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Top 4 Free WordPress Plugins For Bloggers

The post Top 4 Free WordPress Plugins For Bloggers appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . How many plugins are available to WordPress users? A recent count put the number at nearly 40,000 plugins, most of them free. That places an astounding array of functionality at the fingertips of WordPress users. But not all plugins are created equal. Some are of more universal value than others. And while value is in the eye of the user, the Huffington Post recently published their take on the top 5 free WordPress plugins:   #1: Pretty Link Pretty Link helps you to “shrink, beautify, track, manage and share any URL on or off of your WordPress website.” It’s an elegant method of directing traffic to other sites as desired, or to other pages within your site. Both free versions and paid versions of the Pretty Link plugin are available.   #2: Google Analytics Google Analytics is an invaluable, free tool for measuring, tracking, and tweaking the performance of your website. And the Google Analytics plugin by Yoast makes it super simple to install GA on your WordPress site. This free plugin will deliver all of the benefits of GA, and has been installed on more than one million sites. And if you want some help with making the most of Google Analytics, there’s also a premium version of this plugin available.   #3: WordPress SEO by Yoast WordPress is a great content management platform for search engine optimization. But the Yoast plugin for SEO builds upon WordPress’ compatibility with SEO. SEO is a constantly moving target. And staying in the good graces of the search engines requires great expertise – or the Yoast plugin. This plugin is typically updated several times per year to stay up-to-date with SEO best practices.   #4: SumoMe It’s bad news for a business website when most of the visitors are hit-and-run: they stop in for a brief visit and then flit away, never to return. But each visitor that arrives at your website represents an opportunity to cultivate a relationship, and eventually, a customer. The SumoMe plugin can help you to do that. SumoMe offers great value both for e-commerce sites and for bloggers.   Tip of the Iceberg With a field nearly 40,000 strong, there are certainly far more than 5 WordPress plugins that offer great value. And while the plugins listed above could be considered must-haves for most business sites, they represent only a tiny portion of a massive group of wonderfully useful plugins. Not all plugins are great, of course. Many aren’t worth bothering with. But a fun aspect of managing a WordPress site is browsing through all the plugins available. If there’s a job that needs doing on your WordPress site, odds are good that there’s a great plugin ready to go to work for you – for free.   ***** Chris Delker is a freelance copywriter based in Dallas, Texas. web hosting Continue reading

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The Hottest Web Design Trends Of 2015

The post The Hottest Web Design Trends Of 2015 appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Now that we’ve made it half way through the year, now is a good time to look at the hottest web design trends of the year so far. The web is a constantly evolving place. By staying on top of the latest trends you can ensure your website will always be up-to-date. In this post we’re going to take a look at the most popular trends of the year and what they mean for your website.   1. Focus On Simplicity The web is a crowded and noisy place. You can see a lot of sites getting rid of everything that’s non-essential in order to have the cleanest and easiest-to-read site possible. This can include eliminating elements, such as, background images, complex layouts, full-page sliders and much more. Removing these elements not only provides a much more relaxed environment for the reader, but it can improve loading speeds as well.   2. All About Scrolling If you’ve been browsing the web at all this year, I’m sure you have, then you’ve probably noticed the trend of sites getting longer and longer. This has to do with more fluid scrolling, and the way users actually read across the web. It’s much easier for users to scroll through web pages than it is to click around to find the information they’re looking for. You can see this trend in action on parallax-style pages that have animated effects. It’s much easier to tell a coherent story when the user doesn’t have to click to find out what’s next.   3. High-Quality Images Those sites that are using images to invoke a feeling in their users are tending to lean towards using very high-quality custom images. Stock images are still being used across some websites, but it’s becoming more of a rarity. By having a unique photo you can ensure you’re never going to run across the same image twice. This will help you to convey to your users how much attention to detail you put into your website, and how this will trickle into your services and offerings.   4. Collapsible Menus This year we’ve seen the trend of hiding your navigation across your website really start to take hold. These hidden menus only become visible once the user clicks on the icon to display the menu. This design element is in line with keeping your site clean and free of distractions. Hidden menus are very prevalent across responsive websites on smaller screens, only now the transition is taking place across larger screens as well.   5. Massive Typography There’s been an increasing trend towards placing a larger focus on typography. Now that trend is growing, literally. More websites are using very large font sizes to get their message across. Usually, this is only done with websites that have a very bold message. However, it’s slowly finding its way to website of any style. Who knows if the above trends will be here years from now, but one thing is for certain. They’re here now, and they’re going to be around for at least another year. If you’ve been trying to make your website more timely consider implementing one of the current design features highlighted above. web hosting Continue reading

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3 Critical Mistakes You Might Be Making with Your Business Website

The post 3 Critical Mistakes You Might Be Making with Your Business Website appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . A strange but true fact: roughly one out of every two small businesses still doesn’t have a website. That wouldn’t have been particularly surprising 20 years ago. But today? It seems rather strange. Especially when you consider that nearly 100% of consumers now do at least some of their shopping online for products and services that interest them. So if you’re a small business owner, and you do have a website, that automatically gives you a huge leg-up over about half of your competition. But what about the other half of your competition – the half that does have a website? If you’re like many small businesses, you might not be faring so well against those competitors. That’s because many small businesses have websites that are much less effective than they could be. And in fact, many small businesses are making the very same mistakes with their websites. According to the Small Business Administration , there are 3 critical mistakes that many small businesses are making with their online presence:   #1. No Call-to-Action Let’s say that you have a website. And let’s say that a prospective customer lands upon your homepage. Do you tell that prospective customer what you want them to do? Many small business websites don’t. They seem satisfied to let visitors wander around aimlessly for a bit until they wander off the website – likely never to return. And that’s a mistake that more than two-thirds of small business websites make. But it’s important to let website visitors know what you want them to do. In fact, every single page of your website should have a designated purpose – a most-wanted response. And the copy and graphics on that page should work to elicit that most-wanted response. But you’re not likely to get that most-wanted response without telling your website visitors what you want them to do.   #2. Mobile Incompatibility The world is going mobile. Only a few short years ago, most customers accessed your website via a desktop or laptop computer. But that’s no longer true. These days, it’s likely that just as many customers visit you virtually with a smart phone or a tablet. And that might be a problem for you. Because a website design that is perfectly fine for viewing with a desktop/laptop computer may not be particularly suitable for viewing with a mobile device. In fact, it’s very likely that your website is not mobile compatible. Because fewer than 10% of mobile websites are mobile compatible. And if you think that mobile incompatibility is no more than a slight inconvenience for some of your website visitors, think again. Google takes mobile compatibility very seriously – and may seriously ding your site in search results if you’re not mobile friendly. (Not sure whether your site is mobile-friendly? Use this free tool to easily find out.)   #3. Cold-Shouldering Social Media Social media is all the rage these days. Social media portals such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest have become wildly popular. And many marketers are trying to tap into that popularity as a new way to reach customers. In truth, there’s some dispute about the effect of social media marketing for businesses. But many marketing experts feel that social media holds far too much promise to ignore. As one expert noted in a Forbes article , there are a great many potential benefits to social media marketing. Even so, more than 80% of small business websites don’t even bother to link to any social media accounts. And that might be a massive mistake.   It’s A Bad News / Good News Scenario The three critical mistakes listed above are made by the majority of small business websites. So if you’re the owner or operator of a small business, the odds are strong that you’re in that group. That’s the bad news. The good news, though, is that simply having a website places you ahead of half of your competition. And you can compound that advantage by eliminating any of these three critical mistakes that you might be making with your website. Do that, and you’ll place your business in the rarified air of dominating your online competition. And that’s a very good place to be. web hosting Continue reading

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What Does Passion Mean For Your Small Business

The post What Does Passion Mean For Your Small Business appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . “The best advice I could give anyone is to spend your time working on whatever you are passionate about in life.” – Richard Branson Passion is a big word in the business world, especially with the growth of online technologies that now make it much easier for people to follow their passions and turn them into a business. However, that doesn’t mean the process is going to be any easier. As you know running your business is more than a full-time job, but when it’s a labor of love it can make the process much more enjoyable. In this post we’re going to explore passion in the business world, what it means, and ways to become passionate about your business if it’s not quite there for you.   Why Start A Business In The First Place? People start businesses for a variety of reasons. It would be impossible to list them all here. It doesn’t even have to be said, but most people are in business to make money. Most people don’t go into business to go bankrupt. A lot of people start a business because they see a hole in the market that can be filled with their business or service. Sometimes people are serial entrepreneurs and bounce from industry to industry finding problems and building solutions for those problems. Other people take a more artistic sense and are looking for creative fulfillment. This type of person seeks creative fulfillment through their product or service. They look to flex their creative muscles and solve problems using their unique service or product. Passion comes in many forms, as many forms as there are people on earth. If passion is your root reason for pursuing a business idea, then by all means pursue it until the end of the earth. If you’re wired to start a business about what you’re passionate about then a part of you won’t be satisfied until you do. After all, when you’re doing something you’re immersed in it doesn’t really feel like work.   Can I Become Passionate? If you started your business to fill a market need and you really want to become passionate about your work there are a few ways to nurture passion, without selling your business and starting a new one from scratch. If you started a business for the money and now you want to become passionate about your work, first you need to have a deep understanding of what you like to do and what your strengths are. If you can adapt these to your current work day, or introduce new aspects into your business then you’ll be well on your way towards bringing passion into your work. Below you’ll find a few questions that will help you uncover your passion and strengths: What would you do every day, even if you weren’t being paid to do it? What do you think your core strengths are? What could you immerse yourself in for hours at a time? If you could only do one activity for the rest of your life what would it be? Once you find your strengths the key is going to be building a bridge between passion and your current work reality. You have to be creative to do this, but I have faith in you. It might mean adjusting your work priorities, daily agenda, or introducing a new service or product for you to manage. Passion is an important ingredient to have, not only for your business, but for your life. web hosting Continue reading

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How To Sell A Website

The post How To Sell A Website appeared first on HostGator Blog | Gator Crossing . Do you own a website with stable traffic and revenue, but have grown tired of maintaining it, don’t know how to take it to the next level, or you could simply use some extra cash? If you answered yes, you might want to consider selling your website. Website flipping, as it is affectionately termed, is a quickly growing industry that allows owners of websites and web businesses to easily liquidate their online assets. With over 600,000 users and upwards of $140,000,000 in transactions processed to date, Flippa is universally regarded as the premiere destination for selling websites. Sellers on Flippa list their websites up for sale in eBay style auctions where buyers looking to make acquisitions have the opportunity to place a bid. Sites sold on Flippa include the massively popular ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com sold for $85,000 in January 2015, the viral news publisher The Inquisitr for $330,000 in May 2011, and even FaceMash, which was originally launched by Mark Zuckerberg and sold on Flippa for $30,000 in 2010. So, it’s clear that Flippa is the premiere destination for web entrepreneurs, but how does one actually go about selling a website on the platform? Check out the following tips and tricks that can help you successfully sell your website.   Pre-Sale Preparing your site for sale is a key step in the process of selling a website. The reason being that when it comes time to list your site for sale, the more information you provide the more confidence buyer will have in the listing. In order to provide the right information, it is crucial that you have several things in place before you. Of course, the two most important things you will want to keep track of are traffic and revenue. Keeping detailed records of both of these metrics is essential to a successful sale.   Traffic When it comes to monitoring and analyzing your traffic, Google Analytics is the industry standard. One of the great things about Google Analytics is that the platform easily allows for website owners to provide access to traffic data to interested buyers. Quite frankly, you should have Google Analytics installed on all of your websites from the moment you launch them. Before selling a website you should aim to have at least 12 months of Google Analytics data.   Revenue As far as revenue goes, it is vital that you keep accurate records of all revenue and expenses month by month. By far, the number one thing buyers consider when valuing a website is profit, and without accurate financial records you are simply not going to be able to accurately convey the value of the site. In addition to keeping accurate records, make sure that your records are provable. To do this keep separate accounts for your web businesses, take advantage of backend sales reports, and avoid migrating platforms without saving all financial data beforehand.   Valuation Before selling your site, you will want to get a general idea of what it can potentially sell for at auction. Typically, websites sell at a multiple of between 1x to 3x yearly profit. Of course, there are countless websites that sell below this range, there are wild fluctuations within the range, and there are even websites that sell for above this range. The more stable, sustainable, and unique the business the higher it should sell for. All of that said, the only way to get a true valuation is to list your site for sale and let the market decide.   Setting Up Your Auction Flippa makes it easy to set up an auction for your website. You’ll be prompted to provide historical information about your site as well as detailed traffic and financial information. The more transparent and open you can be the better, as buyers are unlikely to place a bid on an auction in which the seller is withholding pertinent information about the site.   Listing Description This is your opportunity to sell. Remember the person who will read this listing description is evaluating this as a business, so instead of attempting to sell them with superfluous and unnecessary language, try to sell them on the facts. Make sure to discuss factors about your website such as the business model, monetization method(s), marketing efforts, challenges, future opportunities, and the reason why you are selling.   Auction Management Regardless of how the auction starts out, avoid jumping the gun and getting discouraged. Most bids typically come in the final 24 hours of an auction. If you list your site for sale, be prepared to stick it out to the end. The most important thing to remember is to stay active. Sellers that fail to respond in a timely manner to questions, or sellers that are clearly evasive almost always get called out on it and this leaves a bad taste in the mouth of potential buyers. Remember, you want to leave a good impression, because buyers are not only evaluating the business, they’re evaluating whether or not they would be comfortable doing business with you. In short, always put your best foot forward.   Post Sale So, your site just sold to the high bidder, what comes next? You’re not quite done yet. It’s just as crucial that you remain involved and active in the post-sale process, as this will significantly reduce the chances of your sale falling through. The first thing you will want to determine is how the buyer will pay for the asset. It is ALWAYS recommended that you accept payment via escrow, as this is the safest option for both parties. Flippa offers a free escrow service, so it’s really the only option you should be using. Once the money has been placed securely into escrow, you should be notified via email. At that point you can begin transferring the assets of the business over to the buyer. After the transfer of assets is complete, escrow should release the funds to you, and it may take 3 to 5 business days for the funds to clear into your account.   Closing Thoughts An auction for an online business is a bit like a marathon. It’s a long and arduous process that will require significant involvement on your end. You should make sure that you have enough time to participate fully or you risk selling your site for less than it is worth. However, if you have legitimate money making web business, and you follow some of the tips and tricks above, you should have no issues in achieving a successful sale and putting cash in your pocket.   Image source: http://www.e-renter.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/for-sale-sign-on-post.jpg web hosting Continue reading

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