In content delivery be the tortoise, not the hare.
Welcome to the last installment in a three-part blog series about how to ensure you’re reaching all members of your target audience, taking their content processing preferences into consideration. (Click here for the first installment and here for the second.)
Last Thursday I gave you some ideas of ways you can diversify the content you create for your business, in an effort to reach more members of your target audience and today I have some more suggestions for you.
- Don’t forget the dessert. Not all readers are created equal and they don’t all utilize RSS feeds. Offer your readers another option that allows your readers to subscribe to your blog via email. Feedburner offers this option within your administrative settings. But if you really want to show off, Aweber takes this to another level by allowing you to create Blog Broadcasts! Similar to a Broadcast message, the same where you would send out your e-Zine, a Blog Broadcast allows you to use or create your own custom template (hello…branding!) and send your blog posts out to subscribers at whatever intervals you choose. I use it on my blog and love that it is totally automated so my subscribers never miss a post…you know…because they’re so busy they may not have time to visit my blog to see what’s new.
- Articles. There are many ways to get your content out there and publishing your articles to various sources is definitely a must. How do you do this? Let me count the ways: 1) submit them to article directories, 2) republish your e-Zine’s main article to your blog, 3) republish your e-Zine’s main article to its own web page, thus creating an article directory on your own site, 4) create an RSS feed specifically for this article directory that people can subscribe to, and 5) allow others to use your content in their own publications – just remember to specify the rules first.
- Give your content a voice. When you’re ready, try adding audio and/or video to your content. People can read your e-Zine, blog, or articles all over the Internet, but nothing compares to being able to hear or see you. No, it may not be live and in person, but it is definitely the next best thing to being there. With video and audio, people can relate to you so much better, they can feel your enthusiasm, and they can hear the tone in your voice.
To say that your business should encompass ALL of the above and suggestions I offered last week might be a stretch…or is it? You’re not expected to create all of these forms of distribution in a day…a week…or even a month. Can it be done? Sure, but it isn’t necessary. Remember the Tortoise & the Hare? Slow and steady wins the race, and if you can begin incorporating just one new form of content distribution each month, or every other month, then you have a powerful, viral mechanism to grow your business, increase your subscribers, and build a following.
Start spreadin’ the news (better)
Newsletters are one of the most popular marketing tools used to market small businesses today. Whether you’re sending a printed newsletter via snail mail or an electronic newsletter via email, it’s a win-win for everyone. For the subscriber, they benefit from receiving up-to-date information about your business; helpful articles, promotions and giveaways. For your small business, this is your opportunity to stay in touch with your audience. The beauty of the whole thing is, they’ve given you their permission to market to them!
In this post, we’re gonna focus on electronic newsletters, also known as the sophisticated and sleek-sounding “eZine” or the regular old email newsletter.
An eZine is a really great tool for many reasons:
- It’s cheap. No commercial printing with a hefty price tag involved.
- You can send one out almost instantly. You don’t have to wait 7-10 days for it to be printed, then another 3 days to prepare the mailing, then another 7-10 days for the recipient to receive it via snail mail depending on whether you mailed it 1st class or bulk mail, and again, no postage required.
- It works. It’s the ideal opportunity to keep in touch, gain feedback from your subscribers, customers, and potential customers, and to gain new subscribers…a new audience for your business.
Now just hold on a second. Before you decide to jump on the newsletter bandwagon, there are a few crucial elements to consider. Even if you already have a newsletter, you should be following these tips so consider this a refresher and if you’re not doing the following, then make it a point to rework your publication so your readers get the most value.
Tips to be the best you can be-Zine:
- Stand out: People receive tons and tons of email every day and there’s a lot of junk to wade through. If you want your electronic newsletter to get opened, your email subject line better catch your reader’s attention in an instant because if it doesn’t, it’s never getting read.
- Size Matters: HTML emails can be great…unless you’re using font size 4. You’re not sending a newsletter to a 13 or 20 year old in most cases. Be sure to use fonts that are easily readable for all of us and at size that is appropriate for everyone.
- Build it like Cliff Notes: No one has time to read everything that comes into their inbox, especially if it’s the length of a Stephen King novel. Your newsletter should allow subscribers to easily scan the document to determine which parts they are really interested in. Your text should not be crowded, paragraphs should be spaced and headings should be easily noticeable with larger text and/or a different color.
- Personalize It: Lose the business or corporate tone and have a real conversation with your subscribers. Kind of like I do here with my blog. The way I write to you is the way I would actually speak to you face-to-face. Make your newsletter fun to read, interactive, and involve your reader by asking questions or for participation. They’ll make yours the newsletter they’re sure to read every time it arrives.
- No News is Better than Fluff and Sales: If you don’t have anything to say, then skip it all together. If all you’re doing is broadcasting how great you think you are, or your entire newsletter is nothing but buy this and buy that, you’re better off utilizing your time doing something else. All you’re doing is talking and never listening and your subscribers know the difference. They won’t be fooled with all your sirens of “only the first 10 people who purchase,” or “get this but only for the next 2 hours.” They’ll unsubscribe faster than you can say “My friend, so and so, is offering my subscribers the world for only $19.95.”
