Kacee’s Posts

Free Image Sources You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

September 1, 2015 Beth Devine

commercial and personal use — “Green Eggs and Cat” by Nantaskart, used under CC BY / Desaturated from original

Posting images on social media can be a tedious task when you keep resorting to the same old free image sources. From your business or personal blog to the vast array of social networks, it’s time you spice up your images with sources you’ve probably never heard of, or lost track of, or forgot to bookmark.

When using free image sources, always check the license conditions. It’s a dog-eat-dog world (my apologies to all dogs; this reference is purely idiomatic) and prudent users know to proceed with caution lest they find themselves at the wrong end of a potentially costly legal accusation.

The license conditions can sometimes include legalese that is tricky to understand. Want something in plain English? To read about the legal ramifications of using images incorrectly in simple words, check out The Ultimate Student Guide to Images, a helpful guide that explains copyright, fair use, creative commons, and lists free sources that I’ve included here. Or check out my Use With Caution: How To Avoid Image Copyright Violation post for the low-down.

There are many online resources for free images with a Creative Commons license of some sort, giving you generous use and reprint rights. Here is a list of free image sources with at least one (or two, or more) that you’ve never heard of. Just click on the source name to be transported to a world of new photos.

You can thank me later — read to the end to find out how.

Gratisography

Free high-resolution photos added weekly for both commercial and personal use. There are no copyright restrictions on these pictures, all taken by Ryan McGuire from Bells Design. He not only has a keen eye, he also has quite the sense of humor. Images are searchable by category only.

Behold

Behold takes your searches and looks at what is inside the images at the pixel level. This way it searches like a computer would, rather than using only image tags and filenames like most search engines.

Try searching for images that “look like” a particular visual concept, such as an animal. You can get to this page by first doing a general search. Or go here and try it to see for yourself. Be sure to check each Flickr image for its individual license before using.

Unsplash

Subscribe and get ten new photos every ten days for free from Unsplash. All the photos are licensed under Creative Commons Zero, so you can do whatever you want, including copy, modify, and distribute them, even commercially, without getting permission or giving attribution.

There is no search function and photos aren’t grouped in any categories. You can wait for your inbox to deliver more awesomeness, or you can go to the site and scroll down to your heart’s content.

Death to the Stock Photo

Get another ten photos free in your inbox the first of each month from Death to the Stock Photo. Each month a different category is selected for delivery. Check out their own license here, which includes certain restrictions like no redistribution, always include this license, and ways not to use the photos. Try their easy-to-read version also.

One user calls the monthly Death to Stock photo packs “the new Saturday morning cartoons.” If that isn’t enough of an enticement, you’ll get a bonus pack of ten photos for immediate download after signing up.

Sadly, there were no cat photos, but the images are all high quality resolution and versatile. Their catchy tagline reads, “This isn’t just a mailing list. It’s a movement.” A bit provocative, isn’t it? Works for me. Now find the cats and it’s all good.

Superfamous Studios

You can use the photos from Superfamous Studios, a studio based in Los Angeles, for commercial and personal projects, just be sure to include credit.

For ha ha’s, wave your cursor around the home page. How cool is that, right? And check out their butdoesitfloat, a part of Cargo, a personal publishing platform and not part of the free image resources. But wait until you’re done reading this post. You might never return, come up for air, and see the light of day again.

Little Visuals

Before Nic, the owner of this site, passed away, he shot some eclectic, eye-catching photos. There are no new photos being uploaded, but the images that are here are amazing and all posted under the CCO license to be used however you want.

If you’re so inclined, a link is included to donate to the family’s fundraiser in support of S.A.D.S., (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome), the cause of Nic’s death, to help them supply schools and sports arenas with portable defibrillators in Nic’s memory.

Life of Pix

Created by LEEROY’s amazing photographers, a creative agency in Montreal, Life of Pix photos come with no copyright restrictions. High-res photos are added weekly, and the site includes a category search tool under the gallery heading, with lots of great textures and industrial images.

Splitshire

Free stock photos with no copyright restrictions, sortable by category. They prefer dogs to cats, something entirely forgivable, considering how terrific the dog photos are. Unique, top-quality images for both commercial and personal use by web designer Daniel Nanescu.

If you found at least one source you’ve never heard of, you owe me a cat photo. Just be sure to include any licensing requirements when you send it along.

More WordPress Security Mistakes (Yes, You’re Making Them)

August 15, 2015 Beth Devine

You’re making more WordPress security mistakes besides those updates you keep neglecting to do. Avoiding regular updates is the most common security mistake, but there are more mistakes that also put your site at risk for attack.

Because WordPress is open source, those miscreants who wish to do harm can easily obtain the source code and study it for ways to hack in. Combine this with the popularity of WordPress and it’s like you have a bulls-eye target on you.

The good news is you don’t have to do anything drastic, like change to a much less user-friendly CMS that doesn’t have all the fabulous plugins and themes, all for free. All you have to do is follow these tips to button down your site and stay safe from attacks.

Lacking a First Line of Defense: No Security Plugin

There are many security plugins to choose from with different pricing, including some free options. While it’s true that having too many plugins can be a bad idea, having one that actually protects your site is a no-brainer.

This list of the Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins is a good place to start. It includes Wordfence, a personal favorite of mine. These give you an extra layer of security by addressing the issues most prevalent, leaving you free to run your business worry-free.

Installing Bad Plugins and Themes

If a plugin is available for free that you would normally have to pay for, consider this a giant red flag. A pirated plugin or theme may be free, but it’s also going to be potentially rife with dire consequences.

Disreputable plugins and themes come with a catch. Not only are they dishonest and often stealing from hard-working developers, they can be infected with malware that will inject malicious code into your website. Once they’ve made this connection to your site, it’s like a backdoor where they can get in and do all kinds of damage.

Beware also of WordPress themes that look totally safe. If the theme isn’t from the WordPress Theme Directory, or isn’t from a source you know and trust, then you shouldn’t install it. There are hundreds of themes available, and they all have to pass selection criteria that includes possessing no unsafe code.

Surfing In Public Wi-Fi Waters

Sure, you’ve heard it all before, but do you really avoid using your credentials and private information on the internet when using a public Wi-Fi hotspot? These places include high-density areas such as airports, libraries, hotels, cafes, and, of course, Starbucks.

The ease with which attackers can steal your information is due to the fact that, according to Public WiFi, public WiFi networks are “almost always unencrypted, which means that anyone with cheap, easily available software can listen in and access everything being sent over the network.”

The hacks in a public WiFi hotspit can include Sniffers, Evil Twin, Man-in-the-Middle Attacks, and Sidejacking. The names are almost enough to steer you away from exposing your website and other information to attack.

Using “Admin” For Your Username

Your WordPress site has an automatically generated username with the Administrator role. This role has permissions that are referred to as admin, which allow this user to do anything they want. An Administrator has total power over the website, including deleting your whole site.

The last thing you want to do is keep the original username “admin” as the name for someone who has total access. This is the first thing a hacker will use when trying to break into your site. Once they’ve figured out your username, then all they have to do is guess your password. You’re giving away half the access information with admin still intact. See the list of targeted usernames in the recent brute-force attack here. Clearly admin is a common guess.

You can do one of two things:

Don’t use or, even better, remove your admin username. But before you do this, create a new user with the admin role. Functioning under this new username, you can delete the old username of admin.
If you want to do this in C-panel, read this user-friendly post on How To Change Your Username. If I can do it, you can too.

The Wordfence plugin allows you to block any IP address you want, so if you find one is continually attempting to log in using the admin username, block it.

Using Really Obvious Passwords

The list of top passwords for 2014 contains the same weak passwords, with “123456” and “password” holding the top two spots. It appears that all the advice on the internet about using strong passwords is going unheeded.

Use your imagination when creating your passwords and follow the Google’s tips, use a password generator, or take Edward Snowden’s password advice to John Oliver and use “pass phrases” that are easy for you to remember, but difficult for computers to crack. Try one of the top five password managers to help you remember them all.

You can always sign up for a worry-free program with your web hosting company and let them take care of all your site’s security. If you’re running a small business, it’s a huge timesaver as well. Good luck — it’s a Digital Wild West out there.

Are You Making This WordPress Security Mistake?

August 12, 2015 Beth Devine

All it takes is one security mistake on your WordPress site for disaster to strike. Yet users continue to make this single most common security mistake — even though it’s easy to avoid.

To avoid this mistake, you need only do one thing. Don’t ignore your WordPress Updates. It’s that easy. Go directly to updates. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Or it will be game over.

Even the big guys are vulnerable. Microsoft had one of their sites hacked because the WordPress site in question was running an older version of WordPress. Turns out the attackers hacked the content to promote online casinos, including adding links and new pages that were injected to show embedded content from other gambling websites. Supposedly it was a scammer and not a group of “professional” hackers, demonstrating how easy it is for someone to attack your site on the basis of outdated software.

Why Ignoring WordPress Updates Is Like Driving In The Wrong Lane

When you ignore your WordPress updates, you are eventually going to run into trouble. Sooner or later, that oncoming vehicle is going to show up in your headlights. It’s best to stay out of the way of potential trouble and keep your WordPress site updated.

