Top 10 Wordpress Plugins

Top 10 Wordpress Plugins

WordPress is an open-source CMS which hosts and powers over 7- million websites around the world. From popular news sites to small blogs.

WordPress is popular because of how easy it is to customize to your own requirements with easy to install plugins to make changes to your design or add additional functions to a site. But, with over 30,000 plugins available in WordPress can be a bit overwhelming in deciding which one is the right one for your website.

Below are a few WordPress Plugins that can optimize your website for maximum efficiency.

NextGen Gallery

            This plug in has over 6 million users, and it provides a powerful engine for uploading and managing galleries of images. It also has the capability of batch uploading, import meta data, add/delete/sort images, edit thumbnails, and more.

Contact Form 7

            This plugin can manage multiple contact forms, and you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with an simple and easy markup. This form supports other plugins such as Ajax, CAPTCHA and Akismet.

iThemes Security
            This plugin uses a site check to scan your website for malwate, blacklist status, website errors and out-of-date software. The plugin secures any passwords that are being saved in your website.

Popup Domination

            This plugin is about increasing the number of people who sign up to your email list. The more people on your email list, the more traffic you can control. Meaning more money you are capable of making.

Google XML Sitemaps

            This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google to better index your website. It is much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently.

All in One SEO Pack
            With over one million users, this plugin has been around for several year and is one of the most popular SEO plugin. The plugin offers standard requirements that are needed for an SEO plugin such as canonical URLs and sitemap creation. The plugin is beginner friendly, working out the box.

WP Super cache

            Sometimes, WordPress pages can be slow to load and therefore it is important to use a catching plugin. The plugin generates a static html file from your dynamic WordPress blog. Once a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts. This is a simple and effective catching plugin for beginners.

WP Socializer

            This plugin is an advanced plugin for inserting social bookmarkers and sharing buttons. The features include: buttons on posts, and sidebars.

Gplus-author
            This plugin will get your author’s profile linked in Google+

Facebook & Twitter Social Plugins

            Use text widget  in order to install these plugins, or you can download a simple plugin from WordPress’ directory.

7 SEO Tips To Grow a Small Business

7 SEO Tips To Grow a Small Business

Sometimes being a small business means that growing is slow and expensive. This is not necessarily true. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to help your business grow is to use SEO. Search Engine Optimization. 

Get your business’ website on the front page of Google, and your small business will start growing.

Keyword Research

Know what your costumers are searching for by using Google Keyword Planer. The Google Keyword Planner is a free tool offered by Google. This will help find words your competitors are using. With these keyword you enrich your content.

  
Stand Out Using Onsite SEO

Create unique page titles, meta descriptions, URLs and content. By creating additional pages can help you target new keywords and send signals to different search engines.

Blog

Write content that your audience will read and share. Make sure to use images, video tips, news and more. A great way to do this is to answer questions and offer solutions. Offer free information and knowledge from your field of experience.

Diversify You Marketing

Reviews, social media, email, guest blogging, display ads, remarking forums, Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, Instagram –can all drive traffic and leads. Use these platforms in your niche and gain an audience of people who will look at your business.

Encourage Action!

Make sure your sites visitors are taking the action you want them to. You want them to call you? Tell them. Tell them why they should call you.

 Efficient SEO With A CMS

A Content Management System (CMS) is a way to publish content and manage SEO. An example of a CMS is WordPress.

 Go Mobile

This might be the most important tip. Almost everyone has a smartphone. Create a responsive web design that fits mobiles, tablets and desktops. Keep your mobile and desktop sites on a single domain. Thankfully, many CMS’s now offer free responsive templates.

Top Social Sites & Top Networking Sites for a Successful Business

Top Social Sites & Top Networking Sites for a Successful Business

Social Networking and Using the Top 5 Tools

The most common question I'm asked when teaching my students about Social Media is "Which Social Media Sites are the Most Important for My Business".  The answer may surprise you. While many people think that Facebook is a must for business, it is a site you could theoretically do most without.

There are three elements to look for when choosing social media sites to be active in.

First, the social networking, social bookmarking, video, or other social media site must have plenty of active users. 

Second, the sites must include the persons in your target market and/or professionals

Third, the sites must be SEO friendly, which means that these social media sites appear on the search engine results pages, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.

These are the Top 5 Social Media Sites that meet these requirements and you must use to have more success in your business. 

5. Facebook  AlthoughIt almost didn't make my Top 5. Facebook is intrusive, not all that professional, but it has over a billion members. The key to using Facebook for business is creating a Business Page, formerly called a Fan Page, with an interactive and engaging iframe. Other than that, Facebook is useless for business since no one is listening and those are are speaking are speaking nonsense. The tool I find extremely useful on Facebook is events.

