websites

There are 42 posts tagged websites (this is page 2 of 7).

The Women of WordPress and Women Blogging

women blogOnce upon a time women formed groups to find each other online. Now, there are a lot of us wandering around, developing websites and blogs but the main groups for women online are about Mommy bloggers.

Not every woman is a Mother and not every woman wants to focus on her family when she’s thinking about writing, creating, maintaining and promoting her website. But, we all want to learn how to do it better. Many of us like to learn from other women. I do.

I can learn from anyone but there is a nice feeling to find out the person who wrote the tutorial I’ve been reading or the book I picked out at the store, is a woman. Someone who is likely to see things the way I do myself, someone who has a similar perspective to myself.

WordPress Book Writers, Tutorial Makers, Web Developers and Site Designers

Women of Blogger (and Beyond)

Groups for Women Bloggers

Your Business Does Not Need a Blog

Most businesses need to reconsider keeping a blog for something which would work better for consumers and take less time and energy for the business to maintain.

Why Develop a Blog When a Static Page Will Do?

I was reading a post which encourages businesses to have a blog, as if that is all they need to do. The answer to life, the universe and everything for a business is to have a weblog. It’s not. It’s actually very wrong.

First, let’s sort out what a weblog actually is.

A blog (AKA web log) is an online record of your thoughts, activities and information you choose to share online. A blog is actively updated, which means the posts are dated so they can be read in sequence. A blog is a form of communication which requires frequent maintenance to keep it active. This is not the kind of online communication a business needs.

Secondly, people are not taking time to read everything you blog.

Any business starting online, whether they sell entirely online or just want to set up an online presence, needs basic information available for the consumer. Basic information is not likely to change. Your contact information, what you sell and how you sell it are not going to change daily or weekly or even monthly. Yes, you may have new objects to add to your catalogue but that is a catalogue, not a blog.

A blog is more likely to be information overkill and just make things confused and cluttered looking. What use is a blog if the consumer has to hunt down the address (or some other key information) for your business? A simple site presents the information upfront and keeps it easily visible.

Lastly, running a blog is going to take up too much of your time and energy.

A business online should focus on giving that basic information on a static website. Starting a blog is just putting in more time and energy than you need – especially in the beginning when you really just want people to find you online so you can tell the consumer who you are and what you have to offer. This is not the time to start a blog with articles about what you sell. Just give them the basic information they need. Not all the fancy stuff, the extras and the media hype. Keep it simple.

Don’t put your time and resources into developing a blog just because everyone seems to be doing it these days. Focus on your real goal, not impressing other people with how big your site is or how much traffic your blog gets. Your real goal for a business is sales, not marketing.

Consumers are not asking for more marketing. Less is more, in the eye of the consumer. Consumers want information so they can decide to buy your product or service. The more marketing clutter to add to your message, the less likely a consumer is to find it. So keep it simple. Create a simple site with simple navigation – keep the most important information to the consumer right out front and centre. If you have extras, like a catalogue, give them a link to take them directly there.

A Business Site Should be for the Consumer, not the Business

If you want to add extras to your site think about it in a practical way. What would your consumer really find useful?

  • A catalogue of your goods or services.
  • A contact form with the physical address, email address and phone numbers for your business.
  • A list of prices for your services and packages available.
  • Any events you may be taking part in locally.
  • Specials or promotions or contests currently running.
  • A coupon they can print out. (Or refer to if they don’t have a printer).
  • Your mission statement.
  • Your guarantee or warranty.
  • Your returns policy.
  • A how to guide for using your product.
  • A list of relevant groups or associations locally.
  • Any health warnings or risks.

This is just a generic sort of list. Each business will have their own needs and limits in the information available or necessary for the public and consumers.

Most of the necessary information can be located on one main (index) page of your site. Extras like a catalogue of goods or services can be on another section of the site with a link easily found on the index page.

Make the contact information a priority. Think about your own experience using a site for a business you wanted to know more about. What was the most frustrating thing? For me it is almost always trying to find a way to contact the business. How stupid is that? What was the point of them putting up a site if I can’t ask a question or get some feedback?

