Tag Archive for: e-Commerce

Best Time To Backup Your Website

Backing up your WordPress website is one of the most important procedures that you, as a website owner, can perform.

I was contacted by a new client during the week that was extremely desperate to get their eCommerce website back up and running, after being hacked. They had no backup. After spending 14 hours sorting out the damage done, securing and providing a safe backup, it cost the owner almost $1700, when all it should have cost, was the price of a plugin (about $50).

Whilst I enjoy getting paid, I feel sorry for people that become complacent (or ignorant) to the dangers that we, as business website owners face, on an almost daily basis.

About a third of my emails are from desperate website owners whose websites have either been hacked – or are self managed (WordPress) sites, that have been broken, because they didn’t know what they were doing, and had NO backup.

Backing Up is a simple routine that EVERY website owner should do manually, or given the right plugin, set-up scheduled back-ups – at least once a month, or preferably on a weekly basis.

The downside of Scheduled Backups – in my opinion

Imagine you’ve set up scheduled backups to be performed each month.

Now, the problem you MAY face, is a hacked or ‘broken’ website that is backed up, that becomes your ‘go-to’ backup in an ’emergency’. Think about the consequences of having a backup of your broken or hacked website.

Best Time To Backup Your Website – in my opinion

As a WordPress Website owner (personal OR business), you should have your website periodically Updated, Audited and Secured by a WordPress Professional.

If the WordPress Professional is any good at their job, they’ll backup your website for you, after they perform the required work. This way, you will have the most up-to-date Plugins, Themes and Security settings (including an optimized database) backed-up and ready to go, just in case something were to happen.

Remember, there’s a lot of bad people on the World Wide Web, that are out to do you harm. Be prepared.

The BEST Backup solution available – in my opinion

Now, I’m not being paid by BACKUP BUDDY – Let’s make this clear. I’m not getting paid any commissions, nor is this a paid advertisement.

Put simply, I believe that as of the date I posted this, it’s the best Backup Plugin you can buy.

There are FREE Backup Plugins in the WordPress Repository, but many, if not all, have restrictions.

WordPress, as a platform to build your website is FREE. Many thousands of Themes and Plugins are FREE as well.

Consider this. What price do you place on your website, especially if you operate a Business / eCommerce website;

  • Stolen Client Data – hacked website
  • Completely unusable website – broken
  • $50 Plugin
    or….
  • Spend $1700 to get your website secured and back in working condition

Stop being cheap bastards, and spend money where you need to, especially when the security of your data, and that of your clients, is at risk.

Conclusion….

Most people don’t think of backups, until it’s too late. Don’t be one of them. Invest in a good plugin to backup your WordPress website.

Take action today, using one of the options I’ve given you;

Please Note; I don’t like handing out FREE how-to instructions on my website. Past experience has shown that people get in touch when their websites break. But, feel free to try things yourself. There is an abundance of websites that can help you (most are outdated though), if you prefer to do things on your own. One such website is WPBeginner.com, who just happens to provide help with your Backup Buddy Plugin.

You can find instructional videos on YouTube, again though, most are outdated, and WordPress is constantly updating, and things change, so just beware. I’m always here if you have trouble.

Every couple of months at a bare minimum, have your website Updated, Audited and Secured by a WordPress Professional. You don’t need to use me, I’m not cheap (but I’m pretty good at what I do, and guarantee my work)

As always, feel free to contact me about this subject or any other WordPress issue you may have.

I’d appreciate it if you shared this post to someone who may be interested. Simply use the share options below this post.

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Time Management – Website Vs Social Media

So many people. So many products to sell, so many services to offer.

I’ve written about Brand Awareness previously, please check it out.

The purpose of this post IS about Branding, but more to point, your Brand – YOU.

Facebook is a Brand. Twitter is a Brand. Instagram is a Brand. Understand?

By directing people to your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, what you’re actually doing, is sending their attention away from YOU.

Build You. Promote You. BRAND YOU.

It’ important that you build your own Brand. Spending time / WASTING time on social media, is not building your Brand.

Where do you start? By building your website.

EDIT – March 3, 2019.

Wow, time goes so fast, doesn’t it? I started writing this post on January 2nd.

Sorry for the delay in finishing this post, I’ve been just a little busy, but I’ve got enough time at the moment to finish this post!

OK, I’ve written about Brand Awareness Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Depending on your commitment, experience and whether you are serious enough, or not, will determine if you even have a ‘Brand’.

My commitment  for the past dozen or so years to the WordPress Platform, for example, has allowed me to take on as much (or little) work as I like, because I’ve built up a reputation with a lot of theme developers, and I’ve made a name for myself on many online (theme) forums, assisting people with their WordPress installations, whether it be paid or free assistance. I did the work to build up my name, therefore, Crain is a Brand – for WordPress Development, Customization and Security.

So, what does this have to do with Social Media?

Several years ago, I was working with another guy on a project. His emphasis was placed on promoting via Facebook. Engagement through the Facebook page was terrible. He resorted to buying followers which is a total waste of time, money, AND effort. And it’s not a good look – people can see through it.

Think about this for a moment;

You spend money buying, let’s say, 25,000 followers. These followers usually aren’t ‘real people’ interested in what you have to say or offer. ‘They’ don’t plan on engaging with you – at all. Chances are, some con-artist has paid groups of extremely poor people from third world countries a few cents to set up fake Facebook accounts, and set up a business selling followers at highly inflated prices – and making a killing, financially.

So; You have all these 25,000 ‘followers’ that aren’t real, following you. You put up a post, that gets seen by a complete stranger that likes your post – but doesn’t follow you, and most likely will never visit your page again.

