Web Content Tips

The WordPress Missing Manual: Supershort Review

2023-05-01T15:11:00.001-07:00

The WordPress Missing Manual is a comprehensive guide to the world's most popular content management system. Written by experts, it covers everything from installing and configuring WordPress to creating and managing content, themes, and plugins. The book also includes a wealth of troubleshooting tips and advice. I've read through this book numerous times and found it informative and fun.

One of the strengths of The WordPress Missing Manual (on Amazon) is its clear and concise writing style. The authors do an excellent job of explaining complex concepts in a way that is easy to understand. They also provide plenty of screenshots and illustrations to help illustrate their points.

Another strength of the book is its comprehensive coverage of WordPress. The authors cover everything from the basics to advanced topics, such as custom development and security. They also provide a wealth of resources, such as tutorials, plugins, and themes.

Overall, The WordPress Missing Manual is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn more about WordPress. It is well-written, comprehensive, and packed with useful information. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced user, you will find something valuable in this book.

Here are some of the specific things that I liked about the book:

The clear and concise writing style
The comprehensive coverage of WordPress
The wealth of resources
The helpful screenshots and illustrations

Here are some of the things that I would have liked to see in the book:

More coverage of security
More coverage of custom development
More hands-on tutorials

Overall, I highly recommend The WordPress Missing Manual to anyone who wants to learn more about WordPress. It is an excellent resource that is packed with useful information.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you click on the links in this review and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products and services that I believe in and that I think will be helpful to you. I use affiliate links to help support this website and to keep the content free. If you are considering making a purchase, I would appreciate it if you would use my affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

Review: The Copyeditor's Handbook

2023-04-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

The Copyeditor's Handbook: A Guide for the Professional Editor is an essential resource for anyone who works with written text. Whether you're a copyeditor, a proofreader, a writer, or simply someone who wants to improve their writing skills, this book will teach you the essential skills you need to produce clear, accurate, and polished copy.

The book (on Amazon) is divided into three parts: "The Copyeditor's Toolkit," "The Copyediting Process," and "Specialized Copyediting." The first part covers the basics of copyediting, including grammar, punctuation, spelling, style, and usage. The second part walks you through the copyediting process, from proofreading to fact-checking to proofreading again. The third part covers specialized areas of copyediting, such as editing for the web, editing for international audiences, and editing for different types of media.

The Copyeditor's Handbook is an incredibly comprehensive and well-written resource. Einsohn covers all of the essential topics in a clear and concise way, and she provides helpful examples and exercises throughout the book. Whether you're a seasoned copyeditor or a beginner, you'll find this book to be an invaluable tool.

Here are some of the things I liked most about the book:

The book is incredibly comprehensive. Einsohn covers all of the essential topics in copyediting, from grammar and punctuation to style and usage.
The book is well-written and easy to understand. Einsohn uses clear and concise language, and she provides helpful examples and exercises throughout the book.
The book is up-to-date. Einsohn includes the latest style guides and conventions, so you can be sure that your copy is edited according to the latest standards.

Overall, I highly recommend The Copyeditor's Handbook to anyone who works with written text. It is an essential resource for copyeditors, proofreaders, writers, and anyone who wants to improve their writing skills.

More Clicks in Your Emails: Four Tips

2015-09-01T06:46:00.002-07:00

Your email marketing seems to be working.

You’re getting people to open your emails, and your readers appear to be interested in the content you’re sending out.

But there’s one problem — even though people are opening, only a handful of readers are clicking on the links you include.

What’s going wrong?

There are a number of factors you’ll need to consider when looking at click-throughs in your email reports.

The most important factor will be whether or not your content is interesting and relevant to the people on your list. (There are simple steps you can take to make sure your content is resonating with your audience.)

But beyond the content, there are smaller tweaks you can make to boost click-through rates.

Check out our latest video to learn more, or read the transcript below.

(Can’t see the video? View it here.)

Click-throughs are really important because they measure your reader’s engagement with your emails and tell you who’s taking a desired action.

Here are four tips to increase your click-throughs and drive customer action.

