Podcasts about building better wordpress websites

Once you’ve made the big decisions about who your course is serving and what transformation your course will deliver (our topic last week), it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of determining how you will actually execute your lessons. In this episode, we discuss three important questions you need to ask yourself to be sure that you are moving forward in the direction that serves your big picture goals for your course. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Once you have your website up and running, and you re consistently publishing good content and connecting with your audience, it s time to ponder whether creating an online course would be a smart next move. There are many different ways — both big and small — to incorporate an online course into your content and product mix. In this episode, we run down a few of them and then explore three questions that will help you plan your online course in a smart way from the beginning so you avoid major missteps later on. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: The Showrunner Podcast Positioning Course: showrunner.fm/podcast-positioning Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

The best way to navigate the crowded marketplace for online content is with a smart positioning strategy. What makes you stand out? Why will people pay attention to you and your content with so many other options out there? In this episode, we take a high-level look at how to reassess, and improve, the positioning of your content and offers. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: The Showrunner Podcast Positioning Course Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

This week, as our series on SEO continues, we re talking about getting more links — which remain one of the most important and influential ranking factors that search engines look at. In general, what should you be doing to get more links? Here are three questions to ask yourself … Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: Why you shouldn’t overlook the most basic link strategy question of all The power of a network when it comes to getting links Why any link strategy should actually start on your own site Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: How to Build a Diverse & Healthy Link Profile Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

How do you attract more search visitors to your site? And more importantly, how do you make sure that the majority of those visitors are members of your target audience? Your keyword strategy will play a huge role in this, and this episode you will discover three areas of focus that will optimize your keyword strategy for success. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: A recap of our SEO series thus far Why you need to trust your intuition, but also inform it further The power of creating cornerstone content to target short-tail keywords Why long-tail keywords shouldn’t be overlooked — and why they can sometimes be even more valuable than the short-tail ones Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

As we continue our series on SEO, we’re diving into local SEO this week. And we have a special guest to help out with this week’s lesson — and it’s a voice you know well: Sean Jackson. He provides insight on what NAP means, how to harness the power of reviews, and why images make such a big difference for local SEO. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: Who needs to pay attention to local SEO What NAP is and why consistency is so important The difference that reviews make, and strategies for how to get more of them The power of encouraging an open feedback loop How to harness the power of images for local SEO success Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Now that you have a live website, and you re publishing posts, and you re building community and gathering subscribers, it s time to start optimizing what you ve got. And there is no better place to start your optimization than with search engine optimization. This episode begins a multi-part series on improving your SEO, and we start this week by discussing how to optimize your website’s performance. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: A description of why optimizing for search engines is actually just optimizing your human users How to find out some “low hanging fruit” in terms of ways to make your site load faster How to determine if your site is delivering an optimal mobile experience Why you should be making the most of Google Search Console Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: Google’s Mobile-Friendly Tool Pingdom Tools Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Brian Clark has written a lot of headlines. And the vast majority of those headlines have been very effective in achieving their simple goal of getting you to click on a post and read it. In this discussion, we tease out Brian’s best and latest advice on how to write magnetic headlines that readers won’t be able to resist clicking on. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

You can waste a lot of time creating amazing content if you don’t invest similarly in writing irresistible headlines. What’s the point of great content if you can’t get anyone to click on it in the first place? In this episode, we walk you through the mindset and techniques you need to write the kind of headlines that will fill your audience funnel with the kind of people you need so that your content can work its long-term magic. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: A review of the section in Episode 50 where we discussed headlines, including: the 50/50 rule, the 80/20 rule, and the four U’s. Why your headline has to make a promise, and why that promise needs to be benefit-driven An explanation of explicit and implicit benefits (and when you need to use one or the other) Additional questions you should ask yourself (see below) once you’ve arrived at a headline you’re satisfied with Why your content absolutely must deliver on the promise that your headline makes Jerod’s unexpected mini-rant on why delivering on your headline’s promise is so important Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: [50] 3Q Before You Publish Your First Piece of Content Writing Headlines That Get Results — by Brian Clark How to Write Magnetic Headlines Here are the additional questions you should ask yourself about your headline: Have you looked at templates for successful headlines to see if one might fit your content a little better? Look at your recent headlines — are you falling into familiar patterns? Do you need to shake it up a bit? Do you have two competing ideas that might be worth testing? Have you spent a few minutes wordsmithing it to see if you can get the main keyword closer to the beginning? (Not just for SEO, but to make sure it s visible in search and podcast directories)? Is there a verb to make it more kinetic? Are you using the passive voice? Don t! Is your headline as short and to-the-point as it can possibly be (while still including main keywords, clearly articulating a promise, and describing a benefit)? Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

How do you build a community up from nothing, attract the right kind of people, and repel the kinds of fanatics and fools who threaten to derail all of your hard work? In this edition of Site Success, Sean Jackson and Jerod Morris discuss some of the fundamental elements of building a community the right way … from the start. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

As you start building your audience, you may find yourself wondering how you can increase connection and give people more reason to interact with you and your ideas. One great way is to establish a community around your content. But don’t just jump into it head first. Consider these questions to make sure you start a community in a smart and sustainable way. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: The importance of understanding how serious you are about building a community … or if it just sounds good Why defining the purpose for your community — for members and for yourself — is essential to getting it right long-term Why you should not leave the values, norms, and rules of your community to chance The hidden potential for your early adopters and most loyal fans to become your community helpers and ambassadors A discussion of the pros and cons of four different types of communities Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: Mighty Networks Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Social media is a great way to extend your reach and influence … if you know how to do it right. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Social media channels play an important role in driving visitors to your WordPress site. And if you are persistent, reaching influencers on social media can dramatically expand your online reach. In this 26 minute episode, Sean Jackson interviews Katy Katz on the tactics and techniques you can use right now to expand the reach and influence of your WordPress site. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Now that you have everything in place to build your email list, and you are publishing content, it s time to start getting some attention, driving traffic, and building community. Social media is a great place to do this — but, as with anything else, you should have a smart, coherent strategy to make sure that you aren t wasting your time. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! And one of the questions I m going to propose that you ask yourself may be a bit surprising, because it takes a different view of social media than how we usually think about it … Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: Why determining which social media channel you NEED to be on is the clear first step The importance of being prepared to listen, interact, and offer value more than just posting links Why listening to your audience in their natural habitat is one of the greatest, and most underrated, features of social media What can you automate? And what should you use to do it? Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

You’ve done a lot of work to get to this point. Now it’s finally here! You’re about ready to do what you, presumably, are launching a website to do: publish content so that you can build a relationship with an audience. But before you hit publish on that first piece of content, here are three important questions to consider first. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: An explanation for why it took us so long to get to actually publishing content Why the pursuit of perfection can actually do more harm than good for your audience-building efforts The tricky balance you have to strike when it comes to creating publish-ready content Why it’s so important that your headline be more than just good The 50/50 rule, the 80/20 rule, and the 4 U’s Why you need to stop and assess the reader experience before hitting publish, and how to do it properly Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: Writing Headlines That Get Results — by Brian Clark Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

This is the second part of our interview with Chris Garrett, Chief Digital Officer of Rainmaker Digital, on the best messaging for your site’s opt-in forms so you can build your subscriber base as big (and attentive) as possible. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Creating a compelling offer is an essential part of the opt-in process. The right calls to action can drastically improve your response rates, if you know the right way to do it. In this episode, Sean Jackson and Chris Garrett discuss the messaging and methods for promoting your opt-in forms with specific tactics and terms that can make a huge difference. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Joanna Wiebe’s articles on how to improve response rates The Right Way to Add Opt-In Forms to Your WordPress Site, Part One Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Last week, we discussed three key components for adding opt-in incentives to your website. But an opt-in form is only going to be as effective as the incentive you are promising. This week, let s discuss three questions you should be asking yourself to make sure your opt-in incentive is irresistible to your audience. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: A recap of last week’s three questions Why a boring opt-in incentive that doesn’t address an audience problem is doomed to fail The importance of addressing problems that are glaring and common with your general opt-in incentive Why you need to be honest with yourself, and your audience, about what you can commit to doing remarkably well Why describing your opt-incentive in terms of benefits, not just features, is essential Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: Quick Copy Tip: Boost the Relevance of Your Content with Benefits and Features — by Sonia Simone How to Locate and Define Benefits that Turn Prospects into Buyers — by Kelton Reid Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

In this discussion with Chris Garrett, Chief Digital Officer of Rainmaker Digital, we explore best practices for adding opt-in forms to your WordPress website that help you maximize subscriber growth. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Opt-in forms are an essential part of the online marketing experience. Executed well, your subscriber base can grow dramatically. But if you are not careful, you could alienate your audience, or worse — and see no return on your efforts. In this episode, Sean Jackson and Chris Garrett cover the basics of where to place your opt-in forms and discuss several tools you should consider. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

We want to prepare for success, and that means being ready to capture subscribers from the first moment such capture is possible — which means from your very first blog post. And that means you must have two things in place: opt-in forms, so people have the opportunity to subscribe to your email list; and a strong opt-in-incentive, so people have a compelling reason to actually give you their email address. In this two-part series, I ll give you advice to help you choose the right kind of opt-in forms for your site, and then combine them with an irresistible opt-in incentive to drive major subscriber growth. This week, we begin with three questions to help you add the right opt-in forms to your site … without incurring dreaded Google penalties. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: A quick review of where we are in our journey toward a successful WordPress website. An explanation for why opt-in forms are the next logical topic. A description of the three types of prospective subscribers your website needs to be catering to. Advice to help you avoid being penalized by Google for pop-up ads. Ways to reduce friction and fear that will help you maximize subscriber numbers. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: 7 Tips for Using Pop-ups Without Harming Your SEO — by Aleh Barysevich, Search Engine Journal Intrusive Interstitials: Guidelines To Avoiding Google’s Penalty — by Myriam Jessier, Smashing Magazine Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Rafal Tomal – Creative Director for StudioPress – shares his deep insight on everything you need to know about WordPress design. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! The right design for your WordPress site is essential. It helps build instant authority and trust from your audience while providing the canvas for your online marketing. But too often, people approach selecting a design for their site the wrong way. In this 25 minute episode, Sean Jackson and Rafal Tomal discuss the most essential factors you must know when selecting a design for your WordPress site. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Once you have chosen your WordPress theme, there are some immediate items that need to be placed atop of your to-do list. Two of them have to do with the emotions your site will evoke, and the other has to do with how users will interact with your site. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: A quick reminder about why you need to be considering these questions in order Why your choice of brand colors and the color scheme for your site is worth being extra intentional about How fonts complement colors by helping you evoke the right kind of emotions in your website visitors What to think about when you start planning how you’ll organize your homepage content and navigation bar Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color — Smashing Magazine Why Fonts Matter, and how they impact your mood — It’s Nice That Typespiration Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

This episode begins a short two-part series about getting your initial design ready to go. We start this week with three macro questions that will help you determine the right kind of design to move forward with. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: A reminder of why knowing what content you’re going to create first is so important Why you need to outline the essential elements your website’s design will need to have How to decide if you should go with a free theme or a premium theme If you do choose a premium theme, whether you should hire a custom developer or choose a child theme for an existing theme framework Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Pamela Wilson — author of Master Content Marketing — joins the show to share her framework for creating compelling content on your site. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Create a content plan for your website is not hard — if you know the right way to put it all together. Lucky for you, we have a true expert in the field to walk you through all the elements you need to succeed. In this 29 minute episode, Sean Jackson and Pamela Wilson walk you through every stage of creating a content plan for your site — from a high level to the tactical execution. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Master Content Marketing by Pamela Wilson A Simple Plan for Writing One Powerful Piece of Online Content per Week Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Content is the lifeblood of your audience building. No one is going to flock to your website just because you launch it. You have to give them reasons to come, compel them to stay, and earn their loyalty. The only way to do that is through content, which is why investing time now to make smart choices about what content you’re going to create is time well spent. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: Why it’s essential to invest time now creating a smart content gameplan Why this step is necessary before you choose your design How to go about whittling down the list of possible content options to the ones that are legitimate options for you (at least right now) Why you need to figure out where your audience consumes content naturally, and make sure you are there to attract some attention What you can do to find content gaps that you are uniquely qualified to fill Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Email marketing is an essential tool for online marketers. But picking the right email provider can be a challenge — unless you know what to look for. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Ed Bardwell, President of Rainmaker Digital Solutions, is a 22 year veteran of email marketing. Ed shares his insights on how to select the “right” email provider using a 5 step process to evaluate them against their peers. So, while there are many options for email service providers, not all of them are equal; and Ed’s insights will help you decide the best one for your needs. In this 31 minute episode, Sean Jackson and Ed Bardwell provide a comprehensive overview of the key factors you should use when selecting an email service provider. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Building an email list remains the preeminent way to build an audience asset that you own and can access whenever and however you choose. Which is why the choice you make for an email marketing service provider is an important one. In this lesson, Jerod Morris provides three questions that will help guide you toward making the correct choice. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: A brief list of the “obvious” considerations you’ll need to make when choosing an email marketing provider. Why it’s essential that you start with an understanding of what kind of emails you’ll be sending and, thus, what features you need. How your choice of organizing contacts by tag or by list will impact your options (and cost). The benefit of taking an “official visit” with your finalists before making your ultimate choice. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: MailChimp ConvertKit Elevatr Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

