Since I posted that article I’ve had more than a few people ask me what other ways I know that can help speed up a WordPress blog. To be honest, most of what I know is from what I’ve found online.

Something to note before we begin, though, is that if you’re going to toy around with your blog’s performance and theme’s code, be sure to back everything up first. Do NOT skip this step!

Also, always make sure your website is working properly immediately after attempting any of these hacks.

Speed Tip #1: Enable Caching Through .htaccess

If your web host supports mod_deflate, try adding this code to your root .htaccess file to compress javascript and css before it is sent to your visitor’s browser.

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
<FilesMatch "\.(js|css)$">
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE
</FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

Source: AskApache

Speed Tip #2: Combine and Minify Javascript and CSS

One way to speed things up is to rearrange Javascript and CSS files so that everything loads quicker. In practice, if you combine all your Javascript files into one file and load it at the end of your website (i.e. in the footer), your site will load quicker because there are fewer stops and waits for multiple Javascript files to be accessed.

Similarly, the same holds true for CSS files except you’d rather have those load at the top of your website, not the bottom.

WordPress makes this very difficult because of the use of plugins. Many plugins come with their own CSS and Javascript files and unless you’re into coding big time, it’ll be extremely difficult to combine all your plugin’s CSS and Javascript files.

There is hope, however, thanks to (ironically) minify plugins.

Two minify plugins I have experimented with are the WP Minify and Head Cleaner plugins.

These plugins attempt to speed up your blog’s load time by combining Javascript and CSS files respectively and loading them in their appropriate places for increased speed. Of the two plugins, the WP Minify plugin worked best for me as seen by these screen shots below using the Firebug/Y-Slow add-ons for Firefox.

Before WP Minify my blog had a B rating because it made too many http requests (which slow things down):

After installing the WP Minify plugin my blog now has an A rating:

One thing to note about the WP Minify plugin: if your blog is located in the /blog or some directory other than your website’s root, make sure to define its location in the plugin’s settings.

There are lots more little tips and tricks you can do to increase the speed at which your blog loads, some things work, others don’t or have very little performance changes. It’s always best if you can find articles which back up claims with statistics.

By the way, if you’re still looking to get your own WordPress blog or you’re in the market for a domain name, SSL certificate, etc., don’t forget we provide all these hosting/domains services here at WP Blog Host.

SSL certificates are a great way to log into your WordPress admin area and do whatever it is you want to do under the protection of everything being encrypted. We’ll talk more about that and how to set it up in a future post.

Related posts:

1. WordPress Defender: 30 Ways to Secure Your Blog from Attack Anyone Can Do
2. 2 Easy Ways To Set Up A WordPress Firewall
3. How To Install Google Analytics On A WordPress Blog Without Using A Plugin

Here’s an incredibly easy trick you can do to reducing that “but wait”-time for your blog to load. In most cases, it’s as easy as copy & paste.

Now who doesn’t like the copy, paste, and done tutorials?

Let’s first show you what to do and then for those who are interested, we’ll talk about what we did (in easy terms).

Copy This and Put It Here

Copy

<?php if (substr_count($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'], ‘gzip‘)) ob_start(“ob_gzhandler”); else ob_start(); ?>

Paste A (for WordPress users)

For WordPress users, paste the code up at the very top of your header.php file (above the DOCTYPE line). If you’re not sure how to do this, see the video at the end of this tutorial.

Paste B (for static .html pages)

If your website is coded in html and not php, then what you’ll need to do is copy the code above and paste it up at the very top of each web page you want to compress (above the DOCTYPE).

The one change you’ll need to do here is change the extension of your web pages from .html to .php.

So for example, change: index.html to index.php

What Did We Do?

Without going into a bunch of techno talk, we basically instructed, through PHP, that the Web server compress files for transit to your visitors’ Web browser by use of gzip.

I’m sure you’ve seen zip files before (myfile.zip). Zip is a compression utility that takes a bunch of data and files and compresses them into one smaller size file.

By using gzip, we compressed your blog’s data into a smaller file size before sending it over to your visitor’s Web browser. As a result, your blog loads faster for your visitor.

