If your website is on Domain A’s URL (web address) and your blog is on Domain B’s URL, the Google police are not going to come get you. Hooray! But let’s back up a step. Is it wise to have two websites? Consider the following facts.
(NOTE: If you’re using a free website service, ignore Point 2B below.)
Point 1
Think of your website as your digital home…where anyone who wants to know about you or your message can find info about both in one place.
If you have two digital homes (one with your website and one with your blog) seekers will have to (or feel they have to) visit both locations to fully grasp who you are, who you serve, and so on.
How often do you visit two websites to learn about the same person or ministry? I’m guessing your answer is, “Rarely.”
Point 2A
Two websites (even if one’s your blog) cost twice as much, because digitally, they’re separate entities. Both will need to be hosted, maintained, protected, and so on, which requires cold hard cash or its equivalent.
If your blog is on your main website (as a separate, designated area instead of as a separate website), you’ll only pay for one of everything.
Point 2B
Unless you’re using a free hosting and maintenance service, which makes point #2A moot, yet still helpful when making future website decisions.
Point 3
Two websites–whether free or paid– confuse readers accustomed to finding blogs as part of a main site via that site’s URL (web address) by default.
They’ll have to remember to visit your blog’s address for new, fresh articles and your website’s address for the more permanent content such as your mission statement, about page, and the like.
Point 4
Maintaining your website and blog (on two digital “homes”) adds an extra burden to your marketing. How so? Every promotion must include not just your main website’s URL but your blog’s as well, with an explanation about which is which. More potential confusion.
Reader confusion is not good.
“But,” you might say, “that’s not a problem for me. My regular readers know how to find my stuff.” True. But in order to reach new readers–and we ALL want new readers, right?–it’s our responsibility to help people who don’t already know us…find us. Online. Easily. Oh.
Point 5
It’s very important not to have duplicate content on two websites, even if they’re both yours. Experts disagree about the importance of this point. Do your research and decide for yourself.
Point 6
Your Google rank is a real thing. We could both spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to understand SEO. Let’s not do that today.
Instead, let’s talk about incoming links (made when a “BIG DOG” links from their website to yours). This is different from an outgoing link (made when you link from your website to another website, BIG DOG or not).
Why are incoming links so much more valuable? Because the BIG DOG / important person / well-known influencer is a proven entity. They have an established audience made up of loyal fans. They’ve already paid their dues, SEO-wise.
If Martha Stewart, Elon Musk, or a highly regarded leader in your field links to your website, your life could potentially change overnight. That’s not the goal of this article, but it’s a great way to show why incoming links are more valuable.
Imagine turning that around, where you or I link to such a person. Not the same effect, according to Google. So, while it’s good to use outgoing links, they don’t pack the punch that incoming links from important people do. (Google decides who those important people are; we have no voice in the matter.)
Point #7
Let’s imagine you have two sites, using one for your official website and the other for your blog. Incoming links begin pointing toward your sites. Hooray again!
But if those links don’t point to the same site–your website or blog–their power will be diluted, weakening their impact. The link-er gets to choose which site to point their link toward.
Far better to have one site so that ALL the SEO “juice” is given to one site and not randomly split between the two.
Point 8
If you chose two sites long ago and are well established, leave things as they are until, and if, Christ leads you to make a change.
Point 9
Creating your first website is SO exciting! In no time, we hope, the world will be our oyster. But it doesn’t usually happen that way.
There’s lots to learn, including marketing strategy.
But rest easy. As a Christian communicator, God is watching over you, guiding you forward, drawing your audience to you as you serve them in His name.
He doesn’t expect you, me, or anyone else to know everything.
He is our good God, yes?
With His help, you can do this!
Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.
Once Your Lead Magnet is Prepared, How Will You Deliver It?
The two easiest options are to upload it to your email account or your website. Let’s explore both.
To upload it to your email account, you’ll first need an email provider. Duh! There are tons of choices: Aweber, Active Campaign, Constant Contact, MailChimp, the list goes on. These companies store your email “list,” meaning the names and email addresses of readers who request this or any other free or paid resource you offer.
