Tag Archives: CMS

Why simplicity, clarity and transparency?

Posted on Thursday 21 February 2013 by Alice • 0 Comments

Blog tuitionI don’t believe that WordPress is complicated. It only seems so if you don’t understand it.

So this is where the Fairy Blog Mother comes in. Over the years I have specialised in understanding blogging jargon, translating it from the American into ordinary, everyday English, using words that normal people say, and incorporating it into my training programmes.

WordPress is, in fact, very simple to use. Certainly it is if you compare it with other blogging platforms like Joomla. It uses a content management system (CMS) that is designed to be easy to edit and create new material yourself. If you can use Word, you will understand WordPress, as there are many features that are the same.

Instructions should be made as clear as possible. No transaction should be left out or merely assumed. What may be obvious to you might not be so for another, so not only do I show what to do next in my training, I also reveal what happens as a result, to provide reassurance that everything has been done correctly.

When I create a website in WordPress, I enter it via the admin access, or front door. This is important, as this is how the owner or main user will see it. Very rarely will anybody need to use code or FTP, if they understand what that is, so I make a point of creating it without that so that everything is totally visible. This means no custom pages or any similar untoward systems, which the owner will not understand, make them confused or anxious.

Websites need to be simple, clear and uncomplicated. The navigation should be obvious, easy to follow and uncluttered. Each page should contain one message so to not confuse both the visitors and the search engines. The content should not stretch much ‘below the fold’, so that the most important stuff is visible at the top of the page. The sidebars should contain relevant call to actions to get the readers to ‘do’ something positive and useful to you and your business. And any additional material should be placed in a blog, which will explain the business in detail that cannot be accommodated within the website.

For information based first websites I suggest using WordPress.com as a method of cutting your blogging teeth. Once you’ve mastered the concept of blogs and how they work, and your business has successfully expanded, then you can move onto the next level (WordPress.org) which is where the fun really starts – especially if you learn how to understand it properly from me. Learning the foundations correctly from the beginning will save you time and angst when you want to start getting technical, use sophisticated digital marketing strategies and fully extend your business expectations. There is so much more you can do with a blog…

Filed Under: Blogging education, blogging encouragement, Blogging help, blogging success, blogs and blogging, Free Wordpress blogs, non-jargon, Self-hosted Wordpress blogs

Untangling some blogging knots

Posted on Wednesday 6 February 2013 by Alice • 0 Comments

Blog designIn the past I used to get nervous when presented with a problem, but in my old age I have learned to step back, review the situation and take it one step at a time. It’s even worth going away from it for a while to give the subconscious a chance to work it out for you.

It pains me when I view blogs that have got themselves into a pickle, especially when there really has been no reason for it. This usually arises from people attempting to set up a WordPress blog without truly understanding how it works, a web developer getting too big for his boots and making it too complicated, or, as with my latest example, using a template that is full of custom facilities that is unnecessary, usually because its designer doesn’t want to use the simplicity of WordPress’s CMS.

One of the reasons Fairy Blog Mother was set up was to show how simple WordPress really is, how easy it is to use, and to educate people how to use it properly. Now businesses come to me with their blogsites with a request to see how I could make it better, more efficient or effective. This is when I get a chance to take a proper look at what is going on, and sometimes the results astound me!

In an ideal world I would love to have time to work out what is wrong, find a solution, and offer my services to sort out the mess, but usually the blogsite owner has no idea that there is anything wrong. Even when I point out the errors or try to explain what I have found, I’m met with incomprehension or disbelief.

My aim is to create WordPress blogs using the simplest methods available and to achieve the best results possible that is understandable to the blog’s owner and makes their life easier. I always strive to use the front end (via admin access) as much as I can as that is where the user enters. And it’s important to use the same facilities and language to make comprehension easier and clean up the full use capabilities WordPress has to offer.

And once everything inside has been put into order, then it’s easier to put into practice techniques and applications to make the blog more efficient and attractive to both readers and search engines. It’s like a ripe tomato, as long as the insides are firm and tasty, then the red flesh will look attractive and it is more likely to be eaten.

Filed Under: blogging encouragement, Blogging help, blogging success, blogs and blogging, non-jargon

I don’t mind admitting I’m not technical

Posted on Monday 4 February 2013 by Alice • 0 Comments

Blog buildOf course this all depends on what is meant by ‘technical’. Many of my followers may agree that I am, and the majority of web developers will say I’m definitely not, but this doesn’t, or shouldn’t, undermine me as a WordPress expert.

Once upon a time I was bemused by blogging and how it worked, and I decided to understand it, patiently and steadily, fathoming out the jargon into non-technical language, and taking the same path of the ordinary, everyday person who want to be able to blog. And therefore my ‘WordPress expertise’ has arisen by putting myself into the shoes of the people I want to help, which would not be possible if I was unable to understand how my clients think or what they want to achieve through WordPress.