WordPress hosting can make or break your site. So if you are serious about WordPress then you will want to know the right ways to pick one. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Admittedly, we have a bias about WordPress hosting. But a big part of the reason we started a WordPress hosting company was based on the fact that we could not find one that met all our needs. And as this episode will illustrate, there is a LOT that goes into selecting the right hosting environment for your WordPress site. In this episode, Sean Jackson interviews Matt Lawrence and details the most important questions you should ask when choosing the right hosting provider. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Above all else, you want to make a hosting choice that gives you peace of mind. And that means rushing the choice is probably not a smart move. There is plenty to consider — more than we can dive into in just one podcast episode. But the three questions I ve prepared for you here should move you in the right direction toward picking the right host for your website. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: Why picking a host is such a big commitment The potential long-term costs of going cheap in the short-term Why you need to understand what host s plans fit your needs the best to give you the most value for your dollar The importance of gauging who is going to have your back when problems arise Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: StudioPress Sites hosting Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Should you still worry about getting the .com extension? Does protecting your brand by buying non-.com extensions still matter? And how did an impulse domain purchase allow Brian Gardner to hang out with a former contestant on The Bachelor? All of that and more in this discussion between Brian and Sean Jackson. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: One incredible story from Brian Gardner s secret background as a domain squatter (and fan of The Bachelor) Why Brian doesn t go with anything but .com (outside of a few very rare exceptions) — and will even think of another name if he can t get the .com Why extensions like .blog, .fm, and .tv can work if it s the right fit for your content The importance of protecting your brand by buying the non-.com extensions What do you do if the domain you want is registered but isn t being used (as actually happened with StudioPress.com!) and why sometimes a cold email actually works best When you should be prepared to shell out money for the .com domain you really, really want The step-by-step process Brian goes through to determine the best available domain for website/brand ideas that he has What to do when the domain you want is available, but the corresponding social handles are not Should you augment your URL idea with hyphens, the, etc. — and what The Social Network taught us about this question What to do if you re sitting on a bunch of domains that you re never going to use And then Brian closes with his Starbucks domain story what, you thought this episode would end without Brian talking about Starbucks? Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes And if you like this episode, don’t miss episode 35 in which Jerod Morris gives you three questions to answer that will help you choose the right domain name for your site. Resources and links mentioned in this episode: NoSidebar.com Authentik.com StudioPress.blog Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Sean Jackson on Twitter Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

Settling on a domain name for your website can be a difficult process. Your ideal choice probably isn’t there, and you probably want to balance picking something clear and easy to remember that also gives you some kind of keyword or branding benefits. Fear not — Jerod is here with three questions (and a mindset shift!) that will help you make this a smooth process that propels you forward, rather than hold you back. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: An important reality check on choosing domains Why every domain search needs to start with you understanding the essence of your site How to think about and factor in the ways people will be most likely to discover your site What matters when trying to choose a domain that is memorable What’s more important: keywords or branding? Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

If you have a WordPress website and are looking to grow your audience through content, then this episode will help. Sonia Simone is one of the most accomplished content marketers in the world, and she stops by to discuss smart, winning content strategies with Sean Jackson. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: Sonia s one essential tip for avoiding overwhelm The importance of understanding what your website is going to do Why marketing matters for all sites, not just websites that are selling stuff How your blog can be a tool to create important stepping stones for your audience Sean goes knee-deep : what is the first step to take when it s time to start publishing content? The evergreen power of simply answering questions Why you should think about things you love AND things you hate about your topic Are you getting to the point quickly enough? (And doing it simply enough?) Why you should never, ever build your online platform on land that is owned by somebody else — but — how you can leverage social media tools to your advantage Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: The advantages of starting out small Beware of Digital Sharecropping How to write an About Page Marcus Sheridan, “The Sales Lion” How to Connect the Dots that Can Make You a Star Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Sean Jackson on Twitter Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

This week, Jerod Morris walks you through the next step after defining your ideal audience: putting together your initial content marketing strategy, which help propel you and your content forward in the direction of specific goals. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of the questions Jerod walks you through in this episode: Why is it so important to figure out your content marketing strategy? What does your ideal audience member need to know in order to do business with you? How can you position your content to be different than what people are already seeing? What will allow your content to engage people in a deeper way that will make you and your site indispensable? Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: Authority Pro Theme by StudioPress The Simple 3-Step Process for Creating a Winning Content Marketing Strategy — by Brian Clark Downloadable empathy map Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

It is more important to have some people love you than everyone to be indifferent. In this episode of Site Success, Brian Clark joins Sean Jackson to describe three key elements of a framework for choosing who you want your audience to be. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: Why thinking seriously about your audience is truly where the battle of building a platform is won or lost. The importance of choosing your ideal audience, rather than pandering to anyone who shows up. The three key elements of a framework for choosing who you want your audience to be. Why the topic, not demographic factors, is what brings people together online. Hey — what s up with naked mole rats? What authenticity actually means (and why it s essential). The story of Apple, and what it can teach us about the importance of core values. Brian s cocktail party analogy — which will help you find more of the people you want to talk to, and fewer of the people you d rather avoid. What it means to find your voice and why it s fundamental to building a close relationship with your ideal audience members. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: Brian Clark on Twitter Meet the Perennials Seth Godin on Defining Authenticity Duct Tape Marketing Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Site Success on Apple Podcasts Sean Jackson on Twitter Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

The Sites podcast is back! And with a brand new name, plus a new format and schedule. Jerod Morris discusses what all the changes mean, and then dives right into our first topic of 2018 — how to define your ideal audience. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Here is a quick rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: 00:38 What you get when you sign up for a StudioPress Site 01:41 Jerod explains why we changed the name of the podcast from Sites to Site Success, plus what you can expect from the show as we move forward in 2018 06:02 Jerod provides you with questions #1 and #2 that will help you define your ideal audience: 1) who is your ideal audience member, and 2) what are they seeing/thinking/feeling/doing? 15:54 Jerod delivers question #3, which requires a bit more explanation than the first two. He shares some examples from his own projects for how he goes about answering this one Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Resources and links mentioned in this episode: Authority Pro Theme by StudioPress Blog post by Brian Clark: The Simple 3-Step Process for Creating a Winning Content Marketing Strategy Downloadable empathy map Empathy Maps: A Complete Guide to Crawling Inside Your Customer s Head Other links of note: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Contact Jerod: jerod@copyblogger.com

With major changes coming to WordPress core in 2018, web designers will have a new set of challenges. Are you ready for them? Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! With the coming introduction of Gutenberg in 2018, WordPress designers and developers will be presented with new functionality that has direct impact on their effort. To help you plan for 2018, we discuss a number of changes that StudioPress will be introducing for themes. We also touch base on a few of the key performance enhancements you should be thinking about, including Google AMP, and website performance. So if WordPress design is important to you, then you will want to listen to this year-end episode. In this 23 minute episode, Brian Gardner, founder of StudioPress, shares his thoughts on WordPress design trends for the coming year. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Nathan Rice, the creator of the Genesis Framework, shares his insights on maximizing the power of Genesis for WordPress. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! In 2009, Nathan Rice, along with Brian Gardner, released the Genesis Framework for WordPress — fundamentally altering the way themes are designed and implemented on WordPress. The Genesis Framework continues to evolve and in this episode, we discuss the history of Genesis, what issues to avoid when designing a new WordPress theme and where Genesis is going in 2018. In this 28 minute episode, Nathan Rice from StudioPress shares his unique insights into the evolution of Genesis and where the framework is going. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: WordPress Plugins developed by StudioPress Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Are you having technical issues with your WordPress site? Then this podcast episode is for you. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! WordPress is a great platform for publishing content online. But sometimes we all run into technical challenges that need our attention. This episode focuses on helping you address the most common technical issues with WordPress, including 404 errors, SSL certificates, the “white screen of death,” and improving a slow loading site. In this 23 minute episode, Matt Lawrence from StudioPress discusses how you can address the four most common technical issues with WordPress. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Affiliate marketing is a great way to enhance the income from your site — if you know how to do it right. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! At StudioPress, we have a lot of experience with affiliates — seeing the tactics that work and those that don’t. And the affiliates that are successful focus on helping people at different stages of their personal journey to find solutions to their problems. In this 26 minute episode, Chris Garrett from StudioPress joins the show to share his insights and tactics for successful affiliate marketing. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Chris Lema shares his insights and ideas on the best way to leverage membership plugins on WordPress. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! Creating successful membership sites takes work – from picking the right WordPress plugins to how you reduce the number of people leaving after buying. But there is one key ingredient most people overlook when they create their membership site — an ingredient that is crucial for long-term success. And in this episode, Chris Lema shares what that “secret ingredient” is! In this 24-minute episode, Sean Jackson interviews Chris Lema to discuss his views on membership plugins for WordPress and the one thing that can make a membership site a success. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: The definitive guide for Membership Plugin Reviews for WordPress Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

Joost de Valk — the creator of WordPress SEO by Yoast — joins us for an in-depth discussion on the future of WordPress SEO. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! If you are using WordPress, then you are probably familiar with the extremely popular WordPress SEO by Yoast. More than 7.5 million WordPress sites trust this plugin to help manage their on-site SEO. But for all that Joost and his team have accomplished, there is much more coming from them — and this interview provides an insiders view of what is to come. In this 21 minute episode, Sean Jackson interviews Joost de Valk — the creator of WordPress SEO — to discuss his views on the state of WordPress SEO and its future. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

StudioPress has come a long way, and you won’t believe what is coming next. Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You By Discover why 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress, the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins. Launch your new site today! StudioPress has become the dominant theme and design framework in WordPress, powering almost 10% of all WordPress sites on the web. But for all its accomplishments, the team behind StudioPress are not standing still. In this 28 minute episode, Sean Jackson interviews Brian Gardner – the creator of StudioPress – to discuss his views on design and where StudioPress development is heading. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts Connect with Sean on Twitter

This week, Sean Jackson (creator of the patented SEO tool Scribe) joins Jerod to discuss SEO. We reflect on last week s episode about the importance of site speed, discuss the emerging importance of preparing your content for voice search, and then deliver some important news about the future of this podcast. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter @SeanThinks on Twitter