4. Twitter  This Social Networking / Microblog site is growing and becoming more practical. It still lack engagement for most, but it can be a useful tool for business. Especially when your business has an established #hashtag

3. Pinterest This microblog has recently rising for business marketing. With hundreds of thousands users. Using Pinterest is a great way to find a niche audience that will re-pin your business' post and create a residual marketing strategy.

2. Google+  The fact that Google+ Plus is closely related and interact with the Google Search Engine, and with Google Places, makes it a must-have for businesses. Business owners realize the importance of being on Google+, this Social Media tool is exploding in members.  Be sure to add a +1 button to your website and watch engagement grow.

1. LinkedIn  By far the most important Social Media and Social Networking tool, LinkedIn has enough members to fit out criteria, and these members are, for the most part, the professionals you need to engage with to create more business and increase your sales.

These Top 5 Social Media sites are just a small portion of what a great social media strategy should. Social media network, social media bookmarking, social photo sharing and other social networking sites are opened constantly.

Keep your eyes and ears opened when you are on Google for the next, "big" or "greatest" site. If a site pops up often when you are researching your company, industry or competition, then it is the site you need to create a keyword-rich profile on. And don't forget to add your professional picture or logo to the profile.

Manny Sarmiento - President / CEO
New Media, New Marketing, Inc. http://www.nmx2.com / manny@nmx2.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/mannysarmiento

Instagram for Business

Instagram for Business

In the era of technology, owning a business with no social media attached to market and represent yourself is a path to hardships in marketing.

The world and the economy have changed, and those who don’t follow and embrace this change are doomed to see their business fail.

There are various forms of social media lurking around in the internet. Talking about every single form of social media platform will require someone to sit down and write a 500 page book about the different social networks. Today, we focus on Instagram.

Instagram is a very popular form of social media where images are used as a form of status update. It is a different platform for sharing your brand and business to the world.

You should not just be posting random pictures on your business’ Instagram. There are certain Do’s and Don’ts that should be followed if you want to create a presence with your business.

Do’s:

• Update your feed consistently  
• Include a link to your website on your Instagram profile and let your followers know you have a link on your profile that they click on.
• Tag the location of your image. (Ex. your business address)
• Vary the composition of your uploaded images
• Be engaged with your followers on the comment section.
• Your Instagram feed is an extension of your brand
• USE HASHTAGS

Don’ts:

• Share more than 10 hashtags per post.
• Post more than 1-3xs a day ( respect your followers feed)
• Forget to add caption to your post
• Post irrelevant images that have nothing to do with your brand of business.

Instagram is an extension to the other forms of social media your business should have.

Instagram also has a sharing feature where your post on the Instagram platform can also share it on tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter.

This small step, of using Instagram, will help your business in the new era of technology.

Using the Power of the #hashtag

Using the Power of the #hashtag

Currently, the #hashtag is one of the most powerful tools around. Almost every social media platform uses it, and those who don’t will soon be adopting it into their platform.

#thepower

The power of a #hashtag will instantly link a social media post to a group of others about the same topic and will update a group of likeminded users on that topic.

For small business, having a powerful #hashtag to represent your image is important to a successful social media strategy.

A tag can help drive brand recognition. Boost the reach of an advertising campaign. And impact customer loyalty.

#thebasics

The hashtag is the pound symbol (#) renamed for a different purpose. The symbol before a keyword or phrase will categorize tweets, status updates and Instagram images. Making them show up when it is searched.

A #hashtag occurs anywhere in the tweet or status update: beginning, middle or end.

(However, a #hashtag will not appear in search if the account is on private or protected)

#bestpractices

An important rule of the #hashtag…#don’t #spam #with #hashtags! Creating this over tagging will devalue the hashtag.

Every business should develop a brand under a single #hashtag. This #hashtag will need to speak for your brand and strengthen consumer awareness.

Even though the #hashtag was created online, and everyone associates it with Twitter. Using the hashtag in public can generate giant amounts of buzz outside of the internet. When creating branding and advertising for your business such as posters, flyers or stickers. Make sure to include a #hashtag that people will be able to search on social media.

Be obvious with #hashtags!

Choose a #hashtag that is easy to remember and crystal-clear. The simpler that #hashtag the more likely will your customers and audience remember the business or brand.

Using the power of the #hashtag is a key to increasing traffic to your business. Become a presence, become memorable. Make your business unique, and beat the competition.