Categories
Blogging

Business Blogging: 3 Strategies to Make Your Company Blog Work for You

Having a company blog is simple, inexpensive, and undeniably a must. In fact, it is estimated that “each month 329 million people read blogs.”

That’s a lot of people.

As one of the most valuable tools for promoting an online business presence, business blogging can truly make a difference in how successful your company becomes.

Business Blogging Will:

  • Allow you to frequently interact with your regulars as well as potential new customers
  • Personalize your company brand informally and in a way such that you control how your company is portrayed
  • Help you develop authority on your business’ products or services and enable you to showcase that expertise
  • Offer widespread visibility of your company through means other than your business website
  • Draw in leads that could equal potential sales – after all, someone reading your company blog is already interested and is now more likely to purchase your products or services
  • Create trust and loyalty among established customers
  • Integrate your business well with all types of social media broadening your company’s audience base
  • Influence SEO rankings
  • Drive traffic from your business blog to your business website where purchases are ultimately made

Business Blogging How-To: The 3 Main Strategies

Write Great Content

1.  Write Great Content

  • When you write a blog post make the content valuable, consistent, and frequent for those already loyal to your business website and those drawn to your blog for the first time that could possibly hop on over to your business site.
  • Promote your products and services but don’t stop there! Engage the readers with tips and advice, provide newsworthy information related to your business, launch new product releases, and even answer customer questions.
  • Don’t forget to create catchy titles and subtitles that will grab the casual reader’s attention and draw them in to read more.

Seducing the reader through great content writing can encourage them to check out your business website where they can purchase what your company blog is boasting. Remember, every time you post to your company blog Google catalogs this and directs potential buyers to your site via search engine results. What you do after that is up to you. Intrigue, grab a lead, and sell!

Social Media Optimization

2. Maximize Your Social Media Reach

  • Simply put, your blog content is shareable. Not only via share icons the readers use that are located directly on the post itself, but through your own social media accounts where you can share your company’s blog posts.
  • Create share icons in a clear spot so readers can share information they love. This spreads your business blogging efforts and reaches more potential customers.
  • Popular social networks to consider are: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+.
  • Keep your blog name and social networking names consistent so readers can find you anywhere (the same goes for any images that represent your company).
  • Rather than always linking your blog posts to your social media networks, try using eye-catching images, posing questions to readers, or even posting multiple times a day. The key is to engage readers to visit your blog and see what your company is all about!

Never underestimate the power of social media. Users are increasing at an alarming rate and there seems to be no end in sight. One of the greatest ways to drive traffic to your company blog and ultimately your business website is through the active use of social media networks.

SEO

3. Take Advantage of SEO Practices

After installing the plugin you will notice a number of extra fields at the end of your post to fill in to better your SEO score:
Yoast SEO Plugin
1.  SEO Title – This is the title of your blog post and will be filled in automatically for you.
2.  Keyword – Use words representing what your blog post is about (for help getting the best keywords use this free tool to determine which keywords are popular and which are not – Google Keyword Planner).
3.  Meta description – This is the snippet preview of your post that will show up on a Google search. Use your keywords and make it intriguing to the potential reader searching for something to click on when search results show. 
4.  The goal – Make all the reds turn to green under Focus Keyword, and make you Meta description compelling!

  • Not a WordPress user? Don’t want to use an SEO plugin? That’s ok! Decide what your strongest keywords will be and place them in your post title, throughout the post itself (but don’t get crazy ok? let it be natural), in the meta description at the end of your post, in any images used throughout the post (in the image name itself, the title, the alt tag, and description fields), and even in your permalink (*Note – this is the URL of your post: go to Settings>Permalinks>Post Link; this will match your URL name to your blog post title which should include those keywords!)

Taking either of these two methods, or a combination of both, will definitely make your blog post more SEO friendly and rank it high in search results. No, I am not an expert. I am actually far from it.  But as you can see, you don’t need to be an expert to gain the benefits of simple SEO practices!

Conclusion

Each company has varying goals and definitions of what it means to be successful. Yet, the one thing that all companies have in common is sales. Sales of some sort. Why not start a company blog and use business blogging to expand those sales? It really is fairly simple, inexpensive, and most of all valuable to the success of your company.

Have you ever used any of these strategies?  Can you recommend one not mentioned that may help others maximize their marketing efforts?  Leave a comment below, we would love to hear from you!

Categories
WordPress Plugins

10 of the Best E-Commerce Plugins for WordPress

People love to shop online. It is simple, convenient, and allows for quick price comparisons so the buyer gets the best deal every time. Near or far, products can be delivered to a buyer’s front doorstep with the click of a mouse.

Setting up an e-commerce website is the key to boosting sales and reaching a wider audience. Creating an e-store allows anyone with Internet access to step into your online store and buy your products with ease.

If you already have a WordPress website, or are even considering building one, using this popular blogging platform for your e-commerce business is the smart way to go. With thousands of plugins available, many of which are free to use, selling your products online will be straightforward and effortless.

Here is a list of the top 10 WordPress plugins that will help make your online business a success:

WooCommerce

WooCommerce WordPress Plugin

With over 1 million active installs and a striking 4.4/5 stars, WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce plugin available.

This plugin offers the following features:

  • Fully compatible with all WordPress themes, including default themes (or customize your own with a WooTheme tailored for this plugin)
  • Payment ease using major gateways such as PayPal, BACS, and Cash on Delivery
  • Dashboard to watch sales reports, reviews, stock levels and other statistrics
  • Coupon codes and discounts
  • Complete shipping control
  • Tax conversion capability
  • And much more

WooCommerce is offered as a free plugin with hundreds of free extensions or, if you need a little extra, there are premium extensions for purchase.

If you want to know exactly how to start selling products online with WooCommerce, be sure to check out our guide to building an online shop for free with WordPress

Download WooCommerce

WP e-Commerce

WP ecommerce WordPress Plugin

As the original WordPress e-commerce plugin, WP e-Commerce has withstood the test of time.  Although this plugin is not the most popular around, it has been touted as “…one of the most relied upon open-source solutions for business owners across the globe.”

Some key features include:

  • A sell anything plugin (physical products, digital downloads, memberships, and subscriptions)
  • Customizable with CSS and HTML
  • Shipping control with access to external shipping methods such as UPS or USPS
  • Multiple payment options
  • Automated marketing – integration to systems like Google Base, Google Analytics, Share This, and more
  • Multi-functioning coupon management system
  • Quick response support staff for all your technical needs

Even though WP e-Commerce is not rated the highest compared to its ever popular competitor WooCommerce, it definitely has a lot of bang and can get you e-commerce store up and running in no time.

Download WP e-Commerce

Jigoshop

Jigoshop WordPress Plugin

Developed by those with years of experience, Jigoshop is another old-timer, but is an ever popular e-commerce plugin. With a 4.5/5 star rating, and close to ½ million downloads, Jigoshop offers a quick store setup with lots of fun settings.

This plugin’s impressive elements include:

  • Currency and country settings
  • Catalog options
  • Tax Settings
  • Multiple product types such as: physical products, virtual/downloadable products, affiliate products, and grouped products
  • Real-time shop performance insight
  • Stock and inventory management with alerts

Jigoshop also offers free and commercial plugins that add to the “…broad functionality, easy migration options and professional support packages.” If you are looking for a quick and simple set up for your e-commerce store, this is the way to go.

Download Jigoshop

Cart66 Lite :: WordPress E-commerce

Cartt66 WordPress ecommerce Plugin

Cart66 is a straightforward, hassle-free plugin making your e-commerce store simple and powerful. There are no fancy settings or designs, simply a plugin to allow you to “…put a product on a page and sell it.”

Do not let its simplicity fool you though. Cart66 offers a variety of unique features to get your store up and running:

  • Secure payment using the Mijireh checkout system
  • Ability to sell digitally using Amazon S3 integration
  • Manage orders easily and set currencies
  • Create customized email receipts
  • Integrate an affiliate platform
  • PCI compliant (no need for SSL certificate)
  • Sell from any page or post within website

While Cart66 is offered as a free plugin, if you feel you need a little more as far as features go, you can always upgrade to Cart66 Pro. Integrating with the popular Gravity Forms plugin, Cart66 Pro opens up a host of possibilities for your online business.

Download Cart66 Lite :: WordPress E-commerce

Shopp

Shopp WordPress Plugin

Introduced in 2008, Shopp was developed by Ingenesis Limited and is run by volunteers today. This plugin offers a wide variety of features. It is highly professional and designed with developers in mind; however it is also simple enough for the average shop owner to handle. “Not too much, and not too little.”

Here are the most important features included in the Shopp plugin:

  • Export to external accounting systems such as Quickbooks ®, Intuit ®, or other spreadsheet programs
  • Cart management for shoppers to control their purchases
  • Related products smart collection
  • Passing PCI vulnerability scans so you know your site is protected
  • Promotion system for coupons and discounts
  • And a whole lot more

This plugin offers business owners a simple and flexible way to manage their e-commerce shop. You can download this plugin for free or even take it one step further and purchase the Merchant Support package for additional features. Whichever way you choose to go, this plugin is sure to make your business a success.

Download Shopp

iThemes Exchange : Simple E-commerce

iThemes Exchange Simple WordPress ecommerce Plugin

If you are looking for a super simple plugin that allows you to simply add your products to your site and start selling, iThemes Exchange is the one for you. The idea behind this plugin is to create the user features as Add-ons that you activate in your dashboard. In fact, the developers of this plugin want you to imagine Add-ons “…as features you can turn on and off.” That way you only have what you need for your store and nothing more.

Here is a list of the Add-ons included in the free version of iThemes Exchange:

  • Ability to add digital downloads to your store
  • Easy to add shipping options
  • PayPal and Stripe payment options (as well as options for paying offline via check or cash)
  • Coupon generation
  • Simple tax conversions
  • Dashboard widget to view basic sales statistics
  • Multi-item Cart
  • Product Categories and Tags for easy grouping of products

Download iThemes Exchange : Simple E-commerce

Ecwid

Ecwid WordPress Plugin

Used as a shopping cart plugin, Ecwid comes packed with some unique features and boasts a 4.7/5 star rating.

Some of these cool features are:

  • Automatic embedding into your existing WordPress site with ease, adjusting to your page size and layout
  • Unlimited storage
  • Regular backups
  • Seamless upgrades and security updates
  • Secure checkout
  • Sell anywhere: websites, mobile phones, social media, Google Shopping/Yahoo/Shopping.com
  • And so much more

Ecwid is praised as being the “…#1 e-commerce app on Facebook with over 40,000 stores.” Reaching 175 countries, supporting over 45 languages, and incorporating over 40 international payment options, this plugin is truly your e-commerce site’s global solution.

Download Ecwid

eShop

eShop WordPress Plugin

One of the most accessible and feature-packed e-commerce plugins around is definitely eShop. Loaded with options to get your online business going, this free plugin will really do the job.

Here are just a few reasons why this plugin is so great:

  • Customer Signups
  • Product listing variations
  • Digital download capability
  • Automatic email system
  • Stock control
  • Multisite compatible
  • Tax conversions
  • Several payment gateways
  • Plenty of shipping options
  • Discount options
  • And that is just the start

Download eShop

Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads WordPress Plugin

No physical products to sell? Use Easy Digital Downloads as your complete e-commerce plugin for selling digital products only. Rather than include many of the same features the other e-commerce plugins have, Easy Digital Downloads contains only what you need to sell in the digital world, as well as the basics needed to run your store successfully.

Take a look:

  • Earning and sales charts
  • Bundled products
  • Popular payment options including PayPal and Stripe
  • Cart system to purchase numerous downloads at once
  • Ability to re-download files
  • Data export options for CSV and PDF
  • Multiple files per downloadable product
  • Complete promotional code system

Rated as a 4.9/5 stars, this highly favored plugin can be used to solve all your digital selling needs.

Download Easy Digital Downloads

MarketPress – WordPress e-Commerce

MarketPress WordPress ecommerce Plugin

Bringing the power of multiple plugins into one product, MarketPress makes setting up your online store easier than ever before.

This is what the plugin has to offer:

  • All major payment gateways accessible accepting all major currencies
  • Sell anything from physical products to digital downloads
  • Coupons and discounts available
  • AJAX cart ready
  • Multisite and BuddyPress compatible
  • Ability to set up an eBay or Etsy-style store
  • Google Universal Analytics for tracking
  • Works with any WordPress theme
  • Categories and Tags for easy grouping
  • Extensive inventory management system
  • And the list goes on and on

This all inclusive e-commerce plugin “…includes all the functionality out-of-the-box and requires no paid add-ons.”  If you are ready to have it all at your fingertips right now, MarketPress is the way to go.

Download MarketPress – WordPress e-Commerce

CONCLUSION

There are so many choices to make when deciding which plugins to add to your up-and-coming e-commerce website. Each individual store will have different requirements to make it successful in the online world. Use this list of some of the best plugins available and start building your business now. With the right theme, the right plugins, and the right kind of products, your e-commerce store will be booming in no time!

Have you ever used any of the above plugins? Which ones would you add to the list? Let us know in the comment section below!