Every business must address the question, “Where are we going to invest our limited time, attention & resources?” The online space has huge implications for most businesses so it only makes sense to understand the commitment needed to whatever path is chosen.

For most businesses WordPress is the best choice.

Here are 3 key reasons to support that statement:

WordPress is Open Source

Many business people have no idea what open source is or what the benefits can be. A simple distinction of open source is: Original software source code which is made freely available and may be redistributed with or without modification.

For example Microsoft Windows is not open source – it’s not free and you can’t modify or redistribute it. The Linux operating system on the other hand is open source – it’s free (download it here) and you can make modifications to the code and redistribute it.

While it’s true that some open source software can be extremely technical, user unfriendly & geeky in nature WordPress has gained the reputation of being extremely user-friendly while retaining all the benefits of open source software. Ok, “whatever,” you say, “how does the open source nature of WordPress help make a strong business case?”

WordPress has gained HUGE traction of the past several years in part because of the software design & development approach (among other things) the good people of Automattic (the creators of WordPress) have chosen. WordPress has a culture, following & loyalty that some might say is similar to that of Apple.

This benefits the business owner because unlike software development being done purely for profit, the WordPress community can deliver very, very specific solutions and do so in much less time.

What this means to business is there are literally tens-of-thousands of developers actively contributing to the improvement, security & functionality of WordPress. Interestingly the motivation for many of WordPress developers isn’t financial but rather a love for the software. In many cases they are improving WordPress to scratch their own itch, solve a useful problem or simply show off their programming skills.

This benefits the business owner because unlike software development being done purely for profit, the WordPress community can deliver very, very specific solutions and do so in much less time. The issue with a for-profit software development company is that improvements must be done in such a way that the development, upgrade support, etc, makes economic sense. For most software development companies of any scale, a specific function needed to satisfy just a few hundred users isn’t economically viable.
But for a WordPress developer, who needs functionality to solve a specific problem, he can develop and distribute a plugin that solves the problem at no cost – and maybe that plugin only helps a few hundred people but it does so with no economic risk to the developer.

For a real world example look no further than the ubiquitous Facebook “Like” button available all over the web. While we now take the functionality of this little button for granted, back when Facebook made the announcement of this opportunity, no one knew how it would play out. While many for-profit software development companies took a wait & see attitude, the WordPress community had a working plugin to instantly add the “Like” functionality to a website the day of the announcement – for free.

The traction, developer loyalty and its open source nature makes WordPress of great benefit to businesses in terms of staying relevant and employing specific functionality.

WordPress Delivers the Complete Package

Ease of Use, Functionality, Design
Ease of Use
Ease of Use refers to the relative difficulty to add content, make changes and updates as well as perform routine maintenance and fixes.

In my experience the most frustrating aspect of a website for a business is making updates, changes and adding content. The pain points usually fall into one or more of these categories:

• The CMS has great looking front-end features but is extremely difficult to use.
• The backend looks like it was designed by a 14 year-old command line hacker.
• A third-party is required to make changes & updates.

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Functionality
This refers to the ability for the CMS to adapt to your specific business needs. For example designers might need strong portfolio capabilities whereas a news organization might need strength in social media and rapid content creation.

Typically a company launches a new site with great fanfare built on a number of business model assumptions. As these assumptions are challenged, proven wrong or insufficient many businesses find themselves trapped with a CMS that can’t provide the functionality needed to satisfy visitors and differentiate them from their competitors.

A well designed user experience can drive greater sales, more revenue and customer engagement than just about any other aspect.

Design
The third critical component, design, is one that far too many businesses don’t prioritize highly enough. A well designed user experience can drive greater sales, more revenue and customer engagement than just about any other aspect. And yet so little attention is paid to the user experience. And while a custom design project can be time-consuming and expensive, the WordPress premium theme market can do much of the heavy design lifting. Because the front-end design is separate from the back-end content businesses can quickly create compelling web experiences.

By leveraging powerful & flexible CSS techniques, a small business can create a design experience that rivals any fortune 500 company for a fraction of the cost. The custom CSS options are literally endless – allowing a business to create an experience that exactly matches their brand.

Design Samples

WordPress as a Platform

The ability for a business to stay relevant, current and useful to customers is absolutely critical because customer attention has never been so difficult to capture. With customers using so many channels for information, a static, siloed website is no longer competitive.

When selecting a web platform, being able to adapt to the ultra-fast-paced online world is a key consideration. The last thing any business wants is to invest significant time, energy & resources into a solution only to find themselves irrelevant a short time later because technology has progressed past the businesses capabilities. We call this collection a “platform” in that it houses a number of functions all on one common infrastructure.

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Features like social media integration, mobile capabilities, customer support, analytics and newsletter generation are just a few areas that need to be considered to offer an experience that meets customer expectations.

For example, at the time of this writing, less than 2 years ago the iPad was introduced. Now on its 3rd version, the iPad and iOS mobile platform has changed the entire content consumption universe. Content formatted for mobile should be a major part of any company’s online presence. And yet, creating that mobile experience is no easy task. In another example Pintrest.com is becoming a major online social destination. Quickly integrating Pintrest options into a company’s website can create a key marketing & competitive advantage. And yet most proprietary platforms can’t keep pace with the changing online landscape resulting in missed opportunities for businesses locked into their platform.

The “plugin” architecture allows endless possibilities of features & functions to be added to a WordPress platform.

The functionality, extensibility and open-source community make WordPress perhaps the most viable online platform technology for most businesses. The “plugin” architecture allows endless possibilities of features & functions to be added to a WordPress platform. But it’s not just the number of plugins available, it’s the degree to which very, very specific problems can be solved through plugins.

