6 Ways a “Free” WordPress Site May Meet Your Website Needs

Blogging, Web presence No Responses »
Feb 022012

A “free” WordPress site is a viable option for website. Not that long ago, it was suitable only for a blog — different templates were available, but the come-with-it plug-ins were sparse, for example, and the layout very restricted.  We used one for over a year for a client who wasn’t really sure about having a blog.  Despite the sparse features, this basic WordPress did its job — and the blog continues, now upgraded, integrated into a new website and used with the WordPress widget on LinkedIn, for example.

In the past month or so, we have decided to use “free” WordPress for two clients — one is a non-profit, the other is an established small business (with the build now in progress).  Why choose WordPress?

1. Neither client is skilled in web work, but both would like to be able to edit pages and put up posts on their own — or at least try it; with WordPress, levels of access mean that a user may be restricted only to putting up pages and posts; short of accidental edits or deletions of post/pages, the user cannot inadvertently damage the site and since it “lives” entirely online, anyone can work on it from anywhere.

2. Both clients have limited budgets for website creation, hosting, and maintenance. Since the free WordPress templates offer a limited amount of possible editing, even with the “customization” feature, time spent in design is limited by definition.  Still, the variety of themes is great enough to allow choice and create the right “look.”  Hosting is “free”, but the add-ons can, well, add up.  Even the $99 all-options package, though, is still less than most website hosting packages; total yearly costs to the client, of course, would need to add in the optional cost of their own domain name (and matching email addresses, if desired).  And initial design costs might also include customized graphics for the header.

3.  WordPress is a heck of a blogging platform!  One client will use the blog mainly to get out news about events; the other will learn to use it as a marketing tool tied to Facebook — so, both need the option of the blog, which was a key consideration.  Being able to switch the “home” page from static page to a blog page could prove quite useful as well.

4. The free template features have been upgraded; a much-needed form feature has been added that, for example, allows a contact form to be created.  Still, this is a bare-bones WordPress, so be aware it will not meet all needs.  Some of the “premium” templates, available for purchase at a one-time cost in the range of roughly $50-$100, allow more customization and would be worth it for some uses.

5. Some long-standing features are important for clients who want to try managing their own site, including the automatic spam killer and usage statistics.  Keeping tabs on changes via email notification also is a valuable feature.  One client also appreciates the option to password-protect posts.

6. Being able to easily create three or four “looks” to view online made it easier to work with the client on the design.

If either client wants more features in future, of course, they may need to migrate to a full site, but for now WordPress meets their needs and at an acceptable price.

The Mattison Group provides a range of services, including building WordPress sites.

Share
Posted by Editor on February 2, 2012 Tagged with: ,

“But What Would I Write in a Blog?”

Blogging No Responses »
Jan 142012

What to write in a blog

Some of our clients hesitate to start a blog because they think they won’t have anything to say that will interest others.  That’s rarely true.

Take a tour company, for example, one that specializes in local tours.  Local events make a great blog subject — both those that are scheduled and those that have passed. Why is that a good subject?  It showcases the area and it shows knowledge of the locality, which can help encourage customers to consider booking a tour.  Special tours that the company builds around coming events are an obvious blog topic — and a good marketing opportunity.

What about, say, a local landscape contractor?  A blog with tips about landscape planning can bring out your readers’ green thumbs — or their wish for them! Combined with an offer to help plan, this can make these slow winter months potentially more lucrative.   Any number of myths abound about planting and gardening; posts that “bust” those myths are fun to write and useful to your readers.

Professional groups can cull the latest publications in journals and on association websites for materials, not plagarizing, but summarizing.  Interviews with leaders in the field, or with your board or executive staff, can provide interesting insights into your profession and your organization.

Yes, it does take time to keep up a blog.  These two tips may help: (1) roughly sketch out what topics you will write about and when your posts will appear over the next three months and (2) write several posts when you feel in the mood; it’s more fun then and they often are more interesting because you were more interested when you wrote them.

Of course, The Mattison Group would be happy to help — we can put together a plan for you, or find materials, or ghost write your blog — or all of those.

Share
Posted by Editor on January 14, 2012

10 Reasons Your Research Group Should Have a Blog

Blogging No Responses »
Jan 042012

The Internet offers a myriad of ways to get out information about scholarly research. Websites are one obvious source; search engines and services are another.  But is this enough?  In a competitive world, probably not.

What can a blog do for your research organization?

