Tips & Tricks

online marketing

Keeping it simple: 3 questions to help streamline your online marketing

I do a lot of reading to keep up with new trends in website design, online marketing and productivity tools. Or, at least I try to. One inevitable result of all that “keeping up” is feeling better informed… but also really overwhelmed at times. Over the course of the past year, my list of “stuff to check out later” was huge—and trying to implement all these shiny new toys feels complicated and stressful. Time to simplify.

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Email Deliverability

Avoiding the spam folder: tips to maximize your email deliverability

Deliverability is the name of the game with email. This is true for not only email marketing campaigns but also your day-to-day business and personal correspondence. Taking the time to improve email deliverability assures that your messages make it to the recipient’s in-box and that your name and email address can’t be spoofed by unscrupulous spammers. How can you avoid having your email messages sent to junk mail oblivion? Read on for my best advice…

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To-Do List + Calendar = Less Stress

I think I’ve tried about every task management approach out there… from the incredibly simple (pen and paper) to the complicated (GTD®). I’ve used most of the web-based project/task systems, too: Asana, Basecamp, Wunderlist, Toodledo, Google Tasks. I think they are all really great… no complaints, but they really didn’t smoothly tackle what I needed… the ability to seamlessly schedule tasks and projects on my calendar.

Many of us today (me, especially) experience “incoming” in electronic form – mostly email, website form messages, texts or voice mail messages. My challenge was to make it as easy, fast and effortless as possible to schedule “incoming” along with my other priorities in a visual form that I can manage. Ideally, it can be automated. Automation prevents mistakes and things falling through the cracks.

Here’s how I solved it.

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My top-5 email marketing timesavers

It can be tough to maintain a consistent email messaging campaign. I’ve fallen off the email wagon more times than I can count, but I’ve found that having a consistent process and a toolbox of helpful resources can make all the difference in keeping your publishing on-schedule. Here’s my top-5 pro-tips for saving time and staying on track with email marketing…

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Add fun and visibility to your email marketing with emoji

Emoji have become a secondary language. I’m lazy texter, and I’m guilty of saying things like “Do u want ?????” rather than taking on the onerous task of spelling out the word “pizza”… or “you”. Yeah, as I said, lazy. We’re used to using emoji on our phones or on social, but it’s easy to forget that they are super-easy to use almost anywhere, and can be effective attention getters in email newsletters – and everyday emails, too. 

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Quick & Cheap Website Makeover Ideas

If your website’s been online for a few years, you may be thinking that it’s time for an update. Styles, browsers and mobile devices change so frequently, that letting things alone even for just a few years can leave a site looking stale. Fortunately, you can get more mileage our of your existing website by making some quick, budget-friendly changes. Here’s a few ideas to consider…

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How to minimize WordPress project costs

Any business owner who has a website will begin at some point, to consider some website rehab work—or perhaps a complete overhaul. In the ever-changing world of online marketing, website aesthetics change over time and what seemed super-cool 4 years ago now seems a bit dated. That feeling is more than the changing tides of fashion. Over time, devices change, web hosting servers change, technical capabilities change, so if your website has not changed with it… it can begin to show its age.  Fortunately, with a bit of forethought and prioritization, you can save big money when planning your next website redesign.

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Three reasons to disable your blog’s comment form

Whenever I build or update a client’s WordPress site, a question often arises about the blog comment form. Although WordPress is used mostly as a content management system for business websites, its roots are in blogging. All WP sites have a blog built-in – and with that blog comes with the capacity for visitors to post comments to your blog posts.

So, are blog comments necessary? The short answer is no. There are some WP users that are blogging for traffic and visibility and for them, visitor comments can help build community and serve as a SEO and traffic booster. But for most website owners, they’re unnecessary and can create messaging confusion. Here’s my three top reasons to simply disable comments:

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A SSL Certificate Shopper’s Guide

SSL security (and how to add it to your website) can be mystifying for even the most tech-savvy website owner. My last post about website security and SSL really hit a nerve! I received so many questions about it, I thought I’d put together a SSL “shopper’s guide”. With the increased awareness and demand for securing websites, I began gathering sources and specifications so that I can guide clients to the right SSL product for the job, at the best price.

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Increase Your Brand’s Visibility with Customized Short Links

If you use any social media, you probably noticed how all the big media companies have their own customized shortened links (and not the usual bit.ly, ow.ly or goo.gl). Examples of custom shortened link domains include: huff.to (Huffington Post), for.tn (Fortune Magazine) or nbcnews.to (NBC News). When you see these branded URLs, you know who posted them and if you are a regular reader, you’re probably more likely to click on them rather than a more generic short link.

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