WordPress has a feature that you might like.
On any of your posts click the Preview Changes “Status: Published Edit” link and there is a checkbox which will make the post the first one to show in the listings (sticky).
You can use this for your featured listings.
This feature is also available on the “edit” –> “quick edit” menu
Here’s something just for some fun on a Friday. (Not responsible if you get caught playing at work)
I’ve recommended Elf Yourself before and it’s back again. The very popular Elf Yourself is still a lot of fun. You can save your movie and pass it around as well.
Making money with a web based information business these days is much different than doing business used to be. There used to be many distribution costs associated with doing business with information as your product, printing, storing, shipping. Not anymore. Your product can now be delivered to the end user for almost nothing. It also means that it is now infinitely available and can be shared for nothing.
I believe that the way to go with this is to embrace the sharing. There are plenty of ways to make money once you’re popular. The trick is how do you get to be popular? I believe the way to do that is by letting people see what you have to offer them without any obligations. Then once you are popular it’s up to you to figure out how to monetize it. If you have really made fans they may help you figure it out, but in the end it’s up to you.
There’s a good post on TechDirt today which is mostly one of the comments on their blog. Imagine that! A fan offering a website some great free content just because they like them. They talk mostly about music, but this can be about many other businesses. Just read the post and substitute “music/musician” with writer, programmer, filmmaker, etc. I’m sure that there are plenty more.
I’ve been saying for a long time that optimizing your site for search engines is pretty simple. I was reading a post today by Mike Moran called Search Marketing Is Easier Than You Think.
Many people confuse SEO (getting found by search engines) and SEM (marketing through search engines). It’s true that you can’t market via search engines unless they know where you are and what you have, but if your site is search friendly there are also some easy steps that you can take to make sure that your site is a valuable one for your visitors.
I saw a post on LinkedIn today by Mike Clough called Top 10 Advertising Tips For Small Business. I was interested in the title so I went to the site and read the article. I liked what he had to say, but for me the #1 promotion is to give something away for free.
Information is the perfect product for this. Write an ebook (you could even buy one) about your business and give it away. It costs you almost nothing.
Mike also says *Have an effective website*. I couldn’t agree more. Simple, but still effective.
The other tips are pretty good, too.
I got a junk email the other day. I knew it was junk mail the second that I looked at it.
I was just going to delete it, but then I actually read it and decided it would make a good blog post.
My guess is here that if you HAD actually visited my site you would know that my name is not Webmaster.
Why should I care about what you want?
The link to information and the from email address were different, so I’m assuming that this spam was sent by a supposed “SEO” company for their client. If I were the client I don’t think I would like this kind of tactic.
Since it’s an SEO company they probably know that link exchanges are devalued these days, so they are just telling you to give them a link. They’re not offering anything in return for your link, but you never know, this tactic may work.
They might get a link back every couple of hundred thousand emails.
I have never been a fan of anything Christmas before Thanksgiving, but since that’s not terribly practical, I think that not sending Christmas email before Halloween will have to do. These days, many businesses will say that I’m wrong, but I am personally annoyed by Christmas advertising before November 1.
Well, it’s Nov 1 and time to begin. Before you start with any email campaign please read my thought on doing this right.
Let me also say to offer something of value to your readers. It’s all well and good go send sales and discount coupons, but if your think “value” and offer something unexpected like a cool craft pattern or an old family recipe, readers will be more inclined to pay attention to the rest of your email.
For a small business offering more personal service is your biggest advantage. Your email could also become something treasured by your reader (fan) and make it more likely to get passed around.
The email insider has more good tips.
