How to Add GIFs from Giphy in WordPress Using Giphypress

Do you want to add animated GIFs in your WordPress site? Giphy makes it easy to search, discover, and share animated Gifs on the web, in text messages, and on social media. In this article, we will show you how to easily add animated GIFs from Giphy in WordPress using Giphypress.

Pros and Cons of Using Animated GIFs in WordPress

You must have seen animated GIFs being used on popular websites like BuzzFeed, List25, Reddit, etc. GIFs allow you to add animated reactions, amusing anecdotes, and pop culture references to your articles.

The reason why GIFs are so popular is because they are fun and highly engaging. They allow you to boost the time users spend on your website. Articles with Gifs are also more likely to be shared and become viral.

The downside of animated GIFs is that they can slow down your website, and it can take a lot of time to create your own.

That’s when Giphy comes in.

Giphy is a popular website that makes it easier for you to find and share animated GIFs. It has thousands of GIF images stored in categories and sorted by hashtags.

If you are on shared WordPress hosting, then serving your GIFs via Giphy will save you bandwidth. It will also have a less impact on pagespeed and user experience on your website.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily add GIFs from Giphy in WordPress using Giphypress.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

Adding GIFs from Giphy in WordPress Posts and Pages

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Giphypress plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to create a new post or page. On the post editor, you will notice a new button labeled ‘GIPHY GIF Search’.

Clicking on the button will bring up the Giphy search in a popup. You will see the recent and trending GIFs along with menu and search bar at the bottom.

You can browse or search for GIFs to find the perfect GIF for the moment.

Once you have found a GIF, click on it for a larger view. Now you can click on the Embed into Post button to add the GIF into your article.

Giphypress will now embed the GIF as an iframe into your post. You can save to update your post and view the GIFs in action.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily add GIFs from Giphy in WordPress using Giphypress. You may also want to see our guide on how to find royalty free images for your WordPress blog posts.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add GIFs from Giphy in WordPress Using Giphypress appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Add an Admin User in WordPress using FTP

Being locked of your WordPress admin is frustrating. That’s why we have shown you how to add an admin user in WordPress via MySQL. Recently one of our readers asked if it was possible to add an admin user in WordPress using FTP. Ofcourse it is. In this article, we will show you how to add an admin user in WordPress using FTP.

Why You May Need to Add an Admin User in WordPress Using FTP?

Sometimes you may forget your username or email address on a WordPress site and cannot login to the admin area.

One way to do this is by adding an admin user to the WordPress database using MySQL. But you may be unable to connect to phpMyAdmin or don’t want to run MySQL queries directly.

Some users may get their site hacked and admin account deleted. In that case, adding an admin user using FTP can quickly restore your access to the WordPress admin area.

Having said that, let’s see how you can easily add an admin user in WordPress using FTP access.

Adding an Admin User in WordPress Using FTP

First thing you will need is an FTP client. If you are new to using FTP, then see our guide on how to use FTP to upload files in WordPress.

Once connected to your WordPress site, you need to locate your WordPress theme’s functions.php file. It would be at a location like this:

/yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/your-current-theme/functions.php

Right click on functions.php file and then select download. Your FTP client will download the functions.php file to your computer.

Open the file you just downloaded on your computer using a plain text editor like Notepad. Now you need to add this code at the bottom of the file.

function wpb_admin_account(){
$user = 'Username';
$pass = 'Password';
$email = 'email@domain.com';
if ( !username_exists( $user )  && !email_exists( $email ) ) {
$user_id = wp_create_user( $user, $pass, $email );
$user = new WP_User( $user_id );
$user->set_role( 'administrator' );
} }
add_action('init','wpb_admin_account');

Don’t forget to replace Username, Password, and email@domain.com with your own values.

Next, save the file and then upload it back to your website using the FTP client.

You can now visit your WordPress site’s login area and sign in with the user account you just added.

Once you have logged in to your WordPress site, please edit the functions.php file and delete the code you added. Deleting the code will not remove the user you added, and you can always add new users and authors to your WordPress site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add an admin user to WordPress using FTP. You may also want to see our list of 13 vital tips and hacks to protect your WordPress admin area.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add an Admin User in WordPress using FTP appeared first on WPBeginner.

Tips For Using Google Analytics

alt="Tips For Using Google Analytics" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

One of the most powerful (and free) web analytics tools available today, Google Analytics offers incredible insights for analyzing visitor behavior. Go beyond the pretty graphs by setting goals, measuring events or diving deeper with advanced segmentation. If Google Analytics is new to you, this beginner’s guide is a great way to get oriented with Google Analytics before using the advanced tools below.

Set up Website Goals

Goals are a high value action that you want customers to perform. Do you want visitors to subscribe, download a file, fill out a form or buy something? This is where you need to identify the purpose of your website. The goals you set up in Google Analytics should reflect your business objectives and will help you understand conversion rates as well as analyze visitors that convert. Once you have identified the purpose of your site, you can choose from the types of goals below:

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2013/0502-1.jpg" alt="" />Google Analytics

URL Destination

This type of goal is defined as a visitor reaching a specific page. This could be a ‘Thank You’ page after subscribing to a newsletter or loading a contact information page. Note that when you fill in the Goal URL textbox, it’s easier to use the URI component instead of the full URL. If you want to take things to the next level, define href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1116091?hl=en" target="_blank">funnels for your goals to create a path for your traffic to move through.

