The top website and online marketing links of the week. Selling online? Check out this detailed post on how to write a good product description. A persuasive product description might be the very last chance you have to convince a potential customer to buy – just like high-quality photos are critical for ecommerce sites, so are well-written product descriptions. Here’s an interesting post about button design that I found when working on a new theme this week. Have you ever thought about the differences between rounded vs. sharp-angled buttons – especially if you use a plugin for creating lots of… Continue Reading
The “Minding Your Business” Blog
Passivity Toward Clients
Back around Christmas I got a Samsung Galaxy Active 2 watch to replace my old Garmin Vivofit. The watch is really nice, it has completely replaced my Garmin devices including a 230 running watch – so much better than that. But it has one really strange problem that I encountered the first time I used my ski machine. The watch connects to Samsung Health on a phone. I like this better than Garmin’s Connect dashboard. In the watch when you work out, you can choose from a lot of different workouts from walking to running to lifting to hiking to… Continue Reading
Tips for Extracting a Site from WordPress Multisite
A few weeks ago, I had a waking nightmare. It started early one Tuesday afternoon and went well into the evening, and it was brought on by my casual agreement to help a client migrate one of three sites out of a WordPress Multisite installation to a standalone install. It started off so innocently… (FYI, if you’re not familiar with Multisite, it’s a tool for setting up a network of WordPress sites all managed from the same admin dashboard. Learn all about Multisite.) We originally set this Multisite installation up about 7-8 years ago as it seemed like the perfect… Continue Reading
Did Your Site Get Blacklisted by Norton Safe Web?
One of my sites was blacklisted by Norton Safe Web last week. A client’s site was blacklisted two days after launch. Both have no malware and are not blacklisted anywhere else – a sure sign that Norton is doing something very different than all the other blacklisting services. Here’s how Norton describes their ‘service.’ While I’m sure there are legitimate flaggings going on, the only ones I’ve encountered so far are not. Sucuri confirms that Norton is sending out ‘false positives’ in a chat I had with them today: ‘Regarding the Norton blacklist alert, Norton systems have been flagging a… Continue Reading
Working from Home for the First Time?
I’ve been working from home since 2005 so it’s nothing new for me. But for those experiencing it for the first time, it can be frustrating. You may feel distracted, that’s a big problem. Or you may have family in the house and feel like you’re getting interrupted and not being productive. Here are some things that I’ve learned – they work for me, and may help you. Try to find your own work/life rhythm. Define working hours. Doesn’t matter when they are – middle of the night, early afternoon, whatever works for you. But stick to them and make… Continue Reading
Weekly Links Roundup – Podcasting Mics, WordPress Updates, Social Media Marketing
The top website and online marketing links of the week. Thinking about starting a podcast? Or already doing one, but need to upgrade your gear? Here’s a review of the top 10 podcast microphones and some reasons to justify getting one! Do you keep your WordPress website up to date? A recent study showed that only 36% of WordPress users have the latest version of the core software installed. That’s a big security problem. Did you know that the WordPress folks publish the details about the reasons for each update they publish in their changelog? That makes it easy for… Continue Reading
Should You Use a Page Builder in Your WordPress Site?
I’m not a big fan of page builders – those tools that help you create just about any kind of layout you can dream up in WordPress – mostly due to the bad experiences of my few clients that once used them. I’ve seen firsthand the huge mess of cruft (unnecessary code) left behind all over the site when someone decided to remove the page builder plugin; extracting the content is a painful, time-consuming job. I’ve seen clients frustrated by too many decisions. I’ve seen how they can slow a site to a standstill with the large amount of additional… Continue Reading
Weekly Links Roundup – WordPress and SEO, Google or Facebook Ads, Blogging, Getting Testimonials
The top website and online marketing links of the week. It’s true that WordPress is my favorite CMS (content management system). That doesn’t mean it’s the right CMS for every business. However, WordPress may be one of the best CMS platforms for SEO. Learn what makes WordPress so SEO-friendly and why it may be a good fit for your business if search engine optimization is important to you. If you’re considering advertising your business on social media, you have some big questions to answer. One of them may be where to advertise. Are Google Ads or Facebook Ads better for… Continue Reading