Happy Birthday WordPress!

WordPress celebrates its 11th year this May and it can only get better. It may be a bit more quiet than last year’s 10th year celebration but things have been equally if not more exciting than ever. Here are some interesting statistics you need to know about WordPress (.com and .org).

  • 11 Years
    It’s been 11 years since WordPress was first released – May 27, 2003 to be exact.
  • 22% Usage, 60% Market Share
    According to W3Techs.com, WordPress is used by 22.3% of ALL the websites, which translates to a content management system market share of 60.0%.
  • WordPress 3.9 – Downloaded 19.3 million times
    WordPress 3.9 which was released fairly recently has already been downloaded more than 19.3 million times (as of this writing).
  • 2,531 themes, 101,742,042 downloads
    – in the WordPress Theme repository alone with approximately more than 10,000 themes available in the marketplace.
  • More fun embed stats from partners and friends that their users have embedded WordPress short codes on their sites:
    Twitter – 32,978,750 (as of May 2014)
    YouTube – 12,933,230 (as of Apr 2014)
    Flickr – 14,952,725 (as of Apr 2014)
    Vimeo – 29,158 (as of May 2014)
  • WordPress localized in 140+ ways. Find your language here.

Happy Birthday, WordPress!

WordPress 3.7 – Give it up for Count Basie

WordPress 3.7 is out and it’s a pretty cool front act to upcoming WordPress 3.8. Baptized with the name Basie, in honor of jazz legend Count Basie, WordPress 3.7 is now available for download in your dashboard. This release features important architectural updates and the introduction of the new plugin-first development process. This new development cycle will continue on into version 3.8 scheduled to be released December 2013.

Some of the salient features of WordPress 3.7 or Basie include:

Updates while you sleep: With WordPress 3.7, you don’t have to lift a finger to apply maintenance and security updates. Most sites are now able to automatically apply these updates in the background. The update process also has been made even more reliable and secure, with dozens of new checks and safeguards.

Stronger password recommendations: Your password is your site’s first line of defense. It’s best to create passwords that are complex, long, and unique. To that end, our password meter has been updated in WordPress 3.7 to recognize common mistakes that can weaken your password: dates, names, keyboard patterns (123456789), and even pop culture references.

Better global support: Localized versions of WordPress will receive faster and more complete translations. WordPress 3.7 adds support for automatically installing the right language files and keeping them up to date, a boon for the many millions who use WordPress in a language other than English.

(source: WordPress News)

This means better security features, automatic updates, and a more globally responsive platform to service approximately 18 – 20% of the Internet being powered by WordPress.

Check your dashboard to update. Don’t forget to backup your files.

Tips To Maximize Marketing To Your Local Mass Traffic

A panel of experienced resource speakers including Mike Cooch, Kevin Wilke, Jack Mize, Martin Maybruck among others shared valuable insights and wisdom (T&C Summit 2013) on how to handle local traffic.

Here’s a summary of some of the key points these experts shared and see how it applies to your own local marketing targets.

The top 3 strategies for getting clients are:

  • networking at local events
  • speaking at local events
  • direct mail

The top 3 online strategies for clients are:

  • videos (get ranked quickly) Tip: put your business phone number in the title
  • directories
  • social media

Effective Facebook Page contests include the ff. elements that can contribute to your list building efforts, free referrals, viral reach, etc.:

  • name – for brand positioning
  • video – builds trust
  • prizes – aligns with market and doubles attendance
  • fan gate – increases “likes”
  • webinar – adds value

Follow up with people over the phone and offer your services

Build your business eventually to be sold

  • build assets instead of just a source of income
  • keep your financials clean
  • document systems and processes
  • target margins to be at par or better than industry standards
  • think of transferable contracts
  • recurring revenue
  • proven sales model

Your number 1 job is to sell

  • Small businesses are not actively looking for someone to market for them. You have to sell to small businesses.
  • Focus on one vertical to start. It is the biggest secret to growing fast
  • Leverage channels (conventions, webinars, newsletters, trade shows)

Use tools and resources to help you find leads

  • Smartwebinar – automated prospecting webinar for local marketers
  • Localizer lead tool – find local prospects fast
  • Lead kahuna – find leads with bad online reputation and turn them into prospecting material to target them

Fast local lead copy works for landing pages, video scripts, online classifieds, biz listings, social media properties.

Small businesses want mainly is fast sales. Mobile consumers are among the highest percentage of searchers for local businesses but not all local businesses have websites.

If you are running a small business your local business must be listed in apps such as:

  • Google maps
  • Yahoo
  • Mapquest
  • Yelp

Local businesses owners need to build a custom mobile landing page catered to their target audience.

Your friendly neighborhood shop could be the next big thing to happen. Check out opportunities to connect and network.

Secret Selling System – Notes from Perry Belcher

Early this year, Perry Belcher spoke in the Traffic and Conversion Summit 2013 and shared his Secret Selling System strategies during the seminar.

According to Perry, “Selling is not evil. Selling is power – a great skill to have”. Here are some of the highlights of what he shared during the event.

Important parts of selling:

Targeting

– getting in front of prospects who are most likely to buy

  • 60% of any successful promotion is in list selection
  • Getting leads – getting interest
  • Getting sales
  • Increasing profits per sale
  • Frequency

Know your buyer

– what you like is not necessarily what your customer likes.