My simple mantra is if I can’t do it, neither can my clients. If creating a blog becomes too technical, then there’s obviously something wrong and it hasn’t been properly thought through, worked on or developed properly. WordPress prides itself on being easy to use, it has been steadily and carefully improved over the years to gain such an accolade, so if any blogging application fails to perform adequately I’m afraid it will be abandoned in favour of WordPress.

Because I want to use WordPress on the same level as my clients, I therefore develop my WordPress blogsites using the ‘front door’ or admin access that they would use. I very rarely enter via FTP (or the ‘back door’) unless I really need to. I have invested in a CMS theme that can be activated from the front end, and upload and perform everything I need to do from the Dashboard.

Therefore when my clients finally get to take over the keys and move into their new blogsite, everything is there ready and visible to them. Nothing is hidden or customised, and I offer training in every aspect of how to run and keep the blogsite healthy.

Many web developers will be sniggering into their sleeves thinking ‘she hasn’t kept the mystery aside so she can’t make any continuous money out of her clients’. But because I have made everything as transparent as possible, and allowed each blogsite to be fully functional, I can offer my tuition services for the immediate and continuous future, and when the client exceeds their blogsite’s capabilities and wants to extend, hopefully I will be the first point of call.

And again I will explore with the client everything they want to achieve with that extension, making sure that the best facilities and practices are put in place, enabling them to fulfill their marketing strategies or expansion purposes. I will advise on any changes that will improve the navigation, user experience and conversion funnel, whichever may be applicable.

You see, I may not be an expert in web coding, but there is a heck of a lot of other knowledge I can provide, gained from my digital marketing diplomas, that would create a first class blogsite, all available and usable from WordPress’s extensive application library and other facilities on offer. And I think my design capabilities are quite good too!

Filed Under: blogging encouragement, Blogging help, blogs and blogging, non-jargon

Should you have a stand-alone blog?

Posted on Monday 1 October 2012 by Alice • 0 Comments

Design, Build and Enhance your blogAs I said in my previous post, back in the old days blogs and websites used different kinds of programming platforms, and were therefore considered totally separate identities.

Therefore for those up-and-coming digital marketers who realised the potential of blogs for business, it was necessary to create a blog sitting alongside your website.

But with the development of CMS and the birth of the blogsite (a blog that has become a website, and therefore already has a blog incorporated within it), there was no need to have a separate blog.

Nevertheless not all websites are made with CMS such as WordPress, which is, of course, a blogging platform. There are still some die-hard programmers who prefer to build websites using coding language or another form of website design package. And in this case a WordPress.com blog would be an ideal solution, free, easy to set up and use, and requires next to no specialist knowledge to create or maintain.

But there is the problem of making your blog look like your website, or as close to it as possible. This is in spite of WordPress.com providing its users with over 200 themes (or templates) to improve the blog’s presentation and look, none of them will match your website exactly. So the art is to recognise an existing theme that has potential and can be adapted to resemble what you are looking for as closely as possible.

Here is an example of what I mean – first the website:

Sew Different Website

and the WordPress.com blog made to go alongside it:

Sew Different Blog

It’s not the same, but it’s not far off!

So back to the question in the headline – a separate blog will work if there is regular content with suitable contextual links back to the website, whereas a blogsite won’t require these links because it is already part of the website. Both will work better with excellent search engine optimisation and plenty of fantastic posted material, and although the WordPress.com will have WordPress behind it to help with its indexing, a blogsite suitably armed bristling with SEO plugins and other helpful applications will probably perform better.

But don’t let that put you off creating a separate blog, as it would be far worse if you had no blog at all!

Filed Under: blogs and blogging, design makes a difference, Free Wordpress blogs, increasing business visibility

The beauty of blogs over websites

Posted on Friday 28 September 2012 by Alice • 0 Comments

Design, Build and Enhance your blogBack in the old days, blogs and websites were different animals. They used different web-programming and systems, and the concept of turning a blog into a website (or blogsite) wasn’t even considered.

But technology improved, and blogs started to promote that they had pages, and that these pages could be used for more interesting things other than About Us.

Some clever-clogs started to create pages in their blogs saying all sorts of stuff, and gradually it dawned on people that creating and using pages in a blog was a lot easier to do than on an ordinary website.

For example, whenever something is changed in CMS (content management systems) that is present in all the pages, for example adding a page link into the navigation bar, then by simply creating and publishing a page automatically changed the navigation bar on all the pages at the same time!

How cool is that? No more going into each page separately and laboriously changing each element one at a time. (This is something I had to do with my Dreamweaver website whenever I created a new page and wanted to incorporate its link into the navigation bar that was on every page. It took me hours!)

This was such a time-saver for simple websites. Sidebar changes were automatically corrected on every page. Pages were easily edited and then published. It was so easy to paste a picture into a post and still be able to find it in the images gallery to use it in other posts or pages later. Writing in a page was as simple as writing a post, as the same principles were used, and the process was like writing in Word with similar editing buttons.

Blogging platforms advanced so that presentation and design was improved. Soon it was possible for almost anyone to make their blog look better without having to know copious amounts of HTML or whatever. Web-designers took advantage of this and created templates and themes to advertise their skills, as well as increasing the ever-changing blogging looks on offer. Blogs started to look fun, professional, very variable and certainly not at all ordinary.

And so the blogsite was born. And now the question arises: why do people bother with the old website design programmes when CMS appears to be so wonderful?

Well, there were restrictions to blogs that the old-fashioned way of producing a website could overcome. But these problems are fast being solved, such as being able to create new sidebars in different pages, which I have had fun doing in this blog’s new make-over. Even for those who want to have fantastic whizz-bang websites that do everything for you, then sophisticated usage of CMS can be adapted, as long as you can find a web-developer who knows how.

So how long will it be before CMS completely takes over in the website development world?

Filed Under: blogs and blogging, design makes a difference, online marketing

Which service would you use to start a blog?

Posted on Tuesday 26 July 2011 by Alice • 0 Comments
Fairy Blog Mother: blogging help

Click my logo to ask me a question!

This was a question that was asked on LinkedIn. I took a look and blanched at the number of answers that were already there (which would normally mean my response would be lost in the wilderness), but then having read them I realised the question hadn’t been properly answered.

This is because there isn’t a straight answer to this kind of question. Of course I would recommend WordPress, but there are, of course, two kinds of WordPress, each with their own characteristics and special features.

The questioner needs to work out which one is right for him. Here are three questions he needs to consider:

  • Are you technically-minded?
  • Do you have access to a web-developer?
  • Do you want to use your blog to sell products or make money?

If the answer is yes to the above, then he obviously needs to use WordPress.org. This is an excellent platform to create a monetized blog or a blogsite to act as a CMS website, and the facilities it provides are second to none.

But if you are starting a blog on your own, without external help or a desire to monetize it, purely as somewhere to write or to promote your business more effectively on the web, then I would recommend WordPress.com.

Now I expect all the other blogging experts that answered this question will be be thinking that I’m crazy. Well, not really. You see, it’s usually wise not to run before you can walk. You can use WordPress.com to master the art of blogging properly and effectively before seeking out a web-developer to move onto WordPress.org. And don’t forget it’s very easy to transfer your posts and pages from one to the other, so all is not lost.

Meanwhile, while you are learning the ropes with WordPress.com, you’ll still receive excellent SEO, search engine coverage, access to social media, and an excellent and easy to use environment to learn all about blogs and how they work. Here you can build up your readership and following in safety, because WordPress is doing a lot of the work for you behind the scenes.

Once you’ve moved onto WordPress.org you’re out on your own, which means you’ll have to start working that much harder. But that won’t be a problem, because you will have gained a good grounding beforehand, allowing you to develop and grow, rather than floundering like a non-swimmer diving straight into the deep end.

Filed Under: Blogging help, blogs and blogging, Free Wordpress blogs

WordPress is both easy and difficult

Posted on Friday 6 May 2011 by Alice • 0 Comments
Fairy Blog Mother: blogging help

Fairy Blog Mother

Whether you find using WordPress easy or difficult, it does depend what you’re using it for and what kind you have.

I have mentioned before that WordPress have made blogging as easy as possible, and certainly the CMS (content management system) has been programmed for effortless use. The areas that you regularly use, for example, to write a post or create a new page, are designed for efficiency and straightforwardness, especially once you’ve start using it regularly, and if you are familiar with Word, you can easily adapt to WordPress.

WordPress.com is particularly focused on providing a free-hosted blog with the minimum of fuss. All you need to do is sign up, confirm your username, choose your template and start blogging. Everything is pre-programmed so you don’t need to worry about anything technical, and you can create a really good blog within a surprisingly short time-period.

WordPress.org is where the fun really starts. Here you have been given full access to the world of blogging, and you can add or subtract as much as you like from your blog. Not only is HTML accepted and works properly, which is necessary for advertising, installing sign-up forms or pasting up other promotional gadgetry, you have the opportunity to adapt your themes to suit your ideas, corporate image or preferences.

If you have the know-how, here you can pop into your CSS to change the colours of your design and links, create new banners and place images into your sidebars to promote your business, books or whatever, choose from thousands of plugins to improve the performance of your blog – in fact the more you learn about blogging, the more you can add stuff to your blog to make it do something amazing!

And if you find all of this too difficult, hire someone that knows this technical stuff, because once they’ve finished your blog will be fantastic! And as the process of writing posts and creating pages is the same as WordPress.com, it is as easy as falling off a log to post regularly, keep your readers happy, interact with them daily, encourage comments and feedback and persuade more subscribers to join your RSS feed so they can keep up-to-date with everything that you do!

Filed Under: blogs and blogging, design makes a difference, Free Wordpress blogs, Self-hosted Wordpress blogs