When readers type their name and email address into those opt-in boxes we’ve all seen inviting them to “enter your name,” and “enter your email address,” actions are triggered behind the scenes inside your email provider account. Whatever settings you have or have not created determine what happens next.
If you’ve decided to deliver your Lead Magnet directly to your readers–attached to your “Thank You” email–upload it to your email provider, then attach it to that unique email. Ask your email provider for help. They should have articles or video trainings showing how to do that.
To deliver it from your website instead, upload it there. If you have a WordPress website, WordPress will generate a direct link to it automatically. The link will be exclusive to that PDF (Lead Magnets are typically created as a PDF files). Copy and paste that link into your email message. Best practices are to type your Lead Magnet’s full title into your email, then make those words an active link, directing your reader to your website page where the PDF is stored so they can download it. Again, check with your email provider for those steps.
What’s the Payoff for Going to All This Trouble?
You have the answers to your audience’s questions. The solutions to their problems. Your interview gives them a taste of your knowledge, personality, and communication style. Your Lead Magnet gives them another.
Once readers are on your email list, you’ll want to develop a relationship with them based upon service. Do that by continuing to offer them valuable information, every week or every other week. Get to know them. Help them get to know you. Become their trusted resource on your topic.
Email is the single most valuable marketing tool available. For the few minutes they read your emails, you’ll have your reader’s undivided attention (if you’ve written fantastic content). Make it count.
Show them how to get from where they are to where they want to be, one step at a time. Teach them shortcuts to work faster. How to use the online tools necessary to do their work or reach their goals. Update them on the trends and breaking news surrounding your message’s topic.
Encourage them. Entertain them. Inspire them.
Share personal stories and tie them into your audience’s needs, connecting with them along the way. Be emotionally vulnerable at the right time, but don’t be naked by sharing too much, which will make them feel “icky.” They’ll either unsubscribe or simply ignore future emails.
Serve them as Jesus would, sharing a bit from your story and then moving right into their story, their concerns, and how to conquer their fears.
Emails are private conversations between you and your reader. This is one reason they’re such a powerful marketing tool. Write as if they’re a close friend and over time, they’ll become one.
Serve, serve, serve, and serve them, then occasionally, invite them to take an action that will benefit you: enroll, purchase, promote, and so on.
And that relationship begins by offering them useful information for free, via a Lead Magnet offered during your interview. That’s a triple win!
Patricia Durgin is an Online Marketing Coach and Facebook Live Expert. She trains Christian writers and speakers exclusively, helping them develop their messaging, marketing funnels, conversational emails, and Facebook Live programs. Patricia hosted 505 (60-minute) Facebook Live programs from 2018-2020. That program is on indefinite hiatus. She’s also a regular faculty member at Christian writers and speakers conferences around the country.
The Christian Authors Network’s innovative Crown Awards celebrate excellence in Christian Media and Marketing.
Purpose: To recognize, educate, and encourage excellence in marketing and promotion skills of all Christian authors. The awards are given in three categories:
Visual Media
Broadcasting
Web Presence
Carla Hoch is the CAN Marketing Web Presence Media Gold Award Winner for her promotion of her online brand, FightWrite™.
Carla past led to her studying self-defense and training women speaking on emotional abuse, precursors to physical violence, personal and emotional boundaries and tips for staying safe and escaping abusive scenarios. Carla started a blog after teaching about writing fight scenes at conferences.
Tell us about your blog.
FightWrite™ is a writer’s resource for writing fight scenes, action and violence of any kind. It covers all aspects of conflict: technical movement, biological precipitators and aftermath, psychological impact and the craft of putting it all together.
What led you to create it?
I was writing a book with fight scenes in it and didn’t know the first thing about fighting. So, I took a self-defense class. That class was the spark that launched me full throttle into martial arts. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn.
While attending the Realm Makers Writer’s Conference, I was asked to be on a panel regarding fight scenes. A conference coordinator knew a bit about my training and asked me to sit on the panel as a fighting “expert.” Far from expert, I sat on the panel and although there were many questions regarding the craft of writing, more often than not, writers just wanted to know about fighting, how to do it and how it felt.
The next year, at the same conference, the coordinators asked if I could do a live critique of a couple fight scenes. As a former high school teacher, I had plenty of experience teaching rowdy groups so I said, sure, why not? By that time, I had several years of training under my belt.
As I critiqued the fight scenes, I would demonstrate why they did or didn’t work. An editor friend of mine, Ben Wolf, who had some martial arts training assisted me. He let me throw him around and the crowd loved it. If you’ve never seen me, you might not appreciate the spectacle of it. I’m the size of a strapping fifth grade boy, plus, I’m a wee bit long in the tooth. I don’t look like someone who knows how to make a fist, much less what to do with it.
When I got off the stage, Quill Pen Editorial Services approached me about editing fight scenes for them. And it suddenly occurred to me how big a need there was for help in writing fight scenes. So, I got the crazy idea to start a blog. And, here I am, going stronger than ever since 2016.
How does your passion motivate you to promote your blog? What keeps you motivated?
It doesn’t. And, I am seldom motivated to write or promote or train. But that has no bearing on whether or not I work. If I only did what I was motivated to do I’d be in bed eating chocolate and watching reruns.
Motivation is like a fire. Sometimes there are lightning strikes that start the fire. But that is rare. For the most part, you have to create a fire. You can’t just look at the fireplace and think, when there is a fire in the fireplace, I will start the fire in the fireplace. You have to get up, get the ash out, get the wood and kindling in, light the thing and then tend do it.
Motivation is a beautiful thing. And the ugliest excuse.
You don’t have a lot of books, so what else is part of your brand?
I am a regular featured writer for Writer’s Digest and an instructor for Writer’s Digest University. I have a blog, FightWrite.net, to which I post regularly, as well as a podcast, and IG and YouTube channels. I teach at writers’ conferences, do contract mentoring and editing for individuals and publishers. I stay busy.
How has your personal training in fighting helped you develop a brand? What are your special areas of martial arts?
Fight training has toughened my resolve, muzzled my ego and created in me a dogged determination to be better tomorrow than I was today. It has taught me how to take punches, how to fall, and how to get back to my feet and that losing is not the same as being beaten. It has shown me the value of mistakes and that, more often than not, success is a battle of attrition. I don’t have to be the best. I just have to be the best at not giving up. But, above all, fight training has taught me that my greatest opponent is and will always be me. I have to believe in me, I have to be on my side or the battle will never end and without rest, a fighter is as good as dead.
Creating anything, whether it be a brand, book or boat, is a battle. It’s a battle against doubt, distractions and discouragement. It’s a battle against naysayers and those who believe your success lessens their own. Fighting hasn’t helped me develop my brand. It’s the backbone of it.
My fighting experience…ok, let me think here. I call it fight experience because not all falls into a category of martial art. I have training in: aikido, Brazilian jiujitsu, iaido (katana work), judo, MMA, Muay Thai, tae kwon do, Filipino Martial arts (bladework) street defense (self-defense with weaponry) and am learning some wrestling. I’ve also been taught a wee bit of kung fu. Of all I’ve studied, Brazilian jiujitsu is the one I keep coming back to. I train 5-6 days a week and compete every now and then. I’m competing in a world championship next month.
You won gold for your won gold for your brand FightWrite™ and your overhauled website. What made it more professional? What components should writers look at in changing their website?
After my first CAN award, I was interviewed by the wonderful Thomas Umstattd who runs Author Media and is the host of the Novel Marketing Podcast. If readers remember only one thing from this interview, it should be Thomas Umstattd. Seriously.
After the interview he was kind enough to chat with me and give me some hard truths. One of those was that my site needed a major overhaul. At that time, it was still a blogger site and cumbersome to navigate at best.
I took his Author Media classes on building a social media platform, made a million notes and followed every single one. My site looks like it does because of Thomas Umstattd and his classes. I still go back and listen to his podcasts for help in maintaining my site. I’m working on the SEOs right now and have almost doubled page views in one month.
