There is now no doubt that the Web has changed how business is conducted forever. It also has become an integral part of every serious business’ operating and marketing programs. How you choose to use technology can and will speak volumes about whether you are running a progressive company — or not.

What you are willing to deal with will determine your level of success? By talking success we may be jumping the gun. Let’s start with survival. Want to survive online? Then you need to be prepared to:

• Learn and keep learning for perpetuity.
• Invest up front to have a fighting chance.
• Budget the time required to work your program.
• Budget for ongoing growth and technology advances.
• Rinse and Repeat…

Seems even after over 15 years of working with small business owners, many honestly but erroneously believe that they can piecemeal what is required to Succeed in Business Online — and still experience results or ROI. And then, these very same folks, are actually disappointed when success doesn’t knock on their door!

Sites that are outdated, lack information or tools simply because the site owner may be “techno-challenged” and does not want to “deal with it” are still rampant on the Web. These site owners honestly believe that it is O.K. to take this stance and only do what they are comfortable with or what they can accomplish on their own. This is a train of thought their competitors are thanking them for. (By the way that excuse doesn’t fly any more — if you are online for business you can’t afford to be techno-challenged — time to roll up your sleeves and “untechno-challenge” yourself — like yesterday!)

These folks don’t want to “deal with it” so, they have sites that scream the same. They don’t want to “deal with it” so they do not make the effort to acquire the knowledge and skills to understand technology so they may use it to it’s full advantage. Yes, this gig can be frustrating — but that’s how we learn.

If you are serious about your online success, er survival — know that technology doesn’t wait for those who don’t want to “deal with it.” Technology could care less whether anyone is willing to “deal with it” or not. The fact remains that there are proven methodologies and practices that successful businesses use online every day to garner ROI, acquire relevant organic/free search engine listings, encourage contacts and convert Pay Per Click campaigns.

There are skills and knowledge every single Web site owner must acquire and embrace simply to survive online. And be prepared to continue to embrace and evolve whenever necessary and wherever technology takes us.

Take some time right now and go through my Business Tips, Marketing Tips and SEO & SEM posts and start drinking that info up! Free real world information you can start putting to work today!

To ignore established practices and methodologies and the required knowledge and skills for no other reason that one doesn’t want to “deal with it” or that it may take too much work with a bit of required patience and frustration to acquire, is making a conscious decision to not have a successful, productive and healthy online program.

Deal with it.

At your service,
Judith

What Are You Willing to Deal With? is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

Most folks I work with have ideas of what they want and where they want it when it comes to the layout of their sites. That’s why I stress when selecting a premium WordPress theme that they take the time to go through the provided theme demos to ensure the placement of navigation, information and widgets is how they want to display their site’s information.

What happens quite often, however, is the desire to have certain features that are located in in specific areas for good reason, moved and/or replaced with data or information that the site owner wants prioritized. I get that. But what we all have to remember is there are expectations by your site visitors for common site items to be placed where visitors are used to finding them and will look to find them. Readers like what they are used to. We don’t want to mess with that!

Examples of this include having contact info in the footer, subscribe, Twitter and Facebook links in the top right of the sidebar — I am of the school these items need to be “above the fold” while the other side of this debate is these items should be in the footer. Either will work as those are the two most common areas on most sites where we know we will find this information.

Above the fold means having your most important information display without site visitors having to scroll vertically down the page. Your above the fold presentation is what provides visitors with that all so important and sometimes one-shot first impression of your site.

While we all want what we want, we can’t ignore what visitors will expect when they land at our site if we want to draw them in and keep them seeking more. There is a great article for you to read that explains all these nuances by comparing page area in a Web site to real estate. This article covers what goes where by walking you through why location, above the fold, reading direction, zoning and even the size of your features matter so you can Get More From Your Site’s Visual Acreage.

Time for you to invest in your Web site’s real estate!

At your service,
Judith

Give Site Visitors What They Expect is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

My inbox is filled every day with general questions about WordPress. What I do is track what I’m being asked and that generally will influence what I post about.

What I thought I would do is ask you what you want me to type about. I’ll use your input to plan my posts accordingly. This way you get the information you are looking for — and I won’t have to wonder so much if what I’m typing about is what you desire.

So…

Of course I’ll still pepper my posts with advice you didn’t even know you needed to be aware of — but hey, that’s my job and I’m sticking to it!

I look forward to your comments!

At your service,
Judith

What Do YOU Want to Know About WordPress? is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

I can understand why online business owners want to believe the hype. Do this and get rich; do that and dominate your market. Get “Top 10 Listings”, “just change your meta keyword tags”, “go live and watch the bucks roll in”. Get a Web site and get found! All supposedly at little cost with little effort. Hooey!

I too wish all that were true. It would make my life allot easier — I wouldn’t have to work so hard on my own sites.

Now what seems to be surfacing is the misnomer that if you put your site on WordPress, then you’ll shoot to the top of the rankings. Nothing else needs to be done — just convert your site to a WordPress site. Yes, compared to your current site, WordPress just may help with your rankings because of how WordPress structures content. But you still have to have the great content. WordPress alone is not the end all be all.

It’s all about unique and valuable content that is optimized properly for your targeted keyword phrases that you know those searching for you actually use. Not the keyword phrases you “think” folks are using; the keyword phrases you know they are using. This information is available to you — if you want to put in the time and effort (due diligence).

If anything is the panacea — unique, sought after and useful content would be it! Lots of it! Regardless of platform, if you don’t have the well written content and information your potential customers are seeking, the best rankings in the world will not convert to new customers.

Don’t fall for the hype as tempting as it may be. There is nothing online that is easy or cheap when it comes to succeeding and building a healthy enterprise that will experience long term ROI.

Yes, one can chase the promises of “cheaper, faster and easier” that caters to what one doesn’t want to deal with and embrace. But eventually if you are as smart as I think you are, you will get tired of those shenanigans. That’s when you’ll have realized that here in the land of reality, for those who truly want to succeed — cheap, fast and easy really isn’t part of the discussion.

When you work with professionals who are more concerned with your success than catering to what you are not willing to do or embrace, at least you’ll have confidence in knowing you will be told the truth — whether you like it or not.

At your service,
Judith

Even with WordPress; If it Sounds Too Good to Be True… is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

Don’t let the name of this theme fool you! The Kidz Premium WordPress eCommerce Theme is a fun to look at, colorful, and more importantly, feature rich WordPress Premium eCommerce Web site.

Not only do I love the clean look and color combos, the features of this theme make it so easy to use even a “kidz” could do it!

“Best e-commerce theme so far with balanced features! Create your own online store easily in WordPess. It transforms your WordPress install into a fully functional Ecommerce store complete with backend administration. Use WordPress to easily manage your store that sells Tangible or intangible/digital goods.”

This WordPress theme features an awesome single click install feature. You won’t have to set up each and every thing step by step. Simply activate the theme and it will auto populate sample products, categories and puts in place the basic settings (you can remove them with single click). It’s much easier to wrap your head around how the theme works and all you need to do is edit the sample products and replace them with your own. You will not need the technical knowledge that may be necessary with other WordPress eCommerce themes.

Some of the standard features are:

• Fully customizable front page
• Custom Control Panel
• Localization Support
• Auto-resizing product images
• Excellent Support
• Theme Guide & Tutorials
• PSD File Included with developer version
• Drop Down & Breadcrumb Navigation
• Gravatar Support & Threaded Comments
• Built-in Ad Monetization
• Search Engine Optimized
• Widget Ready with custom widgets
• Valid, Cross browser compatible

You’ll have to check out all the other built in features that will allow you to get your eStore up and running in no time. Don’t forget to go through all the screen shots and the demo too. After you get this theme up and running, come back here and comment with a link to your site and showcase all your hard work!

Kidz Store WordPress Premium eCommerce Theme

At your service,
Judith

Fun and Functional Premium WordPress eCommerce Theme is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...