Because WordPress is open source, anyone on the world can create a plugin to provide any type of functionality. This is important because not only does it allow businesses to stay relevant but this functionality allows businesses to create experiences as unique as the business itself. This diagram represents a typical WordPress Online Platform:

Conclusion

Far too many businesses are locked into an online solution that’s no longer effective for them or their customers. Many other businesses may be using WordPress but don’t really know why. Perhaps they were led to WordPress by a suggestion from a business colleague or a reaction to online buzz. Understanding the business case for WordPress is a fundamental distinction most businesses never make. Having been in the online world for 17+ years in a number of roles including development, strategy, start-ups & consulting WordPress is the only platform I’ve encountered that has the flexibility, stability, security and functionality to serve as the center of most businesses online presence.

 
Learn more about how WordPress can enhance your business by hitting me up on Twitter, Google+ or contact me.

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Today I’m launching a new venture called Web Camp. To some this will be really special. I say ‘some’ because it’s not for everyone. Web Camp is an advanced 4-day camp where we, (I emphasize ‘we’ meaning up to 8 Campers) build a complete online marketing platform.

This isn’t a watered-down generic, one-size fits all opportunity. Instead Web Camp is an advanced and intense 4-days focused on results for a few passionate, fun, smart business people.

The result of Web Camp is an online marketing platform providing everything a business needs to be competitive, connect with customers and control their online marketing. By combining up to 8 Campers at the same time we can offer so much more value at much less cost. The total cost for Web Camp is $1895. Campers must apply & be accepted and each Web Camp is limited to a max of 8 and needs a minimum of 4.

Why Web Camp?

To be competitive in today’s world you need much more than a simple website. Competition, your current & future customers are raising the bar for what it means to do business. Businesses who connect with their customers & prospects on their terms have a significant advantage over their competitors.

Click to Enlarge - Web Camp Platform

Breaking the Budget Barrier

Is it possible for a company with a budget of less than $2000 to get a complete online marketing platform?

No.

$2k isn’t a lot of money but I’ve met with plenty of business owners willing to spend that amount, on something whether it works for them or not. With that budget constraint I found two solutions, neither of which are very compelling.

There’s the ‘Website in a Box’ solution – a simple point & click, very canned, inflexible, online service that ranges in price from $7 to $19.99 per month. There are so many problems with these services I don’t know where to begin but let’s just say, these solutions aren’t something you want to hang your online hat on.

Then there’s the ultra cheap solution from the local ‘web shops,’ you know the usual suspects. You get not much more than a website-in-a-box but at a much steeper price and in the end there’s still no client control of the content & growth.

(I suppose the third is the ‘DIY’ approach that usually produces the worst result of all.)

So I thought it’s time to rethink this whole thing.

The mandate became find a way to produce an online marketing platform to include the top elements that all online marketing platforms should have:

• A content management system (CMS) so content can be easily added & updated
• Easily supports multimedia
• Is, for the lack of a better term, Web 2.0+. Meaning uses CSS and had a strong focus on design aesthetic & usability.
• Has Social Media functionality and integration
• Has an automatic mobile component to render & display properly on a mobile device (iPhone, etc)
• Has Search Engine Optimization features
• Includes analytic reporting.
• Is self-sustaining; the owner can not only own but also operate.
• Is future-proof; this platform can grow & change as the web grows & changes.

What I found was this cannot be done, as a service, for under $2k.

But, and this is a big but, that’s the case when considering one single project at a time – the traditional way of looking at it. What if multiple projects were conducted at the same time, in the same venue, with the same set of tools & objectives? That’s a whole different picture.

Thus, Web Camp

Web Camp isfor businesses who need to be competitive, need to reach new customers and who want the best use of their marketing dollars and management time. By combining a number of projects together, the economics make sense on both sides. The business owner is able to get a set of marketing assets that make their business more valuable and competitive at an investment level they can afford.

The key to make this happen lies in-part, with recent developments in open-source tools in terms of traction, maturity & support along with the advancement of front-end design options. These two things make Web Camp possible.

By rethinking the traditional approach to project & online development it’s my belief that a business can now get a complete marketing platform that would have easily cost $15k+ for less than $2000.

4-Days

But there’s one more thing. To make this approach even better, it has to be done in 4 days.

Why?

Because business owners & entrepreneur types need focus. They need the constraint of a compressed time period to get it done and out to the world. We’ve spent an enormous amount of time creating a Web Camp program that delivers these results in 4 days.

[box type="note"]Web Camp starts November 18th and is open to the first 8 who apply and are accepted.[/box]

Who’s winning online – you or your competitor?

Click to Enlarge

How do you know?
Understanding how your online presence stacks up against the competition is an important step in providing a better experience for your customers.

You can get a free report that’s an easy to read and understand technical assessment of how your site performs against your top competitor.
We’ll analyze your online presence against your competitor and email you the results in a personalized PDF.
[button style="info" color="silver" link = "http://www.webcamp.co/info/site-assessment/"]Get Your Report[/button]
[hr]

Interested?

For more info head over to the Web Camp Site

www.WebCamp.co

[button color="red" link="http://www.webcamp.co/apply/"]Apply to Web Camp[/button]

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Gary Vaynerchuk

If you don’t know about Gary you should. Gary is at the front end of the curve of personal branding, leveraging cheap/free tools and he’s becoming an icon in our new world of business.

WARNING: Liberal use of adult language is used in this presentation is used so be sure you’re in a safe place before you play this video.

Listen for 5 minutes and you won’t want to turn it off.

(Click here if you can’t see the video.)

Learn more about Gary here:

http://garyvaynerchuk.com/

And if you love wine go here:

http://tv.winelibrary.com/

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

(Click here if you can’t see the video.)

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology