How to Install a WordPress Blog

This past week I tried to install WordPress on a new domain via a "quick install" feature on Godaddy.com. Guess what?  It didn't work.  The good news is that with some back and forth with Godaddy support, I finally got the real instructions.  If you're struggling to install WordPress on a new domain, follow these instructions.

Installing WordPress using Go Daddy Hosting Connection is the easiest way to get WordPress up and running on your domain if it works (it didn't for me).

However, you can install it manually into your shared hosting account using the following instructions.

To accomplish this, you will need the following items:

-A compatible hosting account which supports PHP and MySQL

-Your FTP account login information. This includes the FTP User Name and Password for your hosting account.

-A MySQL Database for WordPress and the Database information.

-The latest version of WordPress which you can download from Wordpress.org

NOTE:This article assumes you already have a compatible hosting account and your FTP login information. If this is not the case, obtain these items and then return to the article.

The next step is to create a MySQL Database for WordPress.  No one ever told be this about installing WordPress but trust me - this is what gets your installation actually working.  Follow these specific instructions and you'll be up and running in not time.

-Log in to your Account Manager 

-Click Web Hosting.

-Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Launch.

-In the Databases section of the Hosting Control Center, click the MySQL icon.

-Click Create New Database.

-Enter a description, WordPress for instance.

-Enter a user name and password.

-Specify your MySQL version.

-Specify whether you want to allow Direct Database Access.

NOTE: Direct Database Access is a less secure way to manage your hosted databases which most users do not require. If you do not need to access your database remotely, then you should not enable Direct Database Access. For more information, see Why Connect Remotely to Shared Hosting Databases.

Verify your MySQL database settings. If everything looks OK, click OK. It may take a few minutes to create your database. Click your browser's Refresh button to check if your database is ready.

Once you have set up a database for your account, you can find your host name information by clicking the Pencil icon next to the name of your database. Note the following items, as they will be needed later in the install process:

1. Host Name
2. Database Name
3. Database User Name

Now, you need to download the latest version of WordPress from their servers. This can be found at WordPress.org.

-Install WordPress

Unzip the file from WordPress, and then upload the contents of the WordPress folder to your hosting account using an FTP client. This directory can be stored anywhere in your account, in this example it will be in the root (http://www.coolexample.com).  NOTE: Do not upload the wordpress folder itself, only its contents.

Begin the WordPress installation by going to http://www.coolexample.com/wp-admin/install.php.

-Click Create a Configuration File.

Click Let's go!

Complete the following fields, and then click Submit:

1. Database Name — Enter your database's name.
2. User Name — Enter your database's name.
3. Password — Enter your database's password.
4. Database Host — Enter your database's Host Name.
5. Table Prefix — Do not modify this field, unless you want to run multiple WordPress installations.

Click Run the install.

Complete the on-screen fields for your blog's details, and then click Install WordPress.

That's it! Your WordPress blog is now installed. For assistance in the set up and maintenance of your blog, see the Getting Started with WordPress page at WordPress.org.  Also, be sure to search online for help from people who are experiencing the same issues you might be having with WordPress as a full site or blog.  Happy blogging!

For help with additional blog resources visit blogdash.

Staying Focused: Marketing Made Simple

Staying focused in a social world is becoming more and more complex every day. It's not uncommon to be inundated with tweets, facebook posts, IM's and other communications throughout the day. Although I feel that I've done a reasonably good job of managing these "updates", I have to admit that it's quite distracting.

Those who are successful with online marketing or marketing in general have learned to focus. I've been working towards improving my focus each day and reminding myself that I'm in control of my schedule. I know this is easier said than done. That said I wanted to share my strategies for staying focused on your most important marketing projects and getting them done.

Here are my tips and strategies for staying focused, being productive, and getting results.

1. Write down all of the goals and tasks you have. I never realized how exhausting it can be to keep a mental list of everything you need to do in your head. For a long time I've been in the habit of writing my goals and tasks down every day. Although my goals don't change daily, my tasks do.  The great Earl Nightingale once said that, "you can't manage time, only tasks." And he was right.  Each day, write down the top 3 - 6 things that you must complete to move you in the direction of your goals and don't go to sleep until you've accomplished them.

2.  Turn off the noise.  You don't have to unplug completely from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Pinterest, but you should schedule time each day to login and interact.  When you establish times to engage, you'll be much less reactive and more in control of your time.

3.  Every day, spend a few minutes prioritizing.  If you've created a list of tasks, you're half way there.  The second step is to prioritize your list.  Start with the tasks that take the least amount of time to complete.  Are there a couple of tasks that you can knock out in a few minutes?  If so, get them done.  You'll feel a great sense of accomplishment and have a shorter list to work from.

