13th Beach Web

WordPress As A Content Management System

nigel — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:02:59 +0000

WordPress As A Content Management System
Whether for business or just for fun – being able to update your own website immediately without requiring a web designer, saves time and money. With many channels to share and reach out to others, blogging, using WordPress, is one of the best ways to share your content online.

Choosing A Content Management System (CMS)
If you want to share content online, what you really need is a good content management system. While there are many other CMS programs out there, such as Joomla, WordPress as a content management system is by far the best suited for business as well as individuals.

According to the recent statistics, more than 52 million people all over world are using WordPress today. WordPress provides you an excellent platform to express your views and opinions’ on myriads of things online. It is a famous blogging platform that has many known personalities and celebrities onboard, using its tools to connect with their fans.

Not only is it a blogging platform, but it is also an excellent marketing tool for businesses.

WordPress – A Fully Functional CMS
WordPress is a lightweight, easy-to-use content management system – a blogging platform that suits almost everyone, from new users to professionals. It has certain search engine friendly features built in, that a lot of CMSs do not have. Plus there are thousands of free WP plugins that enable you to do just anything you want on your blog.

✓ It’s User-Friendly: Even a novice can use its features comfortably with a simple Graphical User Interface. The process of creating and managing your content is more productive with WordPress.

✓ It’s Open Source: WordPress is an open source CMS and provides additional tools for those who are not so handy with coding and technicalities.

✓ It Gives You More: WordPress provides you with choices of plugins to make your website more comprehensive and attractive. Plugins greatly enhance the features of your site by providing its users with useful options such as Search Engine Optimisation, Statistics, Mapping etc. Some of my favourites include: Simple Page Ordering – this plug in allows you to organise your navigation page order, Next-Gen Gallery – this plug in allows you to set up image galleries on your website.

✓ It Is Simple: Manage the page content of your blogs with WordPress CMS. Pick a theme to suit for your blog from the options provided (wordpress provides two simple theme templates for free, or you can have a custom design created or use a more sophisticated theme. WordPress provides means for you to customize the themes according to your preference if you have the technical ability.

Having your own blog using WordPress is easy for most users to learn how to use and update – just log in to your WordPress website and start writing!

Social Media As A Marketing Channel

nigel — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 05:14:50 +0000

Over 500 million active users exist on Facebook and over 140 million tweets are sent per day – and the number continues to rise…

As they say, “There was a life before Facebook and there will be one after!”

Such is the impact of social media networks today.

How Does Social Media Marketing (SMM) Help Your Business?

Social Media Networks have redefined the business marketing strategy and brought a new wave of Online Brand Marketing.

Increasingly, businesses are identifying with the key benefits of SMM:

Gain the all-important eyeball. Social Media Marketing generates exposure for your business, reaching the right audience and building new partnerships. Building online presence becomes easier as every post on a social media network acts virally in favor of your business giving you maximum exposure in a short period of time.
Increase traffic to your website. It helps gain more subscriptions, opt-ins and grow your potential customer list – create a self-growing targeted list of prospects. For many businesses, social media has become the “Holy Grail” for lead generation and a great way to convert leads into sales.
Build Customer Relationships. Social media networks helps in building customer relationship without spending thousands of dollars on advertising. Save on expensive marketing campaigns by using FREE social media marketing to reach the target audience.

So, here’s the new marketing equation for your business:

Social Media = Connection = Lead = Loyalty = Sales!

Yes, every connection is worth a sale, so start connecting with your target audience using social media marketing today!

At 13th Beach Marketing we take a strategic perspective on how social media impacts your business. For some it is an extremely effective channel for communicating with your customers and potential customers. For others a distraction. It pays not to rush in, neither to ignore the channel. Please call us if you would like to discuss your web marketing strategy.

Google Instant, SEO & WordPress

nigel — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 06:53:31 +0000

Google Search & SEO
Google is the most used search engine in Australia. But something’s changed and it makes using SEO to get a higher listing on Google a lot harder. Now when you type in a search term Google immediately starts to show search results in a pull down menu under the search box. When I type ’13th Beach’ a number of results start to appear underneath – see image below.

Google Instant
If there’s a good match that’s where the searcher goes. If not they refine the search term. In the past if your keywords matched the search term there was a chance that your website would appear on the first one or two pages of Google.

What’s it mean for SEO?
The implications are pretty obvious – have content that is useful and updated regularly. That’s why wordpress websites are such a great choice for business. You don’t have to spend money to get a web developer to update your site, you just login to your dashboard and make your changes. Or add blog articles. Don’t neglect keywords nor regular, well written articles.

Bell Park Sport & Recreation Club

alex — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:30:31 +0000

Bell Park Sports and Recreation Club is a not-for-profit club with a bistro and gaming machines supporting the Bell Park Dragon’s football, netball and cricket teams. The site had to cover them all and allow the three teams to communicate with their players and supporters. WordPress provided the platform for the bistro and sports teams. We consulted with the teams and club management and once completed trained all the teams in using wordpress.

DIY Blinds & Awnings

nigel — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:29:52 +0000

A outdoor blind manufacturer wanted to sell outdoor blinds and awnings online. We created a wordpress website front end and magento ecommerce backend website to add the products and pricing. Easy to update, alter prices, add products and linked to google analytics to measure visitors. Payment systems are integrated with the company merchant account. The site is easy to optimise for SEO and easily maintained by the company marketing department after training in the use of wordpress and magento.

Mark Trinham

alex — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:28:07 +0000

Mark Trinham from Jan Juc, Victoria, is an artist, sculptor, graphic designer, illustrator, musician and runs environmental tours overseas. He wanted a wordpress website site to demonstrate his portfolio of work and blog on a range of topics. A wordpress commercial theme was the ideal choice. We modified it to fit his needs and added an ecommerce facility linked to paypal for selling artwork online. The site was integrated for google analytics & paypal.

13th Beack Clubs & Pubs

alex — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:27:54 +0000

There are many variations of passages of Lorem Ipsum available, but the majority have suffered alteration in some form, by injected humour, or randomised words which don’t look even slightly believable.

Connell’s Motel

alex — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:27:34 +0000

Giraffe Marketing

alex — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:26:08 +0000

Giraffe Marketing is a marketing company based in Ballarat serving clients across Australia. They needed a custom built wordpress CMS website they could update easily. Easy to update. Integrated with google analytics & mailchimp for email newsletters.

Meredith Fuller

alex — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:25:34 +0000

Meredith Fuller is a psychologist, photographer & playwright. Her site reflects her interests. With the tree of life on the opening page with lots of photo albums to record her favourite images. The opening page is flash, the insides a custom built wordpress website.