Time on Site

With this type of goal, set a length of time for Google Analytics to measure against each visitor. The goal is met when visitors spend more (or less) time than you define. Gaming, photography, or article based sites are a few examples that should utilize this metric to evaluate engagement.

Page per Visit

Similarly, set goals to track the amount of page views per visitor. Individuals on your page are monitored for the amount of pageviews per visit and complete the goal if they are greater or less than the number you set. Blogging sites are another example that may use this type of goal.

Event

Met when a pre-defined Event is triggered, Event goals are used in conjunction with event tracking (learn more on this below). Configure the conditions based on Category, Action, Label or Value – while you can use all of these options, only one is needed.

A few important notes

1. You can attribute monetary value to each type of goal. Perfect for monetizing visitor interaction, any time a goal is met the amount is recorded and summed up in the goal reports.
2. Goals cannot be deleted. However, you can turn a goal off or edit a goal to change the criteria.
3. Up to 20 goals can be set. There are 4 goals sets that contain 5 goals each. There is no specific hierarchy required, but it does provide the option to organize goals in to different categories.

 

Event Tracking

 

Event Tracking is a great way to measure user interaction with your site. Calls to action, downloads, outbound clicks or video plays are examples you might want to track as events. href="https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/eventTrackerGuide">Enabling event tracking is not a hard process. A code is added to the URL you want to track. First, let’s take a quick look at the syntax:

_trackEvent (category, action, label, value)

Category: This is the primary element you want to track and should function as a first way to sort events. You can think of it as the “What.”

Action: This is the definition of the interaction with your visitor. It can be clicked, played, stopped, or paused on the page of the URL.

Label: This is an optional descriptor field that can be used to provide additional information about the event. You can use it as a unique identifier, such as the placement of the URL.

Value: This is an optional numerical value that can be used when you set up goals for your event. You can use explicit values, like a price, or inferred values that are defined elsewhere, like Download Time.

Non-interaction: An optional boolean value that when set to true, the event hit will not be used in the bounce-rate calculation. This can be used to prevent a click on a video from being included in the bounce rate.

The example below is appdev.com selling Pro memberships. The event tracked would be the “Buy Pro” call to action (CTA) on the side bar on the front page. The value is defined as ‘FullPrice.’ If you were to run a promotion for 30% off membership, you can change the CTA to reflect that and all the other elements of the _trackEvent would stay the same except for the value, which could be changed to ’30discount’.

<a href=”http://www.appdev.com/” onclick=”_gaq.push([‘_trackEvent’, ‘GoPro’, ‘FrontPage’, ‘SideBar’,’FullPrice’]);”>
<a href=”http://www.appdev.com/” onclick=”_gaq.push([‘_trackEvent’, ‘GoPro’, ‘FrontPage’, ‘SideBar’,’30discount’]);”>

After time, you can compare the performance of the full price versus the 30% discount, the different pages, and different placements of the CTAs by drilling down in the Content>Overview>Event Category report.

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2013/0502-2.jpg" alt="" />Google Analytics

Best practice tips

1.  Identify all the possible events that can occur on your pages. This will help you to build a consistent report structure that scales well.
2. Identify how you want the report to look. This will direct the structure of your Event Tracking Implementation.
3. Use a clear and consistent naming convention. Every name you supply will appear in your reports, which is why it is important to consider how you want the category/action pair calculated in report statistics.

 

Advanced Segmentation

 
Advanced segmentation is a capability that allows you to create custom reports that dive into statistics unique to your company. It is extremely valuable to track and compare visitors; you can find information regarding customer behavior that can be used to optimize customer experiences and improve conversion and/or engagement.

It is important to realize that not all visitors are the same. Google Analytics can produce reports that compare four segments at one time, which can be applied to most reports. Try segmenting your branded search keywords. What pages does this segment view? What products do they buy? Do they meet any of the defined goal targets? Now compare these metrics with non-branded search, all visits, or direct traffic. Depending on performance, you may be able to identify improvements to your site and the customer experience.

Advanced segments can even be href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1011787?hl=en&ref_topic=1033067" target="_blank">applied to Event Tracking. See how visits with events can be compared to visits overall by defining a custom segment with “Total Events Greater than 0”.

 

Analyze Traffic Sources

Where do your visitors come from? The Traffic Sources section can help you understand the effectiveness of referrals, direct traffic, organic search keywords and campaigns. Start with the Traffic Sources > Overview report to see the distribution. A high dependence on search could put traffic at risk if Google rolls out an update, thus a balanced portfolio is optimal.

When looking over the remaining reports, examine the bounce rate, pages per visit, and average visit duration to measure engagement.

Search

Is there a high bounce rate for paid or organic search traffic? That means you most likely aren’t targeting the right terms. Which keywords drive visitors to your site? Also click over to “Ecommerce” on the explorer bar. Of those keywords, which ones generate the most revenue? Knowing which keywords to focus on makes a big difference for investing time or money in optimizing your site.

Direct

See which pages are the most popular for direct traffic. Is there a page deep in your site that ranks high? Make sure visitors can navigate back to the home page easily. Look at the Ecommerce tab as well to see if there are any pages that have a low number of visits, but a high conversion rate and make those pages more visible.