This week, we dive in and discuss SEO-friendly tips that will make your WordPress site faster. And you don t have to take my word for it. Today s episode is based on a blog post over at Copyblogger by Loren Baker, the founder of Search Engine Journal. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter 6 SEO Friendly Tips to Improve Site Speed on WordPress Blogs The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome back for another episode of Sites, and another week of adding a strategy to your toolbox that will help you create a powerful and successful WordPress website. Last week we discussed content — specifically, the persuasive power of analogy, and I challenged you to make your best attempt at working an analogy somewhere into your website or email copy. I hope that went well. This week, we re going to roll design, technology, and strategy all into one by discussing some proven tips that will help you improve the speed of your WordPress website. As an important bonus, these tips are all SEO-friendly. And that s important. The last thing you want to do is make an enhancement in one area of your site that has negative side effects in another area. And it makes sense — we would expect most site speed improvements to help out with SEO, because better speed leads to a better user experience, and because of the increasing importance that site speed and performance have as indicators that search engines look at. So let s dive in and discuss these SEO-friendly tips that will make your WordPress site faster. And you don t have to take my word for it. Today s episode is based on a blog post over at Copyblogger by Loren Baker, the founder of Search Engine Journal and the Vice President of Foundation Digital, an SEO & digital marketing agency. Loren was one of the early pioneers in online SEO education, and he really knows his stuff. So make sure you earmark at least one of these tips for immediate implementation on your website. Hint, hint. Call to action. Okay, without further ado, here is my reading of Loren Baker s blog post 6 SEO Friendly Tips to Improve Site Speed on WordPress Blogs. —– In the world of SEO, user experience on websites has always been a factor, as has the time it takes for a site to load. However, with the use of mobile devices surpassing desktop use (in most consumer-facing industries) and the wide adoption of broadband, people expect sites to load instantly. Long gone are the days of waiting 10 seconds for a site to load. If a page takes more than a couple of seconds to load, users will instantly hit the back button and move on to the next result. Accordingly, Google officially started paying attention to site speed and declared its importance as a factor in rankings. In order to keep up with Google s site-ranking measures, WordPress blog users need to know exactly what they can do to improve their own site speed. Remember when Google rolled out AMP (accelerated mobile pages)? They now serve up publisher content in a simplified Google-hosted experience that renders superfast. I like AMP from a user perspective because I know that AMP content will load incredibly fast on my mobile device, but as a publisher: I d rather speed up my blog and attract traffic directly to my site than have users stay on Google. If you use StudioPress Sites or the Rainmaker Platform, your site will already load quickly. However, adding ad scripts, featured images, tracking codes, 301 redirects, etc. will slow down the loading of a site and increase demand on your server/hosting company. Here are six simple tips I recommend since we used them to dramatically speed up the Search Engine Journal (SEJ) load time it s at 1.8 seconds! 1. Use a content delivery network A content delivery network (CDN) is a group of servers that deliver web pages and other content according to the location of the user, the webpage origin, and its server. It can handle heavy traffic and speeds up the delivery of content to different users. For WordPress blogs looking to improve site speed, Cloudflare is a great tool to consider. Cloudflare offers a free content delivery network that speeds up the performance of your site and optimizes it for efficiency on any device. It also offers security services that help protect websites from crawlers, bots, and other attackers. 2. Compress your images Another effective way to reduce page-load time and increase site speed is by compressing your images. A CDN will help with this, but it doesn t take care of 100 percent of the job. There are several different plugins available that compress all the images on your website and even compress new images as you upload them as well. ShortPixel is a WordPress plugin that allows you to compress both new and old images on your blog. We use it on SEJ and various other sites, and absolutely love it. It allows you to quickly compress images in batches for greater convenience, reduces the time it takes to do backups, and ensures all your processed files are kept safe and secure. The best part about it is that your image quality stays the same, regardless of the size of the image. Other image-compression plugins also maintain the quality of your pictures and improve site speed. 3. Prevent ad scripts and pop-ups from slowing down the user experience Many web pages today contain some form of third-party script that either runs ads for revenue or uses pop-ups to promote conversion. You want to build your audience and get more customers of course, but balance is key here. Although it s difficult to completely get rid of them to improve your site speed, you can tame their performance impact while keeping them on your website to provide their intended benefits. The trick is to first identify the third-party scripts that run on your site, where they come from, and how they impact your blog. You can use different real-time monitoring tools that track and identify which scripts delay your site-loading time and affect your site metrics. One of my favorite tools to do this is Pingdom s Website Speed Test, because it breaks down each file and script, and tells you which takes the most time to load. The same rule applies for pop-up plugins that you add on to your site. Knowing which ones work best to improve conversions and bring in email signups allows you to gauge which plugins to keep and which ones to uninstall. One of the fastest pop-up plugins on the market is OptinMonster (a StudioPress partner). Its founder, Syed Balkhi, is a WordPress expert who stays on top of factors like site speed and overall user experience. So those are the first three SEO-friendly tips for improving the speed of your WordPress website: Use a content delivery network Compress your images Prevent ad scripts and pop-ups from slowing down the user experience Next, we ll discuss numbers 4-6. 4. Install a caching plugin Another effective way to reduce site-loading time is by installing caching plugins onto your WordPress blog. Caching plugins work by creating a static version of your WordPress blog and delivering it to your site users and visitors, which conveniently cuts your page-loading time in half. Several cache plugins work best for WordPress, such as WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache. These plugins are easy to install and can be disabled anytime. They allow you to select certain pages on your blog (or all of them) to cache, and offer many other content compression settings that you can turn on or off. WordPress supports many other plugins that allow you to optimize your blog to get rid of any latency in page-load time. It is important to test out these plugins to find the one that works best for you. 5. Disable plugins you don t use Tons of WordPress plugins can also make your site super slow, especially ones you don t need. It is important to review the plugins you have installed in the past and disable those that offer no significant value. Many WordPress users install different plugins when they first create their blogs to enhance how they look, but realize over time that great-looking blogs don t always attract traffic, especially if your page-loading time is slow. Also, I would highly recommend making sure your plugins are updated. This may help improve page-load speed, but more importantly, it makes your site more secure. We discussed this topic in more depth back in episode 15 of Sites. 6. Add one more layer of media optimization One thing we realized at SEJ when speeding up the site was that even after optimizing images, ad scripts, and caching, there were still multiple forms of media that slowed down load time. The internal fixes we implemented did not help with third-party media load times, such as embedded Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram content, or infographics from other sites. One solution we found to assist with that is BJ Lazy Load. Essentially, this lazy-load plugin renders all written content first, then as the user scrolls down the page, images and other forms of media load. This way, the user doesn t have to wait for tons of media to load before reading the main content. What I really like about BJ Lazy Load is that in addition to images, it also lazy loads all embeds, iFrames, and YouTube videos. For a WordPress blog that uses a lot of embeds, it was ideal for us. Bonus tip: ask your web host for help If you run a WordPress blog or WordPress-powered site, then you should work with a hosting company that specializes in WordPress, such as WP Engine, Presslabs, or StudioPress Sites. I ve worked with all three, and one thing I can absolutely tell you is that if you contact them and ask how your site can be sped up, they will help you because the faster your site is, the less the load is on their servers. As more and more people turn to mobile devices to access the internet, it is essential to optimize your blogs for mobile use and find ways to minimize page-loading time. Remember, bounce rates increase when your page-load time is slow, which impacts whether or not your content gets read or skipped for other sites that load pages faster. Okay, one more time, here are Loren Baker s six SEO-friendly steps to a better performing WordPress website: Use a content delivery network Compress your images Prevent ad scripts and pop-ups from slowing down the user experience Install a caching plugin Disable plugins you don t use Add one more layer of media optimization Bonus tip: ask your web host for help Now, stick around for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action Simple CTA this week: pick one of the six, actually seven, tips and just do it. Maybe you sign up with a content delivery network. Maybe you add a plugin to compress your images. Perhaps you just email your host and ask them for tips on how to optimize your site. But take a step toward a faster site. The benefits really are endless, because, as Loren said, a faster site leads to a better user experience, which leads to fewer bounces and longer time on site, which leads to better search rankings, which leads to more visitors who are having a good experience and on and on. This is like a gift to your audience that keeps on giving — which makes it like a gift to yourself too. Okay, that s it for this week. Stay tuned for our next episode. I ll have a special guest with a special announcement about the future of the Sites podcast. In the meantime … Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

Do you understand how to craft an analogy that is actually an analogy (and not a metaphor or simile) and that holds the power to persuade? You will after you listen to this week s episode. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter The Persuasive Power of Analogy The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome back to another episode of Sites, and another week of adding a strategy to your toolbox that will help you create a powerful and successful WordPress website. Last week we discussed the power of focusing on quality over quantity — why you need to do more with your best ideas and how exactly to do that. This week, we go back to talking about content, and that means we go back to Brian Clark for another useful idea that will help you improve your content marketing strategy. You re probably familiar with metaphors, similes, and analogies. But do you know the differences between them? And do you understand how to craft an analogy that is actually an analogy and that holds the power to persuade? You will after you listen to this week s episode. And you ll also come away with a funny joke to tuck away for your next dinner party, as well as evidence that Arnold Schwarzenegger may be one of the great analogists of our time. Seriously. Let s dive into this week s episode of Sites, which is based on Brian Clark s blog post The Persuasive Power of Analogy. — An elderly man storms into his doctor s office, steaming mad. Doc, my new 22-year-old wife is expecting a baby. You performed my vasectomy 30 years ago, and I m very upset right now. Let me respond to that by telling you a story, the doctor calmly replies. A hunter once accidentally left the house with an umbrella instead of his rifle. Out of nowhere, a bear surprised him in the woods so the hunter pointed the umbrella, fired, and killed the bear. Impossible, the old man snaps back. Someone else must have shot that bear. And there you have it, the doctor says. Persuasion comes from understanding At the heart of things, persuasion is about your audience understanding what you re communicating. Understanding leads to acceptance when the argument is sound, well-targeted, and the conclusion seems unavoidable. When it comes to creating effective understanding, analogies are hard to beat. Most of their persuasive power comes from the audience arriving at the intended understanding on their own. The doctor could have simply said that the old man s wife had to be cheating on him. But the analogy allowed the cranky patient to come to that conclusion on his own, which is much more persuasive. Let s take a second to make sure we re all on the same page with analogies. It first helps to distinguish them from their close cousins, metaphor and simile. A metaphor is a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and makes a comparison between the two. A simile compares two different things in order to create a new meaning while using the words like or as. An analogy is comparable to a metaphor and simile in that it shows how two different things are similar, but it s a bit more complex. Rather than a figure of speech, an analogy is more of a logical argument. The structure of the argument leads to a new understanding for the audience. When you deliver an analogy, you demonstrate how two things are alike by pointing out shared characteristics (a hunter with an unloaded umbrella and an elderly man who is firing blanks sexually). The goal is to show that if two things are similar in some ways, they are similar in other ways as well. Let me give you an example of a killer persuasive analogy. It comes from that master of sophisticated rhetoric, Arnold Schwarzenegger. No, really. The Terminator analogy Schwarzenegger is an advocate for renewable energy, both for California and the world at large. Given his celebrity status and prior political experience as Governor of California, he has quite the platform to share his views. Just over a year ago, Arnold published a piece on Facebook called I don t give a **** if we agree about climate change. That provocative title set the stage for what could be called a terminator analogy, in the sense that it puts any intellectually honest person in an inescapable box that supports the conclusion Schwarzenegger wants you to arrive at. First, Arnold says forget whatever you think about climate change. He goes so far as to say that climate change deniers can assume that they re right. He then turns to the facts of the here and now: 7 million people die every year from pollution 19,000 people die every day from pollution from fossil fuels Renewable energy is driving economic growth Then, Arnold turns to an analogy that illustrates his argument in a very personal way: There are two doors. Behind Door Number One is a completely sealed room, with a regular, gasoline-fueled car. Behind Door Number Two is an identical, completely sealed room, with an electric car. Both engines are running full blast. I want you to pick a door to open, and enter the room and shut the door behind you. You have to stay in the room you choose for one hour. You cannot turn off the engine. You do not get a gas mask. I m guessing you chose Door Number Two, with the electric car, right? Door Number One is a fatal choice who would ever want to breathe those fumes? This is the choice the world is making right now. Talk about putting someone in a box literally. By sidestepping the controversy over climate change and making the outcome of exposure to fossil fuel emissions a matter of personal life or death, Arnold likely changed the minds of more than a few reasonable people. Now, this is the internet. So, I m sure some people simply refuse to be swayed no matter what, and some trolls probably said they d rather choose the deadly Door Number One than do anything perceived as good for the environment. To which I say I mean, there is a way to set up a real-life demonstration of this analogy if anyone s interested. Now let s talk about why marketing analogies work like a charm I shared Schwarzenegger s analogy because it s a brilliant example. But keep in mind that unlike with contentious social issues, your prospects want you to convince them. If someone has a problem they want solved or a desire they want fulfilled, they want to find a solution. If they re currently a part of your audience, they want you to be the solution. That means they want to understand why you re the best choice. Which means they want to be persuaded. And that s the essence of content marketing strategy. Tell your particular who exactly what they need to hear, exactly how they need to hear it. The right analogy, at the right time, told the right way, may be exactly what they need to do business with you And there you have it. Now, stick around for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action Here s my question for you this week What are you trying to TELL your readers — or, to be more specific, what are you trying to persuade your readers to do — through expository prose or facts and figures, that you might be able to better communicate through analogy? Identify something. Maybe it s in a previous blog post. Maybe it s in a previous podcast episode. Maybe it s some email copy you wrote, or maybe it s on your About page. Just identify something. Then give it a try. If you haven t used analogies much in the past, and I lump myself in this group, then this surely won t be easy at first. It will probably feel a little bit awkward. And you may not end up publishing whatever you write. But just give it a try. Because you won t really know until you try. Think about it this way Say you just moved into a new house. And upon inspecting the basement, you notice a sealed door you d never noticed before. Unfortunately, it s not going to be easy to open, and maybe you re not exactly handy with tools — another group I will lump myself into. So you re a little hesitant about trying to pry the door open. Anything could be in there. That s a little worrisome. Plus it won t be easy, and you ll have to step outside of your comfort zone to open it. But you decide to do it anyway. And lo and behold there s $10,000 in there. You report the finding, have it investigated, and find out it s not counterfeit or stolen. It s just yours. Pretty cool huh? Well, you never would have found that money if you hadn t been willing to overcome your initial hesitancy and awkwardness to pry that door open. What kind of valuable analogies might you find if you pry the seal off your thinking and give it a try? So, there was my attempt at an analogy. I couldn t ask you to do it and not be willing to do it myself! And it wasn t great, I know but it was a start. And now I m one step closer to my next good analogy. As with anything, improvement comes with practice. Now go fight through any hesitancy and create your own analogy! If you want to email it to me, or tweet it to me, please feel encouraged to do so. Okay, that s it for this week. Next week we are going to combine design, technology, and strategy all into one episode and discuss some SEO-friendly tips that will help you improve the speed and performance of your WordPress site. And finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

