Want to sell ebooks, wordpress themes, wordpress plugins or other digital content on your blog?

If so. Have a look at the fantastic new video from Hungry Dog Media and WordPress.TV, in which a step-by-step is provided on how to set up shop on your blog in under 5 minutes. Yes five minutes!

It’s quite simple really with the aid of the wp e-commerce plugin, a brilliant add-on that extends the functionality of a basic blog. With this plugin you can run a dedicated shop which resides on several pages on the blog and all is handled, including payment, download, etc.

Have an ebook you want to sell directly from your blog? Give this video a quick look and try out the wp e-commerce plugin.

Need help?

No problem, shoot me an email and let me know what you’re trying to do and how i can help you.

1. Name – Every website needs a domain name that’s descriptive and relevant, but what type of name should you pick? There are two rules of thought here. One is to go the brand route and use a name that over time will become relevant. Second is to go the route of a keyword-rich name which will rank well and instantly let your readers, visitors, and the search engines know what you’re about. Which domain name route you opt for is entirely up to you, but deciding upfront which you’ll be taking is what you want to focus on.

2. Structure – You want a site that is search engine friendly and one of the best ways to optimize a site from the get go is to use a blog format, such as WordPress. With WordPress you get search engine friendly URL’s, as you get to choose the URL structure within the back-end area of WP.

The URL (or permalink) of your site should have keywords in it, so when search engines spider it – they know what its about.

3. Purpose – Every website should figure out what is it’s PRIMARY focus – is it to capture leads, direct sales, testimonials, or provide information? Determine this early on as it will help when it comes time to develop a content strategy.

The purpose of your site will also determine its layout and design.

4. Design – The look and feel of your website says alot about you. Do you want a standard generic template or a custom design which highlights your logo and unique brand?

With WordPress you have several choices -

A. Free Theme: A generic template found on the web.
B. Premium Theme (with customizations): A paid for theme you can customize.
C. Custom Theme: A theme created from scratch specific to you.

I recommend B or C. Either will serve the purpose of having a professionally designed blog website that stands out.

Some good premium WordPress themes include: Fresh News Theme, Thesis Theme, and Revolution Church Theme.

5. Layout – Depending on the purpose of your site (see above) you will want to lay out your site accordingly. If the purpose of your site is to gather leads then be sure to highlight your sign up form. If the purpose of your site is to sell directly, be sure to make it easy to place an order. If the purpose of your site is to be an information portal, set it up so that it highlights information right from the onset.

6. Content – Every website should have the following pages:

About Us Page – What are you about? What is your business about? How are you different? Etc.

Contact Us Page – Make it super duper easy for anyone to reach you. Add a contact form and let people know how and when to BEST reach you.

Services Page – What services do you offer? What are your skills? Any credentials? Highlight your unique offerings here.

WordPress makes it easy to add as many pages as you need. Think about your sites purpose and fill accordingly.

As for articles – keeping your blog website fresh with new content will keep the search engines coming back again and again. This is a good thing. Think about what your customers (and prospective customers) are interested in. What do they want to learn? What tips would they find useful? What keeps them entertained? Fill your blog with these useful, informative or entertaining articles. You can add as many articles as you like and style your site in blog format or style it in a more traditional format – but whichever style you choose – you want to make it known you have relevant articles available for your audience. Make sure this is apparent from the first glance.

7. Plan – Every website should have a marketing plan. How will you spread the word – online, offline, social media, advertising, family and friends?

Have a plan and work the plan. Incorporate your website URL in all your communications, from your business cards to customer newsletters, mentioning it in seminars, attaching to email signatures, etc.

Decide early on how you will promote your blog website. Have a plan in place.

These tips are meant for new blog websites, but can be applied to any site. If you run a small business and don’t yet have a website, but have been mulling over the idea – it’s never too late to create an online presence.

Follow the tips above and don’t just create a website, create an online presence that will explode your sales, leads, and income.

RSS Readers: What Tip Can You Add?

What tip do you have for small business owners looking to create their first website?

3 column wordpress theme nicknamed Mandigo, has all the features noted below, plus a nicely sized header space perfect for adding a custom logo. The Mandigo wordpress theme is donation supported, which means no footer links, other than one to the creator. Check out all the cool features below.

Features:

• 1 2, or 3 column configuration (2 column is default)
• SEO Ready
• Widget Ready
• 2 width choices: 800 or 1024px
• 7 color choices: red, blue, green, pink, teal, orange
• Good support from developer and community
• No ugly footer links
• Easy backend management in WP Dashboard

The latest release of the Mandigo Theme is version 1.37, which was updated September 6th. Great wordpress theme for those sites and blogs in the site flipping process.

Cost: Free

WordPress SEO

The writer (Golgotha) gives 11 WordPress tips and tricks, to take your blog to the next level, if you will. But the wordpress plugin, All In One SEO, pretty much takes care of alot of what he mentions in his article, including title tags, meta tags, and the no index of archives, among other things.

I wonder how many bloggers use All In One SEO, do they think there is a better alternative, or is this the holy grail of WordPress seo.

Reader Question(s)
If you use the All In One SEO wordpress plugin, share your thoughts below on how this plugin has improved your blog, and how you have been able to improve your rankings in the search engines because of it.

If you don’t use it, why not?

The theme is not like most wp themes, it features a large centered intro box, a stripe at top for announcements, a placeholder at the bottom with split content sections. On the left side of bottom section is a widget area, and on the bottom right, your most recent blog posts. No sidebars.

It also comes in a slew of colors, including light and dark colors. The black one is featured above in the thumbnail.

I really like it, and will be using it on a new blog. The wordpress theme notepad is free, and was created by iThemes.

The theme is aimed at consultants, professionals, such as real estate guys/gals, etc. But as i stated above, i think it has many good uses.

Technorati Tags: wordpress themes, skins, templates, designs, ithemes, notepad wp theme

Essentially with the wordpress plugin PhotoDropper, you are able to search and add FLICKR photos right from your WordPress dashboard. It searches (via keyword) within the Creative Commons licensed photos, the ones made available for shared use. Then with 1-click you are able to add the photo (complete with attribution link) to your blog post. See sample photo below, keyword = wordpress.

photo credit: Titanas