Use WordPress for Your Website, Not Just Your Blog

Great post written on the value of using the free WordPress platform not just as a blog, but as a website. I’ve talked to many startups and small business owners that don’t have a website to just use WordPress for their site. So many advantages including the fact you can get something up in minutes! But, more importantly, there is so much functionality and control built into WordPress, along with it being very search-engine friendly, that it can’t be ignored. Here is an excerpt from the post “Why Settle for a Blog When You Can Have a Blogsite“:

Blogging tools have evolved significantly due to the tremendous popularity of blogging in general. Because of this evolution blog software has actually become one of the best ways for small businesses to easily build feature rich, simple to edit, search engine friendly web sites.

I would urge anyone without a web site or with a boring static brochure site to take a good hard look at free piece of software called WordPress. The current version of the software can be downloaded from WordPress.org (They have a hosted blog version at WordPress.com but you want the download from the .org site.)

You can use this software to create your entire website whether you have or want a blog or not. (But, of course you need a blog too.) One of the best functions of this set-up is that anyone in your organization with the proper login permission can update and edit the site including adding pages, text and images without any knowledge of HTML or web design software such as Dreamweaver.

On of the core elements of WordPress is something called a theme. This is essentially the design template that controls the look and feel of all of the pages throughout the site. There are lots of places you can get pre-designed templates for blogs, but recently designers have started creating themes for the type of web site implementation I’m talking about in this article. Using these themes your web site looks like, well, a web site, instead of a blog.

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Internet Marketing Key to Obama Win

Particularly interesting post on the Wired blog that illustrates how Barack Obama’s branding and marketing campaign usage of the Internet played a key role in propelling him victory of the Democrat nomination. Below is an excerpt with a link to the original post:

“It’s impossible to imagine Barack Obama’s rise without the modern methods that his campaign used to organize itself, particularly around the internet,” says Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of the nonprofit think tank the New Democratic Network. “This really was the most successful campaign of the 21st century.”

“This is what happens when you have a charismatic candidate, and you organize on a scale not seen before,” he adds. “Literally, the size and scale of this is unprecedented in American political history, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the money, and passion, and support of millions of American people.”

The campaign came up with a number of innovations on the internet. It used wikis — online collaborative software — to coordinate and churn out precinct captains in both California and Texas. And it created a counter-viral e-mail campaign to combat the anonymous e-mail smears that question his religious faith and patriotism. It set up policy pages that solicited ideas from supporters, and at one point, the campaign solicited letters from supporters over the internet to lobby the undecided superdelegates.

And Obama’s campaign constantly updated its YouTube channel to keep its supporters around the country up to speed on his latest speeches.

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Interview in Ping! Zine Magazine – Blogging for Business

I was recently interviewed by Dave Young for an article entitled “Blogging for Business in 2008” that appears in the latest edition of Ping! Zine Web Hosting Magazine. Below is an excerpt along with a link to the pdf:

I studied their products and services, their corporate websites, but the real studying was done by reading their blog posts. Three of my personal favorite blogs belong to PEER 1, Mailtrust, and MailChimp, names you may already be familiar with if you pay attention to what’s going on in the hosting and software industries.

Okay, so you are probably asking “what’s so great about these companies and their blogs?” I took the time to interview the people behind these successful blogs. The responses I received are quite intriguing. Rajan Sodhi, VP of Marketing and Communications at PEER 1, started “Big Marketing for Small Businesses” and has been posting to his blog (bigmarketing.wordpress.com) since august 2006. Sodhi said, “My blog has been successful in giving me an opportunity to discuss, share and engage with others about my favorite topic – marketing.”

Sodhi enjoys discussing ideas and concepts in marketing on his personal blog. However, blogs are able to do more than just communicate your personal thoughts on whatever interests you the most. For example, Pat Matthews, president of Mailtrust, a Rackspace company, said, “My blog has helped us generate business as well as recruit more effectively.” Matthews has been posting in his “Small Town, Big ideas” blog (patsweblog.com) for over 2.5 years. He believes potential customers and employees like to read about the company they are going to do business with or work for in the future. Matthews added, “My blog has made a big impact on both levels.” Sodhi and Matthews’ blogs are independent of their company’s websites and still help them build business. What happens when you fully integrate your blog within your corporate website?