Here are a few things I learned from Thomas:
1. Your site should have a clear purpose. Are you trying to sell more books? Are you building a brand or fan base? Be sure that the home page meets the needs of that purpose.
2. Have a few call-to-action buttons. You can have a million pages on your site. Take out the most important one, two or three and make buttons that send people directly to those pages. Leave the rest in a pull-down menu. I have three call-to-action buttons: Read the Blog, Buy the Book, Contact Me.
3. Do only what you can do. You don’t have to pay money for a professional site. But you need a site that looks professional. If you can do that using YouTube, go, you!
4. Listen to the Novel Marketing Podcast.
Why is it important to use a paid rather than a free website host?
I’m not sure it always is. If you can’t afford a paid host, I think you can still have a site that looks amazing. However, your web address will have the host’s name. Even though I owned the domain fightwrite.net, my actual address was fightingwrite.blogspot. And that was all I needed for the first few years when information was my only product.
Once I began teaching and writing for Writer’s Digest and booking more conferences, I needed more than the free site.
To overhaul my site, I went to Stormhill Media. They specialize in author websites. And, if you use them, tell them I sent you. You might get a wee discount.
It took a while to get traction on your site. What helped?
Thomas Umstattd. Seriously, I owe him a great deal. And, as I said, tweaking my SEOs has doubled my traffic in a month. SEO is Search Engine Optimization. It’s a tool that helps you rank higher on search engines. Whenever anyone Googles “writing fight scenes,” my SEOs help my site to pop up toward the top of the search results.
What incentives did you use to attract followers?
I give them something they need that’s just not out there in the way I present it.
Did you try marketing strategies that did not work for you? What did you learn from them?
First and foremost, I try to make quality blog posts. A problem I had at first was coming up with a blog idea and then trying to create a good SEO to make my post pop up whenever anyone searched for the topic. After listening to the Novel Marketing Podcast, I learned to FIRST look at what people were searching for and THEN create the blog.
Which aspects of marketing do you enjoy the most?
I like making IG posts. I’m kind of artsy.
Which aspects do you find most challenging?
All of it. Marketing myself or my book isn’t something I’m naturally good at. I have to really work at it.
What marketing advice can you give bloggers or podcasters that you wished you had gotten, or that you wish you would have heeded?
Everything happened for me in the time it should have. For others, do your research. Take courses on marketing your book, making a site, optimizing SEO. Take notes and have one goal at the time. And be patient with yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a web site.
How do you come up with new ideas for your podcast and blog?
I ask writers what they are looking for and I use AnswerThePublic.com. It’s a brilliant tool!
What’s involved in getting a trademark and why was that important to you?
The more work I did under the brand, the more aware I was that people could piggyback off my hard work. Getting a ™ is a matter of paperwork and fees. It can take a year or more for the ™ to become ®. A ™ is simply a place holder which announces to the world that you are seeking registration for something. The sticky part is if that ™ is challenged by another entity wanting a similar trademark or if another exists that is too similar.
Please share how you keep your site in the top 100 of Writer’s Digest sites for writers.
I can’t say for sure what WD is looking for in its Top Sites for Writers list. And, I don’t know if I’m on it until the list comes out. What I do know is that my site is the only of its kind.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers about your marketing or writing journey?
Don’t give up. Mohammed Ali estimated that over the course of his career he was struck some 29,000 times. Since then, research has shown that number is closer to 200,000. There are two things we can learn from that. One, Ali was more interested in moving forward than keeping up with the punches he took. Two, he never saw himself as less than the greatest of all time even when another fighter was able to tag him. Getting hit was just part of it of the process. He wasn’t the fighter he was despite the punches he took. He was who he was because he took them.
Your work will be criticized. You will be turned down. You will be discouraged. And that is good. It is all part of being a writer. Like Ali, you won’t be the writer you should become despite the punches. You will be the writer you should become because of the punches. Don’t give up. Consider the tough times as simply part of the process. And, there may be tough times when you may have to back away from writing. That is ok. It’s not a race. There’s enough success to go around.
The Christian Authors Network’s innovative Crown Awards celebrate excellence in Christian Media and Marketing.