Tip #1: Only include the essentials

My first tip is to only include the essential information in your emails. Keep your emails short and put your important links at the top, and don’t overload your readers with too much information. They might not scroll all the way down, which means they may not see your links.

Tip #2: Motivate your readers

Tell readers why they should click a link in your email and why it will benefit them.

Tip #3: Use the same link multiple times

Include the same link in multiple places in your email. This will increase the chances of someone seeing your link when scrolling through your email, and clicking to find more information.

Tip #4: Use buttons

If readers aren’t clicking as much as you’d like, you may want to try a button to help them stand out.

Buttons are also great for mobile readers because they are easier to click on a mobile device.

Looking for more information on click-throughs? Check out our new data that shows how the amount of text and images impact email click-through rates.

Creative Commons

Website Redesign Tips & Tricks

2015-07-13T13:29:00.002-07:00

Website Redesign Presentation from joanat

Content Marketing 360 Podcast

2014-12-27T11:58:00.002-08:00

Hosted by Pamela Muldoon, Content Marketing 360 showcases many of the top marketing minds from around the world. Our online radio show highlights topics of traditional and digital marketing, online and offline strategies mixed with evergreen and real-time PR content creation best practices. Using an interview format, Pamela blends her 25+ years of marketing & broadcasting experience into a fresh, conversational approach with each of her guests. Information, education, and fun is how we put our best voice forward…always.

CM360 Episode 43 - Kiss My Glass: A Content Marketing Conversation With Barry Feldman, Feldman Creative

CM360 Episode 42 - Brands In Glass Houses, Debbie Williams, SPROUT Content

CM360 Episode 41 – Navigating The Content Marketing Jungle, Michael Gerard, Curata

CM360 Episode 40 – A Conversation With Nick Kellet, List.ly Co-Founder

CM360 Episode 39 – Your Website, SEO And Content Marketing, Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media

Five Tools to Help Create and Promote Your Content

2014-12-17T07:53:00.001-08:00

Creating great content takes time, often too much time. But there are plenty of tools and apps that can help you in your pursuit of creating and promoting your next big project. These are just a few.

The Secret Ingredient for Succeeding at Content Marketing

2014-12-16T10:22:00.001-08:00

The competition is ferocious in online markets but, if you are methodical, you'll find you have everything needed to win.

See more here.

2014-12-15T08:52:00.000-08:00

Leaders who kill new ideas love living with old problems.

A manager asks, “What should I do when someone on the team is excited about an idea, but I’m not?”

Your response to imperfect ideas determines engagement, enthusiasm, ownership, gratitude, and respect for you.

All new ideas are imperfect, even yours.

10 responses to imperfect ideas:

Listen to the idea’s story. What made you think of this idea?
Monitor their emotions. Watch for light in the eyes. Does your culture cause idea-generators to protect themselves? Are you a nit-picker or a nay-sayer? I hope you see how foolish this is.
Reflect the light. If they dare to light up, light up with them. Find the good in their imperfect idea.
Clarify short-term objectives. What can your new idea accomplish this week? Short-term perspectives make it real, ignite urgency, and identify forward-moving behaviors.
Connect short-term objectives with long-term goals. How does your idea move us toward our preferred future?
Anticipate success. What does success look like?
Explore danger, gently. What might go wrong? How can you prepare for contingencies? The truth about imperfect ideas is they create new challenges and problems.
Give permission for a trial run or pilot program. Lets try it!
Honor progress and inquire about issues.
Establish a follow-up meeting to evaluate results. Did you achieve your short-term objectives? Would you like to keep trying? How do you need to adapt?

Solutions:

The old problem you’re trying to solve requires new ideas.

4 principles:

Respect for their idea feels like respect for them.
Anticipated or imagined problems that kill new ideas are usually exaggerations.
When you meddle in their new idea, ownership migrates to you.
When they own it, they make it happen.

The question is will it help, not, is it perfect.

What responses to imperfect ideas keep the ball rolling?

How much imperfection is too much?

