to these posts, potentially grabbing the interest of their friends and building your customer base.

One way to achieve the aforementioned is through offering Internet-only specials. This can help build up frequency of visitors to your website. When using Facebook, your website can post “Events” and invite all of the websites “friends” to attend.

This is a fabulous way to promote a various types of businesses. For instance, you could have a Buy One, Get One Free Event, a special guest speaker Event, a gallery viewing Event, and so on. This can also be an amazing opportunity to educate your clients on services and products you offer.

Keep content and posts recent and unique. Consider your audience. You will want to avoid them becoming tired of the same old thing from your website and losing interest. This is where you will want to make use of the passion which created your website. Inspire your clients, and keep them coming.

The importance of guest blogging is a twofold spectrum that can benefit both you and the owner of the blog.  By working in tandem, you both benefit as you provide unique content for that blog owner while the blog gives you a valuable organic back-link to your website or blog from different web-based mediums.

A great way to find blogs that you can post guest blogs on is by looking up different blogs that may apply to your field, services or business and contacting them. Make sure that the blogs are not promoting another related business or service, or you will more than likely not hear back from them. Once you have located a number of blogs, contact the owners of the blog and ask them what their requirements are for guest blogging and if they would be willing to share links.

This is a very important part of getting the word out about your website or blog, or services online. Since you can easily compose a guest blog that has a few links that anchor back to your website, it can be very beneficial in creating more links online that are indexed as linking back to your website.

Similarly, you can ask that the blogs you guest write for supply you with a post here and there. Then you can post those on your website or blog roll to increase the popularity and searches that result in traffic from your website. This works to enhance the overall credibility of your online image, and credibility ultimately equates to conversions, and more sustainable and natural inbound web traffic.

Creating a good web site can be challenging, especially for new web designers. It can be difficult to understand the code that brings everything together, including basic HTML markup, CSS and other elements and languages that work hand in hand to make your web site perfect. Fortunately, there are tools that can make your life easier and help you fix errors in your site without wasting time creating and checking the code. One of them is Firebug, a popular Firefox extension.

Once you’ve installed Firebug, you’ll find a small gray bug in the status bar at the bottom right corner of your browser window. To test Firebug and see what it can do, go to a site that has lots of images, stylized text and complex layouts. A page like this normally has a complicated code and it can take time searching for something in the code.

With Firebug, you can view certain parts of the code and hone in on specific site elements without going through the entire thing. Just click the Firebug icon to open a window at the bottom of your browser. The window is divided into two panes: the left side displays the HTML on the page while the right side shows the CSS relevant to the HTML you chose on the left.

As you click on the different elements of your HTML in the left panel, you’ll see that the styles on the right change depending on what you click. These elements are highlighted on the page itself so you can actually see the code you’re looking for.

Now that you can see the elements, you can edit your web page in real time – change layout, colors or styles -  and see the changes immediately. Previously, this was done by searching for the code, editing it and reloading the page to see the changes. Firebug has put an end to this tedious process by allowing web designers to work quickly.

WordPress is the defacto service for website building.  CSS formatting has enabled almost anyone to build a website quickly and easily and easily installed and modified “themes” can let the average Joe build a nice website with little help from other expensive professionals.  If you have the time and patience to “do it yourself” WordPress is our platform of choice.  

In order to have a WordPress website, you need a web hosting company that provides WordPress for free.   As a rule, any hosting company that provides “Cpanel” or “Fantastico” with its web hosting will provide WordPress for free.   First, find and sign-up with a web host (From $99 a year =/).  We recommend a company called Host Gator.  Second, buy your website domain name at GoDaddy or another Domain registration service.  Provide your registrar with the instructions to forward your DNS to the proper server which was provided by Host Gator (see your “Welcome Email”) when you signed up.  Wait an hour and you will be ready to install your own copy of WordPress.

Now that you can login to your Cpanel at your web host, follow the links to all your add-on options and additional software that is available.  You will see a link to install WordPress.  Click that link to get started.

The most important part of the installation if you are using WordPress for your entire website is to install  WordPress in your root directory, like http://www.yourdomain.com, and not in a “sub-directory,” like http://www.yourdomain.com/blog.   Follow the directions and questions by providing your desired login name, email address, password and directory structure.  Submit the form and wait for the “Your WordPress installation is complete” signal.   You are done!  Go look at http://www.yourdomain.com and you will see the installation!

WordPress will dispatch an email for you with directions on how to log in to your dashboard.  Click the link login with your login and password.  Look around, try changing your themes and click on every link to see where it goes or what it does. You will now be able to affect your own website changes and format without any help.  You are on your way to becoming a WordPress expert!

Want to tell the world what’s on your mind? The easiest way to do this is by using Joomla or WordPress.  But which is better? Read on for a quick review of these two popular content management tools.

In a nutshell, Joomla is a portal or community type site while WordPress is a blog. Both are free to use and while they have limitations, you can easily fix this with the use of plug-ins that are found all over the Internet. Both systems have a large user base with a strong community where tips and tricks are shared.

Joomla is recommended if you want to create a community or network with a membership area, newsroom, forums and articles. You can easily make a navigation structure without any knowledge of html. You can set articles to expire after a certain period and activate dates among others. However, beginners can get confused at the many options that Joomla offers so it’s best if you read up about the platform. Otherwise, you might waste time fiddling around and getting nowhere. The complicated core system also requires a lot of resources from the server. If the database is not tweaked for better performance and you have a lot of fancy external plug-ins, the site breaks down.

WordPress is a user-friendly blog system that you can also update without any knowledge of html. It has an easy interface and you don’t need a book to understand it. Set up is a breeze and you can be listed in Google in just two days. What’s more, WordPress can handle a lot of visitors and won’t break down easily.

Now for the bad news: the navigational structure of WordPress is based on the layout template you chose. Changing that structure requires some knowledge of the WordPress scripting language and CSS. This doesn’t happen with Joomla because menus are controlled via the control panel and attributes like dates and author name can be turned on and off per article or for the whole site in one go.

Why is blogging important and what can it do for your web site? Social media experts consider blogging a powerful tool that is available to anyone and is easy to use. A blog can be used to promote your products, services or anything else you may have on your site. Thus, your business activities should be linked to your blog to gain maximum exposure and reach the most number of people.

Many people think that blogs are different from other social media networks like Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. In reality, they are one and the same and, in fact, a lot of marketing gurus consider blogs as the most important social media tool. Here are the reasons why:

Content adds credibility – your social media credibility depends on the amount of content you have. To attract attention and establish your expertise, you must provide visitors to your site with relevant articles to read. Blogs are the best way to accomplish this. Every time you post a blog, you increase your content and make yourself the star of many search engines. The more blogs you have, the higher your web site will rank and attract more traffic.

Blogs help people find answers – a lot of people use the Internet to do research and seek answers to their most pressing questions. If your blog provides the answers, you can attract lots of traffic and get more people to visit your site. This gives people the opportunity to learn more about your products and services which, in turn, is good for your business.

Blogs are easy to read – the very nature of bogs makes them easy to read and digest. Since they are generally short, people don’t find them boring and they can easily assimilate the information you give them. By providing your readers with an enjoyable experience, you establish a relationship with them and they’re likely to come back for more and tell other people about your Web site.

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