- Lighten Up: Skip the oodles of images and media and give them what they want…great content. If you have an audio or video, link it back to your website.
- Full Disclosure: Your subscribers want to know their email is safe in your hands. Be sure you have clearly stated your privacy policy and they know where to find it. Also make it easy for them to unsubscribe by making it easily visible at the bottom of your newsletter.
- Plano Text: If you’re intent on having an eZine design that is dependent on tons of images, be sure to always include a text version as well. Not everyone turns images on in their email client and some opt to receive text only emails just to keep things nice, tidy, and neat.
Last but not least, you need a good distribution company to deliver your newsletter and so you can track your subscribers as well as who is opening what messages and clicking on what links.
We’ll talk about that in detail another time. Until then, I hope you’ll take what I’ve given you today and apply it in your own newslettering!
Ciao ‘til Thursday!
More tips for hardening your WordPress site
If you’ve been following along, you’ve learned a thing or two over the past week and a half about securing your WordPress site by changing your username and password, installing some plugins and backing up your database.
It’s not rocket science, really, it’s just something many of us don’t take seriously…until it’s {insert dramatic “da-da-da-daaaaa”} too late.
Here are some more tips to keep your WordPress blog or website as secure as Alcatraz.
- Keep your WP version up-to-date. Good Lord people, this really should be a no-brainer. Why are you still using out of date versions of WordPress? Do you realize how much time those slimy little hackers spend, sitting in their parents’ basements, eating M&M’s, drinking Red Bulls and trying to find vulnerabilities in older versions of WordPress and many other applications? Download the latest version. Now. Or if you installed WordPress through your web host’s one-click install or Fantastico, then you can upgrade from there (but remember to backup before you upgrade!) Geez, at least make it challenging for them to break into your site.
- Secure your wp-admin folder. It should only be writable by your user account! If you don’t know how to change directory permissions, then do yourself a favor and find out or call your web hosting company. This practice is called chmod where you can change the read and write permissions on files and directories.
- Change your table prefix. Many SQL-injection attacks assume your WordPress table_prefix is “wp_,” which is the default. If you’re installing a fresh WordPress and you have the option to choose your table_prefix, please do it and don’t choose wp_ or wordpress_ or wrdpress_ or any variation. This is not to guarantee your tables are secure, but it may keep many SQL-injection attacks at bay.
- Read this step-by-step account on hardening your WordPress site. It advises that you do the obvious and the not-so-obvious, like securing your wp-config.php. Most people only use the one-click install and leave it at that. By doing so, they leave themselves wide open for an attack. Pay special attention to the fact that in most cases, you’re site is hosted on a shared server and just because you are taking precautions to protect your site doesn’t mean the hundreds of other sites being hosted on the same server are which makes you vulnerable!
Now remember, all of my excellent advice does absolutely NO good unless your actual computers are secure. If you don’t have antivirus software that includes protection and detection of malware, spyware, and trojans, as well as Internet and email controls then you’re setting yourself up for hours, days, or even weeks of cleanup after an attack on your computer. That is, of course, if the attack didn’t completely wipe out your computer all together.
I’m pretty conscious about security and I have 3 computers at home, one of which is a laptop that I don’t use very often. It’s older, slow and I really only use it to check email or grab a recipe online when I’m away from my office or just piddling around the house.
One day a few weeks ago I opened my laptop and there was a message from Microsoft that I had been infected…or so I thought. Me being the expert at spotting suspicious messages, I quickly noticed that not only was the message not using proper English, something Microsoft would not dare let slip, but there was also a misspelled word. I wouldn’t have noticed any of this at first glance and I actually read it several times as it was hounding me to “click here” to download a fix. At that point I knew I had a virus.
Next thing I know this little virus or trojan or whatever it was kept opening Internet Explorer and trying to connect to something. I immediately disconnected it from the Internet and then began the cleanup process. See, I had let my antivirus software lapse on the laptop. Not because I just didn’t want to, but because I hardly ever use it and I just kept thinking I’ll take care of it next time. Well the little buggers got me before I got around to it.
Since then I have installed Trend Micro Internet Security Pro and it has far surpassed my expectations as far as any antivirus program I’ve used in the past. It has everything you need, protecting your computer, you from downloading infectious files online but it won’t even allow me to visit a url if that site has been flagged as suspicious, containing malware, spyware or is just plain bad.
Bonus is you don’t need a copy for every computer you own. You can install it on up to 3 computers which saves you money as well as headaches. I highly recommend.
Now go forth and protect yourself.
WordPress security plugins and why being backed up is a good thing.
So last week I talked about the enormous pain in the a*s you will be faced with if when your WordPress site gets hacked. Trust me when I tell you it’s not something you want to deal with. On Thursday I talked about the importance of starting out with an unguessable, unhackable username and password…something not enough of us take seriously.
You can catch up by reading that post about WordPress login security here. Today, though, I’m going to share a few of my favorite WP plugins with you that you can either snag yourself or ask your web developer to install for you.
Now, there are tons of plugins out there that claim to secure your site but I can only vouch for the ones I use on the blogs I manage for myself and my clients.