Here are a few things that can go wrong:

Your site can be infected with malware. This malware will then infect any visitors to your site.
If you have a membership only site with people who are paying to get content, they will also get their computers infected.
Visitors to your site can be redirected to an offensive spam site, leaving them to forever associate you with this unhappy experience.
Your email list can be stolen and all your subscribers sent spam, with the potential for other hackers to purchase your list and spammed by them as well.
Your search engine ranking can fall when Google determines your site to be infected with malware. Getting your site blacklisted takes time and effort to recover from.
All your hard work goes down the drain with one bad slip-up when your reputation is damaged.

Get Your Updates – They’re Free!

Every day there are developers out there discovering new bugs and security loopholes in existing software. There are graduate students assigned to the task of hacking into various accounts to test the site’s viability (and the student’s prowess).

When the vulnerability is serious, the developer will issue a release for an immediate update. When this happens, it means update now before the hackers find out and attempt to take advantage of your website’s security loophole.

So instead of ignoring your theme and plugin updates, get them as soon as they come out, and get them regularly. Like a reliable vaccine to a new epidemic, don’t wait around to see how things pan out before you get inoculated. Act proactively before your WordPress website gets infected.

Remember, even deactivated themes and plugins are vulnerable to attack. If you’re not using them, it’s best to delete them.

The Best Remedy For Your Update-itis

You know you have update-itis if you’re constantly avoiding or forgetting to update your WordPress site. It’s okay, you can admit it. It’s not contagious (I hope), but it is risky business.

The number one thing to do is come up with a back-up method as your safety net. By backing up your site before you do any updates, you’re covering your keister in the event that something goes wrong. This is a good precautionary measure because sometimes plugins or themes can have wonky

There are a few things that will make updates even easier:

Automatic Background Updates is a recent feature that came out with WordPress 3.7. Please tell me you have updated to 3.7. If not, do that first. Then you can rest easy knowing you automatically have background updates happening for maintenance and security to your WordPress site. Whew.
The WordPress security team is working to give you more automatic security updates for plugins. Once you have WordPress 3.7, these updates will be supported as they are offered. The automatic security updates for plugins will be voluntary by the end-user, unless the WordPress security team deems it “an issue severe enough to warrant” a required opt-in.
Set up Google Webmaster Tools to alert you if Google finds malware on your website in the event all your updating has failed you somehow.
Install the WordFence plugin and get email alerts when your installed plugins need updating.
WordPress makes it very easy to keep your website up to date. Just be sure to make a current and complete backup of your database and your files before you do any updating, or have it done automatically each week.

There are many ways to backup your website, but two of the easiest ways are:

Create a backup from your web hosting cPanel.
Use a backup plug-in that you can install in your WordPress dashboard that will automatically backup your site at set intervals.

Don’t let update-itis cause your website to suffer. Stay updated and stay safe!

5 Reasons To Blog for Your Business: Blogging Resistance Beware

July 28, 2015 Beth Devine

The debate continues. To blog or not to blog appears to be the ongoing content marketing hand-wringer, although the statistics show that businesses that blog are thirteen times more likely to have a positive ROI.

Your Business’ Future Depends On Machines

Still, the blogging resistance prevails. For all you blogging cynics out there, think of the future. By 2020, it’s projected that your customers will manage 85% of their relationships without ever speaking a syllable to a human.

Your customers are going to be busy researching your business online, without any direct contact with you. How are you going to personally influence them? With a blog, they can easily learn more about you.

I read an interesting dialogue in a comments section of a marketing blog recently. The commenter was making a case against blogging, asserting that it’s not for everyone. The comments were borderline caustic and appeared meant to provoke. This is the sort of behavior you sometimes see in someone whose last defenses are crumbling.

In other words, no matter how hard the commenter argued, the evidence speaks for itself. The one good point the commenter made was to maintain that blogging makes sense when you have enough time and resources.

What Will Blogging Cost You?

The one thing blogging costs you when resources are limited is your time. Instead of investing in pay-per-click to get new leads, with its requisite advertising spending of often hundreds of dollars, give blogging a try.

Your business blog will continue to work for you long after you’re done writing a post. No ad space or ad campaigns that will cost you money and time. Consider doing a blog in conjunction to your advertising expenditures.

Blogging Value Is Endless

Even when you’re at home and watching reruns of Mad Men, your blog is working for you. That’s how your blog is able to continue creating 67% more B2B leads than businesses who don’t blog. Your old blog posts are just as valuable as your favorite TV reruns.

Visitors will continue to find them when they search, long after you published them. Keep your content relevant and updated, and your post’s value will go on and on, like Monday Night Football.

That Downtime of Yours? Wanna Use It?

Is your main blogging objection lack of time? That’s like saying you don’t have any downtime. Or as Boost Blog Traffic calls it, mundane time, or weird time. Those hours you spend driving back and forth, doing mindless chores, or the unavoidable waiting you have to do for appointments and meetings and standing in line.

You may not be able to jot anything down, but you can use this downtime to think creatively about your business and the things you want to share. You can also listen to podcasts and audiobooks to help you stimulate your creative juices. Find titles related to your industry and begin making a list of potential ideas.

It’s often the idea that’s the most difficult to generate. Once you’ve nailed the topic, the process is on its way.

Get More URLs and Get Found Online

Consistent blogging helps you get found online. So you’ve heard that one before? And you’re still not blogging?

Every time you publish a blog post, you give the internet surfers searching for your content the opportunity to find you online. The more posts you write, the bigger your chances are of having new visitors to your website.

When you do the math, it’s simple. 100 posts = 100 URLs. For each blog post, you’ve created a new URL. Your website alone doesn’t do that since there are a limited number of pages a typical site should reasonably have.

For every blog post you publish, it helps you reach the right audience who is interested and searching for your valuable content. Your website traffic is tailored to the people who are interested in what you have to say, thanks to the relevant blog information you’re sharing.

If you start blogging now, you are staying ahead of the game. The future for a successful business involves more online content exposure, and 37% of marketers says blogs are the way to go with content marketing.

Begin educating your audience now and stake your claim in the world of online engagement. The resistance is caving one blog at a time.

3 Content Marketing Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make

July 23, 2015 Beth Devine

To understand what you’re doing wrong, first you need to understand what content marketing is. Here’s a definition of content marketing from HubSpot:

“Content marketing is a marketing program that centers on creating, publishing, and distributing content for your target audience — usually online — the goal of which is to attract new customers.”

Content marketing includes a wide range of examples because so many different types of content can be used. Content mediums can include blogs, infographics, web pages, ebooks, white pages, apps, videos, webinars, and podcasts. With content marketing, you own the content. By consistently creating and sharing content, you are attempting to impact the behavior of your audience.

Here are three mistakes that you don’t want to make in your content marketing:

Your topics aren’t specific enough.

One of the ways you might discover this error is as you create the content, you realize it’s way too long and extensive. So you decide to try and make it into two blog posts, or break it down into more than one video. When there are too many details or too many variations on the subject, it’s impossible to give effective answers.

Start by creating a specific title to help you stay focused. HubSpot has a great article on how to get from a topic to a working title to help you write a blog post, but it could be used to keep you on track with creating something specific for any content marketing medium.

Focused topics have more depth and meaning. And since content marketing is all about sharing content you own and telling a story in the process, it will be much more memorable when it’s specific.

Remember, you can always change your working title once you’ve completed your white pages, app, blog post, etc. It’s just supposed to help you stay specific and avoid drifting off into distracting details, like Dory the helpful surgeonfish in Finding Nemo.

You don’t know who you’re talking to.

It’s the same rule of thumb that you apply to your social media. Knowing your audience is something a successful marketer must always consider in order to have effective content. For example, I’d write “You don’t know to whom you’re speaking” if my audience was comprised of a class of degree-seeking English majors.

Ask yourself “what’s important to them?” and then connect in a way that shows you care and you’re for real. Knowing your audience entails being authentic. But what is that, really? Seth Godin asks “Is authenticity authentic?” and wonders if it’s even possible to be authentic in a world where everyone is trying to succeed.

He says that in order to get around the inevitability of inventing ourselves, we need to be consistent. Stick with the same story, the same voice, and answer their questions using the same desire to make an impact.

The best way to do this is act like a human. The best way to know if you’re human is if you can easily fill out a CAPTCHA. If you are having trouble with this task, then it might be time for an emotional overhaul.

Use your human emotions to create memorable content marketing that will connect with your audience. Show your empathy for their needs in your answers to their questions and they’ll be more likely to stick around.

You aren’t listening. (A.k.a. “Can you hear me now?”)

Knowing who you’re talking to isn’t the end game. You also have to show you’re listening. The best part about this is that you will get to know your audience even better when you’re a good listener.

How do you do this? Besides interacting with them on social media and in comment sections, keep up to date on what’s relevant. Set up Google alerts for companies, industries, and topics that are of interest. Follow your customers, prospects, and industry leaders on social media, and get involved in the discussion.

If you’re listening, you’ll want to keep the communication a two-way street. If possible, every comment directed to you should be answered, even with a thank you, and all questions warrant some kind of response.

Your content marketing strategy is a conversation in the making. Content that’s interactive is more likely to draw an audience. They are going to feel a connection to you, and this connection could help you develop a relationship. Guess who they’ll think of the next time they want to buy the very thing you sell?

