Archive for May, 2009

WordPress is best known as a blogging platform, but I’ve been using it for almost a year now to handle all sorts of website demands. I have effectively used it as a Content Management System for clients that want to easily be able to perform their own website updates, I am in the process of using it to manage a complete Membership Site, and my most recent project is to use it to create multiple landing pages.

A landing page is the page that a site visitors “lands” on when they click a link. It can be a link from the Search Engine Results Page, a link from another site, a link from within the site itself, or a link that is set up specifically for an online marketing campaign.

In any case, the landing page should be set up and designed in a specific way to encourage the visitor to take a desired action, clicking on another link for further information, requesting more information, signing up for an email newsletter via a form, or even making a purchase.

Because we are trying to get a visitor to take a specific action, it is very important to test landing pages to make sure that they are converting well. This is easily done with analytics software. What isn’t as easy is designing the perfect landing page with just the right graphics, copy, colors, position of elements, and call to action. All these elements have to be tested so that improvements can be made. And with all things marketing, neither your opinion or my opinion matters - test it to find out what really works!

And with WordPress and an incredible theme that I’ve found called the Affiliate Theme, it’s never been easier. Using WordPress as the platform that the site (or landing page) is created on, the Affiliate Theme allows you to easily swap out header graphics, colors, copy, positioning, layouts, and even the call to action button.

I’ve used it on four sites now that will have multiple versions of the landing page so that we can see exactly which page is converting best, and then continue testing from there. That’s the mark of a powerful and successful online marketing campaign. To create something that works and then continuously improve upon it.

That is the way I approach online marketing campaigns. They’re not over as soon as the site is launched. Instead, we monitor, tweak and test to achieve the best results.

Some days I can’t tell if I’m coming or going. Not only do I create websites and online marketing campaigns for clients, but I also run a few of my own online businesses with my husband. We constantly have new projects in the works from book writing, to membership site development, to article and video marketing, you name it - if it involves the internet and using it to create a living - we’re into it.

For the past few years, I’ve been searching for tools to help keep all this straight. We can very quickly get ourselves into multi-part projects that don’t seem like they’ll ever get completed because we have no way of keeping track of all the small pieces.

In this process we have gone from pretty sophisticated software programs all the way back to a hand written schedule in a three ring binder (which sometimes works best for us) … until now.

Until we found Torch. Torch is a project management solution that would be well suited for any business looking to keep track of bidding for projects, the important documents associated with a project, and finally time-keeping and invoicing.

This program is so simple my husband (who is not technical at all) was using it within a day or two.

When I come across a piece of software that can help with your marketing or simplify your business processes, I just want to share it.

And if you don’t think that a program like this is suited for your business, maybe it could work wonders in your personal life - especially if you are a homeowner with an almost never ending list of improvements to be made to both your house and your yard. The possibilities are truly endless.

Anyway, I thought this was a great find and am personally getting a lot of benefit from it and wanted to share. If you’re interested at all in Torch, you can comment here with your questions, or go check it out for yourself. Just click on the icon below.