Purpose: To recognize, educate, and encourage excellence in marketing and promotion skills of all Christian authors. The awards are given in three categories:
Visual Media
Broadcasting
Web Presence
Carla Hoch is the CAN Marketing Web Presence Media Gold Award Winner for her promotion of her online brand, FightWrite™.
Carla past led to her studying self-defense and training
women speaking on emotional
abuse, precursors to physical violence, personal and emotional boundaries and
tips for staying safe and escaping abusive scenarios. For example, if you are
in danger in your home, did you know that you can call 911 and “order a pizza”?
You speak to the 911 operator as if they are a pizza place. They will ask if
you are in danger and yes/no questions to help the police come to your aid
without people in the room with you knowing you are calling for help.
Carla started a blog after teaching about writing fight
scenes at conferences. She went from a few views to several thousand, and then
one post took off to 100,000 hits when Writer’s Digest featured Carla and her
blog in their magazine.
FightWrite™.net is now trademarked and features blog posts with video and photo references, detailed information about the biology, psychology, weaponry techniques of combat as well as coaching on the craft of writing great fight scenes. In addition, Carla has a successful Etsy store featuring FightWrite™ products further establishing her popular brand. Her honest desire to teach and expert skills make her fascinating to viewers.
Tell us about your blog.
FightWrite.net is a writer’s reason for fight scenes, action and violence at every stage from one character’s decision to another’s decomposition. It goes hand-in-hand with my Writer’s Digest book: Fight Write: How to Write Believable Fight Scenes and my FightWrite podcast. The podcast is available all over the place.
What led you to begin blogging?
I
am a trained fighter and writer. I had been using those two skillsets to teach
writers how to write fight scenes. The interest from writers was so great that
I thought, hmmm, I wonder if anyone would read a blog about this…
How does your passion motivate you to promote
your blog? What keeps you motivated?
First
and foremost, I completely enjoy it. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have stuck with it
since 2016. Now I also have the motivation to promote my book and myself as an
instructor.
Where did you start in
the planning of your marketing and did you focus on one main component or area?
For years my blog was my only product so the decision on what to promote was easy! The blog is still my greatest marketing tool. It drives people to my book and to me.
Your past led to your interest in self-defense. Can you share a little of that past and how it led to your writing?
Sure! About ten years ago I was writing a book with fight scenes and had no idea how to fight. For some fighting reference, I enrolled in a self-defense class. To my surprise, the class had a visceral impact on me. After the first few I cried pretty hard. I had been raised in an unsafe environment and the effects were still with me.
Kay Arthur once said that if something brings the worst out of you, the worst probably needs to be brought out of you. That’s the approach I took with self-defense. I stayed with it until my fear of attending class became excitement. That class gave me the confidence I needed to go on to many other martial arts.
Sometimes
God reaches down and plucks you out of the ocean. Sometimes He makes you swim
to shore. Whatever way He chooses is not only for you but for those still
swimming who need reassurance that He hasn’t removed the shoreline. I’m proof
of that.
You also have a passion to reach out to women
coping with and recovering from abuse. How do you reach that audience?
It’s word of mouth. I don’t advertise it.
How do you continue to generate new content for
your blog that will interest your followers?
Oh, that is a tough one. I often send out a call to writers asking what they’d like me to write about. I also get questions on Twitter. Or, sometimes something comes up in the news and I get to thinking. The recent rush on toilet paper inspired my Judo for the Pandemic post. I have video showing judokas defending their toilet paper with judo throws. It was a lot of fun to make.
What grabbed the attention of Writer’s Digest?
Had you pitched to them?
That is quite a story. I have a friend that writes for WD. When I had the idea for the book, I told him about it. He liked it and gave me the name of an editor at Writer’s Digest who might be interested. I sent that acquisitions editor a summary. He got back to me and said he had done the “comps” and there wasn’t a place for the book with WD. Well, I knew that wasn’t true. I had done some looking around for comparable books before I started the project. There were zero like mine! I emailed him back and asked him to reserve judgement and said I would send him the finished product. I think I also promised him donuts. No joke.