Simple. Easy. Works.

How To Test It

Of course you’ll want proof that your site is loading quicker. You should notice a difference in load time just by clicking around your blog before and after the line is pasted in. But if you want to see actual data, head over to http://www.port80software.com and type your blog’s address in the Compression Check box.

Here’s the results for my blog. I circled the parts that showed my after compression data.

As you can see, my blog loads more than 4 times faster with the gzip compression enabled.

Also, the file size transmitted over the Internet and to my visitor’s browser was reduced from 60,241 bytes to just 12,963 bytes. That’s a 47,278 difference in file size!

WordPress How-To Video

For those who like videos, here’s how to copy and paste this command into your WordPress header.php file.

Share It

This little tip has helped many people decrease how long it takes their sites to load. If you have a moment, please consider sharing it through your social networks like Stumble Upon, Twitter, etc. While you’re at it, feel free to follow me on Twitter.

Related posts:

1. Hammering Down 2 More Ways To Speed Up Your WordPress Blog
2. How To Install Google Analytics On A WordPress Blog Without Using A Plugin
3. WordPress Management: Cleaning Up Your Root Folder

That is after all why many of us start a blog, isn’t it? To make money or drive traffic to our business website?

Today I want to talk about professionalism and production quality when it comes to designing your blog. Its already been said online and by various gurus that your site visitors will ask themselves these questions immediately when they land on your site, especially if you’re trying to sell something:

• What’s Here?
• Why Here?
• Why You?
• Why Now?
• Why This?
• So What?

If you’re a blogger, I’m sure you’ve also heard that content is king. There are tons of blogs out there dedicated solely to this topic alone. They show you how to create creative and compelling content which ultimately gets your visitor to stick around or purchase something (i.e. convert).

But if you only have 5 seconds or so to convince a new visitor to stay on your site and have a look around, obviously your content won’t play a big role here. Instead, the visitor will scan your site in an instant and come to a conclusion: “Should I stay or should I go?”

Hey . . . isn’t that a song?

Let’s take a look at some things you can do so that you can communicate in 5 seconds what you’re all about and hopefully convince your site visitor to stick around and take notice. Remember this: Attention is like trust, you have to earn it.

Things you can do to capture attention and convey a message quickly

The first thing a new site visitor will notice is, well, your site. How does it look? What colors are being used? Am I being yelled at (bright colors, lots of capital letters, etc.)? Does it look like “my kind of site?” What’s that tagline say?

You’ll notice one of the questions I highlighted above is, “Is this my kind of site?” What I’m referring to here is in reference to your target customers. For example, if your target customers are computer/Internet techs, your site might be better designed to look high tech and possibly a little corporate; however, if your target customer base are low key and non-techie, then a more relaxed and calming site design might be more suitable.

Colors

For corporate colors, go with colors like:

• dark blue
• gray
• black and white
• dark red, etc.

For a more relaxed setting, try shades of:

• green
• soft yellows and oranges
• earth tones (brown, cream, etc.)

Image Quality & Message

Visitors will also notice immediately the quality of your images. Is that tagline in your header blurry? Make sure if you have text in an image, it comes out clearly and in a font that’s not hard to read.

Also, if you’re running banner ads in your sidebar, it would be nice if they had something to do with your niche. Site visitors who are not bloggers might not quickly realize those are advertisements. Instead, those banners convey a quick message to them. If you sell tax auditing services and in your sidebar there are 3 banner ads showcasing images and sites not related to your niche, that subconsciously tells your visitor a message, and it’s probably not related to finding tax services on your site.

Don’t confuse your site visitor with mix matches of messages in your images, because as I always say, a confused mind always says, no.

Font style and link color

For a while I was a big advocate for changing your link color to something that “pops”. I’m sure you have visited a ton of websites in the past, what color did 90% of those sites use for their link color? Blue, right. I experimented with different link colors and for a while favored red because it really popped out and was not what everyone did.

However, I must admit that time and experience has changed my mind on this. After reviewing my statistics, I found that the different link color really didn’t matter much. In fact, traditionally red has always been associated with danger or “Red Alert”. Therefore, my pick for link color is to simply stick with blue.

For font style, you can never go wrong with Arial, however other styles which seem to be easy on the eyes are Verdana and Tahoma.

As for font size, 12 is pretty standard. I’d say start there and see how it looks and if it makes sense to go a little bigger, try it. Whatever you do, don’t make your visitors have to squint to see your text. Black text over a white background is always preferable. If you experiment with anything other than that, be sure to get feedback from your regular site visitors, their input will help you iron out all the small details. Remember, not everyone uses the same screen size and monitor as you.

Convey quick messages with bullet points

Nothing works as quick and easy as bullet points. Knowing that 98% of new visitors to your site are going to first quickly scan your blog, you can use that information to your advantage. While scanning, they want the bullet points of what your site is all about, so give them bullet points.

Bullet points work really well in header images.

For example, our company which provides Blog Hosting could add 3 quick bullet points in our header image which quickly tells visitors what they need to know:

• Starting a blog made easy
• Get tons of help
• Learn the basics of blogging

For my tagline, also included in the header, I could use something like: “You blog. We’re here to help. It’s THAT simple.” Speaking of taglines, they traditionally go below your logo.

So in my header image now, I’d have the name of my company, a quick tagline, and 3 bullet points highlighting what my blog or website is all about.

Oh wait! Did we just quickly answer the What’s Here?, Why You?, and Why This? questions I highlighted at the beginning of this article?

In our example header image, we quickly sent our site visitor a message which told them:

• You can start a blog here.
• Starting a blog will be easy.
• With our company you will get tons of help.

A final tip: Start at the end and work backwards

Often times thinking in reverse works very well in most things relating to business. The same holds true for designing your blog. Start with then end in mind (i.e. what you want your visitors to do) and then build a site around THAT notion.

Everything else you add to your blog which doesn’t lead the visitor to do what it is you want them to do is just distraction and noise (and less money in your pocket).

Summary (for those of you that skimmed)

It’s ok, I do my fair share of skimming, too

• Look at your logo, tagline, font, colors, and quality of images. People look from the upper left down to lower right of your blog when scanning. Typically logo goes above the tagline.
• Focus your tagline for your audience. If they are newbies, make it sound friendly.
• Use quick bullet points to convey a message quickly. 3 to 4 are good, no more than 6. They would be well placed in your header image, if possible.
• Be careful sending mixed messages with images on your site. Your banner ads could tell a person scanning your blog a message which has no relation to what you’re all about.
• General site colors: Blue and gray (techie) are good for corporate looking websites, so is red and black and white and black. For a more laid back and non corporate look, try earth tones – browns, soft yellows, greens, soft oranges, etc.
• For link color, blue probably works best. Red means danger, error message, etc.
• When first designing your blog, think in reverse. What is the end result you want from a visitor? Design your site around that notion, everything else is just noise.

Food For Thought

What is the purpose of your blog?

If you’ve been blogging for awhile, has your blog become cluttered with a bunch of items in your sidebar which you really don’t need and does nothing for the purpose of your blog?

I know mine has, and I’m doing something about it as we speak.

Related posts:

1. Intro To Creating A Supermodel Blog Design Series
2. Landing Page Optimization: Lesson Learned by Watching Jesse James is a Dead Man
3. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website

Have you ever wondered why some people make more money from their blog than others do?

You might even ask yourself, “What the heck? It’s impossible to put more hours into blogging than I do; I sit at my computer all day. What is it she’s doing that I’m not?”

The first thing you need to understand is the fact that blogs suck at making money. Blogs don’t make money, people and their creative minds do. In other words, it’s what you do with your blog that makes the money.

People will tell you content is king, and if that’s true, then blog design is the engineer that builds the glorious kingdom. Without a kingdom, what would come of a king?

So how do we create a blog design in a way that gets people to click where you want them to click and their eyes to look where you want their eyes to look? That’s question that cannot be answered in just one blog article. People have written entire books on the subject.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll discuss some major points I think are mission critical to building a better blog design which will answer the question above. For now, let’s take a quick look at how I compare building a better blog design with how designers build a supermodel.

A Supermodel Analogy

Let’s compare building a blog with building a supermodel (and yes, they build them). Please excuse my very poor excuse for a flowchart.

As you can see, there is a certain process to building both a supermodel and building a better blog design. Let’s take a look at my top 6 better blog design bullet points you can use to build a supermodel blog.

Topics will include (but are not limited to):

1. Professionalism and production quality
2. Page layout and the use of screen real estate
3. Navigational architecture
4. Trust and credibility
5. The main content area
6. Calls to action

One thing you should come to understand, however, is the fact that we are all too close to our own work. Because we understand our products and offers so well, sometimes it is difficult for us to design our blogs and websites in such a way our target customers will react positively to. So the first thing we should try doing is taking a good look at ourselves and realize what we’re assuming about our site visitors is probably wrong.

Once you understand that fact, then you can go about designing an effective blog design which your site visitors will react in ways you want them to.

The questions then are: Have you taken a good look at your blog or website lately through the eyes of your target audience? Do you understand that what you’re assuming about them is probably wrong? What is it you want them to do? Have you made it easy for them to quickly find what they’re looking for?

For WP Blog Host, we’ve been testing design changes and you’ll probably be seeing a new design here soon. Our target customers for web hosting are bloggers; so shouldn’t our site reflect blogging?

I think so, and I’ve convinced others.

Related posts:

1. Creating A Blog Supermodel: Professionalism & Production Quality
2. Landing Page Optimization: Lesson Learned by Watching Jesse James is a Dead Man
3. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website

A couple years ago when my blog was new, I watched an episode of Kitchen Nightmares (Chef Gordon Ramsay) which inspired me to write a post entitled, A Lesson Learned by Watching Kitchen Nightmares. While watching the show I observed how all though Chef Ramsay is a Chef, he’s also an entrepreneur, and that particular episode inspired an entrepreneurial post out of me.

Two years later and I’ve done it again.

Landing page optimization has been on my mind a lot lately because I know parts of our site are in need of some tlc.

Back to the topic of this article, this time I was watching an episode of Jesse James is a Dead Man and what he did to train for the Baja 500 (an off road race). I immediately made a connection in my head with his training exercise and what you don’t want your blog visitors to do when they come to your site.

To train for the Baja 500, Jesse drove a truck through minefield with a computer attached to his head which monitored and tracked his eye movements during the drive.

What? You haven’t done this before?

After his first run through, the computer showed that Jesse’s eye movements were somewhat erratic and his eyes jumped from one area of the minefield to another. This told Jesse that he wasn’t sure where exactly he wanted to go.

After reviewing the footage, Jesse tried the obstacle course again but this time he made sure to focus his eyes on where he wanted to go.

As a result of being more focused on his destination and where he wanted to go (i.e. less erratic eye movements), Jesse ran the obstacle course far better than his first attempt.

You can watch the full episode right here. If you want to see the part I was talking about, skip ahead to about 8:30 in the video.

How this relates to landing page optimization

In case you haven’t made the connection already, the way this all fits in together with optimizing a blog’s landing or sales page is focus and direction.

What you don’t want is your site visitor’s eyes jumping all over the place. You want to guide them and tell them where to look.

By default, blogs suck at converting traffic into sales. There’s just too much to look at and their eyes will jump all over. Some of those eye-jumping areas include:

• Your header image
• Blog’s title and tagline
• Horizontal menu
• Big or blinking graphics (no blinking, please)
• Lots of links in your sidebar

The Takeaway

If part of your goal in blogging is to sell products and/or services, you need to direct your visitors where to go. Remember, the first thing a visitor will do when they arrive on your site is ask themselves, “What does this person want me to do?”

If your visitor is a blogger, there’s going to be a lot of assuming going on in their heads. They’re going to assume what you want them to do is read your blog article and are probably going to skip everything on your site and go straight to your content.

If your visitor is not a blogger, they’re probably going to see something on your site that “pops”, like a nice big pretty image. Simply writing a blog article about your product and then linking to the article isn’t going to do it. You need to link to a product sales page with very little, if none, distractions.

You probably don’t even want a menu system. In this way, their eyes won’t jump all around with many things to see and wonder about. They’ll only have one place to look, where your product and description is.

In fact, make them have to click the back button to get off your page while you’re at it.

Related posts:

1. A Lesson Learned by Watching "Kitchen Nightmares"
2. Creating A Blog Supermodel: Professionalism & Production Quality
3. Intro To Creating A Supermodel Blog Design Series

Problem is, it’s so damn difficult to try and figure out when you’re just starting out because there’s SO much you can do with it. One of my first frustrations with it was the fact that I couldn’t determine which clicks and visits were my own?

Obviously, you’re more interested in who is visiting your site, where they came from, and what they did to find you. You’re not interested in how you found your own website.

So here’s a little video I put together which hopefully you’ll find useful. It will show you how to set up a filter on Google Analytics so you don’t track your own movements and visits to your own website.

If you haven’t already set up Google Analytics to run on your blog, here’s how: How To Install Google Analytics On A WordPress Blog Without Using A Plugin

How To Set Up A Google Analytics Filter

Related posts:

1. How To Install Google Analytics On A WordPress Blog Without Using A Plugin
2. Google Keyword Tool + Top 50 Google Tools Bloggers Can Use
3. Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention

The other day my wife emailed me a link to a “What’s Your Personality Type?” quiz (PersonalityType.com).

At first I wasn’t too interested but after hearing the results from her test I was intrigued and headed over to the site to take the quiz. It asked me a few questions about what type of person I am, such as do I often say whatever comes to my mind or do I hold things back? It also asked me questions about how organized I am and orderly I like my universe; I prefer orderly, however, with 2 young children running around all day . . . you get the picture

So you’re probably curious as to what personality type I am, aren’t you?

I was awarded with the INTJ personality type. “Yes thank you, I accept this award and I’d like to thank my mother, father, beautiful wife . . .”

Ok seriously though, here’s what that means and how it all ties into understanding the psychology of your website visitors.

Where This Test Came From

After doing a little research, I found that the test PersonalityType.com puts you through is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

In short, it is a test to classify a person’s personality type which might aid in helping you figure out how you might act in a given situation as well as provide people of different types as a means to understand one another.

The box below shows the comparisons you are asked and classified into. For example, are you an Extraversion or Introversion? Do you gather information via Sensory or Intuition? etc.

I don’t think the test on PersonalityType.com gives you an answer key as to what your combination classifies you as, however, here is what I’ve discovered:

How This Ties Into Web Design

After taking the test I made a connection between how I craft everything on my website for my target audience and how this tool helps me to better understand them.

As a webmaster, web designer, copywriter, entrepreneur, marketer, etc., part of being successful is getting into the heads of your target customers and understanding how they will respond to certain pieces of text, ads, banners, and so on that you create.

Inevitably, it is somewhat of a lost cause as you can never really get into the heads of your potential customers. However, with tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Keirsey Temperament Sorter, we can work off something.

As an example, let’s say you’ve discovered that your primary website visitors are ENFJs. You could then find out behavioral patterns they exhibit and tailor your offer to satisfy their needs – oh what’s that I’m saying again . . . you need to solve problems to succeed in business

So the question is, what type of people do you think your target audience is? In all honesty, unless you’ve put a lot of money into polling and personal interaction statistics, it’s probably not who you think they are.

Related posts:

1. Is Your Website Web 2.0 or Corporate?
2. Using Photos On Your Website
3. Videos To Help Craft A Better Website & Attract Attention

Craft a bad, unorganized website and your potential customers will no longer be potential.

My last post 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website showed us how people scan your website and where their eyes naturally are drawn to. Today I’d like to share some videos which can help us learn to design better websites and attract more clicks/sales.