Best WordPress Security Plugins
WP Security Scan: Their site claims that this plugin, “Scans your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions. –passwords – file permissions – database security – version hiding – WordPress admin protection/security.”
WP Malwatch: According to their site, “WP Malwatch is a WordPress security plugin scanner designed to help alert you when hackers have been at work inside your blog.
Bad Neighborhood Login LockDown: From their website, “Login LockDown records the IP address and timestamp of every failed WordPress login attempt. If more than a certain number of attempts are detected within a short period of time from the same IP range, then the login function is disabled for all requests from that range. This helps to prevent brute force password discovery. Currently the plugin defaults to a 1 hour lock out of an IP block after 3 failed login attempts within 5 minutes. This can be modified via the Options panel. Administrators can release locked out IP ranges manually from the panel.
AntiVirus: This basically is a plugin which will provide antivirus protection for your blog.
As I mentioned, I’ve seen these plugins work and I recommend you install them…sooner rather than later.
Now another important thing to do whether or not you are worried about your blog being hacked is to do regular backups.
BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP. I can’t say it or stress it enough.
Even if your site, database or server gets hacked, if you have a good backup of your site files AND the database, at least you have a fighting chance of restoring everything with only some minor headaches.
My favorite backup plugin is WP EZ Backup. It allows you to backup archives of your site file as well as your database, all from your WordPress dashboard.
If you’re relying on your web hosting company to backup the files on your server, then you’re going to be very surprised when you actually have to contact them one day because:
- Unless your hosting company specifically tells you they do daily backups, which is highly unlikely with most hosts, then you are going to be limited with what they have. It might be weekly, monthly, or even longer intervals in which they perform backups on your server.
- You will probably have to pay a hefty amount for them to restore a backup.
- You just lost any custom changes you made to your site or blog since that backup point.
- There is no guarantee your site wasn’t infected at the time of that backup point.
You must make or schedule backups of your files regularly. Just as you should be doing with your computer, this is key to keeping your files safe, secure and up-to-date.
Database Backup
Backing up your database is even more important than backing up your files. Why? Because everything you enter into WordPress (i.e. pages, posts, comments, registered users, activated plugins, WordPress options, etc.) is stored in a database. If your database is lost, corrupted, or hacked into, you will lose all that information or spend the next few days or weeks cleaning it up.
Trust me. It’s not fun but you can avoid a major pain in the a*s by being backed up regularly. Errr…
Anyway. Tune in again on Thursday when I share some extra tips on securing your WordPress blog.
Be responsible – practice safe WordPress
A couple months ago, my life was swallowed up by hackers.
I was consumed by the meticulous clean-up of several hacked sites, all built on the WordPress platform, and incidentally, all of which are hosted by GoDaddy. Now, I won’t go into a tirade about GoDaddy because that is a blog post for another day and today’s post is the first in a series of how to secure your WordPress site or blog.
Before your eyes start to glaze over because you don’t want to deal with this type of thing or because you’re smarter than the rest of us and you think you already have it all under control, I’m telling you, you NEED to read this post. Don’t you want to know you did everything you could to prevent your site from being hacked? Cause take it from me…clean-up sucks.
Know how much time I spent cleaning up those hacked sites for new-to-me clients I mentioned earlier?
8-10 HOURS EACH! Imagine having to shell out that kind of moolah to pay someone like me, who works on an hourly basis, and who knows what they’re doing, to clean up your site after it’s been hacked. It’s much cheaper for you to read this post. But if you’re going to stop reading here, though, at the very least Bookmark this post or put my contact information in your address book because one day you are going to need it!
Secure your WordPress Administrative Login
Your login is as good a place as any to get started. If you’re still using that same old password you’ve been using since 1992 (you know who you are), or if you’re still using the standard ‘admin’ username and ‘password’ password, it’s time to wake up! You couldn’t possibly be more vulnerable.
Change your username and change your password to NON-dictionary words. Don’t use your blog’s name as your login either – it’s too easy for those Internet hackers who apparently have nothing better to do all day but to wreak havoc on us poor, unfortunate, unsuspecting souls.
Your password should be at least 8 characters including uppercase, lowercase, symbols, and numbers. I know, I know. How are you supposed to remember stuff like that? Simple. Get a password manager. I personally love RoboForm Pro and they even have Robo2Go if you bounce around from computer to computer. Or you can use an old-school notebook and write them down! P.S. You can download these programs directly by clicking these links: RoboForm or Robo2Go
A big problem with passwords is many people use the same one for all their five million online access accounts and that is bad (again, you know who you are). If someone hacks your computer and guesses your password, it’s their lucky day! You’ve just given them access to your entire life.
I know it’s hard to keep up with all those passwords for your five million accounts but you have to do this.
Remember, your password NEEDS to be 8-10 characters, contain letters AND numbers, and preferably at least one symbol such as ! & % @ $ or #. Remember to mix upper and lower case letters, too.
Check back next Tuesday and I’ll share my favorite WordPress Plugins to help keep your site as secure as possible. In the meantime, go change your login information. Please!




























