Getting Started With a Membership Site
We have a really good idea for a membership site, and I’ve spent a lot of time lately looking at the technical side. What CMS should I use, and what type of message board? Do they integrate well? How do I handle membership and payments?
Right now I’m leaning towards Wordpress as a CMS and phpBB as my message board–lot’s of good features in the new release. I’ve also considered Drupal and Joomla, but they seem to be a little overboard for what we want to do. Not only that, but I’m using Joomla already on a couple of other membership sites, and it isn’t entirely intuitive to the other publishers.
Regardless, most of the information out there on running membership sites is costly. I don’t really get this, because the tools are free for the most part. As a service, free to you, I’m going to document as much as I can here. I’m technically savvy enough to do most of what needs to be done and shouldn’t have to pay for much. Hopefully I can help some other people do the same.
Five Must Have Wordpress Plugins For Administration
I know a few people who have recently thrown their hat into the blogging ring and are using Wordpress. Here’s a quick list of plugins that I consider must have plugins for the backend of your site. This is the first post in a series where we will also cover Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Marketing, Cool Fun Stuff, and Moneymakers.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are many other plugins listed here, but these are some really good ones to get you started.
Askimet for catching spam comments
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.”
This plugin ships (downloads) with Wordpress, so you already have it if you are running Wordpress on your own domain. It works great. It checks each comment your receive against a list of known spam comments and is constantly being updated by all of the Askimet users.
Very simple and easy to use. This plugin allows you to decide which tables in your Wordpress database you want to backup. You can set up an update frequency and even have the backup file emailed to you. Very handy.
Let’s hope you write some extremely valuable content yesterday. The last thing you want is someone taking this great stuff and posting it somewhere else (scraping it). This plugin gives your posts a “fingerprint” and helps you search for scrapers out on the web. What do you do when you figure out you’ve been ripped off? That’s a whole different topic.
As far as software goes, Wordpress is very easy to upgrade to a new version. It may even be worth your while to do it once for yourself (make sure you back up ALL of you tables first). After that, use this plugin. The less hassle blogging is, the more fun, profitable, and creative it will be.
Super cool. This plugin keeps up with new releases of all of your other plugins. When a plugin is updated with bug fixes and new features, this will let you know.
Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list of everything you need for administratrion of you Wordpress blog/site. Everyone’s needs and desires are going to be a little different. It is well worth your time to browse through the other administrative plugins and maybe even write your own.
Wordpress as a CMS — What NOT To Do
A few weeks ago I made this post about using Wordpress as a content management system. I thought I’d follow up with a few tips on what you may want to avoid when using Wordpress as a CMS for your small business.
Don’t make your site look like a blog
Wordpress lets you create static pages…take advantage! This basically lets you lay out your whole site menu very easily with your few pages and their children based on whatever theme you choose or create. You can still blog about your business, but that most likely won’t be your homepage, just another section of your site called “Articles”, “Tips” or whatever you choose to call it that deals with your industry.
Don’t give your readers any reason to click off of your site.
What does this mean? No ads, no Google Adsense, a blogroll limited to very specific sites related to your industry (and don’t call it “blogroll”). You want people to search for the information on YOUR site, not anywhere else. Use ads only if your site is built to generate money through advertising and sales of products.
Use site search and make it really easy to find.
Once you get a visitor to your site, you don’t want them hitting the “back” button to return to the search engine and choose the next result. Make search easily accessible on your site so that anything they may be searching for turns up on YOUR SITE.
Simply Put
Some great marketing advice from Seth Godin that is as simple as it is valuable:
True viral marketing happens not when the marketer plans for it or targets bloggers or skateboarders or pirates with goatees, but when the item/service/event is worth talking about
Here’s One That’s Entertaining
The best link bait is actually relevant. Check out this post on Baseball and blogging
Wordpress as a Content Management System
Wordpress already has a great reputation for blogging software, but what about for general content management. I think it is the logical choice in many situations.
Obviously, I like Wordpress enough to use it for this site. What makes me think it is a good content management solution for more than just blogs? Here are a few:
1) Wordpress is easy to use. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Want to add fresh, new content on your site easily? It doesn’t get much easier than Wordpress. It’s not even tough to change your static content.
2) Wordpress has a very flexible look and feel. There are countless free templates out there, and it isn’t very difficult to make your own or too expensive to have someone create one for you. True, this exists with other content management systems as well, but Wordpress is considerably more straigtforward than most in its administration.
3) Wordpress is free and widely available. It is easy to find a cheap hosting package that includes Wordpress. Wordpress runs on a free database (MySQL) which helps your hosting company keep costs down and pass the savings along to you.
4) Wordpress is widely supported. Lots of people are using Wordpress and developing plugins and widgets that extend its functionality. You won’t be left out on your own with Wordpress.
5) Search engines LOVE Wordpress. It is very easy to install, configure, and maintain plugins that let search engines know about your site, and FAST. Want to get into Google and notify them when you add updates? Not a problem!
6) Wordpress is built around dynamic content. If you are selling a catalog full of products, Wordpress may not be for you. But if you are selling a service or expertise, Wordpress lets you add content and information about your area of expertise with great ease. Put up your static content and leave it. For you, the real bucks are going to be made with your demonstrated knowledge of an ever-changing industry.
7) Wordpress handles the major issues. You do what you do, not run web sites. With a little help, you can get your Wordpress environment set up and going and maintain the meat of the website without dealing too much with technical details. Even if you do need help, there are lots of Wordpresss users and experts who can help.
Don’t Give Up!!!
When you first start blogging, especially blogging for your business, it is going to be tough, but not for the reasons you may think.
Writer’s block? Nah, that won’t be a problem. You have a subject (your business) that no one else has written about and a vested interest in writing about it. If your business is multi-faceted you have plenty of subjects for posts, and if it is very specific, you can write about aspects of the subject that most of your readers won’t consider on their own.
Not enough to say on the subject matter? That shouldn’t be a problem either. You’re the expert. You know more about your business than anyone else, and hopefully more about the industry in general than most. There’s no need to be wordy anyway. Succinct writing is great, especially for blogs.
Your problem is more likely to lie in the fact that you aren’t used to writing about your business regularly. Sure, you talk about it comfortably all the time, but you haven’t found that same voice when writing. It’s also highly likely that each time you’re close to a voice, you wipe it out by editing and re-editing your blog entries to the point that they sound like text books.
Stop! Now write. Just write. Write some more. Write another post on the same topic. Write a post about that post. Just keep writing. You will find your voice more quickly than you may think, and writing about your business will start to happen more natually.
Don’t give up!!!
Resistance to Change
Sunday night I went to a friend’s house for dinner. He needed some help with some computer issues, and I owed him a favor or two. He’s very handy (I’m not) and has helped me out with some projects around the house.
While I was there, I went ahead and installed Firefox for him and scanned his system with both Spybot and AdAware. When I showed him Firefox, he wasn’t at all interested in using it…”Nah, I like my Internet Explorer.” I showed him the cool features like tabbed browsing, and told him that he should at least upgrade IE to version 7, but he wasn’t interested in that either.
Of course, he wasn’t interested in any of the other cool and free tools I had to show him either.
It is pretty amazing to me that even people my age (mid-30s) can be so set in their ways and resistant to change, even when the change is for the better and coming from a trusted source.
Your Friendly IT Department
Two great posts at Think Smarter about interfacing with your company’s IT department. The comments are just about as good as the posts.
Smart People Running Blockbuster
I remember when Netflix first came out, and I thought it would be the death of Blockbuster. More selection, more convenience, and no overhead associated with running a brick and mortar store. Of course Blockbuster responded by launching the same basic service that Netflix was offering, and the competition had begun.
But then Blockbuster did something that Netflix could not counter. They started allowing you to return your movies in the store. They put them in the mail for you and also allowed you to pick out another movie from the store to rent for free!
Not only is this a great service, but it gets you into their store where they always ask, “Would you like to purchase Coke, candy, or popcorn tonight?”
AHA!!! Blockbuster took what would appear to be a competitive disadvantage–having to operate a brick and mortar store–and turned it into a competitive advantage–an opportunity to sell food and beverages at an extreme markup along with pre-viewed movies, posters, video games, etc.
Blockbuster had the rules changed on them overnight, but they turned the new rules into an advantage. Some creative thinking on their part has put Netflix on the brink of going out of business.
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