Simple Websites Help Your Business

If you Still Must have a Blog Make Sure it Adds Value to your Business

If you still must have a blog, spend time planning your goals and strategy for using it.

Make sure the time, energy and resources you will put into the blog will pay off.

Make sure you have the stamina, writing skill and the content to keep a blog active.

In short, make sure the blog is worth the expense of maintaining it. Chances are there are other things you could be doing which would bring you a better return on your resources.

 

Could you be a Managing Editor at Yahoo!?

Managing Editor, Shine Canada  

Yahoo! is focused on making the world’s daily habits more inspiring and entertaining. By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the globe. In turn, we create value for advertisers by connecting them with the audiences that build their businesses. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and has offices located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific (APAC) and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the company’s blog (yodel.yahoo.com).

Job Title             Managing Editor, Shine Canada

Reports into       Sr Director, Media Network, Y! Canada

Job Responsibilities

As managing editor for Shine, you will be responsible for setting the vision for Shine Canada, creating user and content experiences that establish daily habits amongst your users with the aim of establishing the property as an integral part of your users day and a leader in the lifestyle media landscape in Canada.   Your success will be measured on whether you manage to drive up new adoption, as well as increase frequency of visits and engagement/ visit of existing users on your property. Priorities include setting a strategy for the site to meet these objectives and then overseeing execution of this strategy including, establishing and working with BD to fulfill key content needs, prioritizing, influencing and coordinating product development, managing both short and long term editorial calendar, running the day to day operations of the site as well as tracking performance. The role also involves managing a 7-day original content production schedule, organizing freelance contributors and editing content for blogs in a voice and style that comply with the Yahoo! Editorial Style Guide.

Responsibilities include:

  • Establishing site vision and strategy for the property
  • Establishing key daily habit needs within channel and making sure these needs are met in a delightful and inspiring way
  • Driving new adoption of the site from off-network as well as increasing engagement  and frequency of existing users
  • Promote use of top social media and search engine optimization best practices
  • Oversee content programming, ensuring sub-channels remain up-to-date with latest, fresh, compelling multi-media content
  • Develop enterprising and original editorial strategies (text or video) to promote important Canadian themes
  • Prioritizing, influencing and coordinating product development to ensure all your key market needs are addressed in a timely manner
  • Own, establish and maximize content partner relations and source contributors

Minimum Job Qualifications

  • ·         Team leadership / previous managerial experience is required
  • Project management skills and special coverage experience are required
  • Content aggregation and packaging – know how and when to package stories together
  • Some experience with managing multimedia and video content
  • A passion for Lifestyle topics and issues
  • New product development is an asset
  • Proven content writing ability and time-sensitive editing ability
  • Experience with blogs, podcasts, Twitter and other social media, and moderating/filtering user-generated content
  • Track record of encouraging community, interactivity and cross promotion content
  • Knowledge of innovative websites in the market and working knowledge of competitors in the media arena in Canada
  • Experience with web audience metrics collection and analysis
  • Strong organizational/record-keeping skills
  • Collaborative and communicative work ethic
  • Willingness to appear on camera
  • Basic Photoshop skills
  • Excellent web writing style
  • Excellent computer skills (MS Office, Excel, etc.) and apt to learning new online tools
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Ability to work a flexible work week when news dictates

Preferred Job Qualifications

  • 7 years plus in a lifestyle role for an established media brand

  • Exposure/experience working with global product teams to localize for market an asset

  • Bilingualism in French (written & verbal) is an asset

  • Degree in journalism or a related field

  • Experience working with freelance writers and editors remotely

via Job Description – Managing Editor, Shine Canada (1343644).

A Final Push to One Word Blog Day

Another project from the broken links: One Word Blog Day. I’m not making that title a clickable link because there isn’t anything I can find to link it to. One Word Blog Day seems to have had it’s last day in 2008. Here are the original instructions (thanks to the Wayback Machine):

One Word Blog Day: Official Rules

One Word Blog Day is coming up; just two days left (June 30)! Time to get your dictionaries out and pick a word. Time for me to write out the official rules of participation. Ugh.

  • Your blog title must be “One Word Blog Day.” No cheating by writing other words in the title! I’m watching you…
  • Only one word can be written in the entry. Hence the title of this day. However, I will not oppose definitions, so long as they’re definitions of your one word.
  • If you plan to participate, comment on this blog entry. This will help to keep tabs on everyone, and it will help for the commenting spree that should ensue.
  • You do not have to link back to this website, but it would help. Your commenters might give you a giant “WTF?”
  • If you do link back here, please link to http://www.elysex.net/one-word-blog-day-official-rules/ so that your readers can read the rules and participate themselves!
  • Choose your words wisely. I chose “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in an attempt to be witty for the first OWBD, and it ended up backfiring. Three other people chose the same word.
  • Flippin’ have fun!

That’s it, folks! Although it’s not an official rule, go on a commenting spree. The whole reason I created the day was because I got backlogged on websites that I needed to comment on. It’s easy to comment when you have only one word to read. Use that to your advantage!

What’s your one word… go ahead and pick one.

Today I’m going with push.

I need to push myself out the door today. I need to push myself through all the snow that fell over the weekend. I need to push myself to get to the business centre and then the library. I need to push myself not to buy Valentine’s chocolates even though they will likely be on sale somewhere this close to the big day. I need to push myself all year this year really. Push is a good word, but sadly, I can’t stand behind myself to actually push myself.

The Great Divide

I’ve been reading websites and blogs online for several years, especially blogs and sites created for writers. I couldn’t even try to look back and count how many I have read, how many I still follow or how many I find new. The numbers don’t really matter. Overall I have noticed one thing divides them all, one thing makes them have or have not. Real experience, really being published (online doing it yourself or being published with an online network just isn’t the same, it doesn’t give the same challenges).

Writers who have been published just know more, have that extra experience with the reality of writing. They have set goals, met them and moved on to new goals. Writers who have only been published online have a softer market, it’s easier to break into online writing when you can even set up your own publication and do it all yourself. Writing online, the main challenge is to find someone to read what you write. Writing in print the main challenge is to actually get written in print. To get the work finished, to get it written well by stricter standards than you will find online and to get it in print/ published. Then, you start to work on getting readers. It’s a longer haul and you don’t have the cushion of being online and being your own boss more or less.

So, this is my goal for 2012. I want to be published in print. Not a zine, I’ve done that. Not a magazine either. Although I have not done that I’m not as interested in magazine writing as a goal. I know I can write that type of content. I’ve been writing it for years online. I want more. I want to push myself, challenge myself to write a book and get it published. I’m not aiming too far over my own head. Just enough that I will be pleased with myself in the end and yet I don’t feel I’m setting myself up for a fall right from the start.

Wish me luck on crossing the great divide.

Hand Written Customer Thank You Notes

The first sale is so exciting! Now once you have calmed down, check out the transaction page and make sure your buyer has paid. Package up your item and get it ready to ship (a hand written thank you note is always good customer service!). Send your buyer a quick little convo (or conversation)  thanking them for their purchase and letting them know when you are going to ship.

via A Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Shop on Etsy | The Etsy Blog.

A basic thank you goes a long way. I haven’t done a lot of shopping online but each time I am impressed and get a little happy feeling when there is a note from the seller. Not something that feels like a form letter or too short and not so sweet, but something that makes it seem they connected with me in some small way. You can give that connection in one sentence. You need to find something to connect with, something you have in common.

You already have something in common if you are selling something the buyer wanted. Whether it’s a handmade craft, a book, or a service by selling something you create yourself as an authority on whatever the topic is. So just add something related to your note. A tip about using the service. Another book in the series or one due out later in the year by the same author. Information and resources about the craft or art involved in making the product they bought from you. Pretty simple if you think about it and well worth it to put some time into thinking about.

Further resources for starting an online store: