WordPress isn’t just for blogging anymore. More and more we are getting requests to build full-on CMS installations with WordPress, complete with
complex ecommerce, donation, and reservation systems.
One problem we’ve encountered is the need to make sites secure to receive personal information and process transactions. Savvy consumers know that when they enter their credit card information they should see https and not just http. (The S stands for secure) This verifies that the site certificate owner is who they say they are as well as ensures users that the information is going directly to the server they want it to go to and not to a third-party who may be selling/stealing/harvesting their personal information.
Installing a site certificate (SSL) is pretty straight-forward. In fact, most hosts will do it for you for a fee. (A shortcut we usually take advantage of to save time.)
But getting the SSL to work correctly can be time consuming since WordPress makes it so easy to add plugins and Javascripts which may cause the site certificate to have errors.
2 Main Options
Secure the whole site. It’s pretty easy to activate that. Just go to your General Settings and add https under the site name where http currently is. This will make your entire site default to https. The problem is quickly going to become that you’ll see errors on the SSL because not everything on your site is secure. (Yet) To remove the errors you’ll need to work through each error and resolve it. This can be time consuming and annoying. (To say the least.) I’d recommend this option only if you’re starting from scratch. Converting a site with thousands of hard-coded http links will drive you insane. The quickest way to fix that would be to do it via MySql. (Expert level)
Secure only the pages you need to have secure. I prefer this option. Install the plugin WordPress HTTPS, activate it, and chose the posts/pages you want to secure individually. Typically, I only secure pages where customers will transmit personal information. (Checkout pages, reservation pages, contact pages, etc.) You will still need to troubleshoot errors, but the process of eliminating these errors should be shorter because you can isolate that page.
Tips for fixing the errors
You’re probably going to need to swap out some plugins. Every time I’ve done this the problem is social media plugins which link to insecure pages. (cough, Facebook is tracking your every click, cough cough.)
Open the page with errors in Google Chrome. Go to view>developer>developers tools>console. This will list the errors the SSL is having on that page. Troubleshoot those errors.
You’ll need to wait a few hours before the red SSL warnings turn green. But if Google Chrome says you’re clean then you are good to go.
Need help? Leave a question in the Help Center. (free) We’re also happy to do this for you. (not free) Contact usand we’ll set up an estimate.
We were confident this was a product the audience would respond strongly to if we could frame the message. In working with the event organizers we agreed that we would give each person a sample product, play a short video testimonial, and the MC would make a pitch to get them involved. Key to this strategy was getting the audience to instantly convert. Rather than tell them to go home and check it out we knew that our maximum response rate would occur if participants could join the campaign during the pitch. This made text messaging the obvious choice. 100% of the audience would have a cell phone. And we could easily ask them to text to join the campaign in all of the collateral materials.
Collateral
In the lead-up to the pitch our team developed branding, a stand-alone website, produced a video to be played, arranged for participants to be given a free copy of the book, created a rave card which was placed in the book, and worked with the event MC’s to shape the pitch.
Integrating Tatango
Key to making this seamless was activating Tatango’s new auto-responders. So when participants texted in our short code they were immediate sent a response to finish their registration at the URL provided.Early in the process we connected with Tatango to brainstorm ideas to maximize the audience response. We secured our short code and had it printed on the rave cards, added a call to action to the end of the video, and made sure the MC knew that was the call to action for the verbal pitch.
Results
The results shocked us. In the lead-up to the pitch a few people did the text-to-join option as they saw the rave card around the event. Prior to the pitch beginning 17 people had joined. During the 1 minute video that number spiked to over 100 as people connected the rave card to the video they were watching. But when the MC gave verbal instructions to take out their cell phone and text CBEMINI to 68398 the numbers went from about 100 to over 500 within 90 seconds. Within 5 minutes that number settled on 534. (14% of those in attendance)
14% conversion rate
We don’t see many campaigns quite as fast or as effective as this. While there was a lot of lead-up work the action of getting people from passive listeners of the message to actively engaged with the movement of CBEmini was instantaneous. We were able to shape a message that the audience connected with and give them a simple, fast, and intuitive way to join.
A lot of people ask me why I like using Tatango for my SMS marketing. I just point to their continued innovation. Text-to-join with an auto-responder is effective for converting event participants to campaign conversion, pure and simple.
Note: While we are friendly with the Tatango team and have been a fan of theirs for a few years, they’ve not paid for this post, nor discounted their services in exchange for this case study. Yes, if you click on the links to their site and join we may make a few bucks.
I always have my finger on the pulse of all sorts of nerdy ventures. Some of it is what I do for a living at McLane Creative and some of it is just my nerdy natural curiosity for all things web.
As I’m out and about looking for things and discovering stuff I can either use for one of my projects or not, there are bound to be leftovers.
The question I have always had is, “What do I do with those leftovers?” I mean– they literally just sit in my Springpad account getting dusty.
This isn’t a normal newsletter. It’s literally just a bunch of screenshots with links to things I thought I would use but never used and wanted to share. Some of it is fun, some of it is interesting, and some is so techy that you might just scratch your head because you don’t have a clue what it’s all about.
But, if you are like me and sometimes in need of some inspiration… than maybe this newsletter is for you?
This morning we launched a brand new site for Urban Youth Workers Institute. They are a Los Angeles based non-profit committed to resourcing and encouraging those who invest in the lives of urban youth.
Our relationship with UYWI began with a consult as I looked deep into their analytics and helped them create a conversion funnel for a couple web initiatives. In truth, their biggest problem in their web strategy was that their site wasn’t working properly. It took 5-8 seconds to load a page fully. Their site wasn’t consistently reporting sitemap data to Google, on and on.
Long story short, we salvaged the WordPress installation and were able to rebuild the site from the ground up. Today it’s a lot faster, more stable, completely compliant with normal WordPress practices.
Here’s a quick list of what we did.
Used the Thesis framework to build an easily upgradable theme.
Widened the page significantly to get more important content above the fold of every page.
Corrected an installation issue with many .htaccess redirects, which slowed page load.
Eliminated many plugins used to make the theme functional, but caused PHP errors.
Simplified the template structure using child theming, decreasing page load and scripting errors.
Simplified the CSS to create a more consistent look/feel.
Eliminated single instance javascripts from loading on every page, causing general slowness.
Gravity Forms for handling all of the contact forms, applications, and even a new job board coming soon.
Premium slider for a lightweight display of mission critical graphics.
“I want to start a blog but I can’t manage to get going. All I ever do is start.“
This is the most common I hear from novice bloggers. They are good writers. They have good things to say. But they just can’t get over the hump and turn blogging from something they like doing to a habit.
I’ve been a daily blogger since 2004. It’s not that it’s easier for me to keep going. It’s that I have the benefit of momentum and habits. I write every day because it doesn’t feel like a normal day if I don’t. And I’ve established an audience that expects a post every day.
That’s not an impossible goal. Here are some very doable and practical tips for forming a blog habit.
Write every day. Set aside an hour per day and write. Notice that I didn’t say “publish every day.” You don’t have to publish every day to form a habit. But you do have to write every day. Maybe you write 7 days per week but only publish 4-5 times? That’s totally fine. Just write a little something every single day. Do it for a month and it’ll become a habit just like anything else.
Write what you love. I think a lot of people worry too much about the form of their blogs and forget that what comes through most clearly is that you love your content. If you are writing about something you love, no matter how obscure that might seem, readers will find it easier to engage and you won’t stare at an empty screen for long. It’s easy to write about what you love.
Write on a timer. “I don’t have the time for a blog habit.” Yeah you do. Just time it out. Either get a literal egg timer or download an app and time yourself. When the timer goes off you’re done. Press save and move on. Just like in school, when you have a deadline you work faster and fall into just getting it done and out of the way. Everything you write won’t be brilliant. Get over yourself and form the habit.
Get a blog buddy. Just like you won’t go jogging without a running partner, you’ll need a blog buddy to keep you accountable. Agree to read one another’s posts, leave a comment, and give advice regularly. Don’t know who to pick? Ask someone whose blog you already like reading. It’s not that hard!
Measure one small thing. When you are just getting started it’s easy to read everything about blogging and start to measure 100 different things. I think that’s dumb. Instead focus on one measurable and write to that. Look at your RSS subscribers. Look at your comments per post. Look at unique visitors. But don’t look at them all. Just pick one and go with that.
Fellow bloggers: What advice would you give to those trying to start the blog habit?
I mentioned a few weeks ago that many entrepreneurs have huge dreams of growing their company and then selling it off to the highest bidder. While that might be a great dream and might come with a great payday, it is also heart wrenching.
I’m glad that the owners of Dropbox didn’t sell out to Apple. They don’t believe that their company is merely a feature for a device, they think it’s a product people will value. So instead of selling their dream to their heroes and seeing it bent and changed to fit a corporations need, they continued on with their dream of building a great company.
It’s ironic if you think about it. You pour your life into a new idea and it takes off… and you want to sell it.
Photo by TheImageGroup via Flickr (Creative Commons)
In the world of WordPress companies there are primarily two types:
Designers
Developers
McLane Creative fits a third category. We look at Design & Development and go, “Well yeah, duh.” Of course you need to build a blog that is technically good and of course you want it to look right for you.
What seperates McLane Creative from the pack, and why we do so well off of viral growth, is that we help you understand how to use the tools we are building & designing. We take the time to coach you on your content and how to develop your unique brand. It’s one thing to give you a better tool to use. It’s another thing altogether if you know what to do with it.
The other day I was getting interviewed about McLane Creative and the young woman said, “You you are a WordPress designer. Cool.” I stopped her. That is true but it doesn’t truly capture the essence of McLane Creative. I corrected her, “We teach people how to use WordPress to build a tribe around their ideas.”
See– whatever your idea is– whether you are a mom blogger or a realtor, your WordPress site is only as useful to you as your strategy allows. A product is merely a monetized idea. And without a tribe rallying around that idea you are just another one of the billions of pointless websites out there.
Do you need a coach?
Do you enjoy writing but you feel stuck?
Do you get visitors but not tribe members?
Do you wonder if your site is doing the right things?
Do you need help measuring the right things?
Do you just need someone to follow-up with you and hound you because you haven’t posted lately?
That’s the type of coaching we do. We don’t just build pretty things. And we don’t just build things that work well. We help you do your thing better.
“Are you on the design side or the developer side?”
Um, neither and both?
That’s one of the questions that WordPress geeks ask one another when they get together. It’s an obvious question because most people tend to focus on one or the other. Do you geek out in PHPland all day making Plugins or coding your own templates? Or do you geek out in Photoshop and hang out on user experience sites playing with the latest jquery add-ons?
McLane Creative is a full-service company. We do both development and design because we are a group of designers and developers. But we do a lot more than that.
We get content. We will help you not just have a pretty site, we will help you build a following for your content and fans for your products.
We get marketing. With years of experience in running ecommerce sites, managing email marketing campaigns, producing knockout print marketing (and everything else) we can build your WordPress site AND help you grow your business.
We get small business. Whether you’re a local restaurant or a national speaker, we get it and have worked with both.
We get bloggers. I’m surprised at how many people in WordPress design/development aren’t actually bloggers. Our team is built with people who blog… every day.
After two weeks of drama, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, Michael Arrington, is now officially out at the popular tech blog, and he’s no longer an AOL employee.
—
After word leaked that Arrington was out at TechCrunch, Arrington issued an ultimatum to AOL stating that he would leave if the company didn’t sell the blog back to him or let him keep his job as co-editor.
With Arrington out, questions now remain over how that will or won’t affect TechCrunch’s roster of reporters, some of whom have stated they’d leave if Arrington leaves.
The other day, during the talk back time at WordCampLA, someone asked me about why I named McLane Creative after myself instead of something else.
It was a good and fair question.
My response, “In 2008 I sold my first company to a large conglomerate. I thought that was my dream. I got a nice pay day but it also broke my heart. So when I started McLane Creative I figured that if I named it after myself I couldn’t sell it.”
As an entrepreneur, I know that the dream for many of my fellow entrepreneurs is to start small and grow your business for the big pay day. It’s a noble goal that will drive you in the wee hours of the morning to work that extra hour.
My only warning to those people is that the dream isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. It’s hard to grow something from infancy, love it, poor your soul into it… then go through a process of selling it where you are commoditized and sold to investors. And there’s nothing like going back to an employee when you’ve been the CEO.
For Michael Arrington that transition wasn’t possible. And he learned the hard way… “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em. Know when to fold ‘em. Know when to walk away. And know when to run.”
Godspeed Micael. I’m sure you’ll disrupt wherever you go.
WordPress isn’t just for blogging anymore. More and more we are getting requests to build full-on CMS installations with WordPress, complete with
