A colleague of mine and I used say, there’s no F11 key for awesome design. This means good design takes work, and while your keyboard has a key for volume up, brightness, etc. – there’s no key for awesome design. And there’s no F11 key for awesome website either.

Building, managing, and maintaining your own website takes a bit of work, and like anything worth doing, putting in the extra time and effort to get the little things right – good copywriting, good images – makes a ton of difference. Your website will be better for it.

I’ll be writing a few tutorials on how to do some of the little things to make your site better. It’ll mostly be based around managing a WordPress based website, but most will apply to any type of CMS. Images, HTML, Links. I’m happy to help. If you want to see a specific tutorial, leave a comment and I’ll see if it’s up my alley.

Oh, and why did we choose F11? Because these go to 11, of course:

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Posterous, the free hosted blogging platform was recently acquired by Twitter (see the Posterous announcement here), and while they say the service will continue without disruption, WordPress.com has seen a 250% spike in Posterous imports – suggesting that users aren’t thinking the service will be around for the long haul. My guess is that it will continue for a year or so, and then quietly be ‘sunsetted’ as users slowly leave.

While I’m happy for Twitter and their newly acquired talent, it got me to thinking again about content – specifically about whose who’s controlling and owning and caring for your content.

Own it – make it yours

Posterous, as well as Tumblr and other hosted platforms, host your content on their servers. While the service is usually free, most users end up with a domain such as this: http://awesomesite.tumblr.com. This is fine for casual bloggers or for dipping your toes into owning a website, but for businesses and people who have something truly great to say, there are many reasons to take ownership of your own domain, your own brand, your own content.

Own your domain

Part of branding yourself or your business is having a great domain name. You probably already know this. It’s true that many hosted blogging platforms offer the ability to pay extra to register and use your domain. This is a great step and if you choose this route then you’re at least half way there. You’ve begun to build a brand around your domain, but the content is still hosted somewhere out of your control. This may not seem like a big deal, but if Posterous goes offline, what then? Can you get your content? Most likely yes, but what about the look and feel – the brand you’ve established, the comments and other assets?

Own your content

I’m a big proponent of owning your own content (see this post on using social media the smart way). That starts with owning your own domain, and hosting it on a server that you have control of (self hosted). Going this route ensures that you’ve stuck a claim on your corner of the web – and it’s yours. The site, the content – it’s directly accessible and if you decide to pick the entire thing up and move to a different host, you can. Minimal disruption to your visitors, and minimal work getting your content back in order.

There are many hundreds of hosts to choose from (We use Media Temple) and most offer one-click installs of popular website platforms such as WordPress or Joomla. Is this the easy way to go? No, defiantly not. There will be a learning curve.

Conclusion

The right way to market and brand your business online is to own your own domain, and host it yourself. Then blog blog blog.

No related posts.

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Social Media websites play an important part in marketing your business – there’s no denying the power they have in getting the word out on your brand. But how much time and effort (and capital) should you spend on them? And which ones should you be focusing on?

Focus on Numero Uno

For most small or medium-sized businesses with limited marketing budgets, I firmly believe that your social marketing efforts should be focused first at home: on your own website – your own blog. Make a plan to write as often as you can – once a month, once a week, once a day – what ever. Post your awesome content at home first, and then cross-post to the social sites of your choice.

Cross posting in this way means you don’t have to think of your social media marketing as an additional effort. Every time you post something new on your blog, repost it to your social media accounts, with a quick summary and a link back to your site. Drive the traffic to your site.

But Facebook has a Gazillion users

I’m not saying that a Facebook page for your business isn’t an important thing to focus on. But unless you have a dedicated social marketing department, gaining a large following on Facebook or any other social site is going to be an uphill battle. And remember, friends and family who like you aren’t likely to be your most lucrative customers. By cross-posting your original content you still get a great social media presence, while smartly managing your marketing resources.

The benefits of being blog centric

There are quite a few benefits to focusing first on your blog, here’s just a few:

• Control – No one but you will shut down your site or change your privacy policy
• Google Juice – Send that web traffic ova heeah!
• Flow with the tide – Social winds change and new sites pop up and supplant old ones.
• Keep your sanity – Spend less time on marketing and more time running your business

Have I convinced you to spend more time writing on your blog? I’d love to hear your opinion – Am I right, or has the boat left shore without me?

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So you want Google to like you, eh? You want to be at the top? Well good, because the top is a great place to be. It’s not easy to get there, though – so you’ve got to be prepared. It’s not rocket science either, thankfully, and it doesn’t take an army or a boatload of cash. Here’s the secret: Create Awesome Content

Create Awesome What?

A Search Engine’s business model is pretty simple: provide great search results. If someone searches for something similar to what you have, Google is going to send them to the place they think is most relevant. Does your content measure up to your competitions? Do they explain it better, or provide a broader range of potential answers? Do they attack it in multiple ways from multiple angles? If your competition provides a multitude of answers and angles, while you provide only a few sentences about your services, who do you think is going to come out on top?

It’s blog, it’s blog – it’s better than bad – it’s good!

Websites that consistently come out on top of Google searches are most likely spending the time to blog about what they do, what their services entail, and the latest news in their industry. They’re putting out a consistent stream of content that is relevant to what they do, and equally relevant to what their target market is looking for.

Does this mean you need to become a blogger? Yes, but you don’t have to think of it that way. If you view blogging as writing about your morning wake up routine or your kids poopy diapers, that’s understandable – there are a lot of blogs out there that publish that kind of stuff. So don’t think of it as blogging – think of it as sharing news about your industry, your business, or the latest project you’ve completed for a client. Write about things that your customers or clients would find interesting. Write about things that people search for (keywords).

Google Keyword Tool

To find out what people are searching for in your industry, give the Google Keyword Tool a try. Typing in a keyword or phrase that is relevant to your business and you’ll be presented with numerous similar keyword phrases and the total number of searches for those phrases (both globally and locally). You can use these as ideas for things to write about. This tool is also helpful in compiling a list of keywords that you should be using throughout your site.

There are no shortcuts to Awesome

There are companies out there who will promise to get you to the top of Google, for a price of course. But our advice is simple. Create awesome content. It truly is what Google likes best.

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