Articles

How to Audit Your Site Plugins

By

Are you aware that every plugin on your WordPress website is a door into your install? It's critical that only active those plugins that are necessary for your site to run are installed.

Plugins are the prime target for hackers

Recently, Sucuri released a post about how hackers can hijack an outdated plugin and use it to compromise thousands of websites. Click here to read the article.

Keeping plugins up to date is only half the battle, as seen in that article. If someone takes hold of a plugin's code, it doesn't matter if you've kept it up to date, you are still vulnerable. Still, many plugins fall grossly out of date from the author's end and become unsupported over time.

Regularly auditing your installed plugins is a great way to keep a step ahead of the game.

Step by step to auditing your plugins

1. Remove all deactivated plugins. If it's deactivated it doesn't need to be there. If it's a plugin you think you'll need later on, just save a copy of it to your hard drive.

2. Make sure all plugins are up to date.

3. View the plugin details (a link will be next to the plugin on the Plugins page) for the last time it was updated. If it's been over 2 years, consider looking for a replacement plugin.

4. Consolidate plugin functionality. If you have three plugins that can be done by the job of one, use that one plugin instead.

Aim to get that plugin count low and you'll be in a good place with your WordPress install to keep it updated and secure.

 

The 10 Best Online Tools For Every Small Business

By

Are you using the latest cutting-edge online tools for your small business?

If you're like most small business owners, you are bombarded daily in every advertisement that online tools will help you navigate the tech world to solve your business woes.

But which online tools should you be using?

Every business owner will admit there's more they could be doing to increase productivity, efficiency and putting time back in their week.

We all have experienced the relief of technology in our daily life (give your iPhone a little snuggle for that) and we want to be using the latest and greatest in our business as well.

However, the wrong tool can lead to wasted hours learning a new tech, and money wasted choosing a tool that doesn't quite fit your business model.

In this post, we explore the category and qualifiers you need in certain online tools, and how they should save you time and money. After each of these, we'll give you our recommendation. This way you'll know why we are choosing what we are choosing.

The 10 Online Tools Every Small Business Owner Needs

#1 Productivity Tool: Get an Online Scheduler

Why? Are you still saying "When are you free for a meeting" in emails? Or "Let me get back to you after I check my schedule…" With the ease and integration of online schedule SaaS to sync with your calendar, you should instead be saying "View my schedule here - link - and book a time that's suitable for you."

Qualifiers: You want a SaaS that syncs with your calendar of choice (ours is Google) as well as a schedule SaaS that allows multiple booking pages or "types" of bookings. This way you can send a prospective client a 10-minute invite calendar link and that current client the 1-hour booking link.

We recommend: Calendly

Calendly integrates right with our Google calendar and allows us to create individual booking "types" with specific links. The interface is clean, and non-intimidating for desktop and mobile users.

#2 Productivity Tool: Screen Capture

Why? Nowadays email copy doesn't cut it. Typing takes too long and too much is lost in translation. It's faster and 10x easier to annotate a screenshot or make a screencast to describe what you need. Screen capture extensions for your web browser allow automatic upload of the screen capture to the cloud with a copied link to share with whomever you need.

Qualifiers: Pick a screen capture extension that goes right in your desktop toolbar or your browser, uploads to "the cloud" automatically and immediately creates a copy and paste link for you to share. Many are free for use, but paying a nominal fee for advanced features can be well worth its price.

We recommend: Droplr
(our use our affiliate link - Droplr)

Droplr sits right in our desktop toolbar and allows us to have a team account so we can share captures among each other. We use it to communicate to our clients tutorials, tips, issues and confirmation of completed tasks. Since it captures with little effort and saves files, it's become a lifeline for our business.

#3 Marketing Tool: Email SaaS with Tracking

Why? Remember the good ol' days when getting an email was like receiving an envelope in the mail? Now, our email inboxes are so flooded, you can never be sure if your recipient has even opened your email. When sending out an important notice about your company wouldn't it be great to know who opened it and clicked on a link? If you are not using tracking with your email, now is the time.

Qualifiers: Send email through a system that will give you data on the recipients' interaction, opens, clicks and bounce backs for email addresses that are incorrect.

We recommend: MailChimp
(affiliate link)

It's a freemium email marketing platform with tons of integrations and analytics. This is specifically for email large lists where tracking is important. For individual email sends, check out Boomerang.

