Posts Tagged ‘wordpress’

Is An Easy Site Builder for You?

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

I got an email from a customer the other day that I thought would be helpful to some of you. If you’re looking to build a website and haven’t decided on which tool to use it might give you some direction.

“I just started a new site on Internet Based Family, but I’m finding that I can’t do the things I want with it–like HTML version newsletters and placing ads and/or banners along the margins or even in sections of the page. I think this is due to the limitation of the site builder program.

Now, I’m looking into Mom Webs. It looks like it would give me more features that I want.

I do well learning new programs on the computer even though I don’t know HTML.

Do you think Mom Webs would be a better choice for me?“

The Easy Site Builder can be somewhat limiting. Of course, it’s a great fit for certain people. More on that later.

First, it’s important to explain that MomWebs is a webhost – meaning they just host your files on the internet, they provide web space for your website.

You still have to figure out how you’re actually going to build and manage your site.

Wordpress is my website building tool of choice. I’m using it for all my sites now. It’s easy to use and adding content is a breeze.

However, if you’re not comfortable with the technical aspects of installing Wordpress and fiddling with the code that runs Wordpress, you might want someone else to build it. I use FreshNets for my Wordpress work and highly recommend their services.

Does That Mean Site Builders Are Bad?

Not at all.

Different tools are right for different jobs.Bucket Buddy

I still recommend the Internet Based Family site builder to certain people.

For instance, someone who has an offline business who just wants a good looking website to display their contact info, services, directions, about page, maybe a few articles.

It’s perfect for this type of business owner because they don’t have to wait on someone else to add a page to their site.

I run into this all the time – people pay thousands of dollars to have a beautiful site built, and then have to wait a month for someone to update their site when their business hours change or they need to make some quick, simple update to their site. Why wait and pay for someone else to do this?

It’s also risky not to OWN your domain and site, which may be the case if you hire it out to a web developer.

For online business owners though, it’s limiting, which is why I recommend WordPress exclusively for people who want to build an online business.

Different tools for different needs.

Creative Commons License photo credit: tornatore

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Why I Prefer Wordpress

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

I know, I know… this is a funny post on a Blogger blog. LOL! But as I mentioned, I’m in the process of moving this blog to Wordpress and have been blogging on several other sites powered by Wordpress.

Since this week on Moms Morning Show we’ve been featuring “Having Fun and Making Money with Wordpress“, I thought I would share a couple of the reasons why I prefer Wordpress so much. The two features that I love the most are:

  • Post scheduling.
  • Post slug.

Post scheduling means that you can write write write to your blog on those days you have a lot to say, and Wordpress will schedule them to publish when you want them to. This is an awesome feature!

I think all of us have those particularly chatty weeks when we have lots to say, and then we have other weeks (or months!) where our blog is lonely and quiet. The post scheduling feature means this is no big deal.

Post slug is another cool WP feature that is also search engine friendly. You want your post title to be interesting and a little catchy so you can grab the reader’s attention, but your post filename (the .html part) needs to have keywords in it that tells the search engines what your post is about.

WP has many more cool features that I love. For one, Blogger often bogs down (maybe due to the sheer number of splogs (spam blogs) on Blogger?) and takes forever to publish. I never have problems publishing to my WP blogs.

Right now I’m in the progress of having a VA move a couple of my sites to Wordpress, including this one. Stay tuned for changes around here. :)

Moms Talk Radio

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What Is Positive Thinking Really?

Friday, February 8th, 2008

All this talk on Mom’s Morning Show this week about being positive has got me thinking a lot about the topic and what it really means to be positive.

On Thursday the 7th we talked about what to do when “technical difficulties” get you down, and Kelly made the statement that sometimes, a wahm is just plain using the wrong tool for the job.

Being positive doesn’t mean that you ignore what’s going wrong. It means you don’t let it get you down. It also means you take action to solve the problem!

Here’s an example of finding the right tool for the job.

I’ve written before about the various website building tools available and the potential benefits of each, as well as the possible drawbacks. From this point forward, I doubt I’ll be using a site builder, Frontpage or XSitePro to build my sites.

That doesn’t mean I don’t like those tools or that I won’t recommend them to others. It simply means that I’ve outgrown those tools.

To make it easier to get why this is so, let’s use the example of your home. Perhaps when you left your parent’s home, you moved in with a roommate. You had a small (maybe dumpy) apartment that you shared. The price was right and with thrift stores and dumpster diving, you pulled together enough furniture to give it that eclectic look. ;)

When you got married you might have purchased a small starter home. It was cute and cozy and perfect for entertaining. But once the kids started to arrive, you realized you didn’t have a back yard for the dog and kids to play in or enough bedrooms, so as your family grew, you moved into a larger, 3 bedroom home with a family room instead of a formal dining room.

Then when the kids are out of the house, it’s just you and hubs and you’re entering the golden years, you might move to a condo so you don’t have to worry about lawn care. You also don’t need as much space anymore.

See what I’m getting at?

Some website building tools like a site builder are perfect for beginners. XSitePro is great for medium sized affiliate sites or sales pages. Others like Wordpress are excellent for blogs and content sites, especially for the more seasoned online business owner who is outsourcing a lot and who wants the bells and whistles WP offers.

So there’s no right or wrong tool per se, but as your business (and you) grow, you may change the tools you use to get the job done.

Visit Moms Talk Radio for more day to day inspiration for working at home.

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