Good luck with your content marketing, and stick around for more from a real human. I can even pass a CAPTCHA test without squinting.

Tips for Thinking Up Blog Content for Small Businesses

July 19, 2015 Beth Devine

Small businesses who blog are ahead of their competition. A small business owner with a blog generates 126% more lead growth than those who don’t, according to a HubSpot study on 2,300 customers.

Kudos to you if you’re already a blogging. If you’re not blogging yet, then what are you waiting for? Here are some tips for generating blog content to help you get started, or to jump start some idea brainstorming.

Use Your Customer’s Questions

You’re so close to this one, it’s easy to miss. Like when my mom used to say, “If it was a snake, it would’ve bit you.” You’re looking right at one of your easiest blog topics every time a customer asks you a question.

Your blog is not for you, it’s for your customers. When you use their questions, you’re helping them solve a problem. What better way to show you’re listening and you care about your customer’s concerns than to give them the answers.

At the same time, you could be giving them new insights about your business that helps you stand out.

Use the Don’t-Do-This Tactic

We all make mistakes. But we’d rather not. Use your blog posts to provide ways to avoid common pitfalls related to your business. Think of current issues that plague your customers and write about how to eliminate them.

Tie in your services or products, but only in a very non-promotional manner. Blog posts aren’t for hard selling. Use your blog to increase awareness on problems and topics that your business is designed to handle. Write about the failures and struggles you’ve encountered in your business that could help your readers.

Share your stories in a way that gives your visitors a look-see into your business, but doesn’t toot your horn. When you give answers with a don’t-do-this approach to problems, you’re also demonstrating your authority on a subject.

The next time your visitor has a question or concern, they know where they can go for some help.

Spy On Your Competitors for Ideas

If you are aware of what your competition is doing, you’ll be more prepared to advance your own blog strategy. If your competition appears to be making a mistake, avoid doing the same blunder. If they’re doing something fabulous, think of how you can try to outdo their efforts.

Spying on your competitors is easy with free tools to analyse their data. With SEMrush, you can discover new competitors, what their best keywords are, and what they’re using for display advertising, organic and paid search, and link building.

Another handy tool is Buzzsumo. You can do a quick search on key phrases or terms to see how content that’s related to your industry is doing. You can also find out who the top influencers are in a particular niche to further your idea-generating spy efforts.

If Sherlock had been internet savvy, he would applaud your genius.

Research Keyword Terms

If you want to blog about something relevant to your business, Google Adwords Keyword Tool is a great way for discovering the keywords and keyword phrases internet surfers are using to search for your product or service. Google Webmaster Tools shows you the keyword queries being used to find your site, so you can check to see if you’re on the right track.

Try using these keywords terms for your blog title, subheading, and in your meta tags, as well as to generate ideas for your blog content.

Build on a Good Quote

No need to reinvent the wheel when there are reams of quotables out there. Use a quote to inspire your next post, making sure to credit the source.

Search a particular topic or person using the word quote after the search term. Visit Bartleby.com for thousands of quotations from famous authors, Goodreads for more recent quotables, or Google Book Search for references to books of interest for quotes.

You can build your entire post around a particular quote. Quotes from famous people and industry leaders will inspire your readers as well as your writing.

The Official Blog Post Ideas Generator

Matthew Loomis of Build Your Own Blog has created the Blog Post Ideas Generator, a terrific free tool to help you think of blog post ideas when your brain is failing you. It can help small businesses get creative when in a crunch. Try it out; it’s fun!

Loomis also has a bunch of videos for WordPress users to help you get started blogging. Helpful tutorials include creating an about page in minutes, installing a plugin, and changing font and background color.

However you do it, do it with your own distinct flair. Find a way to communicate using your own voice, giving your blog some personality. Blog those ideas of yours with something besides textbook-speak so your readers will know you’re human.

Your IP Reputation and How To Protect It

July 9, 2015 Beth Devine

IP address reputation — “Lucky” by woodleywonderworks, used under CC BY / Modified from original

Your IP address can earn a bad reputation when suspicious activity is detected. Let’s say you have spam or a virus coming from your IP address. This can get you blacklisted by spam databases or banned by a country’s firewall or a content delivery network.

As a result of blacklisting, anything you email from your website won’t get delivered. Your new subscribers to your website won’t be able to get beyond the initial subscribing stage and won’t receive password approval or your welcome email.

Are You Sharing Your IP Address With a Bad Site?

If another IP address within your content delivery network is blacklisted, then your website’s IP address could also be negatively affected. The bad reputation of another website can rub off on your website.

