Notes: 4/17/13 WordPress Content Meetup “15 Minutes of Fame”

4/17/13 WordPress Content Meetup “15 Minutes of Fame”

Quick Summary

Each presenter will be given  2 minutes to present their site (both built or are just beginning to build) and their mission statement (a 1-2 -3 sentence stating the site’s purpose. It’s the site’s identity, answering

• Purpose
• Goals
• Values (Beliefs)

It provides clarity (both for the site creator and audience) to help develop and keep the site focused.
It’s like stating goals and objectives.  A motto is sometimes helpful.)

Important questions to answer include –
WHY a web site / WHAT are you trying to accomplish?
WHO is your audience?
WHAT kind of information will you be posting?
WHEN /HOW OFTEN will you be posting?

AUDIENCE comments to touch on:

•  overall texture or aura of the website, such as the overall presentation, the use of colors/graphics, readability (not the editorial content or what’s written),
• usability (site navigation), and in general, whether there
• are other WordPress features, tools, or plugins that might enhance the users or even your experience.

The goal of reviewing sites is to be practical, helpful, and encourage good WordPress practices.

Sites reviewed:
1.  Live Love Create Repeat
http://livelovecreaterepeat.com/
– great site name
– yoga section seems to be separate
– different image on home page

2.  Texas State Independent Living Council
http://beta.txsilc.org/
– created as part of a project for non-profits/now needs changes
– user goal to find someone to help change out logo (make flatter); find out how to change menu colors from red/blue. etc. [suggest posting on https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/wordpress-austin, or  http://wpaustin.com/forums/
– put video in place of image on home page

3. Hospitality Industry Professionals – East West Hospitality Group – East West Hospitality Group
http://www.ewhospitality.com/
– already professional looking
– but images seem to be food oriented vs people/service
– concern about background color
– add call to action, e.g, get a strategic audit

4.   LibertarianChristians.com – Your #1 Christian Libertarian source on the Web
http://libertarianchristians.com/
– perhaps add more images of who’s behind the site to add legitimacy
– Facebook call to action was successful, but would like to bring forward topics
– perhaps switch out order of how these appear
– Welcome was wasted space

5.  Effective Marketing Strategies | Creating customer value
http://effectivemarketingstrategies.com/
– site looks generic and notn authentic; perhaps copy/pasted from other sites
– add logo
– home page image didn’t seem to reflect back on blog
– add linkage to business site

6.   Guy’s Business Process Consulting Site
– no web site yet / no domain/company name, etc.
– audience is small businesses; Goal:  to help them stay true to their original intent while incorporating business processes
– reviewed  a site that embodies some of these principles
Hot Dog Marketing – Marketing & Communication for Austin, TX Small Businesses
http://hotdogpr.com/

7.  Investa
http://investa.com/
– Goal – to attain new business while also helping investors understand news in the marketplace
–  Images don’t necessarily reflect back on who an investor might be (though images with females purportedly draw in readers)
– make the ‘blog’ more visible, since it’s an important part of the value-added research, e.g., above the What We Do tri-columns, add more cartoons, change the order of the tabs to also reflect this.
– a paid WP ‘professional’ who’s good can do this w/in a short time achieving results on a reasonable budget

Recommended reading:
Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works (Interactive Technologies) by
Janice (Ginny) Redish (MBrophy recommended)
Don’t Make me Think! by Steve Krug (Derek recommended)