Leadership Freak by Dan Rockwell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work atleadershipfreak.wordpress.co

Content Marketing: Views from the Field

2014-12-10T07:12:00.000-08:00

9 TIPS FOR NONPROFIT SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT MARKETING

2014-12-08T10:06:00.000-08:00

Content marketing can be intimidating, especially for organizations that don’t have extensive teams or networks of content creators.

App List helps you backup and share your favorite apps with your friends using any available sharing application (such as Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Skype, WordPress etc.)

If the term “content marketing” evokes images of staff stuck on an assembly line, writing hundreds of blog posts and designing thousands of graphics to use on social media, take solace in knowing there’s an easy way to tackle the work. The notion that content creation takes hundreds of hours of work is one of the biggest myths in nonprofit social media marketing.

9 Tips For Nonprofit Content Marketing Success

The nine tips below offer a simple and effective plan for nonprofits to generate content for their social media streams:

1. Find creative ways to use existing content

2. Use free social media and research tools

3. Partner with content producers

4. Experiment and test new ideas constantly

5. Use listening devices

6. Use the same content on multiple platforms

7. Take risks

8. Target and hyper-target content

9. Repurpose everything

Want to see all of this in action? Check out Media Cause’s social media platforms and see this post come to life:

2014-12-04T16:27:00.001-08:00

WordPress Tallahassee Meetup: Turning WordPress Sites Into Web & Mobile Apps

For the second meeting of the Tallahassee WordPress Meetup I am presenting on solutions for turning WordPress sites into mobile apps and using WordPress as the back-end for a web and/or mobile app. This is a subject that I’ve thought a lot about as I work with the WordPress REST API, and my own projects.

Below you can see my slides and a list of helpful links:

WordPress Tallahassee Meetup: Turning WordPress Sites Into Web & Mobile Apps from Josh Pollock

Links From My Presentation:

Official WordPress Mobile Apps – For editing, not for making a mobile site.
- Download
- Source Code
WordPress RESTful APIs:
- Core WordPress REST API – Works as a plugin, will be in WordPress core soon.
- WordPress.com/ JetPack API – Requires JetPack. All data passes through
My articles on Building a Single Page Web App Powered by the WordPress REST API:
WordPress Themes Powered The REST API
- WordPress AngularJS – Full plugin and theme for AngularJS powered web apps using WordPress
- _s_backbone – Starter theme. Hybrid of a normal theme and using the REST API via wp-api clientjs
- AngularJS Demo Theme – Starter theme for AngularJS/ REST API. Demo for an excellent tutorial.
Automated App Builders
- AppPresser – Automated Phone Gap build system for converting existing sites to Phone Gap.
- Reactor by AppPresser – Phone Gap + WordPress REST API mobile app creator.
Separate Front-end Clients for WordPress REST-API Powered Sites

Josie – Simple Node/ Express powered starter SPA, using mainly jQuery.
ExpressPress – Full implementation of a Node + Express app using WP-API client JS.
Angular WordPress Pods – AngularJS front-end for Pods-powered sites.

source: http://joshpress.net/blog/wordpress-tallahassee-meetup-turning-wordpress-sites-web-mobile-apps/

Home Business: Tips And Tricks You Can Use

2014-10-28T11:21:00.005-07:00

Home businesses offer an opportunity to boost your salary or create a full-time opportunity. Starting a business only makes sense if you invest the time required to make it a success. After reading this article, you should have a better idea of what is required to run a successful home business.

You need to be determined and a self-starter, in order to be successful with a home business. If you are going to run your business from your home, consider having or building a room that is dedicated to being your professional office space. Some counties have laws regarding office space, so be aware of these when you make your decision. This really works out best in the long run, because you can keep a clearer distinction between your business world and your home world.

Becoming A Professional Organizer

Complete Business Package To Help You Easily And Quickly Start Your Own Profitable Home-based Professional Organizing Business!

Becoming A Professional Organizer

Clearly mark products that aren’t in stock. Customer get very irritated when they find out a product they ordered is not going to be delivered promptly. Especially if they weren’t warned about it first. If you are out of stock, give your customer a choice.

