Red Kite Creative

Social Media

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.

Weekly Links Roundup – WordPress Care Plans for Agencies, Landing Page Copy, Link Building Tips, Optimizing LinkedIn

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

I’m happy to announce the launch of our new WordPress Care Plans for Agencies at WP Minder (Red Kite’s sister company). If you’re the owner of a WordPress agency struggling with keeping client sites in good working order, or looking to offload your WordPress maintenance, please check out that link – maybe we can help each other out!

Writing great copy that engages readers can be hard. Here’s a list of top 10 tips for writing landing page copy that converts (makes users buy, sign up, or do whatever it is you want them to do). The most important may be keeping the content focused on the one goal you want the client to complete.

Link building is hard too. It’s necessary to drive traffic to your site, but it’s also time-consuming and can be very frustrating. But here’s a post from ProBlogger on how to eat that elephant one bite at a time. This looks promising. Learn how to build hundreds of backlinks in just 5 minutes per day.

And finally… this is a big post on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile. Not on LinkedIn? If you’re a business serving other businesses, you should be – LinkedIn’s search can drive traffic to your profile that may result in professional relationships and new clients. That’s why it’s important to tweak your profile so it gives the best picture of who you are and what you have to offer.

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

Weekly Links Roundup – Store Locator Plugins, Plugin Roundup, Social Media, Screenshots Tool

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

If you have multiple brick-and-mortar locations, a really useful feature you can add to your WordPress site is a store locator – a map showing pins for each of your locations. Clicking on a pin opens up address and other info about that location. Here’s a small roundup of 5 top store locator plugins. I’ve used Store Locator on a few sites, pretty easy to use, but these other plugins also look promising.

And speaking of WordPress plugins, here’s a big review of the single best plugin across many categories. While I agree with many of the selected winners, the one I differ with is the best forms plugin. IMO it’s Gravity Forms, and has been for years. Gravity Forms is a commercial plugin currently priced at $59/yr for one site.

If you’re evaluating your social media strategy – or just jumping in with social media for your business – this post on choosing the right social media platform for your business might help. You can’t do everything; this post and infographic can help you decide how to spend your time efficiently. Reviews Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

Finally… here’s a neat tool I was introduced to in a tech support chat this week. Snaggy is a great free tool for creating and sharing screenshots, perfect for chat.

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

Weekly Links Roundup – Ashburn VA, Adobe Apps, Forms, Remarketing

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Ever noticed, if you’re like most Google Analytics users, how much traffic you get from Ashburn, VA? Turns out Ashburn is a big technology center – 70% of the world’s Internet traffic flows through there; about 2.2 trillion Google searches per day.

Adobe’s app subscriptions are undeniably expensive. Photoshop by itself is $33.99/mo for businesses (right now). The first time I bought Photoshop it was in a box with a bunch of other Creative Suite apps for around $600. But anyway, there are alternatives for everything. Here’s a post on 27 free alternatives to Adobe subscription apps. I can also recommend the Affinity products – not free, but solid photo and illustration tools at a low cost.

Here is an interesting post on how form length affects conversions – and it’s not just form length that can have a negative impact. Sometimes longer forms do better, it all depends on a mix of factors.

You’ve probably heard about remarketing (if you’re not using it already) – but you may not be so sure what it is. This is a great intro – learn how to get started with remarketing using Google Ads and Facebook. Basically, remarketing is like getting a second chance to connect to potential customers who already know who you are, such as people who visited your site but didn’t make a conversion.

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

Weekly Links Roundup – Blog Comments, HTTPS Problems, Website Ownership, Social Media Marketing

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The top website and online marketing links of the week.

Everything you ever wanted to know about comments in WordPress – what they are and how to manage them. If you’ve decided not to allow commenting in your blog or are currently on the fence about it, check out this post on allowing blog comments or not which has some actual data behind it. Ultimately it’s your decision about what’s best for your site.

Have you made the big switch to HTTPS – bought or gotten a free SSL certificate, had it installed on your site, and done what you read were the correct steps to follow – and still you can’t get that stupid padlock to show up correctly in the address bar? Frustrating, isn’t it? If you’re the DIY type, here’s a tool for you. Why No Padlock will help you track down what’s causing the mixed content errors on your website so you can finally bring closure to your HTTPS odyssey.

Who owns your website? Careful here: it may not be you. I’ve had a few clients in the past receive a very rude awakening when they decided to move to WordPress. Learn why you should avoid proprietary website platforms (especially for your business) and always have your very own site on your very own hosting account.

And finally… Are you using social media to market your small business? Maybe you have a Facebook business page, or a Twitter account. But do you know really what you’re doing, so you make the most of your time? Here’s a great post from one of my favorite Internet marketing experts on effectively marketing your small business on social media.

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