Attractive Headlines

Excellent video on the importance of writing good headlines. Think about how important good headlines are for magazines like Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Enquirer, etc. Headlines are important for your business in press releases and getting people to click through your blog.

Headlines, by Cory from Boing Boing
Run Time: 6:03

Getting Incoming Links

This video shows a few ways how to obtain incoming links to your website. One such method is the link exchange method which as he points out can be a bit time consuming. However, it can be an effective tool to get your site ranked higher in search engines.

He also points out a useful tool that not many people know about. If you own a website and want to get an idea of what websites are out there linking to you, type link: your_website.com in the search box of Google, Yahoo!, or MSN.

Author: Michael Cheney
Run Time: 9:47

Site Makeover

This is a very important topic that some Search Engine Marketers aren’t well trained on. True you want your website to be optimized so Google or Yahoo! can rank it high in their indexes but you also don’t want to ignore the human element.

Also, just like writing captivating headlines helps persuade site visitors to click on that particular topic, so too do you need to actually tell your visitors/customers what to do (something not mentioned in this video). For example, instead of creating a link or button that says “Sign Up,” create one that gives the call to action like, “Subscribe Now!” Or maybe instead of a “$50 off special” image, your image says “Save $50 by Purchasing Now!”

The following video illustrates how you should really examine your website and see if you might be confusing people and/or telling them exactly what it is you want them to do.

Site Makeover – Generating Ecommerce Sales, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 5:24

Site Makeover 2

Very good idea on how you could look up typical keywords people use to get to your product and then add those words in a menu link on the side of your page, maybe a more information section
or something.

Boosting Sales for a Catalogue Site, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 4:49

Site Makeover 3

Some thoughts on designing your blog to help people stay connected with your blog.

Site Makeover – Getting Repeat Traffic to Your Blog, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 3:55

Site Makeover 4

Site Makeover – Getting Users to Click, by www.mindvalleylabs.com
Run Time: 3:01

Optimizing WordPress for Search Engines

Make Your WordPress Blog Search Engine Friendly, by Michael Gray
Run Time: 4:41

Related posts:

1. Using Photos On Your Website
2. Fatten Up Your Wallet by Using Online Videos
3. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website

Photos on your website are a great way to convey a message or tell an instant story to your website’s visitor.

These photos are part of your sales tools.

Of course if you have products you’re selling, you should include pictures. But I’m talking about pictures that tell a story to your visitor. The ones that spark emotional responses.

Be sure, however, the picture will convey the response you want your visitor to have. A poorly lit, slightly out of focus, or too busy photo may give your visitor a confused feeling. I have a saying which if you follow my blog, you’ll probably see quite often: a confused mind always says no.

Pictures Of Faces

One of the most powerful photographs you can use to tell a story are pictures of faces. Perhaps it’s because we can relate to people and can read their expression and reminisce about times we’ve had that face.

Close ups of facial shots are better than ones people have to pull up their glasses, lean toward the screen, and squint to see.

Getting your visitor to relate to content and images on your website is a great way to gain a little trust from your visitor. And when your customers trust you, they will buy – even if you don’t offer the best deal in town.

Pictures Of Product Use

Another powerful image you can convey to your website visitor is the use of showing a person using your product in a way that makes their lives a little easier. If you’ve done your marketing right, you’ve attracted a person who actually needs your product or service. So show them how your product makes the person in the photograph’s life a little easier.

Your site’s visitor should then relate in some way and move themselves one step closer to purchasing from you.

Things To Remember

Number of pictures

Be careful how many pictures you use on any give web page. Pictures take time to download and can slow up load time of your website. As a general rule, if your website takes longer than 8 seconds to load, many people will click away.

Also, too many pictures that aren’t product-related can cause a distraction and in turn hurt your chances for a sale. Pictures should enhance your content and not the other way around (unless your site is about art or pictures or something of that nature).

Content is king. Pictures are not.

Files Sizes

Keep your picture file sizes to around 100k or less. If you must show large pictures for some reason, then create a smaller version of the picture and make it clickable to the enlarged version for people who are interested to see.

