WordPress Tools and Tips for Any Niche

By Nile Floreshttp://blondish.net

Twitter: @blondishnetFacebook: http://fb.com/NileFlores

Objective

Share tips to help your site on its way Share some resources/ tools to help give

your site a leg up Inspire you to think outside the box with

WordPress

A little history

For those not so new to WordPress imagining what it use to be might be a bit strange to digest. WordPress USE to be a blog platform, with no ability to create pages…. Only posts.

You had to make your own static pages and implement a theme.

…and thenIn May 2004, WordPress 1.5 Strayhorn happened, allowing users to finally create and manage pages.

Believe me, moving 150 static pages over to WordPress was tedious at the time, BUT… in the long run, it has been the best move my own site has made.

Finally WordPress moved out of the “just a blog platform” and into the full content management system it is today.

So Why WordPress?

Easy to use Updated regularly Great community support Easy to develop sites with Easy to teach clients Of course, the SEO aspects are nice Build own community and connect with

others Make money

So What Can You Do With WordPress?

So Now That You Know…

Use your imagination when creating your site! WordPress can do it!

Branding

Do research in your niche and outside to get ideas of what you want

Brainstorm how you want to organize your site, especially for attracting and converting visitors.

Being memorable is important. Be active in the design of your site and make sure that while you want your site to be accessible, you want to like your site and be proud to show it off.

So…yeah, the design

Make it clean and easy to navigate Do put in conversion elements (content sliders,

featurette areas, subscribe forms) Be aware of web accessibility & validate your

code (validator.w3.org)

WordPress is SEO ready, but…

Write good content (I keep saying this at every WordCamp)

Good clean and organized code code WordPress SEO by Joost de Valk Webmaster Tools (Google, Bing, etc…) Be concise on what you want to optimize

By the way…

Most major search engines are gearing more toward the social aspects rather than just the old algorithm rules. (You know, those “so and so likes” or “so and so recommends” this feature you see in the search results)

So… guess what, you will need to consider engaging and encouraging your visitors/clients/whomever to share your site

Some conversion tools

Contact form 7 or Gravity Forms (premium) Subscribe2, MailChimp, Aweber Commentluv (reward your visitors that leave

comments) Share tools (Digg Digg, Sociable, or

manually coding in social network and social bookmarking icons)

I’d like to know what you like or recommend…

Any Questions

Stalk me at:

Nile Floreshttp://blondish.net

http://twitter.com/blondishnet

http://fb.com/NileFlores