Months later, I sent him the finished work. I got a kick-back email saying he was no longer with the company and that all further business should be sent to… And there it was. Another email address. I sent the new person the MS with a message saying that I had been talking to the previous editor about the book and he was expecting it. None of that was a lie. He wasn’t interested in the book. But he was expecting it again! I also told her that I had offered the other guy donuts and that offer was still valid!
After I sent the MS, I called my friend Steve Laube, owner of the Steve Laube Literary Agency. He has been in the book industry almost as long as I’ve been alive which is a LONG time! I met him at a conference where I had pitched a book to him – the one that made me get into to self-defense and put me on the path of fight training. Despite not liking the book I had pitched to him, Steve liked me just fine. For nine years he and I had stayed in touch at conferences. We always were happy to see each other and took time out to catch up. I would always ask him when he was going to be my agent. He always replied when I had a book for him.
Steve laughed when I told him that I had sent the MS to the new editor. He told me I had chutzpah and to stay positive and patient. It would likely take WD six weeks to get back to me. He also said that along with being positive and patient, I should also be realistic. The book had been rejected by a smaller press and Writer’s Digest was the largest publisher of craft books in the world. Me reaching out to them was a shot in the dark. I told him I was ok with that. People get shot in the dark all the time.
It didn’t take Writer’s Digest six weeks. They got back to me in six days. After a phone call with them I emailed Steve and asked if he would be interested in agenting a Writer’s Digest author. He was. Steve and I met by virtue of the book that got me into fighting. He is now my agent for a book about writing fight scenes. Now, you tell me miracles aren’t real!
At what point did you start to develop your Etsy
products to enlarge your brand?
The Etsy store started last year but I’ve had FightWrite shirts for a while. I had them just for me to wear when I taught but then got requests for them. I sold them or gave them out personally.
You won the CAN Crown Award for outstanding web
presence. What elements of a web do you think are the most important for
authors to develop?
Do what you are passionate about first. If you want to do a podcast, do it with all your might. Then, set up other avenues of web presence that point to that podcast. Or, if you are great on IG or Twitter, let that be your jumping off point and go from there. I don’t think you have to have a website immediately.
But,
when it comes to web sites, I am a huge fan of Thomas Umstattd and have learned
a great deal from him. He says to have three highly visible call out buttons:
product, contact info and subscribe. My three are my book, my blog and my
contact form. I have smaller buttons at the top of the site for my podcast and
Etsy shop. Don’t make your visitors look for what they want. Have it right out
in front. He also suggests having a great pic of yourself on the site. It will
give people a connection to you and it makes publicity easier since folks have
a pic to grab.
Also,
years back I learned that if people have to hit more than two buttons to get to
what they are looking for, they will leave.
Whatever
you want to be great at reach out to somebody who is already great at it. I was
hesitant about the Etsy shop then reached out to a jiu-jitsu guy in Canada. I
had bought some of his jiu-jitsu gear, followed him on IG and it was clear he
knew his stuff. I sent him a message asking him a few business questions and he
came back with incredibly helpful advice.
What do you include in a pitch to various media
outlets?
When my agent, Steve Laube, looked over my Writer’s Digest contract he said that I would be poor in money but rich in street cred. He was right on both fronts. Being able to say I am a Writer’s Digest author is a huge blessing. It gets my foot in the door of a lot of places. After that I tell about my training, sends pics if need be. People tend to believe I am a writer before they do a fighter and I am both. At 47, I still compete in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and will for as long as I can.
Any suggestions that might help authors find
potential media outlets?
Well, being a member of CAN helps. That I know for sure. After that, ask around! Explore hashtags on social media. Look for podcasts. We are living in a time when resources are aplenty. Problem with that is it can be overwhelming.
If you aren’t tech or social media savvy, which I’m truly not, a great place to get your feet wet are guest blog posts and newsletters. Ask to contribute for free and maybe offer to give away a book or whatever product you might have to a reader.
Did you try marketing strategies that did not
work for you? What did you learn from them?