Most hosting providers will share your IP address with hundreds of other websites. In the event that one of the sites you’re sharing your IP with engages in spam or gets a virus, or is blocked by a country or a large network, your site could also share in the negative fallout.

If you think your IP address has a bad reputation in error, or due to sharing an IP address with a hacked site, you should request an investigation. Inform your web hosting provider of your concerns.

How To Check Your IP Reputation

To find out if your IP address has a bad reputation, you can check it with a number of free online tools, including Barracuda Central, MX Toolbox, What Is My IP Address, and IP Void. For a list of ways to check for potentially malicious websites, check out Zeltser’s list.

You also want to prevent your site from being spamvertised. This is when a hacker has placed a piece of code in your site that redirects viewers to a different and often unsavory website. The hackers send out emails with your website’s redirected link because their own site has already been blacklisted as spam.

WordFence is a great plugin for preventing spamvertising from happening, and if it does find something, they will alert you that your files have changed. If you pay for the premium service, you also get an early warning system built in for spamvertising.

How To Check Who Is On Your IP Address

By doing a reverse domain lookup, you can check to see what other sites share your IP address. You Get Signal is a tool that checks for and lists other sites on your web server. The list isn’t guaranteed to be complete (and it probably isn’t). As long as none of these sites are being blocked by spam monitors, your site won’t share in their bad reputation.

Norton Safe Web or Unmask Parasites will scan a URL to see if it’s safe. If it’s been hacked, infected, or is otherwise unsafe to browse, it’s probably not a site you want to share your IP address with.

How To Deal With Suspicious Activity

In the event you discover an issue with your site’s IP reputation, let your web hosting company know. They can help you to get it sorted out. The better you know your web hosting company, the more reassured you can be that they aren’t allowing questionable sites onto the shared server.

Web hosting companies who are web savvy (particularly those with a team of superheroes) are going to be paying attention, and they will investigate suspicious activity for you. Your IP reputation matters. Make sure you know yours is good.

Why Your Small Business Needs a Website

July 1, 2015 Beth Devine

small businesses need a website — “Smart cat” by Lori, used under CC BY / Modified from original

Your small business needs an online presence to survive. Without a website, people won’t be able to find you. I mean that literally. We live in a world where we Google before we shop, before we get in our car and drive anywhere new.

Gone are the days of phone book white pages and oversized Rand McNally road maps. When you’re looking for a place to buy the world’s best cat litter, you don’t search in outdated formats. You’re going to ask Google, use your GPS, and set course to the best deal in town.

To Beat Your Competition

So what happens if people don’t find what they’re looking for online? They’ll go to the competition, that’s what. Not having an online presence means you’re not being found, which means you’re losing out on business opportunities.

Having a website shows you’re a legitimate business. Having a professional, updated, easy-to-navigate website shows you’re the type of business who cares about your product or service. Who would you be more likely to buy from, a sloppy, outdated website, or one that reflects a business with a progressive website?

To help promote your business, make sure your business site is connected to all the relevant sites: the three top search engines, Google, Yahoo, and Bing; and other online directories such as Yelp, Merchant Circle, Yellow Pages, Trip Advisor, and BBB. Depending on your business, there are a variety of online sites who will list you for free.

Business discovery sites like these are what help you get found. Without a website, there is no information for indexing programs to share with potential customers who are searching online. Your first impression is often your website, so don’t give the wrong one with an unavailable URL.

Here are three good reasons why your small business needs a website:

To Give Your Customers Convenience

People shop differently in today’s digital age. Window shopping is occurring online more and more, competing with an afternoon stroll down Main Street. And when customers are ready to buy, they’re more likely to research their next purchase through the help of Yelp or Google or Shopzilla.

According to comScore’s quarterly State Of Retail report, online shopping reached a total of $61.6 billion in Q2 2014, up 13%, accounting for 11.6% of consumers’ spending for both mobile and desktop.

People want to use the internet to research, compare, and buy. And it’s not just individual customers who are doing this. The 2014 State of B2B Procurement Study shows that 94 percent of businesses are doing some type of online research as well.

It’s never been more convenient to shop when the digital world of products and services is no further away than your keyboard. Without a website, your small business isn’t providing customers with the convenience of easy shopping.

Before they can shop online, they have to find you. We already know how that’s going to work out if you don’t have a URL address. Give your customers an online printable map option, embed a Google map, and make sure you provide a street address as well as email and phone number on your website.

Think of your website as your digital business card, complete with a full-color brochure attached. Can you imagine someone showing up to your business and not handing them one or both of these? Even when a customer forgets your business card, they can find you online. You’ll never run out or misplace it, the information can be easily updated, and the content can exceed any printed format.

To Build Relationships With Your Followers

Having a Facebook page is a great way to help build relationships with your followers. But without a website to link to, you’re sending the message that you’re not that interested.

Through a website, your small business can send regular e-newsletters and stay in touch with blog posts. Sending emails is a great way to offer discounts and specials on your services or products. By establishing a relationship through these channels via your website, you can develop a relationship of trust.

One reason e-commerce won’t replace brick-and-mortar stores is due to the trust that’s forged from a perceived sense of permanence, reliability, and familiarity. In order to convey a similar degree of security to your website visitors, your website must be designed to show that you’re thinking like your customer. Studies continue to show, for example, that free shipping and speed of delivery increases online sales, not low prices alone.

Substituting online for what you can’t give tangibly in order to create a relationship involves using all the tools available, from a site designed to meet your customer’s needs, to using social media, to answering common questions with blogs and helpful site content. Don’t forget to include testimonials in strategic locations that demonstrate your customer loyalty and satisfaction.

You Need a Team of One

Your small business website needs to appear as if you have a team of professionals who are working to keep your online presence active and available. This appearance is achieved far more easily than keeping your physical storefront polished and inviting. The only team you need is you, and your web hosting company for any additional website work.

You don’t need to update your website everyday, or even every week. New content management systems like WordPress make it a quick job to stay on top of things. With the support of your web hosting company, you can present a professional and engaging website with minimal maintenance.

5 Simple Tips to Writing Service Descriptions Like a Boss

June 24, 2015 Beth Devine

write service descriptions — “Cat as King” by Fiona MacGinty-O’Neill.

Your web pages aren’t meant to give your readers a spectacular view of your business. They are meant to act as a device that takes your reader from one place to the next. As Seth Godin says in “Knock Knock,” there are three questions all your web pages must answer:

Who’s here?
What do you want them to do?
How can you instantly tell a persuasive story to get them to do #2?

To accomplish these three things for your services web pages, begin by making a list of your services. Then follow these five tips as you write copy for each one.

1. Don’t talk about yourself

Your reader doesn’t want to read all about you. No one wants to listen to your grandstanding. Regardless of what a fabulous product and service you provide, you’re not that interesting.

People want to hear about you in terms of how well you can help them solve a problem or fulfill a need. People are basically only interested in themselves. Surprise, surprise. This is something you should’ve learned in kindergarten.

Write about your unique skills, special applications, and new improvements, but only with the angle that speaks to your audience’s needs. If it’s not ultimately about them, then it’s not going to capture their attention.

2. Keep your mission clear

Your home page is the obvious place for your mission. This could also be phrased as what you promise to do, what are your goals, or what purpose your business serves. This message should also be present on your service page.

A brief statement that describes what drives you as a company at the beginning of your service page reminds your readers of your mission and helps them to connect. They will be more likely to think of you as human beings who care about what you’re doing. Restating your purpose gives your readers a sense of reassurance that there’s more to your brand than a sales transaction.

A good way to include your mission in your service page is to rephrase it so it serves as the perfect introduction to your services. This helps your customer-focused approach as well.

3. Focus on the benefits

It’s tempting to write about your services by describing the features. Usually this leads to technical descriptions which can be boring, difficult to understand, and not enticing. If you want to encourage readers to stick around, you’ve got to make it about how it benefits them.

Find out what the benefits are by focusing on the results. What do the boring features provide for your customers? A benefit answers the question, “What’s in it for the reader?”

This is the same question all writers must ask. Whether you’re writing a novel, an essay, or online copy, you need to address this question. Many years ago my aunt gave me this same advice. It’s what entices people to keep reading, to care, or to buy.

Your new Apple TV might have all sorts of new improvements, but they’re only important to you based on how they impact your experience. Apple tells its readers the benefits with a straightforward chart listing the new TV features alongside a benefit summary.

For example, “family sharing” means you get to play your family’s purchases. The new “ask to buy” makes sure children get permission before buying items from iTunes. And the “peer-to-peer” software means guests can use Airplay from their Mac or iOS device directly to the Apple TV without wireless.

Now we care about these features because it’s clear how they benefit us.

4. Use hypnotic “power words”

The right words you use to entice your readers have hypnotic power. These words possess an innate ability to produce a subconscious psychological reaction. Don’t believe it? Try Googling it and see what you find out.

The top three hypnotic power words are imagine, you, and because. Each one has its own effect on readers,

The word “imagine” is the stimulus that creates a visual reaction, allowing your readers to experience how it feels to use your product or service.
The word “you” capitalizes on the self-obsessed nature everyone has, making things personal and stimulating our self-interest.
The word “because” gives us what we crave to know: the why of something. As in the example of The Copy Machine study, our subconscious minds don’t even need a good reason. We just crave any reason at all.