More Tips

• Remember print photos don’t always work as well on websites as they do shown in person.
• Use programs like Fireworks and Photoshop to resize photos and optimize them for quicker load times.
• Sometimes it’s ok to tell your reader what you want them to read into your photo by adding a caption to it.
• If you place a photo on a web page that people are likely to print out, make sure the photo looks decent in a black and white print.
• Crop out distractions in photos that take away from the message you’re trying to tell.

Do you have any tips to add to this?

Finding Photos To Use On The Web

Here are a few places you can find photos to use on your website:

• Getty Images
• iStockphoto
• dreamstime
• Flickr – Be sure to choose “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content.”
• Google Images
• Yahoo Images

Skellie wrote an excellent article entitled A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images which you might also find useful.

So here’s a question for you: If you put photos on your website regularly, how and where do you find them?

Related posts:

1. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website
2. Understanding The Psychology Of Your Website Visitors
3. Is Your Website Web 2.0 or Corporate?

A friend of mine, James Chartrand of Men with Pens, asked me a few days ago, “Why is your site/hosting different from everyone else’s beyond the “we care” mentality?”

He asked this in reply to me mentioning how I wanted WP Blog Host to be different. I wanted it to play by different rules than all the other hosting companies out there.

I sat back in my leather-cushioned chair, twirled my pen in hand, and thought for a moment about his question. It was harder to answer than I thought.

As I always do to gain some insight, I thought in reverse. How are we the same as everyone else? We offer 3 hosting plans, which is typical, along with virtual and dedicated servers. We include free scripts (programs like osCommerce and WordPress), just as many companies do. Domains, FTP, SSL, tech support, etc.

Pretty typical stuff for a web host.

Then I took myself back to when I wrote our business plan. During the examining of my competition part of the plan, I remember being frustrated by pretty much all of my competition. Some of those frustrations were:

• Their websites all basically looked the same.
• Their “Marketing” links were a joke.
• I felt like their websites were one big ad with strange people staring at me.
• I found no real value in their websites. They’d sell you on hosting and tell you “Good luck, we’re here if you encounter any technical problems with your web hosting account.”

The problem was they were all corporate.

To use James’ words, “Corporate websites are boring.” It’s like they were all spit out of a processing plant that created useless and boring websites.

Yes, that’s a key part to how we are different. I tried to make WP Blog Host, not boring. But that still wasn’t my answer; part of it, yes – but something was still missing. Then it finally hit me like a snowball to the face first thing in the morning.

I pushed off from my desk making my chair roll back two feet while I viciously pointed at my computer screen and said, “There! That’s how we’re different. That’s what it is. That’s our brand!”

What was I pointing at, you ask?

It was an interview I read over at Retire @ 21. Michael interviewed probably the most knowledgeable search engine optimization guy that has ever lived, Aaron Wall.

When asked what the best advice Aaron has ever been given, his response was:

I think the best brands, the best sites have a large portion of their founders personality in them. Never be afraid to be yourself, after all there are 1/2 billion people on the www, not all of them have to agree with you. Concentrate on the ones that share your views, concentrate on making their experience the very best it can be, the rest forget them.

WP Blog Host is an extension of, me.

That’s how we’re different. In a way, that’s our brand. Our website has life. It grows; it learns, it’s fun; and it’s business. It’s not corporate. It’s Web 2.0.

From day one our target customers were bloggers (though we don’t forget the rest as Aaron mentions). We provide them with the tools they need to succeed online and then encourage them to stick around and grow with us as bloggers, entrepreneurs, and business owners.

I’m not saying no other web hosting and development companies out there have a Web 2.0 aspect to them. Many have forums and blogs, but none live and grow as WP Blog Host does. Heck, Yahoo! is probably the biggest social media web host there is.

But Yahoo! is something for everybody. And something for everybody is something for nobody.

So which is it? If you own a business, you’ll have to decide. Do you go corporate or social? Why?

Related posts:

1. Understanding The Psychology Of Your Website Visitors
2. Using Photos On Your Website
3. 20.4 Ways People Scan Your Website