This is an admittedly small sample set, but I’m noticing a trend among my Generation X friends – those that work in the corporate world and aren’t in technology or marketing are increasingly dazed and confused by social media.
I constantly find myself having conversations that sound like this … Read More…
If, like me, you’ve been caught up in the wave of social media, information architecture, analytics and content strategy over the last few years, you may have missed the fact that there’s exciting innovation happening offline in the real word as well. I just got a crash course in the Maker Movement by reading Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Wired’s Chris Anderson. Recommended reading for everyone who’s had their head stuck in the “cloud”. Read More…
So, you’ve created a new Twitter account, now what? I’m going to assume that you’ve uploaded your profile image and come up with a good 140 character description to tell people who you are … that’s a great start! Now you’re ready to grow your follower list. Your task is a little more challenging if this Twitter account is for a business rather than for you personally. With your personal Twitter account, when you follow other people, they often follow you back. It’s not so with a business account – people are less enthusiastic about following organizations they’ve never heard of.
I’ve recently been managing the Twitter account for a newly launched non-profit and have been using these 10 tactics to grow our follower list. Read More…
It’s hard to go more than a day or two without seeing people either arguing that everyone should learn how to code (Sacha Greif) or shouldn’t (Jeff Atwood). As someone who understands code and many things technical but doesn’t write much actual code, I definitely see the value in understanding how programmers think and approach solving problems. Logic is a beautiful thing … comforting, even. Many times the challenges that new and growing businesses face require other flavors of thinking as well: experience design, buyer motivation, social drivers, communication, etc.
Debates aside, if you regularly produce digital content – blog posts, newsletters, promotional landing pages or maintain a website – you should learn HTML and CSS (cascading style sheets). Visual content editors in tools like WordPress and MailChimp keep getting better but still often leave you feeling like you’re trying to create a work of art with 3 paint colors and a roller. Learning HTML and CSS will give you a full palette of colors, brush sizes and canvases to work with. Read More…
SurveyMonkey is a great service (with a free option) that allows you to create sophisticated surveys. I just created a survey for a client and wanted to add it to their WordPress site … but found how painful it can be to embed javascript within a WordPress page or post. After much trial and error, I came across a solution that doesn’t require a plugin or editing the PHP in your page templates. This approach will let you embed any external javascript widget within a WordPress page or post – event invitations, calendars, social media feeds, etc. Read More…
Create Facebook Page. Check. Upload company logo. Check. Enter your company description & location, choose an appropriate category for your page, enter your contact information. Check, Check, Check. Okay, now that you’ve covered all the basics you’re ready to start building your community of brand supporters. While nearly every person on the planet is on Facebook, it’s not a magical “Field of Dreams” … you’re going to have to do more than just “build” your page and wait for fans to show up. These 7 savvy tips will help you post like a pro and start building momentum for your business. Read More…
Listening Dome @ Dali Museum by Fifth World Art
Did you know that one of your competitors just launched a new product and another changed their pricing? Have you heard how their users are reacting? Of course not, you’re busy launching your own startup business and spending 18 hours a day looking for investors, building your platform and planning your marketing campaigns! When you’re heads-down focused on your own startup’s success, it’s easy to lose sight of the world around you. These 7 simple tips can help you keep tabs on your competitors, partners and potential investors. Read More…
It might be about time to start a new support group – WordPress Plugin-aholics Anonymous. One of the strengths of the WordPress platform is the extensive collection of free plugins available … but if you’re not careful, you can quickly find yourself hooked. It’s easy to add plugins, it’s fun. The more plugins you add, the slower your site gets and the greater chance you’ll run into unpredictable behavior when your plugins start to conflict with each other and/or your site theme.
Trim the fat and remove some of your unneeded plugins! These 5 tips can help you streamline your WordPress site. Read More…
It’s funny, isn’t it? As soon as you abandon an idea or leave a company, you hear what your friends and family really thought – “I always thought there was a problem with that idea” or “I never understood how you were going to make money”. It sure would have been helpful to hear those questions and opinions BEFORE you invested months or years of your life, wouldn’t it? Not that you would have given up on your idea any sooner, but it may have helped you see and address problems that you didn’t know existed.
Unfortunately, the people closest to you aren’t likely to be your harshest critics – they want to be supportive and encouraging. They’ll ask some questions and probably offer to help, if they can, but they’re not going to question your core idea or business plan. Test and refine your pitch with friends and family – then expand your reach to get some real feedback for your startup idea. Read More…
There are hundreds of companies out there offering cheap web hosting for $4.95/month … and they all pretty much look the same, right down to their names: <insert adjective>Host.com. Unfortunately, most of them also offer the same poor quality of service and customer support.
Whether you’re launching your new business website or looking to move to a better hosting provider, this list can help you sift through all of the noise and find the partner that’s right for you.
If you’ve had experience with any of these providers, please add your comments! Are there others missing from the list? Please add them!
There are plenty of companies out there offering cheap shared hosting options for small businesses - which is your favorite < $25/month provider?
Added by Andrew Hart on Apr 29, 2013
We provide affordable UK-based hosting solutions, from shared web hosting, VPS, hybrid and dedicated servers to Microsoft Exchange Hosting and domain names.
Grid hosting with clusters of servers working together. Scaleable, high traffic, MySQL, (gs) Grid Service Web Hosting By Media Temple
BitNami makes hosting applications in the cloud a simple and enjoyable process. Deploy Alfresco, SugarCRM, Drupal, WordPress, Joomla!, Redmine and other applications in just a few mouse clicks.
DreamHost are leaders in web hosting, virtual private servers, dedicated hosting, shared hosting and cloud web hosting. Free 2 week shared hosting trial.
When it comes to selecting a Web hosting service provider we know reliability and bandwidth are critical to the selection process. Network Solutions has state-of-the-art data centers to ensure that our Web hosting service is reliable so you can be worry-free.
Free 1 click installs for blogs, shopping carts, and more. Get a free domain name, real NON-outsourced 24/7 support, and superior speed. web hosting provider php hosting cheap web hosting, Web hosting, domain names, front page hosting, email hosting. We offer affordable hosting, web hosting provider business web hosting, ecommerce hosting, unix hosting. Phone support available, Free Domain, and Free Setup.
FatCow provides Web Hosting for small businesses & individuals. Whether you're looking for a domain or complete web hosting solution, FatCow's got it!
Added by Shola Samuel Awoniyi on Nov 03, 2012
The Best Domain Name Registrar when it comes to Customer Service. Learn why over 800,000 customers trust us with a total of over 3,000,000 domains.