None of them worked at first. Seriously. I’m just not good at giving up on whatever it is I want. The blog had very few readers at first. I just kept going with it until I had a following and one particular post went crazy, 5K in a month which is a lot for a brand new blog from an unknown author. Then another on escaping handcuffs went crazy. That post alone gets about 100 views a day.
How do you craft your pitch and message to each
audience?
When I have an audience I’m teaching. That is pretty much my pitch. On my podcast I always tell how to find me on social media.
What do you include in your press release that
you send to media?
I’ve never done one. (she looks away in shame)
Can you recommend marketing resources that you
have found helpful?
I love teaching which I don’t even think of as marketing but it is.
Which aspects do you find most challenging?
Social media is a struggle for me. I forget to do hashtags and tag myself. I forget to do posts! Also Google Analytics. Mercy! The info on that thing! I just launched a new site and registered with Google Analytics. I’m drowning in stats!
What marketing advice
can you give writers that you wished you had gotten, or that you wish you would
have heeded?
I think first and foremost you have to love what you’re doing. Love it enough that you want the world to know about it. That will make what can sometimes be an awkward process – letting the world know about it – less awkward.
Is there anything else you would like to share
with our readers about your marketing or writing journey?
If you don’t have what it takes to do something, just keep at it until you do! Seriously. If you are going to let every failure, mistake or rejection get you off course, you will never be on course. Get stubborn today. Embrace what doesn’t work because it will help you figure out the things that do.
Writing can be a brutal business. Sometimes it feels like you are a piñata with a keyboard. But, you know what, people love piñatas! When’s the last time you heard anybody say, “I was having fun until they brought out that piñata”? Never. You’ve never heard that. So, just embrace it. It’s all part of the process. A writer who expects to write without rejection is like boxer who expects to never get punched.
No matter what you do for a living, there is a big chance that you are running a website dedicated to your business. After all, the number of websites keeps growing steadily as there are now more than 1.7 billion sites on the Internet.
Now, every website runs on a content management system (CMS) and WordPress is by far the most popular choice among webmasters of all levels of knowledge and skills. A report reveals that WordPress powers 34% of all websites on the Internet, but the platform’s market share goes as high as 60%.
Users love WordPress because it’s simple and easy to figure out, but they still need to know a few basics in order to keep their sites running smoothly and efficiently. In this post, we will show you nine WordPress performance tips that are suitable for everyday users. Let’s take a look!
Find a Reliable Hosting Provider
Many webmasters make a simple mistake of choosing cheap but unreliable hosting providers. A typical user does it because he/she is not expecting a huge amount of traffic and therefore is not willing to invest in WordPress hosting.
Jake Gardner, an essay writer in charge of IT topics, claims this is a big mistake: “As soon as you create an army of loyal fans, you will notice that your site is slowing down. This is why I recommend you to pick a well-known provider such as Page.ly, WP Engine, or Bluehost.”
Pick a Good Theme
A theme is a collection of templates and style sheets used to define the appearance and display of a WordPress powered website. As such, it has an overwhelming impact on website performance because people love to see a beautiful online presentation.
Now, you can find a lot of WordPress themes with “one size fits all” solutions. While it may seem tempting, we encourage you to opt for a specific niche-focused theme. How come? Generic themes are covering all sorts of features – even the ones you don’t really need.
For this reason, you should pick a narrow theme that suits your business needs. If you visit a website such as Best Essays, EssayTyper.com or EssayEdge, you will realize they use the same sort of theme because it gives them only those features academic writing agencies might need.
Choose the Right Plugins
WordPress themes determine the appearance of your site, while plugins help you to make the website better and more efficient. Just like a theme, you should also be smart enough to choose the right tools for your business demands. Generally speaking, almost every website needs plugins to enable search engine optimization, online security, contact forms, email marketing, content creation, and similar.
Remove the Plugins You Don’t Need Anymore
Everyday WordPress users are known for their “set it and forget it” philosophy. This often turns out to be a disastrous habit because hackers take advantage of outdated plugins to attack WordPress websites. If you know that over 50% of WordPress vulnerabilities come from plugins, then you understand how important it is to uninstall the tools you’re not using anymore.