Download article (pdf): Blogging for Business in 2008

SXSW, All About Social Media and THE Interview

Just returned from South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, TX. My first time and what a great event! If you’re wondering where the web 2.0 world has been the last few days, well I found them all on 6th Street. Social media was the talk of Interactive. From the continuing quest for enhanced monetization model ideas to raising VC money, to the increasing adoption by enterprise of affordable, open source online software over traditional proprietary versions. In case you thought social media was just the latest fad for techies and early adopters, many at SXSW would have you think it’s not… more like a cultural movement. And I agree. Users poking around in Facebook, sending mail through Google, and sharing photos through Flickr, are beginning to wonder why the software they are forced to use at work isn’t as easy or available. I see this changing and it will be driven by users of all types as more depend on it in their personal lives. The talk of Interactive, as you have likely heard by now, is the now infamous interview debacle by journalist Sarah Lacey of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a capacity audience. Sarah appeared to have injected herself too much in the interview, plugging her book and wording her questions in a style that irked a live crowd that quickly turned on her, while empathizing with Mark. I wasn’t there in attendance, but you couldn’t walk ten feet without someone asking or talking about it.

2007 Top Ten Posts at BIG Marketing

Another year coming to a close and everyone is putting out their top ten lists, so here are the top ten posts read here at BIG Marketing. A sincere thanks to all of you who have supported this blog in 2007. Interacting with you through this medium is such a joy for me. Cheers and Happy New Year!

1. Facebook, The Right Way to Design a Social Networking Site
2. It Pays to be a Penguin
3. Revolutionary Pen-Size Computer Uses Bluetooth Technology
4. The Starbucks Experience Wins Over Coffee Every Time
5. Plenty of Fish Founder Rakes in Google Ad Dough
6. iPod In-Ear Headphones Don’t Stick in My Ears
7. Product Packaging That Packs a Punch

8. Craigslist Founder Won’t Sell Out
9. NHL All Star Voting Has a Viral Storm on its Hands
10. Philips Shave Everywhere Ad is Viral at its Best

Launch Party Kicks Off Tomorrow

We’re sponsoring Launch Party Vancouver tomorrow evening at The Republic on Granville Street. The event kicks off at 5pm with a handful of demos from local start-ups looking to show off their products/services to a primarily techie, marketing and venture capital crowd. Launch Party is described as “a lively mixer for the city’s brightest entrepreneurs, tech junkies, and bloggers, who are doing it, have done it or want to make their ideas happen here. The goal of the event is to connect BC’s growing community of Internet and new media leaders with investors and other trailblazers across Canada and abroad.”

You may have already noticed, there is a thriving technology community here in Vancouver with a thirst for innovation and being on the bleeding edge. If you are not convinced, events like this one, as well as the BarCamps, Massive and Northern Voice will convince you. If you can find the time, I encourage you to attend. You can see the details here. We are also running our 12 Months Free Managed Hosting contest at the event.

Adtech New York, NewTeeVee San Francisco

Just got back into town from attending Adtech in New York and NewTeeVee
in San Francisco. Both were great events. This is my third Adtech (first time in New York) and I always find it to be very informative for digital marketers. There were a lot more ad agency types in the audience than the Adtech events in San Francisco, and as such, many of the discussions centered around the impact user generated content, mashups and customer ownership of the brand is having on ad agencies who are beginning to feel the pinch, not unlike music execs. It was pretty clear that agencies are starting to fear their hefty fees for delivering creativity that doesn’t deliver a whole lot of sales is in jeopardy as more customers opt to filter out traditional advertising in favor of user generated material passed on by friends. I strongly believe agencies who can’t find a way to adapt will be gone in short order. This is a cultural shift they can’t fight and possibly win. Just like music moguls trying to sue their customers for downloading and distributing music for free online. Can’t think of a better way to piss off your audience. Even if these guys can’t get with the program, there will be a lot of new agencies and music labels pop up with a business model that embraces what’s happening online. It’s already happening. And what can I say about New York… other than I think I’m in love. My first time in this unbelievable city and will definitely be back for a personal trip. Wow, my kind of town and judging by the number of people packing the streets, obviously I’m not the only one. The conference was a couple of blocks away from the Late Show with David Letterman building. My colleague Jose and I slipped into the Hello Deli to grab a sandwich and were greeted by Rupert Jee. Letterman fans know he is. As we waited in line, Letterman himself stepped out from the backdoor of the building just a few steps behind us and slipped into a car. Very cool. And one of the nights, Jose got caught up in the filming of an episode of Law and Order in Time Square and got his picture taken with Vincent D’Onofrio (Detective Robert Goren), a favorite TV actor of mine.

     

Om Malik’s NewTeeVee conference was a one-day event packed full of the who’s-who in the web 2.0 space. I REALLY enjoyed this event. Got a chance to connect with Matt and Barry of WordPress who are about to embark on an insane road trip from San Francisco, CA to San Antonio, TX. Good luck guys! Had a chance to also meet Steve Chen, founder of YouTube who mused about his appearance on Oprah last week and hanging out in the green room with actor Patrick Swayze. I think he still find all the attention a little overwhelming. Steve hosted YouTube at ServerBeach from the beginning, so we were lucky to get a first-hand look at their extraordinary growth. We plan on sending him the very first server he used to host YouTube. After speaking with him, I get the sense he’ll proudly place it on his mantle at home. Om, thanks for putting together a first-class event in a great facility. I’m looking forward to our partnership with the GigaOm network.

Funny T-shirt Takes Aim at Bloggers

This was sent to me by my colleague Tricia. I think she’s giving me a hint.

PEER 1 Launches New Brand Building Campaign

We’re launching a new brand building campaign this week at PEER 1. The campaign is called “we get IT”, and features a broad range of customers doing cool and innovative things online, while leveraging PEER 1’s IT infrastructure. The first video in the series profiles Vancouver-based interactive marketing and design agency Blast Radius, who co-locates their servers in our Vancouver data center. The shoot took a full day and about three weeks in post-production. Next up is free dating site Plenty of Fish which is currently in post-production, followed by leading VoIP provider, Vonage who we just wrapped up shooting on Friday in Toronto.

Office 2.0, Om, Matt, and Other Stuff

Got back Friday night from Office 2.0 in San Francisco. The place felt like ground zero for web 2.0 and SaaS companies. The St. Regis was buzzing with people clamoring to find out primarily the impact social media and networking will have on enterprise. Also, product demonstrations from new startups and growing firms like Spanning Sync and Smartsheet. I just installed Spanning Sync on my computer, awesome tool! It syncs my Google calendar with Apple iCal and solves a problem I’ve been having with keeping my laptop up to date. And now that I got the iPhone (yeahhhh!), it is coming in even handier. Robert and I had the opportunity to briefly meet Om Malik of GigaOM up in the terrace. The guy has terrific sense of humor and I’m looking forward to taking him up on his invitation to meet over a beer soon.

On Wednesday, we had dinner with WordPress’s Matt Mullenweg and RevCube’s Dan Simoes at First Crush. Both great, down-to-earth guys who I really enjoyed spending time with. Lots going on in their respective businesses. Matt’s got many exciting things in the works for the WordPress users, so stay tuned. Back to the event, lots of positives with the event. On the downside, the lack of a paper agenda got annoying at times. I know it was an experiment in a ‘paper-less’ conference, hence the iPhones containing an agenda app from Etelos, but what the experiment should have proved is that technology can’t overpower and replace certain human needs in face-to-face settings, the same way an ebook can’t replace the feel of reading a physical one. I had a laugh with Mark Mader of Smartsheet over lunch where he relayed a story from earlier in the day when he asked someone for their business card after a conversation. The guy said he didn’t have any, “It’s a paperless conference”, he added. He tried to instruct Mark on how to use his iPhone to get the contact information, which seemed like much more trouble then it was worth, so no exchange occurred.

Technology is useful as long as it helps individuals bring balance in their life, rather than overpower it. People who use Facebook and Myspace to feel the ‘high’ of being well-connected or popular from their laptop, but still can’t navigate themselves through a real face-to-face, social setting is just one example of where technology can hurt. Just like to old cliche “life is all about balance”, you can modify it to these days to read “life is all about how you balance technology”.