This week, we talk about the power of repurposing. And I have an example from one of my own projects to use to illustrate my point. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter Quality Over Quantity: Repurpose Your Best Ideas and Distribute Them Far and Wide The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome back to another episode of Sites. It s a pleasure to have you here with me. Last week we discussed the importance of keeping WordPress and your theme framework up to date, and why you might as well just abandon your plans now if you don t plan to take this simple but essential precaution. The security of your site depends on it. And this week, we re going to dive back into how you use your website to grow your audience and build a business. One mistake that too many content creators make is moving too quickly from idea to idea. On the one hand, I get it. Our websites are insatiable beasts that demand new content, and we want to hit Publish as often as we can but sometimes we do this to our own detriment. Because we churn out idea after idea without ever stopping to truly engage and further develop our BEST ideas. And even if we can t or don t want to explore and develop these ideas further, we can certainly at least spread them further, and use them to bring more audience members into our orbit by distributing them in a wider variety of ways than we are currently. So that s our topic today. We re going to discuss the power of repurposing. And I have an example from one of my own projects to use to illustrate my point. Here we go now, a reading of my own blog post at Copyblogger, entitled Quality Over Quantity: Repurpose Your Best Ideas and Distribute Them Far and Wide. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but Your audience does not need your ideas. Sorry to disappoint you. It s true though. Your audience is exposed to plenty of ideas. Everywhere they turn online and offline, they are bombarded with ideas. Ideas, ideas, ideas. Mostly filler and fluff. Think about yourself. Do you need any more ideas to consume and consider? No. What you need are someone s best ideas. And what your audience needs in fact, all that your audience needs are your best ideas. The ideas that cut through the crap and clutter to make a difference The ideas you ve thought through, spent time with, and sculpted The ideas that are closer to finished products than initial impressions And you should invest more time distributing these premium ideas further and wider, in different ways and in different places. You shouldn t simply hit Publish and then run to the next idea. This way you can meet more of your current audience members where they are and you increase the likelihood of reaching potential audience members with your best work. Let me show you an example of how I m doing this on one of my sites It all starts with a blog post Given my responsibilities at Rainmaker Digital, and being a new dad, I don t have a ton of extra capacity for side projects. So when I do have an idea worth sharing over at The Assembly Call, I want to maximize the impact and distribution of that good idea. I can t afford to spin my wheels. In the immortal words of Sweet Brown: Ain t nobody got time for that. This is why I ve shifted my strategy and begun taking one well-thought-out idea and repurposing it into several different types of content, distributed in many different places. The idea is given birth in a blog post. Why? Because I do my best thinking when I m writing. Writing forces me to clarify my thoughts in a way that I m never able to by simply ruminating, or even talking. I need to sit down, think, write, edit, think a little more, edit a little more, and chisel the idea from rough stone into something smooth and polished. A lot of the fluff, filler, clutter, and crap gets removed, and then I feel much more comfortable turning the idea loose in the world. (This process also makes me more prepared to speak extemporaneously about the topic in the future a very useful side benefit for a project that involves a podcast and radio show.) You may be different. You may thrive working it all out in your head. You may find that you clarify your ideas best by talking them out. I urge you to learn what works best for you and follow it. But for me, it starts with writing. Hence why I began a blogging series titled 3-Point Shot where, basically, I take a topic of interest to IU basketball fans and come up with three useful observations about it. Simple. Consistent. Repeatable. Sometimes I know what the observations will be before I start writing. But usually the process of conducting basic research, and then synthesizing it into three clearly articulated ideas, reveals new insights that are useful to me and, in turn, to my audience. I write the first draft. Sometimes I rewrite or rearrange parts. Then I edit and proofread. Soon thereafter I hit Publish. The entire process usually takes 60 75 minutes. Now I have a blog post, usually in the 1,000 1,250 word vicinity, that I can distribute via social media, use to attract search traffic, and send to our email list. One piece. One format. A few distribution channels. All done? Hardly. I m actually just getting started. The beautiful part of this strategy is that the most difficult and time-intensive part is now done. I developed a high-quality idea it s not just something I slapped together in 15 minutes as a cheap traffic grab. Next, it s time to leverage this fully-formed idea into a blitzkrieg of distribution. This is where the blog post becomes a podcast episode and video. Keep in mind as we go through this example that the specific steps and channels that work for me over at The Assembly Call may not necessarily be the steps that you need to take. That site is built around a podcast, and we re also trying to grow our YouTube audience. Therefore, getting content out to our podcast audience and publishing more content to our YouTube channel are priorities. That might not be true for you. But the big idea that I m describing here combining the power of quality over quantity with repurposing and smart, widespread distribution will work for you. Just take the basic principles and apply them to your situation. The next basic principle for me is this: turn the blog post into a podcast episode and there just so happens to be a way that I can do that while simultaneously creating a video version too. When time is of the essence (and when isn t it?), you have to take any chance you can to work smarter, not harder. So here s what I do: Double-check my microphone cables and settings, and do a test recording. (Always, always, always do a test recording!) Open up my Assembly Call episode template in GarageBand, so I can record locally. Create a YouTube Live Event to broadcast the recording live. Open up the blog post in a web browser, so I have it ready for reference. Tweet out the link to the YouTube Live Event, so anyone who is interested can watch the live recording. (For what it s worth, I ve never had fewer than 16 people watch live online, and occasionally that number is up in the 50s and 60s.) Hit Record in GarageBand, hit Start Broadcast on the YouTube Live Event, welcome the audience, and start reading the blog post. From time to time while reading, I ll interject something extra the kind of comment that might have been a footnote to the written piece. But for the most part I just read the blog post verbatim, trying to sound as casual and conversational as I can. I was worried when I first starting doing this that our podcast and YouTube audiences wouldn t be too enthused about this content since it s just me (without my co-hosts) and I m basically just reading something they could get on the blog. My worries proved to be unfounded. The response has been unequivocally positive. I ve received numerous tweets and emails thanking me for finding a way to deliver this written content in the preferred consumption medium for podcast listeners, which make up the majority of our audience. These folks would never get to see or hear the content otherwise. And it is so easy to do. The entire time investment to record and post the podcast is about 30 35 minutes: 5 minutes to set up 15 20 minutes to record 10 minutes to publish the podcast (the YouTube Live Event is automatically archived on our YouTube channel for on-demand viewing) Furthermore, while our blog posts only publish in one place our blog we are set up to distribute our podcast episodes far and wide, with only a few button clicks required. Every episode goes to: iTunes Google Play TuneIn Radio Stitcher iHeartRadio Spreaker SoundCloud This doesn t even account for the many individual podcast apps that scrape places like iTunes for podcast feeds. (For example, I use Podcast Addict on my Android device, and The Assembly Call is available there even though I never signed up or submitted it there.) And here s a fun, little side benefit One of my favorite bonuses about tweeting out direct links to podcast episodes or YouTube videos over blog posts is that typically people can consume the content right there in their Twitter feed. All someone has to do is hit the play button, and the episode will play right there in the Twitter feed. Less friction, less distance between my audience being intrigued and then actually consuming my content. So that s how you do it. That s how you turn one quality blog post into a traffic and attention engine. If you re scoring at home, we ve now gone from one blog post, one distribution channel, and a few traffic sources to: A blog post A podcast episode A video At least 11 different distribution channels Countless traffic sources And here s the crazy thing it could be more. I could: Repurpose the blog post someplace like Medium, or as a guest post Create a slide presentation for SlideShare Find additional video channels besides YouTube Extract clips of the audio for a service like Clammr Make clips or GIFs from the video to post in visual channels like Instagram And on and on. The main reasons I don t do those are a) time and b) because I d get diminishing returns. I ve tried to be strategic about investing the limited time and effort resources I have for this project into the channels that will deliver the best and most immediate returns. SlideShare, for example, isn t going to do much for a sports audience, but it may be a great option for you. What s been the impact of all this? It s only been a month, but already: I added 400 new email subscribers We doubled our YouTube subscribers (in just a month!) Traffic to our blog increased by 31.91 percent Podcast downloads in just March of 2017 (the majority of which was during the off-season, when attention is usually lower) were nearly equal to the combined total of January and February So what you should do next? Ask yourself if you re maximizing the distribution of your best ideas. Not your best blog posts, but your best ideas. Because if you have an idea that s a winner, but it s only distributed via text as a blog post, then you re missing out on a wide range of additional attraction options. Can you turn your blog post into an audio recording? Can you then turn that audio recording into a video even if you just use a fixed image rather than filming yourself? Or, if you have a great podcast episode, can you go the other way and turn it into a blog post? If you already create transcripts for your podcast episodes, this is incredibly simple to do. The bottom line is that rather than focusing on the quantity of the content you publish, you should invest more time in creating fewer, higher quality pieces of content and then find efficient, scalable ways to distribute these high-quality pieces to as many nooks and crannies of the web as you can. You ll reach more people with your best ideas in the way they re most comfortable consuming content. And there s no better way to build an audience and authority, brick by brick, than that. Now stick around for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action Here s my question for you this week What is a great idea of yours that is currently only being distributed one way? Maybe it s a blog post that you ve never repurposed into an email, or a podcast, or a video. Or maybe it s something you said on a podcast that made you say, You know, that was really good. I like that wording. But you haven t yet turned it into a blog post. Or maybe it s something else. But my guess is that you have at least one idea, and probably many more, that you haven t squeezed all the juice out of yet. So before you go and create something NEW, leverage work and thinking that you ve already done to get more mileage out of something that already exists. What idea is it? Pick one. Spread it far and wide. Okay, that s it for this week. Next week we are going to move back to content. We will be discussing the persuasive power of analogy. If you re looking for good ways to improve your content and illustrate your ideas more clearly to your audience, this episode will be like a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer day. And finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

