1. use of subdomain is called for versus a sub-directory
2. when it makes sense to create a whole separate domain altogether

In my corporate web job, we often used subdomains because we were hosting the new website (usually an application rather than a pure HTML site) on separate servers. But then we would often create a “vanity URL” on the main site that redirected to the sub site. Interesting, but not necessarily helpful to answering the question or when, from the marketing or SEO perspective multiple domains is called for.

I was confused on what the term “microsite” meant. The wikipedia definition: “cluster of pages which are meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary website … most likely has its own domain name or subdomain” helped quite a bit. From both the technical and user experience perspective, it makes sense to install something like a forums, catalog or other separate feature on a subdomain, like maps.google.com .. or even on a completely separate domain. And if it will have a distinct brand identity, a separate domain is called for. One more reason, mentioned by the wikipedia entry, is that it can help target your PPC keywords more accurately.

Subdomains appear to be treated similarly to sub-directories by search engines per Matt Cutts, which means you may not get much SEO benefit for the added complexity.

So microsites usually mean additional domains. However just because you want to expand your web presence into a related but different topic than your web site already covers, doesn’t necessary mean a new domain. A new domain adds management and other costs, and you might have to start from scratch to get it indexed by the search engines. You are also missing out on the opportunity to get your original site to rank for more searches because it has more content.

However, I’ve seen creation of a blog on wordpress.com or blogspot.com with links to a main site be quite helpful for ranking for desirable keywords. A specific tactic to keep in mind.

However up to now, it’s been a pain to help clients, especially the less technically knowledgeable ones, set up verified google webmaster tools access to their site. For every google account, you had to upload a file to the root directory or add a meta tag to the home page. Now, as long as you have one user is verified, that user can easily add additional verified users.

In a blog post, sharing the verification love, the webmaster central blog outlines how it is done. The one caveat is that the access is binary. Unlike google analytics you can’t give “read only” access.

Oh sure I could have just used “display: none” in the css blog title class/ids so that the blog title didn’t display over my custom image, but that’s kind of ugly. Using remove_action in my functions.php file is much more elegant.

function suppress_header_elements() {
remove_action('thematic_header','thematic_blogtitle',3);
remove_action('thematic_header','thematic_blogdescription',5);
}
add_action('init','suppress_header_elements');


And the bonus is that the blog title description value still populate my title and meta description tags as desired for SEO optimization.

Theme hooks is not a concept unique to Thematic but embedded in Wordpress itself. Using theme hooks in your child theme, the idea is that you can isolate your customizations in a single file in a functions.php file (it may be called something different such as custom_functions.php with other frameworks).

Although I had altered the css to add my image, I wanted to additionally add clickable button images as well that I already had defined in a css file. No problem, I just created a new function called add_buttons in my functions.php file, echo’ed out the HTML and then added the add_action line:

function add_buttons() {
echo ....
}
add_action('thematic_header', 'add_buttons');


It wasn’t completely smooth sailing as I ran into this error when I tried to use the admin (error text modified to remove site identifying info)

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/mysite/public_html/blog/wp-content/themes/childtheme/functions.php:43) in /home/mysite/public_html/mysite.com/blog/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 865


Most of the information you get googling this error suggests there is extra spaces prior to the php start tag in the wpconfig.php file. That wasn’t the case here, but it was a good clue. Turns out I had an extra blank line after the closing php tag in my functions.php file. When I finally figured out to remove that, the errors went away.

Note this project is for a separate blog, not this one. The cobbler’s children makes do with last year’s shoes.

A bit more on frameworks and why you should care. Using a WP framework gives you some separation between functionality and presentation, always a worthy goal. And it allows you to subclass (well kind or) distinct functional components while preserving the ability to upgrade the originals. What I mean by this, is that you can copy a php file (say header.php) from the parent theme to your child theme directory and alter the copy. Wordpress, in it’s later versions, knows to look first for the php files in the child theme. The idea here is that when wordpress and the parent theme is upgraded, there is some insulation … I’ll let you know how that goes when I get there.

I mentioned that I went with Thematic because of the better documentation. It took a little digging, but this tutorial series of blog posts are really helpful to get you started. I particularly appreciated the pointer to a sample xml file you can import into your theme to help QA it and review all the little styles you might want to customize. That in itself was a nice find.

There are two I am looking at: “thematic” and “hybrid”

I wanted to install sociable, a popular wordpress plugin that makes it easy for your visitors to digg, facebook, etc.. your blog posts.   However the most recent sociable version did not work with my current version of wordpress 2.3.3, which is quite old.  It was obviously time for me to upgrade wordpress.