Let me get this straight. I’m not here to bash Facebook, I’m merely using it as an example. If you like posting about your personal life and keeping up with family and friends, Facebook is not that bad. Buying followers also happens on other social media, such as Twitter and Instagram, and other, less known social media apps / websites.

Now, This is interesting. There are some very big businesses, like Envato, a digital assets business (that for one part, provides a platform for WordPress Theme Developers to sell their themes online), well they have a Facebook page which currently has about 215,000 followers. On February 26th, they put up a post that gave them 16 likes, 2 comments and 5 shares.

Then we have the globally known airline, Qantas, that has more than 1.4 million followers, yet only pulls in a few likes per post – well, compared to the number of followers, the number of likes are really insignificant.

It has been suggested that social media engagement with your posts should be no less 5% of your followers. What happened here? I don’t know. But what it DOES show, is that you DON’T need social media to be successful, and they didn’t use social media to boost their brand. Remember that.

My Opinion; There is nothing more ugly than a social media account with hundreds / thousands of followers, that has little to no content / or lots of content – but no likes / comments on posts.

Just think about the time it takes to build up the followers via lots of money from your pocket, then the time you are wasting through posting, with extremely little or no engagement whatsoever.

You really are wasting your time and money. The ONLY people that will disagree with me on this, are the con-artists that are making money off it, and the ‘believers’ that are holding on for some kind of miracle to happen.

Yoast uploaded a post June 7, 2018, titled “Is Facebook getting less important?“. Have a read, you may find it interesting.

I have commented on this website, that having a social media presence is important – you need to be found. It’s also important to have that ‘Brand Name’ across all platforms, but in saying that, it doesn’t ‘have’ to be your actual business name, but you need to associate it ‘as part of your brand’ ON social media, if your actual business name has been taken. For example, I’ve chosen RobertCrainWP as my social media name.

Whatever you do – DON’T register different usernames. Keep them all the same – it makes it so much easier for people to find you, and it doesn’t look ‘messy’.

Remember – social media is not your business. It is a way for people to connect to you. The best way for people to connect with you is via ONE place – your website. Spend your time, and resources, on building a great website that showcases your business, displaying your products and services in a way that social media cannot.

This website is really quite basic. There’s no bells and whistles. It puts my message across, and that’s my only aim. Best thing is, it works! You’ve been to Amazon right? It’s not the best looking website – and in my opinion, it’s almost ugly. BUT, it works – REALLY WELL. That’s all you need, but you can spice it up a little. Images work wonders.

And be careful of dodgy developers that build you a website, using plagiarized content. I won’t name any, but there’s plenty out there. Any developer that copies content from other websites, then expects payment for work completed, is a con-artist, and it’s not good for your Brand.. I wrote a post about this here > Creativity v Plagiarism.

Be unique. Be you. Be your own Brand

And please – Stop wasting your time on social media. Spend time where it really counts. An hour wasted on social media, is an hour wasted from building YOU.

Brand building doesn’t have to cost much money. If you have a great product or service, if you’re great at what you do, you’re half way there already.

If you’re not serious about what you do, or are out there to make a quick buck, feel free to waste your time and money on social media.

When building a Brand, only serious people need apply. Loyalty and Respect will follow you, if you treat customers / clients with the respect they deserve. Remember, they are deciding whether or not to give you money. If they refer people to you, you’re on your way to building your Brand.

As always, feel free to contact me if you like. There are plenty of ways to share my content to your friends on social media, if they’re interested. I’d appreciate you spending a few seconds clicking that share button.

Until next time, have fun!

 

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Want a FREE Website?

Do you operate a business in the Cafe / Restaurant / Hotel / Motel / Accommodation sector?

I own an unlimited licence for a template based booking system, and theme that can be totally customized for any business. Best part is, this system is 100% responsive, meaning that it’s optimized for multiple devices, tablets and PC. Being responsive also benefits ranking – Bonus!

The booking system provides up to date / live information so you can’t double-book a room or table (for example), and you can set up billing (room bookings etc), so your customers can pay in advance, when their bookings are made.

You like the FREE part, don’t you. Well, I’m in business too, so obviously there’s more to it.

You have to provide me with photos, and the information you want on the website. Considering the website is FREE, I’m not intending to spend a week building it, and generally speaking, an e-Commerce / booking system like this would normally take approximately 2 days / 12 hours per day, to build, costing approximately $2500-$3500. But due to the fact that it’s a template based theme, and all I need to do is spend approximately 8 hours building it, I can offer it for FREE. I’ll even optimize the site for you, and get it ranking really well in Google, the other search engines will follow Google.

Oh yeah, the catch? You must sign up to my Monitoring Service. That will cost you $199 per month, but you’ll have peace of mind knowing your website is fully functional and up to date – and secure. For those that genuinely care about their clients information, security is THE number 1 priority.

Also, you’ll benefit from only having to pay my discounted rate (if you need work done to your website) for clients who sign up to my Monitoring Service, saving you $66 per hour – it’ll still cost you $55 an hour, but that’s the price of experience (and demand). Most people, when introduced to their new website can manage changes to their website themselves, after logging into the WordPress dashboard. I’ll show you how to make small changes, for free.

You must agree to use my Monitoring Services for 2 years.

Still too much for you? Perhaps I should work for free, without reward? Do you?

Anyway, I’ve gone on enough. If you like FREE, this is for you. If you expect everything for FREE this is not for you, and how are you in business?

If you’re interested, contact me.

EDIT – 27th January

I should have posted this message a couple of days ago, sorry.

Thirteen people contacted my by 24th January, and although I only wanted to offer this to 10 customers, I will provide FREE websites to the 13 individuals that contacted me. Fair is fair.

Be sure to check back every now and then, I might run the offer again some time in the future, perhaps around a holiday period.

Ok, I’d better start work!

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