You could use your skills to give lessons out of the home to bring in some income from home. A lot of people enjoy the flexibility that comes with learning from an individual rather than a school. Art, music, or photography lessons can be given in your home quite easily.

Take the time to write out a plan to run your home business. Even with a small business, you need to document all of your goals, strategies, and resources. Business plans are essential for keeping your new venture on track.

Home businesses can be a flexible way to earn money. This can serve as an exciting addition to your life. These tips were written for the purpose of building the foundation beneath a profitable empire.

50 Home Business Clarity Questions

Answer These 50 Questions Honestly And Truthfully And They Will Change Your Life. This Magnificent Work Hands You 50 Simple Questions That You Absolutely Must Answer If You Plan On Starting And Running A Home Based Business That Succeeds.

50 Home Business Clarity Questions

The post Home Business: Tips And Tricks You Can Use appeared first on SEO Tips.

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Is Your Company Losing Steam On The Internet? Put These Internet Marketing Tips Into Practice Now

2014-10-28T11:21:00.003-07:00

Using the Internet to promote a product or service is seeing increasing popularity. However, it is probably more complicated than you realize, so make sure to obtain all the information you can about how to make Internet marketing work for you. This article can provide you with tips that can make you a pro at Internet marketing.

If you want people to affiliate themsevles with you, make a button they can put on their site that is very appealing. This helps to establish a nice flow on your site, as customers will be more apt to click on advertisements with the assurance that you are offering something legitimate.

12 Steps To A Kickass Ppv Campaign!

Do You Want To Break Into Internet Marketing? Do You Want To Make Life Changing Cash With Ease? This Guide Is A Winners Guide To The Winners Circle. Learn Ppv From Start To Finish With This Simple Easy To Follow Resource.

12 Steps To A Kickass Ppv Campaign!

Flashy, dazzling websites might be a good idea in theory and might even attract some people, but the more distracting your site is, the harder it will be to keep visitors for the long haul. You have a short time to engage a consumer online and you want your site to grab their attention immediately. If you can’t capture their attention during this very brief time period, they will click out of your site.

Look for feedback and comments from every part and place in your website and business design. This is important because if you have one view of your website and your customers have a different view, your website will not be successful. Get feedback from anyone you can, friends, family and potential clients. Use this advice to help you decide what to change in your marketing campaign.

Stand ready to reply to their questions. People visit your site seeking knowledge, and if you can’t provide it to them, they will go elsewhere. Providing your viewers with good info will increase the likelihood of a sale.

Internet marketing is among the best ways to circulate information about your products and services. The only way to have Internet marketing success is by knowing exactly how to go about it. The tips you just read will get you started on using Internet marketing effectively in your business.

20 Free Internet Marketing Video Tutorials With Upgrades

Send People To A Free Resource And Get Paid For It! Hot Videos On List Building, Seo, Tracking, Cloaking, Buy Now Buttons & More! Oto Downsell And CB Id Carried To Referrals! Affiliates Go To

20 Free Internet Marketing Video Tutorials With Upgrades

The post Is Your Company Losing Steam On The Internet? Put These Internet Marketing Tips Into Practice Now appeared first on SEO Tips.

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How to Write eBooks for Your Business

2013-10-09T12:45:00.001-07:00

How to Write eBooks for Your Business | Web Content Tips An eBook in Every One of Us
Got an eBook in you? You've got to believe you do. More than ever, new authors are able to take advantage of the online marketplace to write eBooks for business. Great eBook topics are waiting to be taken up by authors committed enough to write down their ideas in a way that compels readers to flip to the next page. While fiction may be one area in which authors have gained attention, many small business owners and entrepreneurs are finding that eBooks are the royal road to recognition and sustained income.

Think about your business specialty, your educational background, your hobbies. All of these can be turned into an extra source of cash in the form of the information you convey when you write eBooks. But be careful. The content must be good enough so that readers don't return your work to get their money back. That's where an experienced editor can be your best ally.

Bestselling eBook Topics
Apart from fiction, some of the bestselling eBook topics explain an idea or process or provide useful information. That's what makes how-to eBooks perennial top sellers. When you're ready to commit to writing an eBook, think carefully of ten or so topics that you believe you have a fair amount of interest in. From the list of topics, choose one that you believe you have the most interest in so that you can express that interest throughout the writing process. As a small business owner, for example, do you know something about personal finance, perhaps that an average reader might not know? Or have you done plenty of reading and research in the area of health and weight loss? Some other topics you might consider:

B2B consultation
sales and marketing approaches
relationship advice
alternative medicine
art and music lessons
health and fitness
self-help

Google Your eBook Keywords Before committing to a topic, you might want to explore your keywords to see whether readers are searching for your topic. One of the tools you might use while doing this is Google's Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). Other keyword research tools, among many others, can be found at these sites:

Editing Help for Your eBook
While writing an eBook is in a sense all your own, you may find that you need your eBook edited by a professional editor. Is it worth the cost? Professional editors spend day after day, year after year, making language the best it can be. They know words like a plumber knows leaks.

Remember, your eBook may not be published in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, but as your work, it is something you'll want to be proud of. So, yes, it is worth the cost, especially when the reputation of your business comes into play. Here are a few of the things an editor can check while reviewing your eBook:

an overall review of your work
correct style, usage, and grammar
correct spelling and word breaks
internal consistency
replacement of confusing wording
broken or incorrect links

Start Writing Your eBook Today
You might wonder how to take on such a mammoth task as writing an eBook. First, do yourself the kindness of writing a chapter outline. Under each chapter, list three to five topics you'd like to cover. Once you've got the outline, you can break up the task into bite-sized chunks. While you'd likely fall flat on the floor if you tried to stay up all night to write a sixty-page eBook, you can more comfortably tell yourself you'll write a five-page chapter per week. That's less than 500 words, or one page, per day. In just ten weeks, the result would be a fifty-page eBook. Not bad.

Start writing your eBook today! It's the first step toward sharing your expertise with others. And don't do it alone. Seek the help of professional editors who have the know-how to help you get write eBooks and get your work published.

Top Five Tips for Social Media

2011-12-05T08:06:00.001-08:00

From business objectives, to social media platforms and technologies to user experience and more, this article discusses the social media best practices and aims. Encouraging a culture of openness helps empower the community you help create.

Learn more today about how to use Twitter to strengthen your social media practices.

What I Learned About Social Media Marketing from an eMarketer Webinar on Mobile Marketing

2011-11-24T11:37:00.001-08:00

I recently participated in the “eMarketer Webinar: Mobile Advertising and Marketing—Key Trends and Benchmarks“.

I figured it was time to learn what mobile marketing means and how it differs from traditional marketing; particularly as SAP is a mobile company now, with Sybase and all…

Let me start with a definition of Mobile Marketing Money given by Tweeter @vimi: “Any campaign designed for users to view on their mobile. search, ads, apps, videos, QR codes, coupons, texting, games, mobile site”.

How to Connect With Mashable via Email, RSS and Social Media

2011-11-19T07:17:00.001-08:00

Mashable has grown immensely since its humble beginnings in 2006. As we continue to move from a niche blog to a full-fledged news site, the topics we cover and the ways readers connect with us are changing. You can now find Mashable. . .

Link Building and SEO

2011-11-16T18:59:00.001-08:00

SEO can no longer afford to ignore social. Search engines are increasingly investing in trying to map a business’ online social presence; as Duane Forrester from Bing explained at PubCon last week, consistent social engagement sends a clear signal that a website is a legitimate ongoing business, not just another fly-by-night content spinner. More

8 Social Media Platforms (Other Than the Big 3) to Drive Traffic To Your Site

2011-11-11T11:43:00.001-08:00

Frequently, when it comes to social media, we as marketers think only of the Big 3—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (you could probably count Google+ as a half-sibling, but I’ll get to that). Obviously various additional platforms other than the Big 3 have been in the public eye for a growing period of time (or longer), and, what’s more, have a charming and occasionally niche personality all their own. So here is a social media profile, if you will, of other platforms that want to come and play and can be used to drive engaged traffic . . .

