Red Kite Creative

The “Minding Your Business” Blog

Working from Home for the First Time?

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Working from homeI’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 them a habit. Ask others in the house not to interrupt you during these times if at all possible and avoid the temptations of social media or web surfing.
  • Take breaks. Breaks are critical! If the weather’s nice, get outside. Take the dog for a walk. Go for a bike ride. I can’t stand being stuck to my desk for more than an hour or two – even a quick 5-minute walk can help a lot.
  • Establish a routine. For me I check email first thing, then at lunch, then late in the afternoon. When I finish for the day I shut down my apps and don’t look at work stuff again until the next day. Keep a separation between work and real life.
  • Do what makes it feel ‘official’ to you. Get a time tracker (lots of phone apps, or something like Harvest which I’ve used for years).
  • Protect your space. Work in a room with a closed door if you have one to clearly define your space. Use music to shut out other noise or to help you get in the zone.
  • Be social. This is a hard one right now – meeting up with others IRL but staying 6 ft. away. Having human contact is important when you work solo, but be careful for the next while. Connect with your team or clients or customers online or over the phone, too.

More resources for working at home:

Weekly Links Roundup – Podcasting Mics, WordPress Updates, Social Media Marketing

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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 everyone (including hackers) to learn about the vulnerabilities in old versions of the software. Here’s an example of that from May 2019. So if you’re not up to date, hackers have a roadmap to exploiting your website.

(If you need help with updates (as well as backups, security, high-quality hosting and much more) sign up for one of our WordPress Care Plans and get 10% off any monthly plan when you sign up in March with coupon code O1485GNVFH.)

If you’re thinking about getting started with social media marketing, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed. Where do you begin? That’s a great question and here’s a post that tries to answer it. Start with a clear goal (get people to see your products; share promotions; show how customers love your services) and then think about the content types you want to share. The social media platform(s) you choose to concentrate on must fit with your brand, what you want to publish, and what your customers are using. This is a great article for starting out!

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Should You Use a Page Builder in Your WordPress Site?

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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 code they inject into pages and posts. And I’ve seen how they can destroy the consistency of a site’s look when a client’s team creates a different layout on every page.

I prefer creating the custom fields that support the content a client needs to display, making it super-easy for them to work with, rather than giving them a tool with 100 different layout options and wishing them luck.

However, not all page builders are the same. And now there’s Gutenberg, a page builder built right into WordPress. I’m overall neutral on Gutenberg, though I have used it from time to time for things I once needed a plugin to do quickly.

Here’s a recent article about page builders and (in the author’s opinion) why they may not always be a good choice. And for a more balanced view, here are the pros and cons on using page builders in WordPress. Read before you decide, because once you commit it may be hard to unwind it later.

Weekly Links Roundup – WordPress and SEO, Google or Facebook Ads, Blogging, Getting Testimonials

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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 your business? This is a big article with a lot of info and it may provide the answers you need to move forward with your ad buys.

Here is yet another ultimate guide to blogging, but this one from Yoast is an easy read. It covers everything from how to get started and what to write about to marketing and maintaining your blog.

Finally… I always encourage clients to collect and share customer testimonials on their websites. Whether they are within your site (my favorite plugin for managing them is Strong Testimonials) or on a third-party site like Google Reviews, it’s easy to display them on your site and gain the credibility and trust benefits. Learn how to get good testimonials from your customers.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Great Photos, Free Stock Photos, CCPA Compliance

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Are you a stickler for great imagery on your website to show off your products or services to the max? Or is it just one of those things that doesn’t get a lot of attention – you either have little imagery or use photos you took on your phone? Whichever camp you’re in, the quality of your site images says a lot about your business. Learn why having great images is so important to giving a professional impression to your customers and how high-quality photos improve your credibility.

To follow up, here’s a review of 10 sources for free stock photos that have pretty good variety in their collections.

By now, you’re likely very familiar with GDPR (the European regulations that improve consumer privacy and control over personal information). Now we have the CCPA, the California Consumer Protection Act. CCPA is similar to GDPR but compliance will require you make some additional changes in your website, especially if you have customers in CA.

Many smaller business will not be impacted because they don’t meet at least one of the thresholds, which are:

  • annual gross revenues of $25 million;
  • annually buy, sell, receive, or share for commercial purposes the personal information of 50,000 or more consumers, households, or devices; or
  • derive 50 percent or more of its annual revenues from selling consumers’ personal information.

However, it’s still a good idea to get familiar with the new regulations because we’ll likely see more of these in the future. Learn how to make your WordPress site comply with CCPA.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.

Weekly Links Roundup – Top CRMs, Polling Plugins, Nonprofit Content Strategy, Local SEO

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Do you currently use CRM (customer relationship management) software for your small business that you like? Tell us about it in the comments below!

But if you don’t, and you’re looking for one, here’s a review of 9 top CRM software tools for businesses. CRMs help you track notes, leads, contact info and much more for each of your customers. I use Freshworks for my helpdesk so am looking into Freshsales by the same company.

Would you like to collect visitor feedback or run surveys on your site? Of course there are plugins for that! Learn how to use a WordPress polling plugin on your site. The linked post contains reviews and usage info for a number of popular polling plugins.

If you run a website for a nonprofit, this is for you – learn about content strategy for nonprofits, including the planning, development and deployment of your site’s content.

Finally… Brightlocal (a company that provides services geared to improving local SEO) did a big study of the Google Analytics data of over 11,000 local businesses to look for trends. Although over 92% of consumers search for local businesses online,what’s “normal” traffic for one industry may be completely different for another. As you might have guessed, car dealerships, restaurants, hotels, entertainment and local stores got the most inquiries, while cleaning, marketing, and landscaping companies were at the low end of traffic.  How did your company’s Analytics stack up against the others in your industry? Let us know in the comments below.

Did you find this information useful? Please share with your friends and colleagues! And comment below with questions or observations.