December, 2018 | How to take your business forward using the Internet

WordPress 5

WordPress 5.1 has landed and I believe it is really good for lots of reasons.

WordPress 5 is not a bad word, in fact, I have found it really helps with building a blog page but you need to find your way around

First of all, you don’t need to be all in or all out. WordPress comes with an optional plug-in called Classic Editor. You will need this to modify your old posts and pages and if you are a scary cat about the new page builder.
You load the plugin to your site and then just turn it on or off.
Pretty simple stuff

Little boxes all in a row.

Just like the old song WP 5 is all about little boxes. You choose a box using the little + symbol and then follow the prompts. This allows the correct separation and aligns the work for you.

This really is a great time saver because it takes a lot of the manual work away from you and becomes second nature after a couple of runs.

The boxes start at headings and move to paragraphs then every element you want to include.

Fancy WP 5 being this easy
all to improve my marketing
So follow along and learn how

Yoast can help you

Having the Yoast SEO plugin installed still comments on both your writing and your SEO either at the end or along the way.
A quick check and I am told my sentences are too long so trim them back for easy reading.
I will also start to be more positive along the way.
Using Yoast as you go helps your structure.

Now the (i) button

You are going to just love this new addition.
It gives you a count of words, paragraphs, headings and blocks as you go.
Your headings should always flow down as your page builds.
Just yesterday I checked a blog and I had inserted a couple of H2 headings when I needed H3. Under the traditional system, this would never have been noticed and affected my SEO

I upgraded to WP5

I had tried Gutenberg and became disillusioned for some reason so trying 5.1 was an experience that I shared here

So I don’t want to go line by line because you will learn that on your own.
I want you to go in the deep end with a few things to help write your blog

The side bar control section

This takes a bit of getting used to as you go to the different section.
One is the current block you are working on where you have text, colour and advanced settings. This drop cap is an example.

Then the document settings showing information on the Post, then your categories, tags and picture header

In the old version, the feature image would not download unless a 200 pixels deep. Now it matters not. I don’t know whether this will affect your SEO so to be safe stay at 200 deep where possible. You can only crop down in the image window not up.

Writing or placing code

You can write in code or use a block. Here I have used a block

Here I have used code using a formatting block and what is difficult is the ability to place it on the page.

While you are looking at the right panel and changing the size etc You need to go back to the top panel to position the block and insert your link.
This was a bit confusing at first but easy learned.

In general you have the ability to build a better post more quickly and far more accurate than before

I dropped this link in because your Keywords are still the most important item on the page. People search for Keywords. not good writing or nice pictures so do your research before you start. You will notice that this is an interactive block with just search regularly changing. When you insert your HTML code right-click the block and go to the top left and alt between HTML and preview

Another quirk in WP 5

When you pick a heading box it automatically selects H2 and you need to change each one to the size you want. You should work down as you complete the page. Fortunately when you click the Info (i) it tells you what you have done and you can change it easily by just clicking on the box and picking the size you want

In conclusion

I can only find benefits in this new WordPress 5 product. There will be issues I have not communicated but you can gather those as you use the product. Remember you can always go back but I dare you, never!

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I upgraded to WordPress 5

Moving to WordPress 5 was not the bad experience I expected. In fact I believe it makes life easier.

I upgraded to WordPress 5, a very brave move considering the changes made but I came away with a positive feeling that all will be OK

I upgraded to WordPress 5

Considering that I upgraded to WordPress 5 a very brave move with the changes made but I came away feeling that maybe this is better than I initially thought.

If you are scared of WordPress 5 and Gutenberg take the journey slowly because it takes a considerable brain shift to get it going.
Gutenberg was a template to ease you into WordPress5 and no longer necessary.

The First thing to do on upgrading

Back up your website using a plug-in or save feature. This is just in case things go bad.
As I host at Wealthy Affiliate they back up for me so this is not a big concern

You can use WP clone or Update plus plugins as a great free service

Now to down load classic editor

The classic editor is a plugin for WordPress5. You can change to the old or new editor simply by activating or deactivating. This is particularly useful when updating old posts. Let’s stick with the new editor for the moment as we whizz through some of the changes.

The little + at top left

This allows you to add all sorts of boxes to your site and is used every time you want to change a box.

Paragraph; The most used writing block
Headings; start big and work down
Images; import or use library
Gallery: this is a group of images
Quotes, Adio, covers, files
Embed, this is new and for Youtube etc

When the little + appears you just select what you want to do. In the classic editor, this was fraught with problems as your paragraphs would blend with your headers requiring separation problems and fixes. This is one of my favourite fixes saving heaps of time.

Try to use every block

My first attempt was to try and use every block in my post so I could see how it worked. I could always delete later and you discover just how easy it can be.

We must remember to fill in the alt image and any links you want. You can go back and right click the box and edit at any time.

Now for a Gallery

In the past I had always found this to be hard work but now it is very simple, click on gallery and add pictures relating to the post

word Press 5
my check list
by Peter hanley

You can see I added words to the pictures to explain why they were there . This took but seconds

Peter Hanley said;
WordPress 5 is really easy and saves you a lot of time.

Testimonials in pages work really well and this one was easy because I am the author of my own destiny.
I also use and recommend a product called Wealthy affiliate and have completed the university degree there.

I used the custom HTML box and inserted my affiliate code supplied by WA. Again a simple process.

The word count

Over 300 words in a post are necessary over 1000 is good and over 1500 is great if you believe the experts. Furthermore, I always use Grammarly that checks on my spelling and writing as an essential free tool

Where to find the word count

This one had me bamboozled for a while as it has moved from the Bottom left of the page in a little box to the top left with a little (i) it said 754 words, 9 headings 16 paragraphs and 22 blocks. A heading and 5H# headings

This is certainly an advantage over the old counter as it checks all the important points.

Using Yoast

Yes, Yoast is still there in a big Y up the top right criticizing my writing and giving me suggestions to improve my SEO. Once you have two green lights you are good to go.
We all having writing styles and Yoast has made mine more positive over time to contribute to a better writing style. You just need to accept criticism and use it to your benefit

Document panel in WordPress5

Before we finish here flip over to the document panel top right. Here you will complete your categories, tags, visual header and a quick excerpt all to help with SEO.

In conclusion

There are a few more things you can add in like music and embedded you Tube, but start with the easy stuff and get all that working before moving on. I hope I have given you some support in this new career as a WordPress blogger that has moved on.

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Internet marketing training online

Internet training for small business needs a constant update. Here Peter Hanley discusses what you can do about it

Internet marketing training online by Peter Hanley. How you can keep up to date with just a few minutes per day and learn easy ways to grow your business 7X

Internet marketing training online

I have today changed to WordPress 5 and the new format page builder. Wow, things change quickly around here and this serves as a reminder the internet is a constant learning curve. It really does take a lot of time to keep up with trends and changes.

Many years ago I had to have my first webpage built. This was back in the days when it would cost about ten grand to do a basic page.
I had one done in-house to suit the simple requirements I wanted. It looked OK but I was not really happy with it. So started my journey on the Net.

As a business owner I had to understand

I needed to know what worked and what didn’t. The whole are of marketing was changing and I needed to change with it.

Unfortunately I got hooked on the internet because it is exciting and opens a new world of opportunity.

Age is no barrier, let me tell you that I was over 60 at that time and now 10 years later still working to understand what is going on.

Change is constant

There were no social media, SEO cost hundreds of dollars a month and lot’s more you don’t really want to know.

I currently use WordPress for websites, as do over a third of the rest of the world, and their change this week is massive. The change is so big it is being staged over a couple of years. The move to the Guttenberg platform is supported by being able to use an older version.
Guttenberg is a webpage building template that takes a step into new structures of creating a wonderful and attractive site or even Blog.

I am using this example of change to show how dynamic the internet can be.
Facebook changes every Year or so and so does Google and Instagram, emails and messaging so how do you keep up?

Internet marketing training made easy

That is why I started a web site to offer quick updates and Ideas for small and medium business. You need to spend time on your business, but like me you also need to know what is going on.

Every couple of days I post a new 1000 word blog on a marketing issue that keeps you in the new world of marketing on the internet.

Some you will keep, some you will delete and some you will share but I guarantee that you will gain massive benefits from following on the work I have done.
Take for example;

New Business on line

Facebook Marketing
Check my website report
Small business marketing
Targeting Black Friday
Wealthy Affiliate training

That is just the last week or so and there are over 150 more like this on all sorts of subjects to help you in small business.

Check my site rank

Sonia S
These are so good can I use them in my work.
Gavin N said
Every business needs these.

If you miss the boat your sales will fall and your profits will decline over a short time and It may just be too late to come back.

Do you understand retargeting? If not be in the majority that ponders how advertising follows you around the internet.
This one item is more than 20% of the budget of every internet marketer yet accounts for a great ROI.

The most common remarketing tactic is targeting relevant ads at people who have already visited your website.

Retargeting

You can do this with Facebook, Google, Instagram and other to gather valuable buyers at a low cost.

Email marketing has changed and we provide guides on how to obtain better results.

SMS is a great marketing product but do you know the rules. We explain this and lots more as we tell you the best way to get results.

Go to University

We all so offer the greatest value Internet training available on the internet and it’s all yours for free.

At Wealthy Affiliate, there are answers to nearly every problem and the online forum makes your life easier as you search a solution.

Do you understand Keywords?

Without an understanding of this one simple you will be lost for ever. For those that do understand Keywords how do you check for traffic and availability?
At Wealthy Affiliate we offer a free online checker that you can use to check this.

Act now to secure your future.

In Conclusion

You have only seen the tip of the Iceberg in this short article so duck over to the home page and sign up for your regular dose of Internet marketing training online.

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Marketing with Facebook and all about retargeting

Here Peter Hanley looks at Marketing with Facebook all about retargeting to showcase your business and drive new customers to your website.

Where else can you Retarget?

Here we are going to look at Facebook but you can also set up programmes for;

Instagram
Google
Email
LinkedIn
Twitter

What’s retargeting about?

The most common remarketing tactic is targeting relevant ads at people who have already visited your website (usually a specific landing page). … You can include those visitors (and the custom audience they’re part of) as a target audience in a Facebook ad retargeting campaign.

Retargeter.com expressed this really well:

Retargeting is a highly effective marketing tool that targets your ads to people who have already expressed interest in your site.
It allows you to focus on the people who are in-market and remind them how great your product is or why going with your service is the right decision.
When run correctly, retargeting can perform incredibly well and result in the amazing ROI and brand lift you may have heard about.
Despite the fact that retargeting has become an established part of the digital marketing vocabulary, many misconceptions still exist surrounding the technology.

It’s like magic to most people

You see something on a webpage and all of a sudden Adverts keep popping up. You wonder what sort of magic did that. It’s actually not all that hard.

Using Facebook’s Custom Audiences feature, you’ll install a snippet of code on your website. This will place a cookie on the computers of those who visit your site. With this installed on your site, the code will send information back to Facebook about which pages were viewed on your site by a specific visitor.

You’ll then use your Custom Audience preferences to retarget to different segments.
For example, you might retarget people who visited a certain page or even people who got to your shopping cart, but then didn’t make a purchase.

Is Retargeting only for retail or can it be used in B2B

Retargeter states that it works as well or even better especially when a free trial or an offer is on a page.

In addition, it is as effective for small business as well as Big Business and in fact, elevates your small business up to the level of the big guys.

Furthermore, it is not just for direct response marketing it is equally effective for the Brand building.
You will see , in one comScore study, it found a
1046% increase in brand awareness using retargeting.

What about Privacy with retargeting?

In fact retargeting does not collect any private information like name, address, IP address and only uses cookies to carry the response. So while many feels intruded upon it is a long way from the truth.

Setting up a campaign on Facebook.

First of all, you need a current Facebook ad Account.
Click into this and select audience.

Then you can create an audience and customise it.
Here we are looking for Website traffic.

Anyone who visits your website
People who visit specific pages
Those visiting specific web pages but not others
People who haven’t visited in a certain amount of time
Custom combination

Create your audience and gather your Pixel code that is then placed into a selected area of your website.

Make an Advert.

First of all, always plan your activity around specific ideas you want to achieve, Is it selling or brand Building.
Design a nice Advertisement using a guide from Facebook.

Particularly relevant is that you pay per click or per view so the cost is not
particularly terrible.

We asked the cost question and got the following response.

“In just the USA, the average cost per click (CPC) of Facebook Ads in Q3 2016 was 27.29 cents (and 27.40 cents for ALL objectives). The cost per 1000 impressions (CPM) based on Q3 was $7.19 (and $7.34 CPM for ALL objectives). posted on May 22, 2018″

You should decide on a cost per click basis or cost per 1000 impressions. This will depend, of course, on what you are trying to achieve.
There is also cost per acquisition but the expense is far greater and controls far less.

On top of this, you need to control frequency as well as Bid optimisation.

Certain web pages will get a greater response so it is natural that you will only use the best ones thus increasing your return.

Frequency is another area that must be considered.
If you are shown to a prospect a dozen or so times and not got a response the chances of ever getting one are extremely rare.

For example, if you are researching a product for something you are writing or studying and get retargeted you are never going to buy.
You were never an interested buyer so bombarding you with adds is hissing upwind.

This is not intended to be a how-to on retargeting

If you want to move further down this track do some more research and training before you start throwing valuable dollars at your plan.

Is Facebook the best media for you or one of the other Social channels an optimum profile.

Retargeting is, however, a valuable tool for every business and one that should get serious attention in your marketing budget.

A survey of top uses showed that most companies contributed under 20% of their marketing budget to retargeting. On the other hand, most used it as a tool of the trade.

Consider how many times you get retargeted and consider why. look at the advertisements and think about what they are trying to achieve.

Is it good marketing or a waste of space. Even try some of them out and follow the dotted ball as they target you. How many times, how often and would they get you as a buyer.
Use a retail site and a B2B site to get comparisons and consider the performance against your own desire.

Do Your research on retargeting

It is your hard earned dosh you are throwing around so you need to see a return on investment (ROI) for every penny spent.

Learn complete Internet marketing at The Wealthy Affiliate

Marketing with Facebook and all about retargeting Peter Hanley
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Small business Marketing Strategies

Here, Peter Hanley a 30- year long operator of small business looks at Small business Marketing Strategies and ways to help lift your business above the line.

The world has changed and we need to change with it and keep up to date on the changes.

While bricks and Mortar marketing still has basic fundamentals working for it. The Internet is different.

What has changed

All businesses previously worked around the Yellow pages book, now gone.
We promoted Snail mail as a general tool of marketing, now all but gone.
Letter Box drops got results, not anymore
Fax marketing was all the buzz but save your money
The local newspaper was an option but readership is diminishing as we speak.

This just a few of the changes over a short couple of years that are no longer viable.

What still works in the old style of marketing?

Word of mouth, referrals, Shopfront, location and good old fashion service.

Even these are sometimes doubtful. Take the experience when a Major invades your territory. You have a coffee house and Starbucks opens in the street.
A local hardware store and a Massive chain store open in the street. You will be mortally wounded if not doomed because of marketing and ease.

What still works?

Local area marketing, business presentation logo and signage, flags and flutters, exclusive product range.

Your customer list has not changed.

Your customer list is as important today as it was yesterday the only difference is what we do with it.

If you get nothing else from this page get this into your friggin head.
A customer list is a business asset. Treat it like gold.

You can write, telephone, email or SMS to obtain business cheaply and effectively. Only if you have a list in good order.

Use Excel or an expensive CRM system but just do it.

The window to your business.

It all starts with a webpage. Without a doubt the main foyer to your business.
Slick or shabby matters not as long as it states who you are, what you do and of course how and where to find you.
You can do your own (click) or pay someone else just make sure your SEO is ok

The delivery mechanism to business

Social media is designed to entice visitors to your business because you have interested, excited or coerced them to like you.

Pretty simple really, that is why you waste your time doing social media, you Jesabelle. You lure them in ready to buy your products.

I am often asked about the importance of social media to business and is it not just a whole waste of your valuable time and effort.

Social media is like a roadside sign. It achieves just enough interest to move them toward you and be ready to buy.

Which Social Media is best?

The one you choose to use, to dominate the media to become really proficient and to achieve the recognition you need. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat even Linkedin offer the same opportunities for success.
You don’t have the time to do them all so pick one to dominate your time and effort.

Saying that everyone should have at least a LinkedIn profile page with a great Picture and interesting BIO. It will serve you well over a long time.

A neglected Facebook page is nearly as bad as not having one. When people visit they soon get turned away when the last post was months past.
It takes little time to keep up to date using a system of forward messaging or scheduling.

What else other than Social media to attract business?

Blogging

Be the showcase of your industry and keep up a flow of information with your own blog page. Lots of people have had great success with this, foodies and mummy bloggers are just a couple of examples.
It is relatively easy to build a following and get a flow on effect to your business.

A reward program

If these did not work at all, the major stores would not use them plus spending countless dollars on marketing them.
Open up your purse or wallet and have a look at the cards, store cards, down to coffee cards. Why do you have them? to get something for free.

I run a rewards program in Australia and was speaking with a customer recently who said he did not want to give a 10% discount away to every customer. My reply was that only a small percentage will use the cards on every purchase so you would be giving away about 3% a very manageable amount overall. Remembering also that those that use the card are coming back to you because they have a card. They are loyal customers, worth everything.

A referral program still works

Nothing new here except that you must continue to work this in the best way you can. It will vary with different businesses but the thing to remember is that people like to be recognised, it is not all about money.
My local Chiropractor, who is very well booked, still has an honour board to
name those that refer new clients. No money, no free sessions just the honour of appearing on the board. Yes, every time I visit I look for my name as I recommend a lot of new people to him.

Networking

No better way to get directly to customers than networking groups and local associations.
Promoting Via local sporting clubs with minor sponsorship also gets some attention and long-term visibility for you and your business. It might be old hat but it still works.

Email, It still works.

Even though email has been around for a long time it still works provided you follow a few basic rules. Newsletters, promotions, sales and clearances are all targeting your past customers. This is a big subject and has many rules that we won’t dig too deeply into here.
You can get new markets and keep old ones informed while picking up some sales. A really cheap form of contact that should be used consistently.

SMS marketing

This has a small cost associated with it but that should never stop you using the media.
Results are instant, people respond quickly so you can make changes on the go. Great for announcements, invitations, reminders any number of opportunities to bring them in the door.

Using outside labour to do your marketing

A great idea and you can go local for part-time people or use a service like Fivver. It does take time and this is where you need to be organised.
With my Facebook pages as an example, I post once a week scheduling the posts over the next 7 days. During the week I log interesting articles and happenings and just transform them into products or tips I can write about.
Time about half of one hour, done.

In conclusion

I have tried to highlight a few areas that are cheap to operate and bring results.
With some basic planning, there is no reason you cannot be applying most of the above most of the time to bring in business.

Peter Hanley

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Buying Domain Names

Here Peter Hanley looks at Buying Domain Names and what it means to you and furthermore how you can obtain the best market value.

What is a Domain name?

Basically, it is your website address which is controlled by a hosting company to deliver people to your website, or I should say it is one of the ways to deliver visitors.

Now I searched Wiki and a few others for a great explanation on domain names and was left confused so let’s just move on.

When the world wide web (WWW) was started they had to have an address for you so it started HTTP:// which is basically just a transfer protocol and the www. to follow.
Then we add a name of the company say Google to become
Transfer on the WWW. to Google this search.
In history. they then added a .com which stands for Commercial or business.

so transfer to the www address. Google which is a commercial endeavour.

Time moves on

The transfer protocol HTTP was a bit flakey so they added a new level of security and called it https://.
Initially, they were selling security certificates but these days they are generally free. The old HTTP will soon be gone.

Better to identify your country domain

As the .com started to fill they added .net and. Gov etc so people had twice the choice, if you could not get google.com then you could get google.net.
This is not all silly because Google then had to buy every type of dot on the market greatly increasing sales.
Next was country codes for those wanting to use the net in a confined area or the www in say UK or AU
This made it easier to target business by location.

So we now have https://www.Google.com.uk A secure link to a known business in the UK. Yes, we have gone even further by narrowing down to say https://www.google.gov.uk. Same same but a government department

Enough you say, give me something I didn’t know. Well, excuse me I had to research what .com was. I have used it for years and it never occurred to me that it meant commercial so we all learn as we go along.

What is the best domain to choose?

I have a similar conversation about phone numbers and it depends on where you wish to market.
If the world is your oyster don’t include a country but if you are only marketing in say Australia add a dot AU or a dot gov.au if you are a government.

The choices these days are very broad but don’t try and mystify the occasion by using dot XYZ or dot co although I believe .org is coming into favour and is a reasonable choice

Do you own your domain?

Nup, you rent it for a fee paid to the host. Stop paying and wave goodbye to your domain.

How to pick a domain name.

If you can get one with your company name the choice is easy but you can try different ways, for example;

John Pickles and son signwriter.
could be Pickles signs, JP signwriters, signsatpickles, Pickles and co etc
then choose from .com or .net or maybe .com.au as a country code.
Using a search facility you will be offered alternatives.
try godaddy.com
and here you will see Mr pickles has lots of options and pricing with a range of dot options as well.
Godaddy is probably the largest and best-known domain house and they come with one real problem. The front end is cheap the following years may be dearer.
The domain register holds your name for you and sends it to a Host.

Let’s clear up some important issues first. If the name is trademarked don’t use it. Examples are brands and well-known names. you will get sued.
Check the name is available in Social media and register at the same time.
You can use Hyphens if you wish, like Pickles-signs but it does create a position of a potential error although it opens up more options.
I would generally avoid numbers because do you use a 3 or three when explaining the domain. For instance threecom.com or 3com.com.
Near me, we have a 777chemist because the address is 777 Albany highway. In this case, numbers would be ideal.
Finally, try and keep it short and easy to remember.

Some hosts that are popular include Godaddy, NameCheap, crazy domains.
Now, uk.domains.co.uk only need a hyphen and a number to make it really difficult.
I buy mine at Wealthy affiliate because they are priced correctly and don’t jack the price up each year.
Finally, in some countries, you must pay for two years up front and an example is .com.au

Can you sell a domain name?

Yes, you can and there is a lucrative market out there for good names.
To be more specific you sell the right of use to the name or a transfer fee because it is really not yours to sell. Usually packaged with a website and some traffic.

Point your domain where you want.

Your domain name is the directory of where you want to transport people too. It can be to a Blog, a funnel or a website and can be changed at any time.
You just log in and make the changes.

Hosting your domain

This is the place that your website resides. When you buy a domain you can send it anywhere to a host. Most domain companies also do hosting making it a bit easier but not necessary. I have used Godaddy often because I hosted on several sites but have now consolidated to The Wealthy Affiliate site.
One payment 25 sites all with extras.

Do not go to a host who does not offer free https. Nearly everyone does now so do not pay extra.

Check the speed of the host before you go there. Speed matters and has an effect on your SEO. That is the speed of opening your pages.
Next, we have site protection with Spam blocking, this should be free.

Lastly is site support, it needs to be available 24-7 without a long wait time.

You have a domain name, you have a host now you just need to build your website.

Learn how here

In conclusion, I advise to chose your domain, company name and Social links carefully because over time it becomes your image and brand and shows your business to the best intent.

SMS marketing Peter Hanley

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