As an ever-evolving open source venture, WordPress changes a lot, and often, for the better. And it s up to you to make sure you update to the latest version. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter Original blog post: Automatic Updates for Website Security and Peace of Mind Why You Should Always Use the Latest Version of WordPress The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome back to another episode of Sites — another week of unpacking a strategy that will help you build a better, more powerful, more successful WordPress website. Last week, we discussed how to create visually effective calls to action with some sage advice from Rafal Tomal. Hopefully you took the opportunity to analyze the calls to action on your website and figured out a tweak or two that will help you convert better. This week, we re going to discuss a topic that needs to be top of mind for every single person running a WordPress website — and it needs to stay top of mind for every single person running a WordPress website. It s that important In fact, if you are not going to take this seriously, you might as well just toss your hands up in the air and start over right now — without WordPress. I m not kidding. This is that important. What am I referring to? WordPress updates. As an ever-evolving open source venture, WordPress changes a lot for the better. And it s up to you to make sure you update to the latest version. And, while we re on the subject, theme framework updates too. A lot of times they go hand in hand, with theme framework updates following soon after a WordPress update. You might remember back to episode 15, when we discussed plugins, and I implored you to only install plugins that are up to date, and to make sure you keep them up to date. The same is true for WordPress update, and updates to your theme framework. And in this episode I m going to explain the three massively important reasons why this must be, and remain, a top priority for you as a WordPress site owner. Let s start off with the most important and urgent reason why you need to keep WordPress and your theme framework up to date: Security. The number one way that bad guys infiltrate a site is through outdated themes, plugins, and, of course, old versions of WordPress. It s become such an issue that many WordPress site owners pay a decent chunk of money each month to have an outside service keep things updated and safe. Think about it hackers are always trying to come up with new ways to weasel their way into our sites so they can steal data or plant malicious code. If you stick with today s version of WordPress, how safe do you think you ll be a year from now? Not very. The developers of WordPress work hard to stay out in front of the hackers — patching known holes, and doing everything they can to prevent future vulnerabilities. But the only way for your site to benefit from these efforts is to stay updated. Which is why this is a non-negotiable if you re going to run a WordPress website. You have to stay up-to-date — whether you do it yourself, pay a service do it for you, or host someplace like StudioPress Sites that includes an automatic WordPress update option. Speaking of which this leads me to theme framework updates too. Often a WordPress update is followed by a theme framework update. Makes sense, right? If the base code gets an update, the theme framework, which is layered on top of that base code, needs to be updated to maintain compatibility and take advantage of any new features. Plus, theme frameworks also have to worry about security — which means patching holes and preventing future ones. So just as you need to keep WordPress updated, you need to keep your theme framework updated too. However you do this, just make sure you do it. We believe so much in the importance of these kinds of updates that we built both right into StudioPress SItes — automatic WordPress AND Genesis Framework updates. It doesn t cost a penny more. So whether you do it yourself, pay someone else, or go with a host that has it built in — again, just make sure the updates are happening. It s essential to keep your site safe from the Internet evildoers who would love nothing more than to cause you and your website harm. So that s the #1 reason to keep WordPress and your theme framework updated: security. Now let s discuss two more massively important reasons to stay up to date … Reaons #2 is new features and bug fixes. New versions of WordPress aren t JUST about keeping bad guys out. They are also about making it easier and more enjoyable for you to use, and about giving your audience a better experience. If you stay on an old version of WordPress, you miss out on these new features. Plus, sometimes new features roll out and they don t work as intended. These are bugs. And they can be a real bummer. In that way, bug fixes can essentially be like new features because they allow you to fully embrace and use a feature that wasn t functioning correctly before. Let me give you a couple of examples On June 8, 2017, WordPress 4.8 rolled out. It included new features like link improvements, three new media widgets covering images, audio, and video, an updated text widget that supports visual editing, and an upgraded news section in your dashboard which brings in nearby and upcoming WordPress events. Useful features. Then in subsequent months, security and maintenance releases rolled out as well. These didn t include new features, but did fix bugs and update security measures. WordPress is in a competitive market. They want as many people as possible building sites on their platform. And to keep up, they have to keep adding new features that keeps WordPress ahead of the curve. There is no reason for you to not take advantage of those new features on your websites. And the same thing goes for your theme framework as well. Updates often include new features and functionality that you ll want to build on. So that s reason #2 to stay up-to-date: new features and bug fixes, so your site is even more powerful. And reason #1, remember, was security. How about reason #3? It s speed and performance. If you want a refresher on the importance of speed and performance, go back and listen to episode 3 of Sites. We discussed why it matters so much. In short — better site performance leads to a better experience for your users, which leads to more conversions, repeat visitors, and better search rankings, all of which increases your opportunity to build your audience and, ultimately, build a business around it. I d say that s a pretty compelling case for taking performance seriously. Well, with each new WordPress update, all the under-the-hood stuff is made more efficient. As was noted in a blog post at WPBeginner.com, WordPress 4.2 improved JS performance for navigation menus, and WordPress 4.1 improved complex queries which helped with performance of sites using those queries. And the same is true for your theme framework. Its code gets updated to be more efficient and deliver better performance. So, in review, here are the three massively important reasons why you need to keep WordPress and your theme framework up to date: Security — it keeps your site safe. New features and bug fixes — it keeps your site on the cutting edge. Speed and performance — it keeps your site humming along like a well-oiled machine. Now stick around for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action Here is my question for you: what is your current process for keeping WordPress and your theme framework updated? Maybe your host does it for you. Maybe someone manages your site and that s part of what they do. Maybe you have a recurring to-do item that reminds you to check for updates regularly. Or maybe you have resolved to update yourself whenever you log in and see that an update is available. Whatever your process is — just make sure you have one. And if you don t, get one. And if this is something that you just don t want to worry about, that s fine. Totally understanding. But you need to hire someone, or choose a host, that will handle it for you. We ll obviously welcome you with open arms at StudioPress Sites. Just go to studiopress.com to learn more. Okay, that s it for this week. Next week we move on to strategy, and we re going to discuss repurposing content, and why focusing on quality over quantity is a smart idea. That s next week, here on Sites. Finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

The greatest call-to-action copy in the world won t make a lick of difference if your CTA isn t visually compelling enough to draw attention to it. So that s what we re going to discuss this week: how to create visually effective calls to action. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter Original blog post: How to Create Visually Effective Calls-To-Action by Rafal Tomalk The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome back to another episode of Sites — another week of unpacking a strategy that will help you build a better, more powerful, more successful WordPress website. Last week, we talked about how your content can seduce your audience. This week, we re going to talk about how to capitalize on that moment when the seduction actually works. How do you close the deal? Whether it s a small, relatively easy deal — like getting an email signup. Or a larger, more complex deal like asking for a recurring purchase. It s all about crafting effective calls to action. And the greatest CTA copy in the world won t make a lick of difference if your CTA isn t visually compelling enough to draw attention to it. So that s what we re going to discuss this week: how to create visually effective calls to action. And we have a great blog post from Rafal Tomal to help us do it. Here is my reading of Rafal s blog post: How to Create Visually Effective Calls-To-Action. How to Create Visually Effective Calls-To-Action Designing your pages for conversion is a tricky job. It s a constant fight between what works and what doesn t. It s a never ending process of testing, measuring, and making changes. One of the most difficult tasks I have found in my work is to point your visitors right into your call to action — in order to catch their attention and interest them in your offer. While your copy is probably the most important part of this process, it s still very important to support it with suitable design techniques that can put an emphasis on your message. The good thing is that human behavior is mostly predictable and we can use it for our own advantage. People love repeatable visual patterns. People will also quickly find any distractions from a well-defined pattern. We can use that knowledge to get their attention. The question is, how can you lead your visitors right into your call to action in a subtle way without being too annoying and screaming with exclamation marks? Every call-to-action wants some attention Ok, before we dive into talking about the design of your website, let s think about getting attention for a moment. Why do you even need to get someone s attention and why is it so hard that you have to use some kinds of visual tricks? The purpose of most websites is to attract the target audience and call them to action. The action can be an email sign up, social interaction or a product purchase. Of course, the action you want people to take is usually not that attractive for first time visitors. You can t just invite people to your website by saying come and sign up for my email newsletter! That wouldn t convert well So, it is the content that attracts your target audience. It can be a sales page with compelling copy, your blog posts, an infographic, a free ebook, you name it. Once you have them in, and you have their attention, that s the time when you want to point them in a certain direction — the next level of your conversion funnel. Now, getting someone s attention and calling them to take the action is hard. The bigger the commitment to make, the harder to convert. Different types of actions may also require different approaches. For example, asking people to sign up for your email newsletter in exchange for valuable free content is much easier than asking them to pay for something. A call to action with a smaller commitment can be more direct. You can put it right in front of your visitors in the form of a popup or a big top banner. However, the same approach wouldn t work well if you used it for your buy button on a sales page. Before asking someone to purchase your product, you want to prepare them, educate them, resolve their concerns and build interest. That s why a sales call to action should be positioned more strategically. You need to be careful not to ask for the conversion too early or your visitors may not be ready yet. If you want to think about how this would look visually, just think about websites that you visit every day. Where do you typically see an email sign-up form — which is a low-commitment call to action? In the sidebar, in a banner beneath or even sometimes above the header, or maybe even in a pop-up that appears when you start scrolling. Contrast that with where you see the CTA for a sales page. It s typically near the end of the page after a lot of copy — the more complicated and expensive the product, the longer and more explanatory the copy (typically). Okay, now let s talk about defining visual patterns — because you have to define them first, before you can break them. Define your visual patterns first As I mentioned before, you can t convince someone to take the action just by your design. It s your copy that does all the heavy lifting, but you can help to emphasize the message and point some visitors right into your CTA through design. And this brings us to the main point of this whole episode, which is how to effectively break your visual patterns to get a visitor s attention. Your website s visual identity is defined by typography, colors, layout and all the user interface elements. Together, all of these elements create certain repeatable visual patterns. Try to make navigating and browsing your website predictable. You want to create a consistent and positive user experience in reading your content. That should be your base and foundation. Now, consistency is the main point here. The more consistent your visual patterns are, the easier it ll be to break it in a more subtle and elegant way. And why would you want to break your beautiful design? To lead your visitor s eye right into your offer on a busy page full of content. In other words, to get your visitor s attention where you need it. To explain better, imagine you re invited to a party where everyone is dressed in whatever they want. So, you have all different colors and styles. It would be pretty hard to stand out from the crowd if you wanted someone to pay attention to you. It s still possible, but you would need to take some ridiculous steps to do so. Now, imagine that you re going to a party where everyone is dressed in black and white. What could you do to stand out from the crowd? It would be as easy as wearing a red t-shirt. People would notice you and you wouldn t have to run around and scream. As you can see in this analogy, it all makes sense only when there is a certain consistent theme applied as a base. Without it, when everything is different, nothing can clearly stand out. Now, break your visual patterns In your design, emphasizing your call to action can be easily achieved by using contrast. I m not talking about just color contrast, but a contrast in size, boldness, space or even position. Some techniques work better for some people and may not even affect another group of visitors. So, the best idea is to combine at least a few of them. For example, your call to action can be placed on a contrasting background and the title font set in bold. Additionally, you can add some extra space around it to make a bigger content/space contrast. Using white space is a great way to make something more prominent without adding more noise to your design. By simply creating more space around something, you separate it from the rest of the content. That separation and a clear layout break can quickly draw the user s eye. You can also break your grid if your design is set on a layout grid. Layout grid is a common design tool used by web designers these days. It s a good topic for a whole new episode, and Rafal covered this concept deeper in his ebook, The Essential Web Design Handbook, if you re interested in learning more about it. For now, all you need to know is that a grid is nothing more than just an invisible web of vertical and horizontal lines that dictate your entire layout. By placing all your content elements along those lines, you can create an organized and consistent design structure throughout the entire page. It helps to create a visual pattern in your website layout. Breaking that grid will make your call to action stand out. It s that simple. Just by positioning a certain element loose on the grid will put more emphasis on it. Our eyes love patterns and we follow them. Every human eye will catch such a distraction in a perfectly designed layout. And that, my friends, is how you get your visitor s attention. Now stick around for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action Here is this week s call to action: Open up your website Take a look at it. What visual patterns do you see? Don t spend any time judging yet. Just look. Get a feel for it. Next, focus on your calls to action. What jumps out about them? How do they fit in with the visual patterns on your site? Do they fit in too much? Do they clearly stand out? In other words, why is your eye drawn to them — or, conversely, why is your eye NOT drawn to them? Take what you learned from Rafal s insight and use it to make your CTAs stand out more. Perhaps it s adding more contrast. Perhaps it s adding more white space around it. Perhaps it s moving a sales page CTA further down the page — so you re not asking for the sale before someone is ready to move forward. Look at your site, analyze the patterns and then break them. Do this for at least one call to action. Then track it. Okay — coming next week, we re back to technology. We re going to talk about WordPress updates. Finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