  1. A blog can consistently make available summaries of both work in progress and published works.
  2. Blog posts offer an important opportunity to present complex ideas that affect public policy in simpler terms, thereby increasing the likelihood of  ideas reaching mainstream thinking.
  3. Unlike a static website, blogs change — and search engines love change, always looking for the latest news and putting that near the top of search results.  This means that your work is more likely to be found near the top in search results.
  4. Publicize what else you do — participation in seminars, workshops and conferences, for example, which is important to the success of the organization.
  5. Highlight the expertise of your team and introduce new team members quickly and easily.
  6. Publicize workshops, seminars and conferences that your organization hosts — and provide a platform for getting out important results quickly.
  7. Serve as a record of what your organization has done.  Many groups publish annual reports, but they are just that: annual.  Moreover, they are restricted in length and, of course, summaries of all your best work just won’t fit.  A blog that is carefully designed with appropriate categories and tags is a running record, both of all your work and of particular themes/topics.  A blog really is about the only place this can be done online easily.
  8. Provide a platform for special projects or issues.  Changing a website often can be complicated; blog pages can be added quickly and just as easily taken down, if appropriate, once an event or issue has passed.
  9. If your competitors are doing it, they are gaining more attention for their ideas and research.
  10. If you used LinkedIn, Tweet or have a Facebook Page, a blog offers material for those pages, too.

In subsequent posts, we will discuss how to go about creating and maintaining a blog for a research group.  In the meantime, please enjoy our our series of posts on blogging and see an example of the blog we ghost write and maintain for one research group.


The Mattison Group provides a range of services, including advising on blogs and ghost writing blogs for research groups.

Share
Posted by Editor on January 4, 2012 Tagged with:

Blog Best Practices: Responding to Another Blogger

Blogging, Image and visibility No Responses »
Nov 022011

Organizations whose specialty is thought — research groups, think thanks, and the like — always will be a target for blogs written by those who disagree with the ideas or research presented in a blog post (or in the publications that’s the basis for the post).  Reasoned criticism always is welcome; it helps develop thought further and demonstrates the value of the original piece.

But what happens if a blogger attacks your research in his or her own blog — in a way that is off the mark or particularly vituperative?  Should you respond, and how?

In deciding whether to respond, consider the source — if the blogger or the audience is known to have extreme views and/or is unlikely to appreciate yours, then responding probably is not the best use of your time.

If the decision is to respond — where?  On that blog or on your own blog?

Best practice suggests you respond in a comment on their blog, not yours, and here’s why:

1. responding on your blog lets them set the agenda for your own blog; this isn’t something you want

2. responding to them on your blog raises the legitimacy of their blog; this probably isn’t something you want if their post was extreme

3. responding on your blog may create a firestorm of comments — are you willing to handle that and possibly negative publicity for your blog?

As with most responses to criticism, if you must respond at all, write the draft, let it sit for at least 24 hours and then think again.

Share
Posted by Editor on November 2, 2011 Tagged with:

Building a Workable Social Media Strategy

Blogging, Image and visibility, Social media No Responses »
Oct 252011

Twitter, Facebook, blogs, e-mail blasts — keeping up with them all clearly takes time. Is it worth it? If you do want to jump into the foray, where should you start?

One of the best basic posts I’ve seen on social media strategy is here: The 3 Phases Of Social Media Strategy. What makes this a good post?  Well, first of all, it’s realistic.  It takes time to build a social media presence that’s effective; this post provides a sensible approach that incorporates blogs, e-mail lists, Facebook and Twitter.  It recognizes that Facebook and Twitter are neither magic nor useless — and that having thousands of Twitter followers isn’t necessarily what works.  Blogs and e-mail lists form the backbone of this strategy; Facebook and Twitter supplement both.

Key points

1. Build connections, not just lists of followers.

“If you set an initial goal to create 150 followers who really are engaged with you, something remarkable will happen. Your brand, blog, or product will spread.”

2. Using social media only to sell and promote, rather than truly engage, rarely works.

“Once you’ve built an audience around your Facebook fan page, the next key is connecting with them. If you start trying to sell them without connecting with them, people will drop your page . . . Your Facebook page is not about you or your product. It’s about your readers and customers.”

3. Blogs provide the best opportunity to appear human — as well as promote products and services.

“The key to a good blog is telling a good story. A blog is an opportunity for you or your company to showcase the fact that there is a human being behind the brand. . .  A blog should not be treated as a glorified marketing brochure. If you focus on the creation of value, you’ll reap the true rewards from your blog.

“One of the questions I’ve seen asked from some marketers is ‘Is a blog right for my company?’ When people conclude that a blog is not for their company, I’m convinced that they just don’t know what it takes to create a compelling blog. Blogs give you an opportunity to act as an artist rather than a marketer and as a human rather than a machine.”

4. E-mail lists remain essential.

“. . . the #1 mistake that every single blogger/internet marketer says they made was not starting an e-mail list soon enough. One of the things that e-mail enables is direct communication with your customers or readers. Almost every blogger cites their e-mail list as the major source of their revenue.”

