Email Marketing

Web 2.0

Using WordPress as CMS, the Musical

We have written before about the evolution of WordPress’s use as a website development platform rather than, what most people think, as just a blogging program. Using WordPress for websites is cutting edge Web 2.0 and takes advantage of WordPress’s use of a My SQL database. It then becomes a content management system, otherwise referred to as a CMS, which offers much more to a business than a traditional old skool static or Flash website.

Today, I want to bring you what I imagine must be the first song in history about using WordPress as a CMS. I know it is a little rough and I understand there is a new version coming out with much improved production quality. In the meantime, I bring you a performance by Charles Williams from the Dallas WordPress Camp:

Using WordPress as a CMS from Charles Williams on Vimeo.

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You really need a great Website When the Economy is Lousy

Dene found this great and oh so relevant post today called, Lousy Economy, Awesome Website. I loved this post. I completely agree that this is the time, with our economy so precarious, that it is most important to put your best out on the Internet for your business to thrive. I think it is  just as important to have a website if you are marketing yourself in a job search.

With the ever increasing use of the Internet and new web 2.0 technology, people have higher expectations for what a website should look like and how it should behave. Shoddy, poorly organized sites with bad graphics will not be well received. People don’t use the Yellow Pages anymore. They just Google your or your business to get your number. You better show up.

I went to look up my son’s doctor’s office number and she showed up number one in Google as living and working in Michigan. Her current practice here in Atlanta has a website that one of the doctors put together. The graphics were bad, the navigation poor, and the photos of the physicians were scary. What a waste of an opportunity to make a professional impression. I am not talking about spending an arm and a leg. Good web design does not have to be expensive, and it will pay for itself.

We just got a new intern here at New Tricks. We were immediately impressed by this young man because he had an awesome on-line resume portfolio. No flimsy ass business card for him. he was the first applicant I looked at and so I thought they all would have comparably designed web-based portfolios. Not so. I say bring it on people. Get it together NOW. Our New Tricks motto is It’s never too late….but of course you have to remember that its the early bird that catches the worm!

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Mirar Salon

July 20, 2009

Project Highlights : Shawn Black came to us after he heard about the benefits of using WordPress as a website platform. He was especially interested in the searchability of these content management sites as well as the ease with which he could learn to maintain the site and have it be an active conversation with [...]

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Seven Issues Social Media Will Not Solve

April 22, 2009

Dene and I just spoke to a woman recently who is a fantastic public speaker and coach who does talks about getting people out to do good old face to face marketing.We started New Tricks to help people learn and implement the new tricks of marketing with on-line presence. It has been an interesting journey. There are those who believe it will do everything and won’t go out and talk to people the old fashion way ( which you can’t do without) and there are those (even in the ad, design, campaign industries) who are clinging to old tried and true ways that are totally insufficient to compete in today’s market.

I found this article by by Nettie Hartsock this morning. Nettie is a Wordpress developer, marketing guru that has lots of other great articles. So check her out.

1. Your reticence to join the on-line conversation.

2. Your scarcity-based fear that if you contribute to the conversation, something bigger and better will steal it away.

3. The real need for you to occasionally put one foot in front of the other, and step outside in the real world to see how utterly amazing and unique people can be.

4. Your insecurity about whether or not your thoughts matter. (Tip: They do.)

5. Your fears of being too old to learn new tricks and too old to keep up with the young folks. (Tip: You’re never too old to learn new things and the young folks will make the world a better place the more they learn how to use social media for good. And there is a place for everyone on the Web – check out sites like TeeBeeDee.com or BoomerCafe – you’ll find your crowd too.)

6. Your need for instant gratification. (It’s a marathon on the Web 2.0 track, not a sprint.)

7. Your insomnia unless you find fellow insomniacs on Twitter (which make the sleepless nights go by faster.)

The world is changing and we need to keep up with the new technologies but lets remember to add them on rather than avoid them or forget about the tried and true method of being out and about in the real world. The combination of these methodologies is the the way to go. And as we say here at New Tricks,

It’s never too late.

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Why you should use a WordPress Platform Website

April 11, 2009

or The Remix version of ‘Why you should use a Blog for Your Website’ originally posted on March 24, 2009

John Bennison, Principal at Bennison Associates and former VP of Product Development at Skywire Software (now Oracle) has quickly become one of New Tricks’ BFF. Not only has John contributed his extraordinary small business coaching and technical skills to the New Tricks growing world empire, but he was kind enough to spiff up our post originally titled ‘Why you should use a Blog for Your Website’.

We like John’s version so much that we are posting it today. See the end of the post for John’s bio.

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