Search Marketing: Optimize social media, images, video and everything else

2011-11-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

Search engine marketers have based entire careers on improving rankings. They fight tooth and nail to reach the top of the page, win more traffic, and push all their competitors down a notch.
But what if. . .

Social Media In Government: Which Tools Should I Use?

2011-11-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

The criticism that social media in the workplace is merely a distraction to employees and a waste of billable time is becoming a thing of the past.

The evolution of social media's presence in the public sector is changing the way that government organizations connect with citizens and improving the way in which employees do their jobs. There are a ton of social media tools out there, but which ones are the best? How are you choosing the best tool for you? More

Content marketers can often fall into a lull when they don’t remember to keep things fresh.

2011-11-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

With time and tediousness, any content marketing strategy can wander far enough to become stale. And in terms of its effectiveness, your content is absolutely least effective when it’s not hard-hitting. You may have the readers now, but if you continually publish inferior content, the competition will creep up on you quicker than you may think. More

Social May Be the ‘Silver Bullet’ – But All Roads Lead to Your Company Website

2011-10-29T03:41:00.001-07:00

The recent 2011 Demandbase National Marketing and Sales Study by the Focus Expert Network had some interesting findings that some social media strategists might not want to hear: That your company website is the top source of new sales leads, and is 7x – yes 7x! more effective than social media.

Wait- before you shut down your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, just listen to the rest of the findings. Though perceived as a ‘silver bullet’ for online marketers who, let’s face it, love to experiment in the latest social spaces, this survey urges marketers not to ignore the #1 source of sales – your company website. Why? Because the company website is the “hub.” More

10 Ways Non-Profits Can Benefit From Social Media

2011-10-25T12:26:00.001-07:00

Are you looking for ways to use social media to advance your cause?

Non-profits have many of the same opportunities in social media as for-profit businesses—it’s just a matter of altering the strategy. More

Plain Language: The Best Marketing Tool for Your Business

2011-10-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

Overdoing SEO
When marketing your small business online, it's easy to get carried away by using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. While SEO writing may help customers find your website, it has limited ability to keep the attention of a reader or new potential customer. In order to add relevant content to your website, you'll need to know what keywords people are using to find your site. But once they get there, clear, succinct writing--rather than overuse of keywords--will keep them there.

Natural Language
The key is to use natural language, without awkwardly introducing keywords into your writing. When you tell someone in person about your small business, for example, you wouldn't ordinarily litter your speech with redundant references to your location or the products you sell. That wouldn't sound natural. Instead, you'd tell them what you do, who your customers are, and what products or services you offer.
Think Face to Face

Same with good online marketing. Make your writing sound natural and drop the hype. One way to do this is to act as if you're having a friendly conversation with someone you just met. Your readers will be glad to hear what you have to say when you say it using plain language.

Why Hiring a Writer Sometimes Makes Sense
As a small-business owner, you may want to consider enlisting the help of a writer or editor to help you with your writing efforts. A good writer will meticulously prepare your material to ensure that it's targeted and error-free. Why? Because he or she depends on your referrals to be successful. Not only that, but a good writer is often a skilled editor. So if you already have something written and would like to hand it over to a professional writer, you'll be pleased to see the results of your final, edited work. Here are just a few elements that are a writer's meat and potatoes--elements that you might not have the time or inclination to give attention to:

structure and organization
quotation marks
punctuation
spelling
comma usage
capitalization
audience appropriateness
subject-verb agreement

Pretty mundane stuff. But ensuring that these elements are addressed means that you reach your audience and engage new customers with maximum effect. You won't have to wonder whether you've expressed yourself properly.

Compelling Writing for Your Target Market
Carefully crafting the writing in your online marketing efforts can make a tremendous difference to your business. And if you're projecting a distinct voice for your business and answering the "What's in it for me?" question for your customers, you're on your way to reaching your target market. And on the way, you're also establishing genuine rapport with new and returning customers.

Charles Everet is senior project editor of Cogent Text (http://www.cogenttext.com/), a writing and editing services company that extends the reach of small- and medium-sized businesses by offering a range of writing and editing solutions.