If you don t know what to say, then how you say it isn t going to matter. That s one of the concluding points of the blog post by Brian Clark that is featured in this episode — a blog post that was inspired by one of the great films of our time. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter Original blog post: Content Marketing as Seduction by Brian Clark The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome back for another of Sites. It is wonderful to have you here with me for another week of talking about how we can build more powerful and successful websites. Last week, we discussed how to decide which content to sell and what to give away for free with some excellent rules of thumb from Chris Garrett. This week, we re going to talk about how to use your content to properly seduce your audience members and prospects to continue along on their journey with you. Because whether it s free content or paid content, you re always trying to help people take the next step — and you want that next step to be with you, of course. But how do you establish that strong of a connection? Your content has to do a lot of the heavy lifting. But if you don t know what to say, then how you say it isn t going to matter. That s one of the concluding points of the blog post by Brian Clark that I m about to read to you — a blog post that was inspired by one of the great films of our time. Let s jump right into it. Let s talk about content marketing as seduction. Content Marketing as Seduction Phil Connors is having a bad day over, and over, and over. The arrogant Pittsburgh weatherman has once again been sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He soon discovers that visiting once a year wasn t all that bad, given that he s now living this particular Groundhog Day again, and again, and again. It all begins at 6:00 a.m., the same way each day. The clock radio clicks on with Sonny & Cher s I Got You Babe, followed by the declaration, Okay campers, rise and shine, and don t forget your booties cuz it s COLD out there today! After the initial shock wears off, Phil (played by national treasure Bill Murray) realizes he s in a time loop. No matter what he does each day, there are no lingering consequences for his actions, because he wakes up and starts over again fresh the next morning. This initially leads to hedonistic behavior, such as binge eating and drinking, manipulative one-night stands, and criminal acts. Eventually despair sets in, and Connors repeatedly attempts suicide. No dice he still wakes up the same way the next morning. It s not until Phil commits to bettering himself and serving others that he achieves redemption and breaks out of the loop. The film Groundhog Day is regarded as a contemporary classic. In 2006, it was added to the United States National Film Registry and deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Further, the movie has been described by some religious leaders as the most spiritual film of our time, in that it represents the concept of transcendence. Buddhists and Hindus see the repeated day as a representation of reincarnation on the long path to enlightenment. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the time loop can be thought of as purgatory. Don t get me wrong. Groundhog Day is a hilarious film, and Bill Murray considers it his finest performance. But it s also seriously deep. Jonah Goldberg of the National Review said, we have what many believe is the best cinematic moral allegory popular culture has produced in decades. Groundhog Day also contains an example of marketing gone terribly wrong. This travesty happens all too often in the real world, which means it s what you want to avoid at all costs. A tale of a data-driven marketing fail In between his hedonism and subsequent despair, Phil decides to achieve a different goal. He begins romantically pursuing his news producer, Rita Hanson (played by Andie MacDowell). He starts by being uncharacteristically kind to her, and then asks her to describe her ideal man. Through day after day of similar encounters, he amasses an amazing amount of information about her. Phil finds out her favorite drink, and her ideal toast to drink it to. He knows she hates white chocolate and loves Rocky Road ice cream. He even quotes from Baudelaire (Bodell-air) after finding out she majored in 19th-century French poetry. Through his unique situation, Connors discovers all the right information in order to arrive at the perfect romantic evening with her ideal man. It takes weeks, but as far as Rita knows, Phil has simply transformed from the jerk she works with to an amazing person in a single day. Talk about marketing research, huh? He s got his who down cold. Except there s one problem Phil s only goal is to have sex with Rita. There s literally no tomorrow for him, so he has to close the deal on the first date, or not at all. Hence, he can t contain his insincerity despite all the valuable intelligence he has on her. Phil even stoops so low as to tell her he loves her when she resists his advances. Each evening invariably ends with Rita slapping Phil s face, and what she says to him is especially telling: I could never love you, because you ll never love anyone but yourself. Content marketing as seduction In marketing and sales circles, there s a running joke about losing a prospect thanks to the equivalent of trying to propose marriage on the first date. And yet, it doesn t stop it from happening, even with people who should know better. Phil has a treasure-trove of data about Rita, just as modern marketers have big data about you. And yet Phil tries to fake authenticity, engagement, and connection, which Rita sees right through. The same thing happens every day at all levels of the marketing spectrum. Think of it this way Rita reveals her core values, and Phil tries to reflect them back to her. It works, up until the point that Phil s desire to close the deal on his terms, based on his own desires, tramples all over Rita s core values. I ve described content marketing as a story you tell over time. If that story places the prospect at the center of the story and delivers the right information at the right time, you have a courtship. If you take it a step further and deliver the information in a way that delights the prospect at each step, you have something even more powerful. You have a seduction. The word seduction can certainly have a manipulative connotation. But when you truly know your prospect, and your core values truly do align with theirs, and you truly do communicate based on their needs first, well They get what they want, and you get what you want. That s not manipulation; that s just good business. Empower the journey Before the internet, inadequacy marketing ruled. Without access to alternative perspectives, prospects were targeted by marketers with messages that positioned the brand as the hero, which promised to save the poor prospect from the anxiety manufactured by the message. The imbalance in access to information favored the seller. Now, prospects are empowered to self-educate, which means the buyer s journey is well underway before any particular seller is even aware of it. Today, prospects face a different form of anxiety. The abundant access to information from thousands of competing sources threatens to overwhelm the prospect. That s where you come in. Your brand becomes heroic in the sense that you arrive to further empower the prospect to solve their problem. You help them make sense of the relevant information. And in the process, you demonstrate rather than claim that your product or service is the perfect solution for that particular person. So yes, your brand can become a hero. As long as you never forget that the prospect is the main hero, or protagonist, of a journey that they are at the center of. This is why Joseph Campbell s monomyth, or hero s journey, provides the perfect metaphor, and map, of a content marketing strategy that succeeds. It forces you to keep your focus on empowering them, with you and your content playing the role of the mentor, or guide. The easiest way to understand this is to look at the character relationships in some of the best-known examples of Campbell s hero s journey in popular culture films such as Star Wars, The Matrix, and The Wizard of Oz. The prospect is Luke Skywalker; you re Obi-Wan Kenobi. The prospect is Neo; you re Morpheus. The prospect is Dorothy; you re Glinda the Good Witch. Structuring your content marketing strategy in this way leads to success. By understanding your prospect as well as possible, you re now in a position to guide and empower her to solve the problem with you. What you say matters most What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it. David Ogilvy It might come as a surprise to hear that from Ogilvy, a famous Mad Man and copywriter who made millions by finding just the right way to say things. But he s right if what you re saying is wrong, it doesn t matter how well you say it. And the when matters too. The key point of this episode is for you to understand that because we re guiding the prospect on a journey, when is an inherent aspect of the what. You can choose to rush things and lose, or travel alongside the prospect and eventually win. Phil Connors does end up with Rita, but only when he actually becomes her ideal man instead of trying to fake it. The time loop ends thanks to an authentic seduction. Here s to not making the same mistake over, and over, and over again at least with your content marketing. Now stick around for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action Here is my question for you, based on what we just learned about content marketing as seduction How are you empowering your prospects to solve their problems? If you don t know the answer to this right off the top of your head, if it isn t a guiding principle in what you re doing, then it now might be a good time to rethink how you view your relationship with your audience. Remember: you are not the hero. THEY are the hero, and you are there to further empower them to solve their problems, to help them make sense of the relevant information they are bombarded with, and, in the process, you demonstrate rather than claim that your product or service is the perfect solution for that particular person. So try to answer that question: How are you empowering your prospects to solve their problems? And if you have trouble answering it, take this as an opportunity to rethink how you re approaching your content so you can be better at properly seducing your prospects. Okay — coming next week, we re back to design. Once you ve properly seduced someone, you do eventually have to close the deal — and when we re talking about the closing the deal online that usually gets done with a button. We ll discuss how to create visually effective Calls-To-Action based on insight from Rafal Tomal. I hope you ll join me. Finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