4.  Team up with others to complete your goals.  Staying focus can be easier when you share the burden.  Be open to working with others and holding your partners accountable for specific goals and outcomes.  not only does this ensure completion of given tasks that others are responsible for but can help you stay motivated and on track.

These are just some of the ways that I stay focused on my marketing projects.  What are some of the techniques you use?  Do you have your own incentives to complete a campaign?  What other techniques do you use?  Share your strategies with other readers of the Marketing Blog!

The Latest Craze in Social: Buying Twitter Followers

While SEO and article marketing are finally taking shape on the Internet as a viable means to approach online marketing, another effective method to look into is social media marketing. With the huge surge of social media networks these days, it is undeniable that it has a great influence on people, on the web and as well as reality. What greater influence is there than the ability to instill social proof and credibility in an instant?

From a marketing standpoint, a small-medium business owner, corporation, or blogger, requires the help of social media to escalate to the next level of doing great business. One outstanding social media network that functions as the virtual market place to showcase products and promotions quickly is Twitter. Within three years, it has become the number one platform that the world favors to disseminate information quickly as possible.

If you haven't started your own account or profile on Twitter, you should get engaged as soon as possible.  Not only can you develop a following but you can reach others in your niche or social environment.  If you're an experienced Tweeter, you know how powerful Twitter can be for interacting with others and supporting your marketing goals.  As your audience builds, so does your online influence.

Which is why, people are now quick to build and buy followers on Twitter. Today, having Twitter Followers is a valuable asset for any marketing campaign. Here are some reasons why marketing specialists are drawn to Twitter and why having Twitter Followers is all the rage.

1. Building Awareness
Twitter has the uncanny ability to build awareness through tweets from other people. Whether they are from strangers or friends, it is the ability to disseminate awareness quickly in one 140 character tweet.

2. Social Proof And Credibility
It may seem irrelevant to some users, but marketing specialists are now quick to use this platform as a means to garner as much attention as possible for its product. In Twitter, having a large social following is relevant to people online because it enforces the credibility and image of a company. Studies have shown that humans are genuinely curious and having a large following encourages their curiosity.

3. The Audience For Sales Conversions
If you serve a certain niche of products, what better way to attract the right audience than getting the right followers on Twitter to follow your account? Getting Twitter followers to follow your account can get the right people who are interested in your product and can increase your chances of making sales conversions. With the right interaction, these Twitter followers can help spread your tweet further down to their own networks.

This is merely a tactical step to achieve a successful marketing strategy in no time. Twitter also offers the real time interaction between the company and its consumers to secure a long-term relationship. If you are having a hard time getting Twitter followers on your own, then why not consider all of your options.  Whether you chose to develop campaigns that aggressively recruit Twitter followers or purchase followers from credible sources, growing your list of followers is paramount.

About
Buy Real Followers is a company under Buy Real Marketing, a wholly owned company by Clicking Labs, Inc. The company specializes in Web 2.0 Business Applications, Web Traffic, SEO Tools and Social Media Marketing. Learn more to buy followers on Twitter.  Each product specifically addresses a need within the web marketing arena. The scope of their marketing services includes the following networks: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo, Tumblr, Google Plus and SEO for web properties.  Buy followers on Twitter

Big Changes At Hotels.com

This week we interviewed Vic Walia, senior director for global brand advertising at hotels.com.  The mega brand is making some major branding changes to enhance their brand and expand their reach. Check out this marketing blog exclusive interview:

1. What's the primary motivation for the new Hotels.com logo? We wanted to unify the brand globally and show our customers whether booking from or traveling to the US, London or Tokyo, it’s the same travel experience with hotels.com. We also wanted to convey our expertise and longstanding leadership in the market. 

2. In conjunction with the logo update you're also changing your tagline. Can you provide some insight into the update? Finding travelers the perfect place is really the core of what we’ve done for 20 years so we wanted to remind customers that we’re about hotels, and only hotels. We sell over 30 million room nights every year with up to 100,000 deals so we know our customers count on us to find the perfect room, which is why our new tagline resonated so well with our loyal customers on Facebook.

3. How has the Hotels.com brand evolved in the last year and where do you see it going in the future? The brand continues to focus on its core business, hotels. The travel market and ecommerce market is a dynamic one and constantly changes and Hotels.com will adjust accordingly, as it always has.

4. In your release you mentioned additional changes in the next couple of quarters. Can give our readers some insight into additional brand related changes you'll be making? In addition to the logo change globally, we will be integrating a new look and feel among all of our sites globally to help unify the brands. We have also began using our new font style within all of our creative from TV advertising, sale messaging and emails. New sub-logos have also been released in the new style for the loyalty program, Welcome Rewards and for Deal of the Day to name just a few. We are updating our Photography our Site Copy and overall page designs in order to give users a better, more informed experience as they navigate the site.

5. How will you measure the reaction and feedback to your new branding (logo, tagline, etc.)?The feedback will be measured most clearly by business results. Plus, we have already tested the new logo, tagline and creative with research to ensure that it appeals to our current customer base as well as any new potential customers. 

Special thanks to Vic Walia for sharing his rebranding secrets with us.  He is a Brand Marketing Director with over 13+ years of experience managing several billion dollar consumer brands in the Food, FMCG, Travel/Leisure and E-commerce categories.

How to Get ATTENTION

I want to start this post with a simple, yet profound question for you to ponder about your own business…

“What is the one thing and first thing you just do to get money in your business?”

The answers I hear when I ask this question from a live audience ranges from “Create a product” to “Make a sale.”

While these answers seem to make sense, the very first thing you must do in order to get money in your business is to GET THE ATTENTION OF YOUR TARGET MARKET.  It’s the critical first step to any marketing effort.

My mentor, Dan Kennedy, has this to say about this topic,

“It happens constantly and it is the hidden secret reason why so many marketing campaigns fall way short of their potential.  Not because the offer isn’t good or wouldn’t be welcomed by all the recipients; simply because many of the recipients never know about it because we fail to command their attention.”


Reread Dan’s statement.  It’s simple, yet profound.  Basically you can have the best product or service, yet if you are not getting the attention of your target market, you’re going to go broke.

Not too long ago I was visiting New York City.  While there, I strolled over to Times Square.  If you’ve ever been to Times Square you know it’s an overwhelming sensory experience.  There’s traffic noise, visual noise, people noise.  It’s a bombardment and if you stay there too long and your senses start to become numb.

Trying to market your product or services today is no different than standing in Times Square and yelling at the top of your lungs.  There’s no escape to all the marketing and advertising noise people face.  TV, radio, billboards, newspaper and magazines, direct mail, banner ads, pop-up ads, Google ads. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Your challenge is to cut through all the noise and clutter and create top-of-the-mind awareness with your target market.

Sadly… most marketing fails, because it is so “plain vanilla” and ordinary.  People are busy. They’re jaded, guarded, and skeptical. Some are cheap and down-right rude.

 Lots of folks have no time, no patience, and little interest in what you’re selling.  So how can you expect to get their attention by simply adding to the noise?

YOU GOTTA DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY!

One of the most effective techniques to grab the attention of your reader, either online or offline, is to use simulated handwritten notes and doodles.  In this day and age of computer-generated everything, the power of handwriting stands out.

You cannot help but see this technique used more and more.  It’s in the advertisements in your weekend paper; it’s on television commercials and in magazine ads. I’ve even seen it used effectively on book covers.  You are now starting to see its use on Web sites, blogs and squeeze pages.

The use of simulated handwriting goes back a long way in advertising, however, many copywriters and marketers give me credit for this most recent and widespread use of handwritten doodles with the creation of CopyDoodles®. 

As a matter of fact, marketing guru, Bill Glazer called CopyDoodles, “the biggest enhancement I have seen in the last 10 years for people that are writing copy for bumping the response and making the copy much more interesting.” 

Before CopyDoodles, the procedure to add handwritten doodles was both time-consuming and tedious.  Now you can add these powerful doodles to your marketing in mere seconds.

Over the years, my clients and I have done a number of split tests and across the boards the materials that contain handwritten notes and doodles always perform better than those without them.

Of course you have to know how and when to use them appropriately (just slapping a bunch of CopyDoodles on your materials without proper context can be counter-productive).

So why is simulated handwriting so effective?

Legendary direct marketer and author of Common Sense Direct Marketing, Drayton Bird, says, “The use of handwritten notes in the margins can add variety and interest to the eye and brain.”  Quite simply, the widespread use of computers, word processing and laser printers has created “homogenized marketing.” Meaning 95% of everything looks the same.  When you introduce a handwritten or hand-drawn element to the mix, it becomes very different in a simple, human-personality kind of way.

The effectiveness of a simple red handwritten note and doodle to a web page or direct mail piece can be huge and over time this type of copy cosmetic technique can add thousands of dollars to your bottom line.  Try it and see for yourself!

++++

Mike Capuzziis a marketing strategist, author, speaker and newsletter publisher.  Since 1998, he has been helping entrepreneurs and business owners improve their marketing and response rates.  He is the inventor of the wildly successful CopyDoodles, which allows anybody to quickly and easily add handwriting elements to their marketing.  For a FREE ebook on how to increase your marketing response and more information about CopyDoodles visit www.copydoodles.com.

Article Marketing Tips for Businesses and Internet Marketers

While article marketing can be a real challenge for internet marketers and online businesses, it is by far the most effective marketing strategy for engaging prospects, improving search engine rankings, and generating website traffic . However, in order for it to be effective, it needs to be done properly. Here are a few article marketing tips that marketers of all levels will find helpful.

The System is Not Flawed

With Google’s recent Panda updates, many internet marketers are starting to think that using keywords throughout their content is not wise. Remember, this system came about as a means for the search engines to find relevant articles for the searcher. The trick is to make sure keywords are used naturally within articles (4 or 5 times is more than enough for a 500 word article). Try to also spend time acquiring quality backlinks and attention through guest blogs and submissions to relevant authority sites, instead of using article blasting software. This is a smarter option to begin with as it means more exposure to your target audience.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of your Own Website

Many people think that for every one article they put on their website, they need five pointing back to it. This will help for difficult-to-rank keywords, but you can still rank well without backlinking. One of the best article marketing tips that should never be overlooked is having hundreds of articles written (as time and budget allow) on relevant keywords and placing them on your website.  This is particularly great if you have a service or product that can be addressed in many different ways.  Remember, you can keep many web pages hidden on your website so they can be picked up the search engines and not damage the look of your website.

Remember your Audience

One question that successful businesses and marketers frequently ask themselves is, “What is my target audience looking for?”  Following on from the previous tip, always keep in mind what your audience is seeking. As a website owner (regardless of your product or service), your aim should be to become an authority within your niche. Try to provide an extensive array of content on your website that is helpful, well written and easy to understand. You need to have a good reason for your audience to find you and keep coming back again and again.

In the world of article marketing, success comes primarily from patience and persistence. People who doubt their strategy are the ones who have the most trouble here. Take time to choose a strategy that has been known to work and stick to it – of all the article marketing tips, this is probably the most important.

About Article Marketing Co.

Article Marketing Co has been in the content industry for a few years now, but has recently launched a new website in an effort to make ordering and managing content orders as simple as possible. With experienced American writers and editors on staff, and an aim to provide the best articles on the internet at the most affordable prices, this place is definitely worth a visit. For more information, check out www.articlemarketingco.com.  

How to Conduct Effective Keyword Research

One of the most important steps a small business owner should take when starting a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign is to make sure you are targeting the right keywords with your content, blogs and press releases.

The best way to do this (that’s also at no cost) is using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This tool was build to help advertisers doing Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) through Google AdWords filter and pick more effective terms to place in PPC campaigns; and since PPC and SEO are often highly correlated, it is also a valuable tool for researching SEO keywords.

Google’s keyword tool let’s anyone with or without an AdWords account expand and filter relevant keywords quickly.

To start, type in 5-10 keywords and phrases that describe the product or service that you want to rank for:

If you are a local business, try adding the following modifiers before and after certain keywords:

●     Zip code

●     City

●     State spelled out

●     State abbreviation

●     Country

●     County

●     Region

●     City, State

●     “in” city

●     “local”

Once you have a solid list, type in the capcha and search.

At the top of the results you will find detail on each of the keywords that you typed in; below that Google will expand your list and provide up to 100 keyword ideas related to the terms entered. If you are just learning SEO some of these results may be surprising to you.

Next, click the “Local Monthly Searches” header to sort both lists by the average amount of times the term has been searched in your country or language.

Then scan the list for keywords keywords that:

●     are highly relevant to your business

●     contain a low to medium competition ranking

●     have a sizable number of local monthly searches

The competition ranking is speaking to the competitiveness of the term as it relates to PPC advertising, but it can be generally related to SEO as well.

If you would like to save your favorite keywords, check them off and click the download drop down menu followed by the selected option.  This will let you save your checked keyword list in a variety of formats.

Keyword research works best if you do several of these types of searches, constantly washing the keyword list that you build on subsequent expansions.

Once done you can then either use the final list of 5-10 keywords as the ones you are going to target, or use an SEO-specific tool to check the SEO competition for related terms. SEOMoz (paid) and the SEO SERP plugin for Google Chrome are great options for this.

To learn more about how to build an SEO foundation, check out Grovo’s expert series with Zach Ciperski, VP, Coffee For Less, Director of SEO, Elite SEM.

In this video series Zach covers a variety of topics, including:

●     A history of SEO

●     Choosing the right keywords

●     Onsite SEO optimizations

●     Creating SEO friendly content

●     Basic link building

●     Social media SEO

●     Video SEO

●     User experience and SEO

●     Mobile SEO

Special Thanks to Nick Narodny, Co-founder, SVP of Business Training for Grovo for sharing his expertise with the readers of the Marketing Blog!


See you at the top,
Mike Fleischner