5. Tie it all together!

  • Use your Facebook page to encourage people to follow you on Twitter, read your blog, or sign up for your e-mail list.
  • Use Twitter to promote your Facebook page, blog or e-mail newsletter list
  • Use your e-mail list and blog to encourage people to follow you on Twitter or Like your Facebook page

And a word from us about content: share it across platforms.  Engaging your audience does require tailoring approaches to the platform, but a good blog post, or Twitter offer, or Facebook discussion, or e-mail newletter provides content that can be used in all four of these forums.  And, actually, people are more likely to remember good content — and your company — when it appears in several guises.

Share
Posted by Editor on October 25, 2011

5 Tactics for Maximizing Your Blog’s Impact

Blogging No Responses »
Sep 192011

Blogs can be essential in attracting traffic to your website, but if you think of a blog only as a driver, you could be missing some important opportunities.

A blog should include virtually everything you do that would be of interest to your readers. Blog posts can flesh out your website, providing more detail and showcasing what you have to offer.  In addition, with each blog post, a richer, more complete picture is being drawn of your activities, products and depth of experience.

Use your blog to:

1. Expand on ideas and opportunities that are mentioned elsewhere on your site.  Be sure to link your blog posts to the appropriate web page and to include links to blog categories from those webpages — tie them together.

2. Provide a in-depth view of your activities or thoughts on a particular topic.  Use  categories and tags for each blog post to help your readers find out more about a specific topic of interest to them.   It is important to be judicious in the use of both — too many categories or too many tags are confusing.

3. Allow readers to discover not only what’s new, but what you’ve been doing over time.  A blog showcases your expertise and shows how it has grown.

4. Highlight the particular expertise of members of your staff.  Feature blog posts by or about them.

5. Track interest and better target both your website and your marketing by analyzing readership of your blog.

“Integrating” a blog into your website, then, means more than just having it appear under the same URL.  It means making the blog and the web pages complement and supplement one another so that your readers can have a greater understanding of the value you have to offer.

At the Mattison Group, we can help you strategize about how to use your blog to full advantage.

Share
Posted by Editor on September 19, 2011 Tagged with:

Why Should My Company Have a Blog?

Blogging, Web presence No Responses »
Sep 142011

This question has a simple answer: visibility that can lead to increased revenue.   A blog is where the ‘beef’ is — the place your company can truly showcase itself with new content that appears often.  Good new content attracts the ‘Gods of the Internet’, the search engines, helping bring your website nearer the top in relevant searches. (More on content in another post.)

Or is the answer that simple?  A blog is not necessarily free.  It takes time to write posts often enough for the search engines to like you and to keep liking you.  Blogs also must be designed, which entails some cost, and then hosted and a domain maintained, unless you’re satisfied with a free blog.

So, what is the ROI for a blog? A calculation by one of our trusted sources, Jay Baer, estimates a 179%  return on investment for a hypothetical company.  Not bad.

Other social media tools receive more hype — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, stumbleupon, Digg, etc.  Are they more influential now than blogs?  They may be for some types of companies (few) and in some situations (also few).  Overall, blogs retain their starring role.  A blog can back up with great content the  teaser that is included in Twitter’s 140 characters or Facebook’s 420 characters.   It’s also the perfect link for LinkedIn,  stumbleupon and Digg.

The Mattison Group can work with you to decide whether a blog is right for your company and, if so, help plan a blog strategy, adding in social media when and if they make sense.

Share
Posted by Editor on September 14, 2011

Comments Strike Fear in the Hearts of First-Time Bloggers

Blogging, Image and visibility No Responses »
Sep 042011

Many of our clients are completely new to blogging.  They may know what a blog is and realize that it can raise visibility, but they fear negative repercussions in the form of comments that will tarnish their images.

This is a legitimate concern, but only for some types of organizations and only if the blog is poorly managed.  Consumer products companies, for example, are more likely to accumulate negative comments than are, say, research groups or non-profit organizations.  An estimated 15.5 MILLLION blogs exist — how likely is it that people will search yours out for attack?

Can I manage comments?

Any post can be put up specifying that comments not be allowed at all.   Even when comments are allowed, virtually all blogging software allows you to review and approve/disapprove comments before they appear online in your blog. You have complete control.

Blog etiquette suggests that comments disagreeing with a post should not be deleted.  But assasination-by-blog never is acceptable. In other words, comments that are purely nasty and vituperative  — not just honest disagreements — need not, and should not, be approved for posting.

How many comments will I get?

The reality is that most of the groups with which we work get very few comments on any post.  For example, in the 18 months that we’ve been ghost writing the health economics blog, a total of seven comments have been received, all constructive, all adding to the dialogue about the topic of the post.  The blog for Storybook Quilts received a similar number of comments over its three years.

Take a look at your competitors’ blogs for an idea of whether your organization is likely to attract comments and what type.

Should I encourage comments?

In most cases, yes! Comments engage your readers, give you an opportunity to better understand their interests and can add useful ideas to the ones presented in your post.  The benefits far outweigh the risks in most cases.

Share
Posted by Editor on September 4, 2011

Follow Me!

© 2012 The Mattison Group LLC Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha