Website Words that Work!

All right. I admit it. I’ve been getting intimate with Wordpress. But the darn software is so darn cute! I’m infatuated. I’ve been spending the last few weeks holed up with my crush.

And what have we done? Fiddled with some widgets, downloaded some, uploaded a few, found some stimulating new buttons, pushed this, moved that.

Most of this is simple stuff, made easy by the software. The addition of Linked In and Squidoo buttons on the sidebar, for example, was a simple copy-and-paste. (But if you like this stuff, you can spend a LOT of time popping one on, looking, taking it down, popping up another – Come back in a week and they’ll probably be different again.)

Some of the fiddling required a bit of HTML input, like adding the Amazon links for my books on my print portfolio page. (They hide there on the page: you’ll have to roll over to appreciate them.)

The software is  whole lot more fun behind the scenes, in fact, than out in front.

So, if it looks as if I disappeared for awhile, I did. But what a fun time I’ve had!

yours, Judith

Tags: Blogging, Functionality, Wordpress by Judith
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Can you use a blog site without ever blogging? Using it as a Website instead? I’ve been asked this question by potential clients who do not want to blog but want to be able to make their own changes to their small business brochure sites. The answer is yes. Absolutely. You can use the software and it is mighty easy to use. That’s one of its greatest assets and what’s made it so ubiquitous in so many professions and fields of business.

Blog software, though, is not the only answer for small businesses. Other content management software might better serve a small business site. And some of it is free, too, just as the popular blog software is. So, if you’re thinking about building a quick blog to replace a static site, we may have a better answer for you. 

Tags: Blogging, Business blogs, Functionality, Small Business by Judith
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Widgets put the fun into the functionality of a blog. 

I’ve been having fun with my small business blog today. Widgets — all those cool things you see in the sidebars of blogs — are seemingly in endless and in endlessly new supply.

I added one, a tag cloud, which you’ll see at your right. It’s much more fun than a prioritized list of categories, I think. (I left the categories in on the left, though, just to help slake the thirst and need of the more buttoned-down client. There’s bandwidth for all on the Web!)

I’ll put the calendar back up tomorrow. That’s a widget that used to live where the tag cloud is today. I moved a few of the other widgets around, lowered the search bar and raised the blogroll. Other widgets I’ve been exploring that might be appealing to you include links, contacts, forms, videos, photos, weather, and so much more! I bet you can find a widget to do almost anything you want for that sidebar of yours.

It’s easy to add one, too. It’s a matter of downloading it, uploading it onto your host, and clicking it to activate. It’s that easy in my software, Wordpress, anyway. And I don’t think it’s a gamble to bet that it’s easy in other blog software products, too. Most of the software is designed with non-techies in mind. That’s one of the aspects that makes blogging so enticing for content producers and small business entrepreneurs; it’s an end-run around the need for a full-time techie to be involved in the day-to-day upload process. Saves the techie budget for the big stuff.

Tags: Blogging, Functionality, Small Business by Judith
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