Ozdachs

About Ozdachs

San Francisco Internet Marketer and web designer gets you on the Internet in a cost-effective, responsible way.

WordPress Sites: You Don’t Just Publish and Forget Them

It used to be that clients asked a developer to create a website, the site went live,and then the owner let the site attract business for them without any further effort. The owner usually didn’t update the site regularly, and there were no maintenance tasks to be performed. Maybe some content would be updated every month or so, but maybe not.

Now, though, business owners have jumped on the DIY updates/blog wagon. They want to be able to create their own posts, and they want to be able to change the photos and content on the their websites themselves.

In response to this new approach, WordPress has exploded. WordPress lets you create and modify a website from a web browser anywhere in the world.

You don’t need special software on your computer
You don’t need to know any programming language, not even HTML
The base WordPress is free software that is continuously updated by passionate programmers who keep adding functionality

However, there are trade-offs in using WordPress for a site:

The pages of the site are created by a script that runs when a visitor wants to see that page. Unless you buy a more powerful, expensive hosting service, the pages may take seconds to appear on your visitor’s screen. Significant slowness will make your site fall in Google rankings.
WordPress sites are complex merges of scripts from many different programmers. A WordPress template typically contains great functionality and flexibility. However, making a fine-tuning change that is simple using HTML may be very, very, very difficult to accomplish in WordPress site. If the WordPress developers or authors of the template you use did not expect you to want to modify a color, font size, margin, or other specific detail, then making that modification can be hugely difficult.
Since WordPress sites can be modified from anywhere in the world. the latest version must be consciously backed up. With an HTML site, the master site is developed on a local PC and then a copy is uploaded to the web hosting service. The live version visitors see is backed up by static code on the developers computer. On the other hand, the live WordPress site is a dynamic master site whose code and database settings must be intentionally saved.
Since WordPress sites can be modified from anywhere in the world, evil hackers are always trying to break into your site and do malicious things with it. The WordPress developers and the authors of the software plug-ins you use on your site regularly issue updates that both address security issues and add functionality. The website owner must regularly check for updates to the site’s template and plug-ins and install them.

Attacks Against this Blog During the 7 Days Prior to the Writing of this Blog Post

In addition, if the new website includes an interactive blog or allows visitors to post comments, the website owner acquires additional responsibilities:

The owner should regularly check for comments and questions and respond.
The owner will need to moderate the comments. Spammers will make bogus comments with links to their own scammy site, trying to lure other visitors to their den of inequity.

Check out our next post on the tools we use to stay on top of dynamic WordPress sites.

By Ozdachs|2014-02-09T11:53:49-08:00February 9th, 2014|Web Design, Wordpress|1 Comment

We’ve Moved from Bluehost. If You Use WordPress, You Should Move, Too.

Going to this blog’s home page resulted in at least 10 seconds of wait time until yesterday. That’s the day we moved it from Bluehost hosting service to One World Hosting.

CPA Throttling bar chart

We recommend that anyone — make that everyone — who uses WordPress blogging software for their site move ASAP from Bluehost. They are just too damn slow!

WordPress blogs and sites take more CPU power to deliver than simple HTML-based sites. Every time someone asks for a page, WordPress rebuilds the page you see with a script. There is some remembering (caching) of recently delivered pages, but, basically, the hosting servers have to do more work for a WordPress site than they do for a vanilla HTML site.

But, Bluehost compounds the need for CPU resources by penalizing sites that need more computer power by denying them even average access to the CPU. Bluehost has server software that “throttles” sites that use more power than an arbitrary amount of CPU time Bluehost has decided is reasonable. This means that your visitors have to wait extra seconds for your WordPress-created pages to be shown to them because your site is consciously denied CPU time by Bluehost.

Bluehost says they “throttle” sites that use too much CPU power so that other sites on the same shared server do not suffer.

The concept is fair in theory. Someone could code scripts that run in a loop or otherwise hog the computer. But, Bluehost is catching vanilla WordPress sites in its resource rationing. This blog — and another client blog I hosted at Bluehost — use standard WordPress themes and plug-ins. There’s no custom code or exotic functionality that requires an abnormal or unfair amount of computer power. They shouldn’t be penalized for using too much of the computer.

When I wrote Bluehost support about the site’s slowness, they explained their company’s throttling was automatic and said that debugging my WordPress site to discover which plug-in or function was causing the excessive resource demand was beyond their free service to clients. They sent me links so I could buy consulting services to discover why and where I was using more CPU time than Bluehost thought I should.

No thanks.

Casual WordPress users, using pretty standard functionality, should not have to analyze — or pay to have someone else analyze — their use of a hosting service’s resources.

Thus far I have moved WordPress sites to One World Hosting and Webmasters.com. The speed of the copies on these two hosting services was much, much better than it was on Bluehost.

Since site speed affects Google’s ranking of your pages, WordPress sites really need to migrate away from Bluehost and its throttling.

By Ozdachs|2014-02-07T08:30:26-08:00February 7th, 2014|Product Recommendations, Wordpress|1 Comment

Puppy “Zenith” Can Help with Your Marketing

Good looking pictures make all the difference in your website, social media posts, and printed marketing materials. Previous blog posts have talked about how sex sells and told you to load up on photographs of pretty women, babies, and pets.

But, you can’t just grab a photo of a Golden Globe winning actor from another web site and stick it on one of your pages as if the star was a raving fan of your business.

I am not a lawyer, so if you want specific legal advice, contact an attorney. However, let me tell you the rules I follow when I create web pages and social media for my clients.

You must have the right to use the photograph — maybe you took the picture (you own it) or you bought a license to use the image from a photo service.
If the subject in the photograph is identifiable and if you’re using the photograph for commercial purposes (this includes beauty shots designed make your web site attractive), you must have a model release. Either ask the subject to sign a release yourself, or make sure that the photo service you’re using gets releases from their models.
If you are using a picture to illustrate a news story, you do not need a release as long as the picture was taken in a public place where the subject doesn’t have an reasonable expectation of privacy. This means you can use pictures you take of church members BBQing in an article about the picnic without getting a release from each person in the crowd. The photograph can include children, too.
Although you can use photos of recognizable people for editorial purposes, it’s my policy to remove pictures from the website/Facebook/wherever if the subject says they don’t want their picture published.

The rules as I understand them — see non-lawyer caveat above! — are pretty simple. Use pictures you’ve taken or ones you have permission to use. If you’re using the photo for a non-editorial purpose and a person is identifiable in a picture, get a model release from that person.

You cannot use any picture or graphic you find in a Google search, on Flickr, or anywhere else on the Internet, unless the photo is marked in some way that gives you explicit permission to use it. Flickr and possibly other photo sites encourage people to give permission to others to copy their works using Creative Commons licenses. But, most images are not tagged with permission, and by default a photograph is protected by copyright law and copying is not allowed.

Pictures that grab the attention of your potential clients are powerful components of your Internet marketing effort. If you have the pictures you want for your Internet campaign, great! Use them! If you’re looking for more photographs, I take some darn good photographs (see examples — especially the puppy pictures). I am happy to come over with my camera and take the pictures you want. Or, browse stock photos available for licensing on the service I like best, Dreamstime.

Just make sure you get pictures of puppy Zenith or something equally appealing on your Internet marketing materials now!

By Ozdachs|2014-01-13T07:41:00-08:00January 13th, 2014|Product Recommendations, Professional Services, Tips and Resources|0 Comments

Sex Sells and Facebook Knows It

I was somewhat startled when I went to Facebook to catch up with news and encountered a provocative photograph in the sidebar.

Facebook taunted me that the post they were displaying received 95% more “engagement” than the my own recent pitiful posts. They suggested that the remedy to my isolation was to Boost Post — to pay them to display my posts in more places more frequently.

Well, okay. Maybe paying Facebook to display my posts as “sponsored” in the newsfeeds of people I don’t know would get some new people to read the Ozdachs page, like it, and buy our services. Maybe.

But, what I really took away from Facebook’s recommendations was a reminder that sex sells. The post that received 95% more attention was a crotch shot posted by a bar whose business page I had set up. The client is now publishing his own posts, and I confess that I admire his talent for grabbing eye balls and getting people to LIKE the photo or click through for more information on the featured event. He used a classic marketing technique: he used sex to get attention for his business.

I suggest to clients that we illustrate their pages/posts/hard-copy material with photographs of babies, puppies, and pretty young women. Research shows that images of those subjects gets readers to pause and pay attention to the material. It turns out that pictures of kittens and well-endowed young men are equally effective.

My own preference is to get users to stop and click by using pictures of adorable dogs. They can be used in any forum, and puppies don’t risk offending the sensibilities of more traditional or conservative viewers. Maybe the impulse to pet a dachshund isn’t as strong as the sex drive, but in my opinion a puppy is a more appropriate graphic for a business-to-business focus.

Of course, if you are attracting customers to your bar, you might focus more on sexy photographs. Or, if you’re selling estate planning, you would be smart to load up your site with smiling babies of the inheriting generation.

In business, your task is to create an appealing image that will stand out from the crowd of messages hitting your prospective client. Pretty women, babies, and puppies stop people from paging down or tossing your flier away without a second glace. Give your message a chance to reach a customer.

Do what Facebook does. Let sex sell for your business!

By Ozdachs|2014-01-12T08:54:35-08:00January 12th, 2014|Facebook, Tips and Resources|0 Comments

Example Newsletter

Need a hand sending out a meaningful message to your clients each month?

Ozdachs will help!

We will develop with you a topic for each email, write the copy, find appropriate graphics, and schedule the newsletter. We will also set up your account with Constant Contact, the email service we recommend, and we will select the template and lay out the newsletter.

Ozdachs has been providing these services for clients for 10 years. We look forward to creating for you a professional newsletter of 5 to 10 paragraphs (click on the picture at right for an example newsletter edition).

We can do a lot of the work, but you will still need to provide:

A subscription list of clients, friends, and others who have given you permission to send them email.
A hour of your time at start up when we work out the broad messages you want to deliver over the next six-months. Of course, we can substitute a blast about a new product or other news when appropriate.
A review of the draft newsletter we send you each month.
Feedback!

The cost for this service is just $299 a month for six months. Production, writing, graphics, and Constant Contact mailing services for up to 5,000 contacts is included. In addition, if we maintain your HTML-based website, we will also post the newsletter to an online archive that will organically grow your site.

Sending your newsletter is easy and this package gets you started with low risk. For less than a traditional Yellow Pages display ad or Internet ad pay-per-click campaign, you can contact people who already know about you and are the mostly like to buy from you.

Of course, if you want to do more of the work yourself and have the time and tools to edit your copy and pictures, go for it! Ozdachs is always happy provide ad hoc support. Take your first step by checking out Constant Contact . You can sign up for a free 60-day trial (with limits on the number of email addresses), and browse the templates and test the formatting tools.

Ask Ozdachs to help or DIY. Either way, get your newsletter published!

By Ozdachs|2013-11-24T14:02:41-08:00November 24th, 2013|Newsletters|0 Comments

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About Ozdachs

WordPress Sites: You Don’t Just Publish and Forget Them

We’ve Moved from Bluehost. If You Use WordPress, You Should Move, Too.

Can I Use that Picture?

Sex Sells and Facebook Knows It

Your Monthly Newsletter for Only $299 a Month for Six Months