3 Things You Must Know About WordPress Blogs for Coaching and Consulting Sites
WordPress is one of the best tools you can use to market your coaching or consulting business online. With WordPress, your sites go up quickly, are easy to maintain and grow, and you get a ton of free plugins. (I’ll explain what those are in a minute.)
Because WordPress blogs differ from traditional HTML websites in many different ways, it can be hard to fully appreciate them and maximize their marketing potential.
Here are the top 3 questions I get from other coaches and consultants about WordPress blogs. Coincidentally, these were also my top questions when I was learning about them.
If you’ve been a little confused about them, this article will give you the insider/geek answers - in layman’s terms.
1. What’s the Difference Between Wordpress.Org and Wordpress.Com?
WordPress is a free software used to create blogs. Think of it like this: MS Word is a software used to create documents and WordPress creates blogs (also called content management sites).
MS Word works once you put it on a computer. WordPress works once you put it on a server.
WordPress.org is where you go to download a free copy of the WordPress software and plugins. You then need to host the software on your own server, like at HostGator.
WordPress.com also gives you the WordPress software. But you can host your WordPress blog on their server for free, as well. So there’s no need to download the software and install it on your own server. They make it very easy to get started.
But before you get too excited about this free service, you need to be aware that WordPress.com places a lot of marketing restrictions on what you can and cannot do with your site. For that reason, it’s not the place you want to host your main business site.
Here’s what you need to know…
You want to get your WordPress blog software and plugins from WordPress.org. Then get your own hosting account (that you own and control) to host your coaching or consulting website. I use and recommend HostGator.
2. What Is a Plugin and Why Do I Need Them?
Plugins are software add-ons and a great reason to use a WordPress blog. This is what makes WordPress so useful. And best of all, most plugins are free to download and use.
The best way to understand how this works is to think about the Apple iPad or iPhone. Sure these gadgets have some cool features right out of the box. But what really makes them powerful and useful are the thousands of applications that you can get, many which are free or cost only $1.
In the same way, plugins add extra features to your site, like event calendars, automated site backups, shopping carts, membership sites, contact forms, lightboxes for images and videos, and much, much more.
Here’s what you need to know…
Because plugins are usually free, the people who create them don’t always have the time to update them and keep them compatible with the latest version of WordPress. That means that even though there are thousands of plugins available, only a fraction of them work with the latest version of WordPress.
Not all plugins work with all WordPress themes. Sometimes they are not compatible, and a plugin may cause your site to either look strange or not function. So you have to try them out one-at-a-time and see which ones work for you. It can be a very time consuming process.
Fortunately, the plugins available at WordPress.org are clearly labeled for which versions of WordPress they work with. And they provide a rating system and charts to find the most popular and favorite ones.
For a list of available plugins, visit the WordPress Plugin page here.
3. How Often Do I Need to Update My Blog?
If you’ve had a WordPress blog for any length of time, you know that they ask you to update often. Some of the updates may be a couple of months apart. At other times, they’ll update more than once per month. How do you know if you need to update and when? And how hard is it to update?
There’s no easy answer to this question because there are pros and cons to updating.
Reasons to update:
WordPress updates have security improvements, bug fixes, and/or new features with each version. These can be good things to have. A significant update will increase the version number by 0.1, e.g. version 2.5 to version 2.6. A less significant update will look like this: version 2.7.1 to version 2.7.2.
Reasons not to update:
There are two good reasons not to update. First, not all plugins or WordPress themes work with all versions. And when WordPress does an update, it may take a couple of months before new versions of your favorite plugins and themes are available. Worse case scenario - you update your WordPress blog and suddenly your site looks strange or your favorite plugin no longer works.
Second, updating is more than just clicking an update button. You’ll need to backup your database and site files first so that if anything goes wrong with the update, you will be able to restore your site back to its previous state.
This can easily take 30-60 minutes and requires someone with webmaster skills. So how often you decide to update will usually depend on your web maintenance budget.
For more information on how to properly update your WordPress blog, check out this article from WordPress.
Here’s what you need to know…
I do not recommend that you update immediately after a new version is released. Instead, wait a couple of months so that new versions of your theme and/or plugins can be developed and released first. Then do an update.
I also recommend updating with every major version change. There are significant security fixes and additional features that are available with major versions. The last major versions (in my opinion) were version 2.5 and version 2.7. As I write this, version 3.0 is in beta testing and should be available soon.
The Next Step
Adding WordPress to your online marketing strategy can help you get more clients and more sales more often. It’s an important part of my own sites and my clients sites.
You now have an understanding of where to get WordPress and host your site, how to add powerful features to your WordPress blog with plugins, and when you need to upgrade.
Use the insider information above to create your powerful online presence. And if you need help putting it all together, email me for a free website and online marketing consultation. I’d love to talk with you about growing your coaching or consulting practice.