Referrals

Knowing which websites that refer the most effective traffic is important because there is only so much time that can spent marketing your site. Examine how much traffic is referred, which landing pages are most popular and how visitors interact with your site. Can you think of any referral sources that are style="text-decoration: underline;">not in the report? If so, reach out to business contacts such as clients, partners, or industry blogs and ask for links to your site.

Lastly, you should put your Advanced Segmentation skills to use when examining the Traffic Sources reports to figure out which customers make you successful.

Now you can track the areas of needed improvement and success on your website more thoroughly by setting goals, measuring events, or diving deeper with advanced segmentation. The amount of data that Analytics is able to yield can be overwhelming, so make sure you’re always tracking data that has a real impact on the health of your website.

Page 21 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Using SlideShare to Reach New Customers

alt="Using SlideShare to Reach New Customers" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0509-1-500x398_c.jpg" />

If you haven’t heard of SlideShare yet, you will soon. The href="//contentmarketinginstitute.com/education/books/the-marketers-guide-to-slideshare/”">Content Marketing Institute, states that SlideShare gets about 120 million views per month. Social networking seems to be all anyone is talking about. From people tweeting while they watch big ticket events like the Super Bowl, to Facebook posts about the election, the culture today is most definitely engaged online and businesses are looking for ways to get in on the trend.

href="//www.slideshare.net/" target="_blank">SlideShare is a bit different than other social media platforms and is a bit less interactive than something like Twitter. The site is Web 2.0 based, and you can upload in Keynote, PDF, OpenOffice or PDF format. The company was bought by LinkedIn, another social media site, and claims about 60 million visitors per month.

style="text-align: center;">href="http://www.slideshare.net/">class="aligncenter wp-image-1167 border" alt="Slide Share Homepage" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0509-2.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0509-2.jpg 615w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0509-2-165x300.jpg 165w" sizes="(max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px" />

An article on the href="//contentmarketinginstitute.com/education/books/the-marketers-guide-to-slideshare/”" target="_blank">Content Marketing Institute’s website titled “The Marketer’s Guide to SlideShare” states:

If you’ve been struggling with how to talk business on Facebook, SlideShare might sound too good to be true. But this is a social platform where business sits at the center of visitors’ intentions—not just as a gimmick to get people to “like” it.

How to Use SlideShare to Reach New Customers

Show What’s Great About Your Product

Create a slideshow that shows off the best features of your product. You can do this through photographs and bullet points that list out the pros of the product as well as the purposes for your product or service and how that can solve the potential customer’s problem.

Up Your Visibility in Search Engines

Google’s new algorithms seem to love info that is easily digestible but of value. SlideShare is a built-in platform for this because it is an informative presentation or slideshow. Keep the info short and to the point and your slideshow will rank even better.

Clear up Any Questions

One reason people hesitate to buy a new product or service or switch to a new company is because they are unsure whether it will be beneficial to them to do so. Think of the questions a customer might have and then write a slide that answers those questions before the customer has a chance to think them. For example, you could create a slide titled “Why should I switch to a new Internet service provider?” Within that slideshow, you would then answer that question for the customer.

Choosing Your SlideShare Content

Since you’ll be using the slideshow as a marketing tool for your business, you’ll want to keep the pages within the presentation fairly short and to the point. Visitors to SlideShare are as busy as anyone else and may only have a few minutes to flip through your presentation and glean some interesting facts. You want to accomplish two things: get your brand in the customer’s mind and answer the customer’s question.

Try to keep the length of your text to a sentence or two per page. Bullet points are best because they are quick and easy to digest.

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Choose images that are not going to distract the reader from the text but that add value. For example, if you own a winery and want to encourage customers to purchase wine to serve with dessert, you might create a slideshow on “How to Choose a Dessert Wine”. You would then add an image of a bottle of dessert wine in the lower right corner and a white background where the text will live.

Try to stay away from anything busy, too bright or distracting. You can either take the photos or purchase them from a stock photo site like href="http://www.istockphoto.com/" target="_blank">iStockPhoto.com.

Choose a font that is easy to read. Have you ever tried to read something in a fancy script font and wondered what the person was thinking that created that document? Keep the font simple and large enough for anyone to read.

However, keep in mind that many people view items through mobile devices these days, so don’t make the font so large that it won’t fit into a smaller screen. A good rule of thumb is 14 or 16 points in common fonts like Calibri, Courier, Arial or Times New Roman.

The size limit for a slideshow on SlideShare is 100 mb, so double check that your file is not larger than that. Once you’ve created your presentation, upload it to your account and view it to make sure everything works correctly and appears the way you’d like.

Additional Tips to Get the Most Exposure from Your Slideshow

You now have a visual presentation that will hopefully answer some big (or maybe little) questions and lead customers toward your business as a potential solution. Now that your slide is uploaded and working, it’s time to work it into your marketing plan. There are several ways you can utilize SlideShare to href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/grow-a-blog-community/">grow your business.

Increase Search Engine Ranking: Make sure you optimize your slideshow for search engines by using tags and a full description that has strong keywords for your topic.

Use the Embed Feature: One of the biggest benefits to SlideShare is that you can embed your presentation right into your website or other social media platforms. You can even automate SlideShare so that when you upload a new presentation, it will notify your LinkedIn contacts.

Let People Download It: Want to gather information from your leads? Allow people to download your presentation if they share their contact info. This is a great way to encourage others to use your content in their meetings and speeches, which is just more free exposure for you. If you provide valuable information, people will share it with others.

Utilize the Social Sharing Options: In addition to LinkedIn, SlideShare also makes it easy to share your presentations on Twitter and Facebook. It only takes a second to do so and if some of those people pass on your slideshow, you’ll gain even more exposure.

How Well Is it Working? Analytics

As with any type of marketing, you’ll have the best success rate when you can track how well a specific campaign is working. The successful presentations are models and should be repeated with subsequent slideshows. In February of 2013, SlideShare introduced a new tracking tool called “Send Tracker”. This tool allows you to see at a glance who viewed your slideshow and how much time that person spent on each slide.

With this type of tracking, you will be able to see if a particular slide is turning customers off or if another slide seems to encourage them to read on.

In addition to using the Pro feature analytical tools available through SlideShare, any links you share within the presentation should go to specific landing pages on your website so you can track traffic from the presentation and see what your click-through rate translates to.

Since SlideShare is another high traffic site, this is one social media outlet that you’ll want to try as part of your overall online marketing plan.

Image credit: href="http://www.morguefile.com/creative/mimiliz" target="_blank">Mimiliz

Page 20 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Simple Steps to Get Ahead of Your Competition Using Social Media Marketing

alt="Simple Steps to Get Ahead of Your Competition Using Social Media Marketing" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/social-media-marketing-500x486_c.jpg" />

dir="ltr">The significance of online communities and social media for businesses can only grow and develop with time. Currently, online communities serve many purposes, from social media marketing to online reputation management. The only problem with the entire notion of social media marketing is the difficulty to measure the tangible ROI.

dir="ltr">However, this difficulty should not be an impediment for companies to use the potential of social media to the fullest, simply because the value that the online communities provide is not measured only in direct income from social media marketing, but in the direct communication with the costumers, which allows the companies to work on the flaws of their campaigns way before it all blows up in their faces.

Where to begin building?

You are definitely in href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/featured-articles/building-a-tribe-around-your-art-one-lovely-person-at-a-time/">need of a strong online community which will support your brand and share your values.

But where on Earth do you begin?

The answer is quite simple – start where your audience is. Now, finding your audience can be tricky. With so many social networks, forums and blogs, it is difficult to differentiate between what is truly important and what is a pure waste of time.

Before you begin, you will need to ask yourself, or your client, several questions which sound easy enough, but can prove to be a bit tricky once you dive into them. Taking one step at a time is the best solution for everything that seems hard. Rinse and repeat. The questions you need to get answered can be formulated in the following way:

• What is it that separates your business from the sea of similar enterprises?
• What is unique in your offer?
• Why is your business significant to your clients or customers?
• What is it that will make your business stand out?
• What type of relationship do your customers/clients expect from you?
• Who are your partners?
• Who are your competitors?
• Who do you respect in the industry?

dir="ltr">Finding answers to these questions will help you get a clearer picture of the online presence you need and of the type of community you want to build.

dir="ltr">The next thing you need to do is to find out what your typical customer/client is like, e.g. create a customer persona.

• What age group they belong to?
• What is their gender?
• What is their social/educational background?
• Is any occupation typically associated with your clients?
• What do they need?
• What do they expect from you?

dir="ltr">Once you answer all these questions, it is time to start digging.

Setting up the Community Pillars

dir="ltr">Choosing the networks where you will start your communities is often tricky business, first of all because your business is often associated with several customer personas which are typically scattered across different networks and are members of more than one network. Basically, if your business is not associated with some highly specific demographic group, you should go for the most popular networks which are suited to the type of content you are planning to provide.

dir="ltr">My personal favorites are Google Plus and Pinterest, as highly visually stimulating networks, with Google Plus enabling me to include loads of different stuff, including text.

dir="ltr">However, going for Facebook and Twitter is absolutely fine if you think they are better suited for your needs. Whichever networks you choose, there are resources you can use to make your search easier and less time-consuming. style="line-height: 1.5em;">For example:

href="www.followerwonk.com">Followerwonk.com

dir="ltr">Followerwonk is a really useful tool you can use for many things, including a certain degree of analytics. More about the Followerwonk options can be found on the website itself, and we will deal in more detail with the section which enables you to locate the potential members of your Twitter community.

dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">href="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/followerwonk.jpg">class="aligncenter wp-image-919" alt="followerwonk" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/followerwonk.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/followerwonk.jpg 958w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/followerwonk-300x189.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/followerwonk-750x473.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 958px) 100vw, 958px" />

dir="ltr">In the Search Twitter bios tab, you will find a field in which you are supposed to type in a search criterion. Mine was “writers”. The next step was to expand my options, and I typed in California in the extended search options. You can also include the number of followers, the number of people the person is following or the number of tweets as criteria. Once you choose all that, you get a list that you can then dissect according to what you need.

href="www.findpeopleonplus.com">Findpeopleonplus.com

dir="ltr">This is a tool for finding people on Google Plus, through the community itself provides plethora of useful resources, shares circles, etc. and all you need to do is follow several prominent members of the community. For the beginning of your community building efforts, you can use this website to find people relevant for your business, as well as several providers of great resources on Google Plus.

dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">href="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/findpeopleonplus.jpg">class="aligncenter wp-image-920" alt="findpeopleonplus" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/findpeopleonplus.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/findpeopleonplus.jpg 895w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/findpeopleonplus-300x205.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/findpeopleonplus-750x514.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 895px) 100vw, 895px" />

dir="ltr">This website works in a similar way as Followerwonk, but the options are different, of course. On Findpeopleonplus, you have more options which are already provided, so it is a bit easier to browse, and you can still type in any search criterion you want. These tools are something you can really have fun with, while making different cross sections.

Pinterest boards

dir="ltr">Pinterest boards are what you need to get started on Pinterest. They are thematically organized and usually thematically named, and you can follow a single board. So, first you create boards related to your business and then you start pinning and following other boards.

dir="ltr">You need to develop a strategy, but you do not need any additional web directories of Pinterest members, you just use the names of the boards to find those who pins things similar to yours and who would be interested in your business.

Community is Growing, Now What?

dir="ltr">Now you need to take a deep breath and start sorting out and filtering. Some things you simply need to do manually, and it would be great if you could use an Excel sheet to collect information, but you can start building a community right away if you so wish and deem desirable. The most important thing to keep in mind is that it is not only the quantity that matters, but the quality as well. You need to find the right balance.

dir="ltr">Things that you would want to consider are some of the following:

• Frequency of activity
• Volume of activity
• Quality
• Relevance
• Following and followers numbers and ratio

dir="ltr">Bottom line, you should aim for a healthy mix of small and big things, guys who will follow you back and notice the content you are posting, but also those who have a lot of followers and who are influential in your industry, because once they notice that you are interacting with their content and providing value they might become a valuable asset.

Relationship Marketing 101

dir="ltr">Relationship marketing is different from content marketing in the respect that in relationship marketing interacting with people, being positive, helpful and responsive builds your community and rewards your marketing efforts with a good word-of-mouth, whereas with content marketing it is all about the content you share and the way you share it.

dir="ltr">Your online community created using relationship marketing will be a great asset for your reputation management, among other things, and it will provide you with feedback of utmost value.

Benefits of Loyal Online Community

dir="ltr">Your online community can be of great help if your company starts being bullied by another company or you start having problems with spam reviews aimed at weakening your business position. There are certain things you need to keep in mind and proper ways to behave in such situations, but remaining calm and respectful and keeping your community posted, as well as calmly explaining your position can restore the trust potentially damaged by the competition’s negative campaign against you.

dir="ltr">It is way easier to manage the situation if you have a large online community with which you have built a firm relationship based on trust.

Mixing Things up for Best Results

This is just the beginning of your social media campaign, which will have to include relevant and curated content at one point, and it will probably become a necessity to hire someone to help you. The best option would be to hire an agency, because there is also on-page and off-page SEO to be done, as well as different SEM campaigns to be carried out, and it is a lot of work for just one person.

However, if you feel confident enough you can make an in-house team, and you can venture into creating and carrying out your own strategy, and if you follow guidelines of experts, you have a fair chance at success.

Page 20 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

How To Promote Your Blog Using Freebies

alt="How To Promote Your Blog Using Freebies" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/freebies-500x166_c.jpg" />

Free giveaways and items are a great way to drive traffic, but where do you begin?

First, consider your your target audience – what drives them? Do you have a skill you can share? Are you an extensive researcher? Do you enjoy giveaways? Figure out what you have to offer that no one else does – then capitalize on it by giving it away for free! Here are four ways you might not have considered to href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/discount-coupons-and-freebies/">promote your blog with freebies.

1. Write or Record a Tutorial

This is perhaps one of these easiest things you can do to share information. Whether you’re a crafter, a programmer, a cook, or a literature teacher, you have something that no one else knows how to do. In 2004, I searched for weeks on how to import my blog from Expression Engine into WordPress but there simply was no information on how to do this. I figured it out on my own and when I was done, I put it all together and crafted a how-to blog post. It got hits for many years because it was the only entry that came up in search.

Nowadays, the best way to teach someone how to do something is with video.  I’ve seen excellent videos on every thing from how to crack open an acorn squash to how to use the complicated new plugin I installed. Consider what tricky problem have you solved and then search it on Google. If the solutions you find are too difficult, unclear, lacks video, or does not address your target audience, this is your chance to solve that problem and get build-in search engine optimized traffic. You may want to search on href="https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=1000000000&__u=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS" target="_blank">Keyword Tools to make sure people are seeking it first. You can even start a YouTube channel around your topic, if it’s something you do on a regular basis.

2. Write an eBook

id="attachment_1811" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright">href="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ebooks.jpg">class="size-full wp-image-1811" alt="ebooks" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ebooks.jpg" width="300" height="225" />class="wp-caption-text">Promote your blog with eBooks.

Using Wikipedia to Increase Brand Recognition and Legitimize Your Business

alt="Using Wikipedia to Increase Brand Recognition and Legitimize Your Business" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/wikipedia-500x267_c.jpg" />

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’re probably looking for new ways to get the word out about your business and build a name for yourself in the industry. You want to stand out from the crowd, be seen as an expert in your field, and reach new customers even when you’re sleeping. Wikipedia is an interesting place to accomplish several of these very things.

Irina Kalonatchi, in her article href="http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/10/31/why-wikipedia-is-a-powerful-marketing-tool-for-personal-branding-and-business/" target="_blank">Why Wikipedia is a Powerful Marketing Tool for Personal Branding and Business on Jeff Bulla’s Blog, had this to say:

“Wikipedia holds some prime real estate on Google’s search results page.  It’s usually pops up in one of the top five spots, so your company page gets a automatic SEO boast on Google to enjoy.”

Why Wiki?

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href="http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/comScore_Releases_Top_50_US_Multi-Platform_Properties_for_September_2013" target="_blank">comScore listed Wikipedia as number 9 on it’s digital properties list for 2013. Wikimedia is available both for desktop and mobile sites and is often touted as the largest online encyclopedia. It boasts href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Statistics">116,835,000 visitors. The site already has over 31 million pages and grows every week. href="http://www.similarweb.com/website/wikipedia.org" target="_blank">SimilarWeb estimates that Wikipedia had 2.5 billion page views in October of 2013. Yes, you read that right. Their page views are in the billions. If the traffic alone doesn’t give you a reason to have a presence on Wikipedia, then consider these other points:

• You can do edits and make sure any info put out there about you or your business is correct and up-to-date.
• Can offer a linkback from a high profile site.
• Allows you to reach new potential customers who read about your product or service in the context of an article which gives you expert status.

However, you can’t just run over to Wikipedia and start posting things here and there. That will get you banned from the site as an editor and it will be seen as spammy by potential customers and those in the Wikipedia community. There are some very specific rules that must be followed to post on Wikipedia, but the time and effort can be worth the extra work. As Social Media Manager, Melissa S. Barker, wrote:

“Given the effort required to contribute to Wikipedia and follow the many rules and restrictions, why would anyone (especially a business) take the time to become a respected member of the Wikipedia community? The answer is simple–it is establishes you as an online authority and helps endow you with credibility in specific subject categories.”

How to Get Your Business Listed on Wikipedia

First, understand that this isn’t a quick process. You will need to go through a variety of steps. Wikipedia tends to frown on companies or individuals creating a page for themselves, so you’ll need to work with someone already active on the site or who is willing to invest the time to become an active member and then post info about your business for you where it makes sense to do so.

Before you proceed, Wikipedia offers a word of caution or two about an article on you. First, they have a very strict href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NPOV" target="_blank">Neutral Point of View policy. This means that both the good and the bad will be listed. As a contributor, you cannot simply delete a negative addition to your page because you don’t like it. This would be considered a conflict of interest by Wikipedia. Instead, you would have to prove that the statement was false, which can sometimes be hard to do. Joe Lewis at href="http://www.webpronews.com/ses-promote-your-site-with-wikipedia-2007-04" target="_blank">WebPro News cautions:

“Undertaking a Wikipedia campaign isn’t something to be taken lightly, however, given how vicious the community can be to those who abuse the system.”

While you can set up an account, add your info and see what happens, the article may get deleted or receive negative additions. Instead, it is better to get involved in the href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_portal" target="_blank">Wikipedia community. If you contribute valuable thoughts, are transparent that you are a business owner and let the other users know you are trying to remain neutral and above board, someone may just create a page for you and one that will be well received by the millions of people who visit the site every day.

Better Way to Take Advantage of Wikipedia Traffic

id="attachment_7470" style="width: 760px" class="wp-caption aligncenter">class="size-full wp-image-7470" alt="Photo Credit: Will Lion" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/article-quality.jpg" width="750" height="400" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/article-quality.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/article-quality-300x160.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />class="wp-caption-text">Photo Credit: href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22498907@N02/3278091563/">Will Lion

Creating and Using Simple Infographics to Increase Your Site Traffic

alt="Creating and Using Simple Infographics to Increase Your Site Traffic" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/graph-infographic-500x260_c.jpg" />

If the Internet is one thing, it is visual. People love quick, easily accessible information and infographics provide just that type of data visualization. Even complex data is easier to understand when combines with a pie chart, graph or photograph. According to an, you guessed it, href="http://www.topmarketingschools.net/state-of-infographics/" target="_blank">infographic by Top Marketing Schools, an infographic has the potential to reach about 15 million people. Authentic.ly had this to say about infographics:

“Infographics gained popularity in the mid-2000′s with the advent of sites like Digg and Reddit, and have quickly become one of the most popular methods to display researched data.”

What Is an Infogaphic?

An infographic has both images and text, but the text is extremely condensed and the graphics provide additional information. The best infographics are easy to read and digest. Remember that newspapers and magazines allow white space in their publications to give readers’ eyes a break. Yes, it is good to provide a lot of high quality information in your infographic, but you don’t want your reader to walk away with a headache or to think how bad their eyes hurt.

Remember that a good infographic is just more than the elements of information, statistics and icons. It should also look appealing. If you are uncertain, ask a friend or colleague for feedback on how it looks and if it is easy to understand. A second set of eyes is almost always a good idea. After all, you know exactly how you want your infographic to look and what you want it to say. Because of that knowledge, you might see the infographic the way you think it should be rather than how it actually is.

Keep in mind these good design elements:

• Stay away from fonts that are so swirly or unusual that they are difficult to read and try to use no more than two or three fonts in a single infographic.
• Stay away from neon or harsh colors that hurt the eyes. The href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10421016-93.html" target="_blank">average person is online at least 13 hours a week and that doesn’t include time spent reading text messages, work time, watching television and reading printed material. Our eyes get a workout, so take it easy on your readers and make your colors soothing.
• Be focused. Choose a topic and stick with it. Don’t start an infographic on how many dogs are owned in the US and add in information on how many people own monkeys.

Three Types of InfoGraphics

When it comes to infographics, there are different ways you can create them. In addition to the three types listed below, you can also make an infographic in different sizes. It can be long and vertical or horizontal. You can even make a square infographic. Look at what others are sharing on their websites and social media sites. What shape and size are those infographics? Pinterest is a popular location for infographics. Do a search on infographics and see what people are sharing most often.

Timeline Data

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6581 border" alt="Timeline Infographics" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/timeline-infographics.jpg" width="750" height="436" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/timeline-infographics.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/timeline-infographics-300x174.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

In the timeline infographic, information is laid out chronologically. Some topics that are well served with this format include:

• Company history
• Event calendar
• Growth patterns (can be combined with a bar chart)

Infographic credit: href="http://www.powwownow.co.uk/blog/opinions/bell-brick-birth-4g-evolution-telephone/" target="_blank">Pow Wow Now

Graphs

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6582 border" alt="graph infographic" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/graph-infographic.jpg" width="750" height="390" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/graph-infographic.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/graph-infographic-300x156.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

Graphs are a popular way to depict statistical information. If you have a lot of technical data to break down for readers, graphs can create a visual representation that makes the info easy to digest.

Infographic credit: href="http://blog.foursquare.com/2011/01/24/2010infographic/">Four Square

Map

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6583 border" alt="map infographic" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/map-infographic.jpg" width="750" height="739" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/map-infographic.jpg 750w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/map-infographic-300x295.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />

Need to create a map that shows directions to your headquarters or perhaps of interesting locations in an area? Infographics are great as maps. You’ll also see these used for educational infographics, such as a representation of the food chain. Example, the plant grows here, the herbivore eats the plant, the carnivore eats the herbivore, etc.

Infographic credit: href="http://www.mikewirthart.com/?projects=hubspots-twitter-territory-map" target="_blank">Twitter Territory

Easily Create Without a Designer

You may be wondering if creating an infographic requires special skills. The good news is that it does not – you too can href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/featured-articles/infographics-and-charts/" target="_blank">make beautiful charts and infographics with the help of some online tools. In the past, you had to either be or hire a graphic designer to come up with an infographic and save it into a web friendly format that you could then put on your site. However, there are some easy to use, and even free, programs you can now use to get this same information to your readers and use the infographic as another tool in your SEO arsenal.

Remember that your site is served well by offering as much quality content as possible for your readers.

Piktochart

href="http://piktochart.com/" target="_blank">Piktochart is free to try. The basic package comes with 7 different themes you can test. This will allow you to see if you like the program or not. There is a Piktochart watermark with the freebies. If you want more themes or plan to create more infographics, then they have two different levels of membership.

• Monthly Pro: Has 100 different themes and 1000s of graphics to choose from. You can export your files into HTML (easy to upload with FTP) or save as an image. No Piktochart watermark logo. This package is per month.
• Annual Pro: This package is the same as Monthly Pro, but you save 50% by paying upfront for the year. This package is 9 per year.

They offer a 60-day money-back guarantee if you don’t like the software.

Infogr.am

href="http://infogr.am/beta/#_=_" target="_blank">Infogr.am allows you to create professional-looking informational graphics for your business.  Take note of the most interesting ones and figure out how you can repeat with your own information. Infogr.am is so simple to use. Click on the round “Create” button. Choose a layout for your infographic, style preference from a large number of templates and a layout. Upload any images or info you have. With the free version, you can “share” your infographic. If you want to download it for use elsewhere, such as your website, then you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version. The normal price is /month for the Pro version. You will also gain additional design themes.

Google Charts

Google has a lot of powerful tools for web designers. Did you know that you can use href="https://developers.google.com/chart/" target="_blank">Google Charts and create data to share on your website with users? Another advantage? You can use the community forum to ask questions and even share graphics you have created. Others may offer feedback if you’re a little uncertain. One of the big advantages of this site is that you can browse infographics that others have created and learn from their design elements.

Visual Learning

According to the href="http://www.ssrn.com/" target="_blank">Social Science Research Network, about 65% of humans are visual learners. With statistics like that, you can see why infographics are growing in popularity. By adding infographics to your site, you will catch the eye of readers seeking out that topic. People love infographics as an easy way to gather information for reports or information while on the fly.

Page 18 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Using Micro-Books to Build Brand Recognition

alt="Using Micro-Books to Build Brand Recognition" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/kindle-500x374_c.jpg" />

According to January 2014 href="http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2014/E-Reading-Update.aspx" target="_blank">Pew Internet report, the number of people reading ebooks is steadily growing. It is up to 28% from 23% last year. The report states:

“The January 2014 survey, conducted just after the 2013 holiday gift-giving season, produced evidence that e-book reading devices are spreading through the population. Some 42% of adults now own tablet computers, up from 34% in September. And the number of adults who own an e-book reading device like a Kindle or Nook reader jumped from 24% in September to 32% after the holidays.”

Just over half of all Americans own some type of mobile device, such as a tablet, iPad or an ereader like a Kindle. In addition to those numbers, one out of every five people in the world own a smart phone. What do these numbers mean for your business? You can reach those who own ereaders as well as those who are using smart phones in a unique and fun way through micro-books.

What Is a Microbook?

A microbook is a longer book that is broken into short, quick chapters and sent out in micro-installments that keep your business in front of the customer.

The idea behind microbooks is a fast read. Keep in mind that you are trying to reach readers who are carrying mobile devices (Nook, iPad, iPhone). They may need a quick read as they commute on the train to and from work, while waiting for an interview, in a doctor’s office or one of the may other times each day people find themselves with down time and pull out the trusted mobile device to stay entertained.

What Should Your Book Be About?

Although traditionally, micro-books have been novels, you could certainly offer nonfiction in the same format. Better yet, think about your business model and how you might create a character that speaks to your customers. For example, if you own an auto body shop, you could create a novel about a customer who gets into auto mishaps on a regular basis or write a soap opera style series that is centered around the characters who work in an auto body shop.

The only limit is your imagination.

Also, keep in mind that installments should be very short, so you can utilize social media like Twitter or Facebook.

“A microblogging novel, also known as a micro novel, is a fictional work or novel written and distributed in small parts, defined by the system it is published within. A ‘Twitter novel’ would be published in chapters of 140 characters or less, and a ‘Facebook novel’ might be limited by Facebook’s ‘read more’ limitations of 300 characters.” – href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging_novel" target="_blank">Wikipedia

src="//www.youtube.com/embed/rIGTcth-kZ4" height="422" width="750" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0">

Shorter excerpts also lend themselves to SMS messages. The trend of cell phone novels started in Japan in 2003 and has grown so popular in Asia that many novels are turned into this format. In fact, one of my own novels was purchased by a Japanese publisher, translated and sent out this way. It was successful enough that they turned Finding Ms. Right into a manga comic in October of 2013.

According to the href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/09/world/la-fg-japan-phone-novel9-2010feb09" target="_blank">LA Times, “One teenager who wrote a three-volume novel on her phone has gone on to sell more than 110,000 paperback copies, grossing more than 1,000 in sales.”

What businesses can learn from this model is that digital novels presented in new and trendy ways are on the rise. In addition, you can send out your book in multiple formats. If you keep it to 140 characters or less you could:

• href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-business-ideas/how-to-use-micro-blogging-to-gain-new-visitors/" target="_blank">Microblog (on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Include a post on your own blog along with an image or interesting video
• Send out the segment via SMS

How Should You Deliver It to Readers?

Micro-installments are the key to microbooks, as mentioned above. In the article href="www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/wordpress-blog/bringing-tweets-into-your-wordpress-site/" target="_blank">Bringing Tweets Into Your WordPress Site, Jerry Low discusses how to automate WordPress and include what you’ve posted on Twitter in your blog’s sidebar. This is a great way to keep readers updated on the next segment of your microbook without using precious time and resources posting on more than one platform. In addition, you can use href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/blogging-tips/how-to-save-time-in-blog-marketing-with-ifttt/" target="_blank">IFTTT to set up additional automated posts. For example, if you post an excerpt from your book on Twitter, you can set up IFTTT so that it automatically goes to your blog, to Facebook and to an SMS list.

Another option, if teeny tiny installments aren’t quite your thing is to create small books of 1,000-2,000 words and upload them to SmashWords and Amazon Self-Publishing for Kindle. Smashwords is a fantastic way to offer free installments to readers, because they convert the book into formats for the different e-readers.

• Nook
• Mobi (Kindle)
• Sony Reader
• Palm Doc
• RTF
• PDF
• ePub (for iPhone, etc.)
• Read online via Smashwords (HTML)

Getting the Most Mileage Out of the Book

The great thing about using microbooks for promotion is that you can create one pretty inexpensively or hire someone to ghost write it for you. If you have very specific knowledge, you might find it easier to write the book yourself and hire someone to edit it for you.

Bonnie Daneker was interviewed by Valerie Peterson over at href="http://publishing.about.com/od/SelfPublishingAndVanityPresses/a/Market-Your-Company.htm" target="_blank">About.com’s Book Publishing section and described the advantages of using a book to market your business like this:

“When a nonfiction business book or biography is used to help market a business, it’s a marketing tool, a big business card, introducing your company’s offerings, starting conversations and providing a path to “get your foot in the door.” With international and electronic distribution from companies such as href="http://publishing.about.com/od/BooksellersAndBookselling/p/Amazon-Com-Online-Retailer-On-The-Forefront-Of-Bookselling-And-Publishing.htm">amazon.com, your book is a plane ticket, taking you and your business to places you haven’t been before – new geographies, new industries, and new customers.”

Some things you’ll want to do to get the buzz going and keep it going:

• Guest blog on other sites and talk about your free microbook and how people can subscribe.
• Include multiple ways for people to subscribe.
• Be sure to include a link to your website and a description of what you have to offer the reader in every excerpt. If you are doing very short posts, you may need to use a URL shortening service to achieve this, such as goo.gl or bitly.com.
• Ask for retweets and shares. A simple “please RT” can signal to readers to share the excerpt in their own Twitter feed.

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style="margin-bottom: 5px; text-align: center;"> title="The Cell Phone Novel Seminar Presentation" href="https://www.slideshare.net/brittneysloan/the-cell-phone-novel-seminar-presentation" target="_blank">The Cell Phone Novel Seminar Presentation from href="http://www.slideshare.net/brittneysloan" target="_blank">brittneysloan