Installing wordpress is a snap, but it seemed less clear how to upgrade.  The wordpress codex seemed indicate I should download the latest version .. but I was a little concerned about overwriting all my customizations, it also mentioned that my hosting provider might provide some point and click support for what I wanted to do.

Excellent!  I thought (I can be really lazy about this stuff)

I use bluehost.   Since I have installed wordpress they have started using simple scripts in place of fantastico (yes the install was a while ago).   I followed the prompts and then got the dreaded error about finding some incompatibilities and asking permission to overwrite.  I of course said no, but that stopped the process cold.  I apparently had no option but to say yes.

But before I said yes (yes please overwrite files you aren’t telling me anything about …) I used filezilla to pull down a backup of all my files.  Then, with some trepidation, I clicked yes to the overwrite prompt.

The first sign of trouble was that it gave me a new password for my admin account.  Umm, I don’t use “admin” for my admin account.  I then went to my blog and what was staring at me was the default wordpress theme with the single hello world post.  Insert your favorite expletive here.

The lost of the theme wasn’t hugely concerning, that was easy to fix.  And in fact I just went into the admin, switched themes to greyidea (the theme I’m using), with all my extensive customizations to it intact.

But none of the 100 or so blog posts.  That seemed like a major problem, I hadn’t thought to back up the database (wordpress keeps a lot of stuff in a mySQL database).   I would have rather rebuilt the theme.

But was all my posts gone?   phpadmin is a most handy tool.  And sure enough there were two databases.  A peek at my saved wpconfig file showed I was pointing a different database.   A quick fix (glad I saved the original config file so I had the username and password!) to wpconfig, upload, and I was back in business.  Everything, even my original admin account started working again.

Installing sociable was easy compared to the “upgrade”.

So the question is, is there a easier way to upgrade wordpress to the latest version?

Understand the concept of internet marketing for small business with Secret Cash Blueprint.

The issue with large businesses is that they have a wide base of products and services to offer the customers.Then marketing each individual niche has to be a separate campaign.While marketing your small business you will only have to work on particular niche.Once you are aware of the needs of your customers, you can then concentrate on fulfilling their needs through your marketing campaign rather than spreading it over a large group of individuals.Internet marketing for small business, because of the smaller budgets, often doesn’t involve heavy pay-per-click advertising..PPC ads include more money than what you can expect in return

If you have a fixed budget on PPC and are keen on implementing it, keep a close look on the returns generated. Abandon those keywords that are not that profitable and focus on those key words that are pulling more customers.You can easily market your small business effectively with SEO.You may have to shell out a few bucks on employing an expert or an SEO service to handle your campaigns, but the money spent is well worth.

Here is mostly where small businesses become unsuccessful.They don’t make sure their content is optimized for the search engines, so it’s very difficult for someone to find them unless they’re searching on the company name.Internet users mainly search for the things they are looking for and not by the company name.So an efficient method for marketing in case of small business is to get your website higher in search engine rankings. This can be achieved by using best keywords for your company.One more aspect that should be included in the plan is that get other sites link to your website.Only keywords are not taken in to consideration by search engine but they also pay attention towards reputation of the site.Most search engines consider your information advantageous when you have more other sites to link to yours.

With these small business online marketing strategies, the small organizations can rank their websites much higher to other organizations without spending much on advertising.

While the rest of the world have developed many barriers and protections to keep their e-mail accounts spam-free, there are also those that subscribe to mails that promotes their products, services and their site. email marketing software, This is mainly because these subscribes wants to know more about what these sites are offering and can be beneficial for them. They expect to get be kept posted on what they are interested in and what are new in the market or field they have chosen.

Businesses would be so lucky to have these kinds of customers; the basic element needed to get these types of people is trust. When your customers trust you they will reward you with their loyalty. Many internet users have gone to great lengths in protecting their email accounts from spam mail. Some free-mail internet providers and internet service providers offer spam protection while there are also some internet based companies that screen your mails for you. More email marketing solution,.

With an opt-in mail list, the mails you send containing your promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogs and marketingintegrated marketing, media will go through. Your intended recipient will be able to read and view what you have sent making it a successful transfer of information. To be able to be allowed to do so, you will need permission from your recipient, to get this permission; you need to be able to get their trust. With the great lack of disregard for privacy in the internet, getting the trust of an internet user you don’t personally know is a big achievement.

To build a good opt-in list you need people to trust you, for a faster and quicker build up, you need to get your opt-in subscribers to trust you quickly. The faster you build your opt-in list the faster word about your site and company gets to be spread. The bigger the scope of your opt-in list the more traffic you get spelling more profits. Its easy math if you thin about it. Getting the numbers is not that simple though, or maybe it is?

? Getting the trust of your clientele shouldn’t be so hard especially if you do have a legitimate business. Getting your customers trust should be based upon your expertise. People rely on other people who know what they are talking about. Garner all the knowledge and information about your business. Ell, frankly if you decide to go into a business most probably you have an interest in it. Like how many basketball payers become coaches, you don’t really venture into something you don’t have any interest in. More web copywriting,.

? Show your clients that you know what you are talking about. Provide them with helpful hints and guidelines that pertain to what you are selling. Talk about how to install a roof if you’re into hardware products or provide articles on insurance settlements if you’re a settlement lawyer. You don’t have to be a big corporation to make use of an opt-in list. If your customers see you as someone who knows what he is doing and saying, they will trust you quickly.

? Be true to your customers, if you want to hype up your products and services, provide guarantees. The more satisfied customers you get, the bigger probability there is that they will recommend you. Generally, people will trust someone they know, when that someone recommends you then you’re a shoo-in. They will go to your site and check it for themselves and be given a chance to experience what the other shave experienced from you, so make sure to be consistent in the service you provide.

? Another tip in getting a customer to trust you quickly is to provide them an escape hatch. Show them that you are not there to trap them. Keep a clean list that would enable them to unsubscribe anytime they want. Elaborate your web form by providing informationemail marketing, on how to unsubscribe from the list. Guarantee them that they can let go of the service when ever they want to. Many are wary that they may be stuck for life and would have to abandon their email accounts when they get pestered with spam.

Remember that when you get the trust of your clients don’t lose that trust. Because if you do anything with their email More email marketing campaign, addresses like sell them or give them out, you will lose many members of your list as ell as potential members. The true quickest way to gain the trust of your subscribers is when you are recommended by someone they trust.

Marketing is all about communication; the company would communicate their products and services to their target market via the tri-media; also known as the print media, radio and television media. Now, the internet joins in the fray as it was proven that the World Wide Web serves as an effective media to accomplish the marketing goals of a company; this series of plans and strategies is known as internet marketing.

Internet marketing has several different approaches and the marketer has the option to use one or several of them to accomplish his or her marketing goal to increase revenues. One such approach which has been used even before the occurrence of the internet and was innovated by it is known as article marketing. Article marketing is a cost efficient way of communicating with the target market of the person or the company. Basically it talks about the company, products or services and anything which relates to the nature of the company in order to inform the people that it exists and what it can do for them. However, there are some differences regarding article marketing before and article marketing in the World Wide Web; one major difference is the use of search engine optimization on the article so that it incorporates certain keyword niches.

Effective use of article marketing is proven to be one of the most powerful internet marketing techniques there is. It is easy to set up, there is little or no cost at all and it can fully explain the various details of the company and its products or services thus it can garner more interest. Article marketing can also used to increase the traffic of a website. An increase in website traffic would lead to an increase in total revenue either in sales or in website advertisements.

Today, online businesses and even regular businesses are leaning towards investing more on internet marketing to increase their revenues in the near future. It would always be wise to include article marketing in any internet marketing strategy due to its benefits and low cost advertisement. It is the most prominent internet marketing technique today and is known to be the foremost advertising strategy in the World Wide Web today.

By the way, it’s important not to get yeast infection if you are to run a successful online business, so try to stay healthy at all times.

Blogs is perhaps the modern form of magazines and newspapers. The emergence of special blog search engines such as Technorati.com just goes to show how blogs keep on growing in popularity. Blogs are easy to manage and update. They could be used as a medium to relay useful information related to your business. Blogging as been around for years and are expected to stay around in the long-term.

Try looking and there are blogs created especially for several industries – news, music, videos, pharmaceuticals, food, travel, and so on. They have truly become a popular way to earn money online. Creating a supporting blog for your original website or websites, if you have more than one, is another way to generate backlinks to your site.

If you are managing a blog, you also have the option to build a link neighborhood with other bloggers of the same category. A relevant link neighborhood helps boost your page rank in search engines like Google and Yahoo, which is good for your Internet marketing campaign.

Internet marketers could also use blogs to place their banner and text ads. There are a number of online programs nowadays that offers bloggers a fee for allowing ads on their sites. Pay-per-post campaigns, on the other hand, make use of bloggers’ writing skills to come up with relevant content to promote the advertisers.