I’ve been using WordPress for marketing myself, my courses and my businesses for 7+ years. Before that, I would hard code websites which I had done since the 90’s when living in Seattle. WordPress makes it so easy for anyone to run an online business. However, with so many plugins available, it can be hard finding the best plugin for your needs. I’ve put together this list of 5 WordPress Plugins I use for marketing my various WordPress website. Optin Monster Why do you need it? You need a plugin like Optin Monster to capture lead generation information from the visitor of your website. If you don’t you are missing out on converting those visitors into marketing opportunities. Did you know that 70% of those who visit your website will leave and never come back? Make sure you have a strong lead magnet to offer which makes it easier to get subscribers to opt-in to your list. Where can you get it? Optin Monster ThirstyAffiliates Why do you need it? Besides teaching online courses I run 2 websites to promote the courses of other instructors. Both websites Online Course Coupons and Free Course Daily run this plugin. It’s made affiliate marketing easy for me and I’m just running the most basic version. The plugin lets you cloak links which is important as a marketer because of the long links generated by affiliate marketing programs. I want something simple, clean and that looks like a normal URL and that’s what you get with ThirstyAffiliates. There are add-ons available to give this plugin even more functionality. Where can you get it? ThirstyAffiliates Sumo Why do you need it? I have been using the Sumo tools for a few years now on all my WordPress websites and also teach a course that covers the different tools. Sumo has practically every tool a marketer would want to have out of the gate with a new website. The Sumo tools are designed to grow your email list and grow traffic to your site. The folks at Sumo always have tons of great blog post to give you ways to grow your business. Where can you get it? Sumo Ninja Popups Why do you need it? Ninja Popups is another tool created to help you grow your email list by providing beautiful pop-up forms. Plus it’s available on Themeforest, which is one of my favorite sites for WordPress Themes and Plugins. There are tons of themes to pick from and you can drag and drop elements on the form to create the perfect look. Ninja Popups has A/B testing so you can find out which pop up perform the best on your site. It also is smart and knows when someone is intending to click out of your site and pops up to catch the visitors attention. There are a lot of features packed into this affordable plugin so check it out for yourself and see it in action. Where can you get it? CodeCanyon ConvertKit Why do you need it? Email marketing is at the heart of every successful online business. ConvertKit makes it easy to capture more leads and sell more products by easily embedding email capture forms anywhere. This plugin makes it a little bit easier for those of us using WordPress blogs, by automatically appending a lead capture form to any post or page. If you choose a default form on the settings page, that form will be embedded at the bottom of every post or page (in single view only) across your site. If you wish to turn off form embedding or select a different form for an individual post or page, you can do so within the ConvertKit meta box on the editing form. Finally, you can insert the default form into the middle of post or page content by using the [convertkit] shortcode. I’m giving away my highly rate ConvertKit email marketing course FREE so you can learn more about it and you can try ConvertKit for 14-days while you take the course! FREE CONVERTKIT COURSE TRY CONVERTKIT 14-DAY TRIAL I’ve been using ConvertKit for over 2 years now and it has generated thousands of dollars in revenue for me. Now is your chance to see what ConvertKit can do to help you grow your business. I used ConvertKit along with a Facebook Messenger Chatbot to grow my list by 60 subscribers in just 2 days. See how I did it here. Take the course FREE, subscribe to ConvertKit FREE for 14-days, complete the course and if you stick with ConvertKit I’ll give you 20-minutes of my time every 3-months on Skype to help you with you ConvertKit and email marketing questions. Where Can I Get It? CONVERTKIT WORDPRESS PLUGIN FREE CONVERTKIT COURSE TRY CONVERTKIT 14-DAY TRIAL
Building and Marketing to your audience with WordPress with host Matt and Dennis
This is a replay of the live broadcast with Dennis J. Smith, Phil Ebiner, Kristi Lambert, and Matt Bernstein
Blab – WordPress for Marketing Udemy Courses, Kindle Books, Online Services and more!
WordPress for Marketing Udemy Courses, Kindle Books, Online Services and more! Join me and learn how to use the power of affordable WordPress to market your business, book, Udemy course and more! Have questions about WordPress? I will answer them live or you can join me in the Blab hot seat and join the discussion! Subscribe here: https://blab.im/dennis-j-smith-wordpress-for-marke… I will be broadcasting live from Boise, Idaho USA on Wednesday 10/21 at 6:35 PM Mountain Time. Please use the link below to find out your local time so you can attend live. I will be sharing a list of some great WordPress Resources that will help you grow your business. Time Zone Converter I used WordPress to sell over 1,000 copies of my first book and I have used it to grow my mailing list to over 2,500 subscribers.
Affordable Website for Self-Published Authors
Are you looking for an affordable way to promote your book and yourself online? WordPress is the easiest and most affordable solution on the planet. When I wrote my first book over 3-years ago I knew that I would need a website and social media presence. I had to considering my book is about promoting your business or cause using social media sites like Facebook. During that time I learned how to promote my book both online and offline, selling almost 1000 copies both Kindle and Paperback. I also learned the importance of having a mailing list like MailChimp so I could target current and future readers. Something I found out not all self-published authors are doing. The problem is both a combination of lack of money, time and knowledge. Even though WordPress is pretty easy most still don’t have the knowledge to create their own website. Lets face it, sometimes it is easier to let others help us and focus our time on what we do best. Writing more books! That’s where I come in, because I’m an author just like you. I have written and marketed a bestseller that has sold over 1000 copies on Amazon.com and has over 8,000 KDP promotion downloads. I know what it takes to promote your book online and capture reader information to grow your list and stay successful. Talk to me about building an affordable WordPress website for your current book or your next bestseller. Contact Dennis
How Do You Like To Learn?
I wrote my first book “Promote Your Business or Cause Using Social – A Beginner’s Handbook” over 3 years ago and released the 2013 edition earlier this year. In that time I have sold over 800 copies on Kindle and Paperback and over 9,000 have downloaded the Kindle version during various freebie promotions. The royalties aren’t much but it’s nice to have some money deposited into my checking at the end of each month. Recently I read the eBook “Authority” by Nathan Barry and now have new focus on what I want to do. My passion has always been to help others succeed at that they do best and had been hosting webinars to teach others how to use social media and WordPress to grow their businesses online. I have also taught workshops in Boise attended by several and recently presented for 2 hours in the Seattle area on the topic of “Tools for Online Marketing" which I received some great feedback from attendees. I am currently working on my latest project which the video edition of my book and will included more information than ever on Social Media, WordPress and marketing tools to grow your business online. However this will be more than a book and include how-to videos to walk you through the steps of setting up your social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and more. Plus I’ll show you the tools needed to maintain your social media and how you can set-up an affordable website using WordPress and connect it to your social media networks. What’s in it for you? If you are like me you like learning many different ways including reading, watching videos and putting what you have learned to work. The Whole Shebang includes the all new eBook updated with the latest information on Social Media, WordPress and using tools like MailChimp to market your business online. Then enjoy over 15 videos that will walk you through the steps needed to setup your networks so that you can be effective online. Look for presells to begin late-Summer 2014
E-Mail Newsletter Marketing 101–[INFOGRAPHIC]
Here is some good information I came across on Visual.ly regarding the topic of E-mail Marketing. Did you know that sending e-mail on weekends gets you a better CTR (click-thru rate)? Are you marketing with e-mail? Which service do you use? I personally love MailChimp because it is easy to use and the offer a free service for those just starting out. If you would like to follow my newsletter you can sign-up here. I won’t flood your e-mail box with useless junk! Check out the other great information on the infographic below. Browse more infographics. [divider] [hcshort id=”13″]
How to Get 5 Million People to Read Your Website by Matthew Inman
I wanted to share a YouTube video that I came across today. Not only is it funny but it has a point to it. Matthew shares some creative ways he used to drive traffic to his websites. This video is from the Ignite Seattle event. Do you use creative means to drive traffic to your sites? More on Matthew Inman
More Offline Marketing Ideas–Vinyl Banners
Besides marketing my book online using social media I also find ways to market offline. Business cards, postcards and bookmarks have been a few of my offline marketing tools. Starting this fall I’ll be attending book signing events here in Southern Idaho. Right now I’m working with the editor for the 2nd Edition of Promote Your Business or Cause Using Social Media ““ A Beginners Handbook. This gives me some time to plan my marketing strategy for upcoming events. Business Card Below is a vinyl banner I created using the Vistaprint.com website. The vinyl banner below will be 2.5′ wide and 8′ tall when done. What do you use for offline marketing? Vinyl Banner Vistaprint ““ Impressions for offline marketing
Book Trailer–“Promote Your Business Or Cause Using Social Media
Promote your Business or Cause using Social Media is a handbook for beginner’s interested in using social media to grow a small business or take any cause to the internet. Learn how to create a blog, start a blog radio show, upload videos to YouTube, Tweet on Twitter and build a fan page on Facebook with social apps and even eCommerce. Purchase your copy today for just $7.95 through CreateSpace or Amazon.com: CreateSpace ““ Order Now Online Amazon ““ Order Now Online -Available in Paperback and Kindle – Learn how to add a shopping cart to your Facebook fan page and sell product right from your fan page. – Learn how to get your own personal Facebook URL. – How to get started with WordPress and your own blog. – Twitter Tips! About the author: Dennis has been creating websites and browsing the web since the days of Netscape 1.0 while living in Seattle, Washington. His technology background goes back to the days of the Commodore Vic 20 and 64, Pong and Pac-Man. He later turned his passion for technology and web design into a love for Internet Marketing, blogging and now Social Media. He is the owner of IgniteHost and GreenHostUSA website hosting, search engine optimization and social media consulting located in Boise, Idaho and writes the tech blog GigaDroid.com for the popular Android phones. During his free time he enjoys road trips back to Seattle, exploring Idaho, microbrews, great coffee, sharing his knowledge with friends and Facebook acquaintances.
3 Social Media Tools To Grow Your Business
Here are 3 tools that are free and will help you grow your business through social media. There are many other applications out there and they appear and disappear as social media changes and evolves. I like these 3 listed below for their ease of use and little set-up time. Please feel free to leave a comments about the tools you use or if you use these. RSS Graffiti for Facebook Simplify your social media marketing with this free application available on Facebook. RSS Graffiti will automatically publish your RSS feeds to any of your Facebook Fan Pages. Setup is easy and and takes less than 10 minutes to establish. You can schedule how often RSS Graffiti updates your wall, set publishing limits and can even publish to Twitter. I use it to publish articles from my WordPress blog to my Facebook Fan Page. Then Facebook automatically send out a Tweet to my Twitter followers that alerts them of a new post on my blogs. Payvment E-Commerce Storefront If you are looking to sell product online with little upfront cost Payvment is the answer. Payvment is a free shopping cart application for Facebook Fan Pages and uses PayPal to process payments. Set-up is easy and most can have a storefront up and running in 1-hour or less. Visit the Facebook Fan Page of Pioneer Soap Works to see what an actual storefront is like. All In One SEO Pack WordPress Plugin This is a must have tool for any business with a hosted WordPress blog. All In One SEO is a free plugin that optimizes your blog for better search engine results. This application gives you better control over the optimization of your post, pages and site home page. Therefore your chances of moving up in search engine results increase. Easy enough for beginners yet fully customizable for those with a little more SEO background. Content by Dennis J. Smith ““ Social Media Author