What content should you give away for free, and what content should you sell? It s a tricky question. There is no perfect, one-size-fits all answer. But there are guiding principles. And some of the best guiding principles I ve ever come across for this question come from a blog post that Chris Garrett wrote back in July of 2015. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter Original blog post: How to Decide Which Content to Sell and What to Give Away for Free by Chris Garrett The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome back for another of Sites. So glad to have you here with me. Last week, we discussed how to avoid a catastrophic plugin decision with five questions that you should ask yourself before installing any plugin. This week, we re going to be discussing another important, and at times perplexing, question that you will undoubtedly end up asking yourself if you ever plan to build a business around your website. What content should you publish and distribute for free and what should you hold back and make people pay for? In other words: what content should you give away for free, and what content should you sell? It s a tricky question. There is no perfect, one-size-fits all answer. But there are guiding principles. And some of the best guiding principles I ve ever come across for this question come from a blog post that Chris Garrett wrote back in July of 2015. The principles Chris lays out in this post were relevant then, they are relevant now, and they ll be relevant well into the future. It s one of the best blog posts I ve ever read, and I m excited to share it with you this week on Sites. Here is my reading of Chris Garrett s blog post How to Decide Which Content to Sell and What to Give Away for Free. How to Decide Which Content to Sell and What to Give Away for Free You are all well aware by now that content is vitally important to your business. But how do you decide which content should be freely available and which content you ought to charge for? Is it possible to give away too much? People struggle with this question all the time. On the one hand, giving away information clearly works. After all, Copyblogger is based on that premise. That said, we know that selling information is good business. So where is the line drawn between freely available content and content that is locked behind a paywall of some kind? Of course the answers will differ between different industries, topics, businesses, and writers. But hopefully this episode can help you arrive at an approach that works for you. First, we need to decide what your free content should do for you. What can you achieve with free content The reason you are putting together all these free articles, podcasts, videos, and presentations, is that you want to attract an audience that grows your business. With that in mind, here are 11 benefits that free content can provide for you and the types of content that you should share: 1. Free content can attract your specific target audience We want more people specifically our most sought-after prospects to be aware of us. Of those, we want as many as possible to keep coming back, and to opt-in to our email. If all of your content is behind a barrier, then this goal is going to be more difficult to achieve because you will have fewer opportunities for visibility. The more content you have out there in the open, the more opportunities to reach your prospect exist. 2. Free content can encourage sharing your ideas In addition to attracting people who might become loyal members of your audience, you also want those people to bring friends. If your content is locked away, then they can say nice things about you, but their ability to share your content is limited. Therefore, your exposure is limited. 3. Free content can connect you with peers It s not just prospects that you want to connect to. With your ideas, experience, and knowledge out on the web for anyone to consume, you are going to attract industry, networking, and partner contacts. 4. Free content can inform the audience of your value What is the problem that you solve? What can you help them achieve? It s going to be tough to get people to pay money before they know what you can do for them! People often put their problems into search engines looking for answers. You want to make sure your solutions can be found when they go searching. 5. Free content can position you against competitors Your free content will not just educate, it will also show your uniqueness. It will inform people why they should connect with you versus other people, and why your approach or solutions have the advantage. 6. Free content can answer objections Once a prospect has started to get to know your value, then they will have more questions of the yes, but variety. It s best to answer these objections and put your prospect s mind at ease before those objections become reasons to not do business with you. Answering objections also demonstrates your empathy and the service provider who best shows they understand a prospect s problem tends to be the one who gets the business. 7. Free content can show proof and results A great way to answer objections, and to establish yourself as the go-to person, is to prove your value through existing results and case studies. 8. Free content can provide more reasons why Sometimes your prospects will not warm up to your solutions right away. They need to know what you are talking about and why it is important to them. Providing serving suggestions and use cases allows your prospect to understand how what you do fits into their life or business, and to imagine getting those benefits. Tutorials and demonstrations can also help existing customers get more out of what they paid for. 9. Free content can give a free taste that builds desire for the full meal When your business makes money by selling advice or information, it is a good idea for your prospects to get some early results. This allows them to build trust with you so that they feel confident that your more in-depth or advanced information will also deliver on your promises. The quicker and easier they get these results, the more bought in they will be. 10. Free content can tell your story and show people who you are as a person In many industries, who you work with can be as important as what they do for you, especially if they will be working with you closely for a while. In general, we prefer to work with people we actually can stand being around. That means establishing your personality in addition to your credentials. Use personal anecdotes and let your voice come through your free content. 11. Free content can reward prospects for their attention Sonia Simone calls the concept Cookie Content. This idea is crucial. You want your readers to look forward to your articles, videos, podcasts, and seminars. That means the time they spend with you should be time well spent. They should be informed and entertained. Your prospect needs to perceive that there is more good stuff to come, so that they will want to deepen their relationship with you. A good habit to get into is to always provide actionable takeaways and ideas the audience can use. Hopefully that will give you plenty of ideas on what free content can do for you. To recap: **- Free content can attract your specific target audience Free content can encourage sharing your ideas Free content can connect you with peers Free content can inform the audience of your value Free content can position you against competitors Free content can answer objections Free content can show proof and results Free content can provide more reasons why Free content can give a free taste that builds desire for the full meal Free content can tell your story and show people who you are as a person Free content can reward prospects for their attention** But with that said Here s when you should hoard information If you are giving away so much value in the free content, what are people going to be willing to pay for? It s my instinct to give a lot, but there is a circumstance where your information is worth holding back and providing only to paying customers. That is when: 1. People really want the information because it has significant value If the information could Provide a massive transformation in their life or business Make them a great deal of money Save them lots of time Make them more popular then they will be much more willing to invest in your solution. 2. The information is difficult to acquire Yes, Google has exposed many things for free that had previously been knowledge reserved for the elite few. But that doesn t necessarily mean that your prospect can find it, or that the information is even out there and indexed. People still innovate. People find new approaches. Every day, new technologies are developed. Brand new systems are tested and released. Many of the thought leaders and gurus we know are in their positions because they hopped on a shiny new platform or tool and mastered it before anyone else. Of course as soon as you start sharing this information, someone you have shared it with will inevitably start sharing it too. As more and more people fight against the noise in their marketplaces, you will see more and more valuable information being shared for free. Here is why people buy content … With all the free content out there, you would be forgiven for believing that s all anyone really needs. But, actually, paid content has never been more in demand from books to coaching to training courses. Part of the reason people will pay is because of trust. It s a weird psychological factor that people will trust education that they paid for more than something you gave away. The reason is because it has a higher perceived value, and also there is an implied warranty. In addition, people will pay for these 5 things 1. People will pay for in-depth, step-by-step guidance In general, your free content is going to be a collection of granular, randomly organized pieces of the puzzle. People will happily pay to be given the whole thing wrapped up in convenient packaging even if the information was previously available for free. 2. People will pay for access and tailored advice I was shocked when this first happened to me (Chris Garrett wrote this blog post, remember), but I have since found this is true in many niches. When I started out, I was giving away articles that helped developers solve programming problems. People started approaching me asking me to train and coach them, even though I thought there was little I could add to the knowledge I had already put out there free to consume. It doesn t matter how complete you think you have made your education, it only serves as better proof that you are the person who can best help. A great example of this is our own Authority training and networking community. 3. People will pay for exclusivity Of course people will always want the secrets or to be an insider especially if these secrets will give them an unfair advantage over competitors. 4. People will pay for higher quality and better technology The quality of your information is paramount, but people will be willing to pay more for higher quality production value, more comfort, and the latest technology. How much of a difference this makes can be difficult to predict. 5. People will pay for experiences It s an often-shared piece of advice, but it is true: People will forget what you say, but they will remember how you made them feel. Yes, people happily pay for things, but we really value a memorable experience. If you can entertain, inform, and provide a stellar experience, then you are going to create something truly valuable. To recap: **- People will pay for in-depth, step-by-step guidance People will pay for access and tailored advice People will pay for exclusivity People will pay for higher quality and better technology People will pay for experiences** So now you have some ideas of what you should give away, and what you can sell, but how do you know if your free content idea is a good choice? What you should never give away It s difficult to give hard and fast rules, because for each of these ideas someone out there will be the exception. But in general here are six things that your free content should not be: 1. Free content shouldn t be too complete Don t be tempted to answer every question or to answer questions too completely. This is partly because you may be overwhelming your audience rather than helping them. And partly because, as mentioned above, someone who has not paid will have less trust and patience for you to get to the point. 2. Free content shouldn t reveal too much of the how Free information should focus more on the what and the why, rather than go deep into the how. It s good to give some ideas and tactics, but you need to work up to introducing your full strategies and systems on the paid side. Consider giving away step one, or even steps one, two, and three, while keeping the remaining steps back for paying customers only. 3. Free content shouldn t provide free access Don t make the mistake I did of being too available, too much. Your time and energy is limited. Don t give away access to you, and certainly limit how much support you provide for your free stuff. Hold the customer s hand through the entire process if you like, but free readers should not expect white-glove treatment. 4. Free content shouldn t involve a high barrier to entry People are willing to jump through hoops after they have discovered there is value on the other side. This means the first free content a prospect discovers should have zero barriers to consumption. 5. Free content shouldn t cover advanced topics with many prerequisites If you need a degree and a spy decoder ring to understand your free content, then people will not put in the effort. They might even think bad things about you. Your job is to help, not confuse people or impress them with your massive intellect. 6. Free content shouldn t require hard work by the reader People will put in effort once they are sure there will be a substantial pay off. But if a reader has only just discovered you, then they will lose interest long before they start seeing results, in which case you will have lost their attention and trust. To recap: **- Free content shouldn t be too complete Free content shouldn t reveal too much of the how Free content shouldn t provide free access Free content shouldn t involve a high barrier to entry Free content shouldn t cover advanced topics with many prerequisites Free content shouldn t require hard work by the reader** The bottom line People worry about this issue of which content to sell and what to give away for free. And yes, it involves a lot of subjective judgment. But the good news is that I have yet to find someone who has given away too much. I don t believe it is possible to be too helpful or too generous provided you manage your time and energy, and that people know you are in business. As I mentioned earlier, you can give away everything you know and there will still be people who want to hear it from you and who will pay you to help them implement it. So share your best ideas, build your Minimum Viable Audience, and then make offers at the appropriate time. It works. Now stick around for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action There are a lot of different directions we could go in for this week s call to action. Let s do this I want you to take a look at your free content. And analyze it through the prism of the six elements Chris Garrett advised that your free content should NOT be: It shouldn t be too complete It shouldn t reveal too much of the how It shouldn t provide free access It shouldn t involve a high barrier to entry It shouldn t cover advanced topics with many prerequisites It shouldn t require hard work by the reader Decide if you need to adjust your free content offering to avoid doing any of those six things. Are you making your info too complete? Are you revealing the how? Are you giving away too much access to yourself? (I fight this problem often). Are you requiring too much of your free content consumers — to the point where they are dissuaded from truly engaging with your content? Chances are there is at least one of these elements that you can improve upon. Determine which one it is and then enact a plan to improve on it! Okay — coming next week, we move from strategy back to content. One thing that you want your free AND your paid content to be is seductive. We ll discuss how content marketing works to seduce browsers into audience members and audience members into customers in next week s edition of Sites. I hope you ll join me. Finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