5. Keep it short

Your readers want it to be all about them, and they want it to be quick and easy. From meal plans to hairstyles, to exercises, to DIY projects, quick and easy is the selling point.

I know. So demanding.

Everyone is busy, we’re all in a hurry, and what we consume on the internet fits in with this fast-moving lifestyle. According to the research on how people read on the web, the results show that people don’t.

They don’t read. They scan. People pick out words and phrases. In fact, only 16 percent read text word for word. What does this mean? Why bother writing copy at all? Is anyone even reading this sentence? You have to wonder.

It means write using text that is easily scannable with:

Bullets and numbers
Headings and sub-headings
Keywords that are highlighted as links, bolded, italicized, or in color
White space to break up the copy and guide readers down the page
Inviting images, graphics, and videos to hold your reader’s attention

Keep your copy short, with each paragraph composed of a single idea. Check out popular sites and blogs and get a feel for the short paragraph style. Your service description has to tell the story in as few words as possible, without leaving anything critical out.

When you want to write effective service descriptions for your website like a boss, follow these five tips and You might want to include a cute cat image somewhere, because cats rule the internet. Imagine that.

5 Ways to Make Boring Blog Content Interesting

June 10, 2015 Beth Devine

So you’re writing for a boring industry. Or maybe the topic you’re covering makes you yawn just thinking about it. If you’re bored out of your pants with what you’re writing about, I have the solution for you.

It’s like my mom used to tell me. There’s no boring subjects, just boring people. In other words, you can take anything and make it interesting just by applying your unique je sais quoi — that “indefinable, elusive quality” that is sure to please.

Bring on the exciting. Only you can do it.

Get Educated Yourself

There are three main reasons people write blog posts for their business or organization:

Educate
Communicate
Become an authority

Writing is only boring if you are. In this case, you’re boring when you don’t know what you’re talking about. Take the first reason for writing a blog: to educate. In order to do that, you need to know what you’re writing about. And the more you know about a topic, the more it can become interesting to you.

As you research it, you’re going to develop a better understanding of it, grow more interested in it, and write about it in a more compelling way. Way less boring and way more engaging.

Be the Most Helpful Teacher

That’s how Marcus Sheridan at The Sales Lion grew into the Content Marketing Guru. By being the most helpful teacher about inground swimming pools, he not only grew a boring business, he learned the secret to online success.

Share your valuable information with your audience, and they’ll come back to you when they’re interested in learning more, or are ready to buy.

The Sales Lion defines content marketing as “the process of using text, video, and audio communication in an effort to establish your company as the best and most helpful teacher in the world at what you do.” How can you be boring when you’re being a teacher who’s got your pupils’ best interests at heart?

Make the Topic Relevant

Boring topics are instantly captivating when you can make them relate to something that’s currently happening. If it’s in the news, tie your blog post to it where possible. You will find yourself more intrigued in the subject when it’s got today’s headlines slapped right on it.

Take the boring experts on diseases. They’re given a wide berth until a fresh outbreak of bird flu or some other communicable disease makes headlines. These experts can’t say enough to fill the insatiable interest in what’s now relevant. You can do this without a life-threatening disease, I promise you.

Stay tuned to the latest news stories and see how your boring posts might use a little boost with current events. Check out sites that list the latest headlines, such as Fox News, Yahoo News, USA Today, Reuters News, and CNN.

Give Your Content a Visual Boost

Remember show and tell from your grade school days? Notice how it’s show and tell, not just one or the other. You’re going to be far more interesting when you give your presentation some imagery.

With your online content, you have the option of adding a variety of different images: photos, memes, infographics, videos, storyboards, GIFs, and charts of all kinds. Visuals are powerful communication tools, conveying your message with a single medium, where it takes the proverbial “thousand words” to say something similar with text alone.

When you’re struggling with telling a boring story, give it some moxie with an eye-catching visual. No one’s too old, too clever, or too dissatisfied to not appreciate the draw of visual mediums.

Write Like You Actually Talk

When information is tough to understand and boring, it’s tempting to write about it using the same inflated terms. When your readers consume this kind of professional business babble, it’s equally difficult for them to understand. So what gives?

You have to write like you speak in order to make it interesting. How can it be interesting when it’s not even understandable? So remove the elevated, hard-to-decipher jargon and write as naturally and clearly as if you were talking about it over a cup of joe.

Writing good content for your blog involves connecting with your audience. If you write about things as if you’ve been up close and personal with it, as if you’re willing to jump through hoops to help, as if it’s completely relevant, then you’re conveying your thoughts and ideas in a manner that hopefully won’t put readers in a cat-like stupor.