  • Personal attention. Create a customer avatar ( Name. Age. Gender. Marital status. Children. Location. Occupation. Combined household income. Current business income. General info.) After you come up with your avatar, write your message to that person, not your whole audience.
  • Be talking to one person, not a group of people
  • Find out their demographics and where they hang out

Find the right list.

  • Wide and shallow – advertising (such as network TV) is difficult because it’s hard to localize the message to your audience, location, et cetera.
  • Narrow and deep – advertising is by far the way to go. List selection isn’t only about emails or direct mail, but it also applies to advertising.
  • Google ad planner – finding websites your niche visits and their interests. Enter in your competitor’s websites

Make them “glow in the dark”

– (From Dean Jackson – ilovemarketing podcast)

  • Use list-building bait- cheese or whiskers principle. Make those particular people in the market “glow in the dark”. (list building bait – followed by cheese or whiskers). Find out what their “cheese” is and use that instead of “whiskers” (Realtor example of standard ad that is all about the person vs. “Find out how much your home is worth for free”).
  • Offer lead magnet that resonates with potential customers.

Create an irresistible offer

  • Why people buy – gain, fear, pride, value (makes them feel smart), imitation (people want to imitate celebrity). No matter how good the offer is, if you send it to the wrong audience it isn’t going to work.

Sequence is critical

– mistake is selling too early.

  • Don’t be out of sequence, because if you are, people will mostly reject your offer.

Points of belief.

  • If your current sales message is not working, ask yourself how many things are you asking prospect to believe. If more than 4, it’s probably a failure. Ideally, you only want to make them believe 1 thing.

More Perry Belcher next week!

Foxy WordPress Theme from Elegant Themes Is Here

Foxy Premium WordPress Theme is one of the latest releases by Elegant Themes and it is foxy indeed. This theme combines beautiful design with powerful function all in one neat little package. With all the features this premium theme has, it could very well be your one stop shop WordPress theme for business websites.

Whatever you are looking for in a WordPress theme, this one has it with a little bit more. You get all the page templates you need to set up great portfolio pages, a blog, an image gallery, a sitemap, an advanced search page, and a contact form. Not only do you have all these flexible and customizable templates useful for corporate or portfolio websites, you also get built-in e-commerce capabilities that take your website up another notch.

What’s in the box? A look at the homepage and you can tell the well thought out design process that the theme went through. The use of vibrant colors and elegant text layout are enticing and encourage interactivity. The homepage slider beautiful and functional and gives you a platform to throw out your message and get casual visitors to stay a bit longer. Text boxes for summaries are adequately spaced and can be used as tools to develop interest in your business and your products. A strategically located sign-up button is useful in building a loyal customer base. Built in shortcodes also give you flexibility to customize the theme even further with design elements such as tabs, columns, colored boxes, etc.

Foxy Premium WordPress Theme fully integrates ecommerce functionality and is compatible with the WooCommerce plugin, giving you an elegant yet fully functional e-commerce solution right out of the box. This theme runs on HTML5/CSS3, is also localized for easy translation, is responsive and looks beautiful even on handheld devices.

Features:

  • Responsive Design
  • Theme Options
  • Shortcodes
  • Page Templates
  • Unlimited Color Schemes
  • Secure and Valid Code
  • Complete Localization

Foxy Premium WordPress Theme includes perpetual updates, unparalleled support, and access more than 81 high quality WordPress themes included in every Elegant Themes membership.

Get Foxy And 81 More Themes for $39

Tasty Food and Restaurant WordPress Themes to try this 2013

Mobile devices have changed the way people access the internet. More and more people use it to search for information relevant to their locations. As a result, mobile internet and mobile computing have helped boost local businesses that have an online presence. If your local business isn’t online yet, you need to be. Here are some delicious food and restaurant WordPress themes to help drum up some noise for your business:

Bistro Responsive Foodie App Theme

Bistro Premium WordPress Theme is a responsive theme that includes a great booking app system to help you monitor & manage customer bookings and reservations. It also features: a specials, promotions and event management system, a calendar system, photo galleries, google maps integration with driving directions, countless custom widgets, and is also translation ready.

Eatery – Responsive Restaurant WordPress Theme

Eatery Premium WordPress Theme is a responsive restaurant/cafe theme that includes: a flexible full menu system easily customizable using custom posts, a built-in 24hr-enabled reservations form template, shortcodes options for elegant text styling, image galleries & slideshows, numerous color theme options with 5 preset color styles to start with, and global currency support.

Elegantia – Restaurant and Cafe WordPress Theme

Elegantia is a rich and luxurious-looking premium WordPress theme for restaurants & cafes. It has many features specifically designed for a restaurant business like: ajax-based Reservation template, Food Menu Module, Events Module, sortable Gallery module, ajax based and Google maps-enabled Contact module, and an impressive Homepage with full width slider and services information.

Coffee Shop – Responsive WP Theme for Restaurant

Coffee Shop is an easy to install premium responsive WP template for cafes and bistros. This dark styled responsive theme is feature packed. It includes: custom post types and templates for menu, events, staff, it is fully localized, has numerous color options, custom widgets, and includes 5 layered PSD files for further customization.

Delicieux Restaurant WordPress Theme

Delicieux Premium WordPress Theme is a visually appetizing theme perfect for restaurants. It comes with a Drag and Drop Page Builder feature for managing different page elements in the theme. It features a menu system, a google maps enabled contact page, a widgetized footer with 6 layouts, a blog page with 8 layout options, and advanced theme options panel for creating custom theme changes like background image changes, sliders, and shortcodes management.