Take Advantage of Excerpts on Homepage and Archives
Another thing you can do to make the website more functional is to take advantage of excerpts on the homepage and archives. Namely, WordPress will automatically load and display the entire content on a given page, which is a surefire way to degrade website performance.
If you really think that visitors should read the whole thing, then you can leave the function as is. But if you think excerpts are enough, then follow this pattern:
Settings → Reading → For each article in a feed, show Summary
Minimize the Size of Images
Visual content is always burdening WordPress websites, so you should consider minimizing the size of your images. Photos that are too big will make the site slower, which is a big deal in the world where almost 60% of visitors leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
The easiest solution is to use lighter images and avoid gigantic files. Another option is to install a plugin such as Smush Image Compression and Optimization to make visual content go easy on your site.
Split Comments into Pages
When your website becomes very popular, you can expect people to start writing lots of comments all over the place. While this is a sign of professional success, it can also jeopardize performance because comment loading increases the overall speed of your website. If you want to prevent this problem, go to Settings once again:
Settings → Discussion → Break comments into pages
Optimize a WordPress Database
As you keep creating new posts and adding fresh content to the website, you can expect WordPress to get slower gradually. In such circumstances, you should not hesitate to optimize a WordPress database because that’s where all the information is stored.
You can do it manually through settings, but a much simpler solution is to install a WP Sweep plugin. This tool will help you to get rid of many redundant features in these (and many other) segments of the site:
Auto drafts
Deleted comments
Revisions
Orphaned user meta
Transient options
Unapproved comments
Unused terms
Keep Your System Up To Date
Do you know that almost 40% of hacked WordPress websites were using an outdated version of the platform? This means that webmasters who neglect updates are likely to suffer from malicious attacks.
The only logical response to the threat is to keep your WordPress system up to date. Every time you see there’s a new version available, take your time to upgrade and solidify both the performance and security of your website.
Conclusion
WordPress is responsible for the functioning of more than a third of all websites currently available online. Users appreciate the platform because it’s super-easy to figure out, but some of them are still not able to identify the most important functions of the CMS.
In this article, we analyzed nine WordPress performance tips suitable for everyday users. Remember our tips and make sure to leave a comment if you need additional explanations – we would be glad to help you out!
One of the cornerstones of an author’s platform is a personal website or blog. (Because these terms are used interchangeably, I’ll use “website.”) After all, this is the only place online that’s all about you, and is the best place for readers and publishing professionals to get to know you. Consider your website as your online business card.
Most writers start out with a free website through WordPress.com or Blogspot.com. Those are both great options because you can learn helpful skills such as how to
use a text editor (most of which have a similar feel to composing an email),
incorporate graphics and visual elements,
tag or label your posts for SEO (Search Engine Optimization),
schedule posts, and
build a list of subscribers and followers.
Other benefits include
no annual fees,
no need to worry about technical details such as backups and updates, and
the potential for added visibility if your host features free sites.
Many writers maintain free websites for years with no problems. Maybe they’re established in the industry and their blog is just an online playground. Or maybe they’re savvy and backup copies of all their posts and images. Free websites are fine as long as we understand the limitations:
restrictions for the overall look and feel of your website (customizations, themes, plugins, layouts, gadgets, etc.),
limited storage,
monetization controlled by the host, and the worst:
the host owns and controls your website.
And the host can take down your free website at a moment’s notice.
If your site is reported as “objectionable content” or someone somewhere thinks it violates the company’s Terms of Service, they will act first and ask questions later, leaving you to deal with the fallout.
Self-hosted websites, particularly those using WordPress, have thousands of customization options, many of them free or inexpensive. You can buy additional space when you need it and you have more options for monetization.
Hosting packages range from $5 monthly (and you do all the backend work) to managed hosting* options (and they handle all the technical details).
Whatever your budget, consider your website as an investment in your writing career. Be informed about your options and create an online home represents you well and shares your message.
*Check out hosting by Fistbump Media, one of our advertisers. They offer managed hosting options especially for writers and bloggers.
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