As wonderful as plugins can be, it s wise to use patience and discretion when choosing which ones you will use and which ones you will pass over or replace. In this episode, I will present you with a simple decision tree, in the form of a few short questions, to help you decide whether you should install that plugin or move on. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter Original blog post: How Creativity Can Kill a Good Website Design by Rafal Tomal The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome back to another episode of Sites. So glad to have you here with me. Last week, we discussed how creativity can kill a good website design. As I mentioned in that episode, it seems kind of ironic that creativity can have a negative impact on your web design because creativity is generally good thing. But as we all know from other walks of life, too much of a good thing can often turn into something not so good. The same is true for plugins. Now let me be clear: like creativity, plugins are generally a GOOD thing. In fact, plugins are one of the best elements of running a WordPress site. Solid, well-coded plugins extend the power and capability of WordPress far beyond what it can do out of the box. For the vast majority of us who use WordPress, plugins aren t just a nice option to have — they actually provide essential functionality that we wouldn t be able to run our websites without. So what s the problem? Well, beneath the sunshine and daffodils, plugins do have a dark side. They require updates. Sometimes they don t play nicely with other plugins or your theme. They can introduce security holes into your website. They can get out of date and stop working with newer versions of WordPress. Plugins that were once cutting edge can become obsolete. Worst of all, they can be abandoned by their developers. I don t say all of this to scare you. But I do bring this up to open your eyes to the reality of hosting plugins on your WordPress website. The WordPress plugin repository is a fantastical place. It s like Willy Wonka s Chocolate Factory for WordPress owners. But you can t just gobble up everything in sight. If you do, your website will get bloated, which can lead to performance degradation on the front end for visitors and on the back end when you re in your dashboard. Plus, you will be committing yourself to all kinds of extra time and worry when it comes to maintenance and updates. This is one reason why hosting your site with a provider who offers recommended plugins is so nice. For example, StudioPress Sites has recommended plugins for a bunch of different features: building landing pages, running affiliate programs, managing membership communities, etc. The plugins have all been vetted to ensure they work well in the Sites hosting environment, and they are accessible via one-click install from any Sites website dashboard. It s peace of mind and convenience, to help you get the essential features you need. But if your host doesn t offer recommended plugins, or you need a feature that isn t among the plugins recommended, then you re going to need to install one on your own. And the bottom line is that as wonderful as plugins can be, it s wise to use patience and discretion, and even consider a minimalist s mentality when choosing which plugins you will use and which ones you will pass over or replace. In this episode, I will present you with a simple decision tree, in the form of a few short questions, to help you decide whether you should install that plugin or move on, so that you can experience the benefits of plugins while avoiding the potential catastrophes they can bring to your site. 5 Questions to Help You Avoid a Catastrophic Plugin Decision Here is the first question to ask yourself: 1. Are you willing and able to keep your plugins updated? If your answer to this question is no, then just stop right now. You have to keep your plugins updated. It s the only way to keep your site safe and functioning. WordPress is always being updated, and new security threats are always emerging. This means that plugin developers have to be constantly updating their plugins to make them up-to-date and compatible with WordPress, as well as secure as possible from the ever-present risk of hacking. If you re not going to keep your eyes peeled and stay vigilant, so that when plugin alert notices happen you take action, then you re not a responsible enough WordPress owner to use plugins. I m sorry — that may seem harsh, but it s true. Okay, can you answer in the affirmative to number one? Then you can move on to number two: 2. What problem are you trying to solve? This can be a problem for your audience members who visit your site, for customers who make purchases on your site, or even for yourself when it comes to managing your site. There are plugins of all shapes and sizes that do endless multitudes of things. But notice the wording of the question. It s very specific. What problem are you trying to solve? It s not: what feature would you like to add? Or, what element would be cool to have on your website? Or, what is my competitor doing so I can match them? No. What problem are you trying to solve? For example, one of the first plugins I often put on my WordPress sites is a Google Analytics plugin. Why do I do this via plugin instead of just pasting the Analytics code into my theme file? Well, because I know I m likely to change my theme in the future. And if I do that, and then forget to add the Analytics code to the new theme, then I ll lose data. I don t want that to happen. That s a problem. Adding a plugin helps me solve that problem. What problem are you trying to solve that a plugin can be the answer for? If you can t identify the problem, then you shouldn t even start trying to identify the plugin. If you have a defined answer to number two, then you can move on to question number three 3. Are there plugin options that actually solve your problem? Note that I said options, with an s. Not just option. It s easy to get into a hurry when you re building your website. You don t want to spend time on plugins. You want to spend time on your content, and building connections with your audience. So it can be tempting to find the first plugin that purports to offer a solution to your problem, install it, and move on. Don t. This is an easy way to make a less than optimal choice. There can be multiple solutions for the same problem. And they may all work adequately, but one may be more optimal for your particular situation and website than another. Research the different options, judge the features against what you need for your site, and then make an informed decision rather than a default one — which is what you d be doing if you just pick the first plugin that pops up. Of course, your research could uncover that no plugins solve your problem. This is why it s so important to be clear about the problem you re trying to solve. Because while it might be disappointing to not find a quick fix with a plugin, it s much better than having a vague idea of the problem and then being tempted to install any old plugin that you think might solve it. No. It s better to be clear about what you re looking for, so then you can be clear about whether you find it or not. And if you don t, good. At least you know. And if the problem is important enough, you still have options. You can hire a developer to build you a custom solution — or you can go back to the drawing board and reconsider whether the problem is really that important, or if there is another way to work toward a solution for it. Remember: sometimes constraints are blessings in disguise. Okay, so you ve identified the problem you re trying to solve, and you have identified plugins that solve this problem. What next? 4. Are any of the plugin options trustworthy? What do I mean when I say trustworthy? I mean can you count on it. How do you know? Ask yourself a few of these questions, all of which can be answered in fairly short order: Is there any social proof suggesting many different site owners have used this plugin successfully? Does this plugin developer show a track record of success? Is the plugin updated often? Is support offered? (Understand that you may have to pay a premium to get plugin support. It s often worth it. Don t let that scare you.) If you re looking at a plugin, but the number of sites it s installed on is in the hundreds, not the hundreds of thousands, or it s the first plugin of a developer you don t know, or it hasn t been updated in the past few months I d run in the other direction. Why risk it? Chances are there are other options, or it will be worth paying for something custom. The risk just isn t worth the potential reward if you re going to be living in constant fear of a plugin breaking or becoming obsolete. And remember: the problem you re trying to solve with this plugin should be an important one. So if it could simply break or stop working without your site being impacted, my question is why are you even installing it in the first place? And finally, the fourth question you should ask yourself about a plugin before thinking you re done and ready to move on 5. Does installing and activating the plugin break anything? This is a big step people often forget. I know I have in the past. Usually it doesn t come back to bite me, but every now and then it does. Just because you download a plugin, install it, activate it, and adjust all of the settings does not necessarily mean everything is working well. Things can go wrong. Plugins can interact weirdly with different versions of WordPress or different themes. Sometimes they place code or text in places you didn t anticipate. To be safe, just expect the unexpected and then make sure that you take a quick tour of your site after installing any plugins. Check the home page, click around to some content pages, scroll down to your footer, etc. Everything look okay? Good. It s always smart to check. Don t be lulled into a false sense of security. Even a 5-star plugin might have an issue with the particular configuration of YOUR website. So just do your due diligence. Once again, here are the five questions you should ask yourself to avoid potential plugin catastrophes: Are you willing and able to keep your plugins updated? What problem are you trying to solve? Are there plugin options that actually solve your problem? Are any of the plugin options trustworthy? Does installing and activating the plugin break anything on your site? Now stick around. It s time for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action For this week s call to action, I want you to review your plugins. All of them. Go down the list and identify the problem that each one solves. Every time you can define a specific problem that it solves, great! Keep that plugin. But if you get to a plugin that doesn t solve a specific problem, or upon further review the problem is actually not that important, then consider removing it. The upside is one less plugin to have to worry about an update, plus one less potential area of exploit for hackers, and a little bit less bloat on your website. Can you get rid of a plugin or two? My guess is that if you ve never done an exercise like this, you probably can. Okay — coming next week, we move on from technology back to strategy. And we discuss one of my all-time favorite and most oft-recommended articles ever written on Copyblogger. It was written by Chris Garrett. The title: How to Decide Which Content to Sell and What to Give Away for Free. That s next week on Sites. Finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

There comes a point for any website when more creativity actually becomes too much, and becomes a negative. In this episode, we discuss a couple of important points to keep in mind so that creativity with your web design doesn t harm your users experience. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter Original blog post: How Creativity Can Kill a Good Website Design by Rafal Tomal The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome to Episode 14 of Sites. Last week, we discussed how to create content that deeply engages our audience. One element of content that is deeply engaging is, of course, creativity. You aren t going to capture attention, and keep it, if you re saying the same thing everyone else is — and saying it in the same way everyone else is. So creativity is unequivocally a good thing. But like any good thing — basketball, beer ballroom dancing — indulging in too much of it can have negative consequences. This is especially true when it comes to creativity and web design. Now you may be thinking, Wait a minute, why wouldn t I want the most creative web design possible? Won t that help me break through the noise, differentiate myself, and get much-needed attention? Sure to a point. The key is knowing where that point is. Because after that point, additional creativity may no longer be helping your web design. It might actually be killing it. That is the thesis of Rafal Tomal s blog post titled How Creativity Can Kill a Good Website Design. He wrote it in February of 2016. I m reading it here in September of 2017. And while the post is written to an audience of designers — and you may not consider yourself a designer — it s still relevant to you. Because if you re creating a website, then you have to pick a design and tweak it, or you have to hire a designer. And that means you need to have some idea where the line is between the right amount of creativity and too much of it. Here, now, is my reading of Rafal Tomal s blog post: How Creativity Can Kill a Good Website Design. I ve adapted it slightly for clarity. Make sure you stick around after the reading, as I ll have this week s hyper-specific call to action for you. How Creativity Can Kill a Good Website Design How in the world could being too creative kill your design? I always thought the more creative someone is, the better designer he or she must be. Then, I started studying design more and realized that it s actually not all about creativity. Most of us start as visual designers, and then we grow and learn more about user interface, conversion, user experience, accessibility, or usability. Your creativity brought you here and that made you interested in design, but if you really want to evolve and become a better designer, be aware that being too creative may actually hurt your design work. How? Because we re designing for users — not ourselves. The sooner you realize this, the better. User psychology is a complicated subject, but one thing is for sure: people by default are lazy and will look for the least-resistant way to accomplish their task. Layouts that are too complicated, solutions that are too creative, and reinvented wheels won t make your users life easier. So, how can we find a good balance between a creative, artistic, and original design while still making it intuitive, maintaining usability, and providing good results for the business? Here are a couple of ways … 1. Start with a prototype in mind According to Google s research, users prefer websites that look both simple (low complexity) and familiar (high prototypicality). People make their aesthetic judgment on your design in less than 50 milliseconds. That first impression can tell them if they want to stay or leave your website or how they feel about your brand and product. As Javier Bargas-Avila, Senior User Experience Researcher at YouTube UX Research, said: Designs that contradict what users typically expect of a website may hurt users first impression and damage their expectations. You ve probably seen thousands of different websites by now. If I asked you to draw a layout of a blog website, it would probably look something like this: A header area with logo to the left and nav menu to the right A sidebar to the right with a CTA box at the top Then to the left in the body section is the main content area We could repeat this exercise with almost every kind of website: e-commerce, a doctor s office, university, portfolio, magazine, etc. A prototype of a blog website has the content area on the left side and the sidebar on the right side. The sidebar has widgets that mostly includes the email sign-up form as the first one. Does every blog look like that? No, but most of them do and that s why this is a prototypical image of a blog layout. When people visit your blog and want to sign up for your email newsletter, their expectation will be to find it in the right hand sidebar. How convenient is it when they find it right there and how frustrating would it be if it s not there? I believe it s always good to start designing with a prototype in mind. Then, you can alter it from there and test different ideas and decide how much you can afford to change the original look. Variation 1 might be a special widget just below the header that spans the content area and sidebar with a CTA box Variation 2 might be a footer widget with the CTA box Variation 3 might be the sidebar flipped to the left side. Of course, everything depends on your targeted audience. If you re designing a website for creative people, their expectations may be completely different. Looking at a prototypical website could be too boring for them and they may actually be open to a more creative approach from you. On the other hand, if you re designing for a non-specified group of users, you may want to go a safer route and stick as close to the prototypical design as possible. Being too creative here could actually hurt the basic expectations, which would lead to confusion and result in abandoning your website. So that is point #1: Design with a prototype in mind. Now let s discuss point #2 2. Don t make your users think There are many established web conventions and standards like the placement of your logo, navigation, search bar, or login link. There are even conventions for an icon s meaning, website element names, (e.g. Home, Sitemap, Contact), button styles, layout and visual hierarchy. All of these standards will help your users to navigate and find what they need much faster. Try to always stick to some of the most popular conventions and use your creativity elsewhere. Avoid reinventing the wheel. You don t want to change your users expectations from where the navigation is or make them wonder what that icon means. Remember that users are looking for the least resistant way to accomplish their task. So, simply don t make them think. Every website has its own level of user interface complexity and a certain amount of content. The more complex your interface is and the more content you have, the more energy it requires from visitors to explore the website. There are some exceptions when you may want to break the web conventions on purpose. Maybe you know exactly who your audience is and the goal of your website is to entertain and create an environment where your users are having fun exploring your creative ideas. You ve probably seen many clever portfolio websites with an original navigation or a horizontal scroll instead of vertical. It is fun to explore these and I m sure all other designers enjoy it too. It is OK in this circumstance. Similar creative approaches certainly wouldn t work for a local library or hospital website, where many users are older people or less experienced web users and they don t have time or energy to play with your design. Again, I would strongly recommend to start designing with the conventions in mind, and then try to alter some elements, after testing them first. Don t just trust your own gut see what your users think. If you can afford to come up with completely new design solutions, then you should be able to afford to test the usability of that solution as well. So, point #1 is to design with a prototype in mind. Point #2 is to not make your users think at least, not think in terms of how to use your website. You d rather them spend that time and energy thinking about your content and your ideas, not how to go to the next page. Now here s the final point … Use your creativity mostly in visual design So, where is the fun part of designing websites if you can t be too creative in many of the previously mentioned aspects? You can be and should be creative when it comes to the visual design. Try different color schemes or interesting font combinations. You can play with spacing, visual balance, and hierarchy. Design original illustrations or clever hover and scrolling effects. Look for creative ways to simplify your design. Minimalism is not about hiding features or content, but about doing less, just doing it better. Yes, actually simplifying design very often needs more creativity than making it complex. Help your users to complete the same tasks in a shorter amount time using fewer steps. Come up with creative ways to solve your users problems or to increase the conversion rate by breaking your visual patterns and directing your users right into your call-to-action. There is so much room for creativity in these areas while still sticking to design conventions, standards and common website prototypes. Don t get me wrong be creative and have fun designing websites. Just be careful how and where you use your creativity so it won t work against you. Now stick around. It s time for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action For this week s call to action, I want you to think about Rafal s two big points from this episode: #1 — Design with a prototype in mind #2 — Don t make your users think I want you to think about them in relation to your website and your audience. What do your users expect when they visit your website? Are you giving it to them? Consider whether there are standard website elements you don t currently have. Ask some people who are representative of your audience members to use your website. Do they have to think too much? Try to identify an element of your website that would be a simple tweak but that would make it conform better to audience expectations and/or make the experience of using your website better. Any improvement along these lines will make your site easier for users to interface with, which is going to bring them closer to taking you up on your calls to action. And, as always, please feel encouraged to report back to me on Twitter. What did you learn by following through with this week s hyper-specific Call to Action? I want to know! Okay — coming next week, we move on from design to technology. We re going to talk about plugins. They are one of the greatest elements of WordPress. And they are one of the most worrisome and terrifying elements of WordPress. Let s discuss now to navigate those two extremes comfortably, shall we? That s next week on Sites. Finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.