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Welcome to podcast #71! We are peeling back the curtains to reveal the biggest mistakes on websites made by small businesses. Unfortunately, we see this quite often, but if you find that your website is guilty, here’s your chance to rectify it!
What did Andrew and Heather learn this week?
It’s been all over the news – Facebook has announced they’re going to tap into the microphones on our phones in order to do research into our lives outside of Facebook! Hmm – how do you feel about that? Heather finds it creepy! They have assured that they won’t share the data but to us this seems to be a step too far in terms of eavesdropping outside of using their app. All we can say is educate yourself on privacy settings and see how far you can protect yourself.
Andrew does a TV show on Wednesday afternoons along with Swingpoint Media in Palm Springs , he recently got to play around with their drone camera! It’s controlled from an iPad and that is how you see what view it’s looking at. It also has it’s own wifi network from the drone to the iPad – fun stuff! Check out the videos below…
Mistakes on Websites – The Big One!
What is it?
Trying to learn WordPress and do the entire website for themselves!
An entrepreneur’s purpose is to spend more time working ON the business rather than in it, so no matter how easy you think WordPress might be to use, your energies are best used on activities that will grow your business.
Other mistakes:
– Thinking that you can just purchase a theme, throw it up and the look you want will fall into place!
– Not understanding what is required from Frameworks (for structure).
WordPress
Know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com acts as a host to a website but it will not be your own property, whereas WordPress.org is where you find the developers for themes and plugins.
To own your own property you need:
- A domain you have purchased.
- A hosting company for your website.
- Your theme – we recommend you buy one rather than use free or default themes! (And remember that there is a lot of work to be done to get your site to look like the demo you see!).
- If you want anything different, you need to go down the route of customization with a developer.
Themes
- Choose from a site such as Themeforest, StudioPress or WooThemes.
- You could get a custom design from a web designer, then have a coder create that for you.
Our suggestion for business owners:
- Look for a designer you love and get a custom design.
- Find a smart web developer to turn that into your own WordPress theme.
- Why? Themes bought out of the box are limiting in what you can do and you run the risk of dodgy customizations that don’t upgrade along with WordPress.
- We use a Genesis Framework as it is strong, stable and clean.
A key takeaway is that web designers and web developers have totally different skill sets. People who are setting the standards for WordPress development right now are using Genesis as their framework.
You probably really don’t want to do all of this yourself if you are a business owner! Focus your efforts on growth activities and if you can, hire people to do this for you.
Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts, please comment below…