#4 Productivity Tool: Digital Article Archive

Why? We are constantly bombarded by information, and some of these articles rock (like this one obviously) and some should just be skimmed. However, the time it takes you to evaluate this eats away at your productivity. From saving links to categorizing articles for staff, a digital archive of articles is the ONLY way to browse online.

Qualifiers: Choose a SaaS that allows you to easily add articles from your phone, tablet or browser and reference your archive across devices. This way, if you finally get to a point in your day of freedom (waiting in the doctor's office) you aren't racking your brain for how to spend your time or where that article was you wanted to read.

We recommend: Get Pocket

Pocket is a great way to save articles. It also allows you to save across devices, tag articles, and read articles offline, which is good for airplane flights and places with shamefully slow wifi!

#5 Productivity Tool: Video Time Savers

Why? Do you still watch videos at regular speed? All the cool kids don't! With either software on your computer or web browser extensions, you can consume great tutorials, business training, and the occasional funny cat video at 2x the speed in order to save time in your day.

Qualifiers: Use computer software or a browser extension that will overlay any web-based video and allow you to increase the speed incrementally. Most of these browser extensions work to speed up any html5 video that you will find on YouTube and Vimeo.

We recommend: Video Speed Controller for Chrome

This browser extension for Chrome is an easy and free way to speed up videos that you need to watch when you're short on time. For software-based solutions, Enounce Myspeed Slider is another great option.

#6 Productivity Tool: Automation

Why? Automation should be the buzzword of 2017, 2018 and while we are at it, 2019. If you haven't started automating certain parts of your business, it's time to step in and give the robot a shot.

Qualifiers: Choose to invest in automation SaaS that has the right tools for your business. Zapier and IFTT are both great options for different reasons. Think first about what task you do repeatedly and then explore the options in either of those solutions for how you can leverage automation to carry out the process without your involvement.

We recommend: Zapier

Zapier allows you to easily automate tasks between web apps to streamline your processes. In our business, we have a few zaps to notify our communication chat SaaS (Slack) about activity in a variety of apps, removing the burden of staff to have to notify us of activities manually.

#7 Financial Tool: Credit Card Processor

Why? I remember in 2003 trying to secure a way to take credit cards at an arts and crafts show. It involved a sleazy sales guy, a lot of equipment and hefty fees! Flash forward years later and setting up a credit card merchant online take 10 seconds. Yet, even with the ease, I still see so many business owners not regularly accepting online payments.

Qualifiers: Choose a credit card processor that works in your country and deposits payments quickly. With every online credit card merchant solution, you need to be able to manually process cards as well as have it integrate with third parties.

We recommend: Stripe

Stripe really stand out with its suite of APIs that power commerce for businesses of all sizes. We love the simplicity of the interface and how it integrates with so many third-party apps from proposal software to online e-commerce platforms. We LOVE Stripe.

#8 Financial Tool: Online Invoicing

Why? The act of getting paid should be, by far, the simplest process in your business. Every business owner needs a quick way to invoice online and track that the invoice has been viewed and paid. Most small businesses don't have a dedicated accountant to invoice and follow up on missed payments, so an online tool that automates the accountant role to collect payments is critical.

Qualifiers: Invoicing is all about ease of use and integration with your bookkeeping system. The tool you choose should be able to track the progress of the invoice, if it's been viewed and log when it was paid. Your tool should also be popular enough to work with third parties for bookkeeping and time tracking.

We recommend: QuickBooks Invoicing Software

QuickBooks Invoicing Software doesn't just allow for online invoicing with tracking but has robust integration with popular third parties. We also love that it handles recurring invoicing. On top of accepting credit cards, their invoicing system supports paying with bank transfers which avoid any fee whatsoever and busts the myth that getting paid online takes a slice of your profit.

#9 Productivity Tool: Digital Business Workflow SaaS

Why? More and more we see business moving their workflow online and digitizing the process with a mix of automation and manual execution. You'll find this online solution categorized under "project management" SaaS, as well as some "CRMs" (Customer Relationship Management). If you have a set process to any part of your business, you should be leveraging tools online to get you a streamlined digital business workflow.

Qualifiers: The biggest qualifier is features and price. Choose a tool that is the right price for your business. The qualifier for this is price because it can get expensive. Take the time to figure out the right bells and whistles and subscribe accordingly.

We recommend: 17 Hats
(affiliate link)

For small business owners, 17 Hats has been a breath of fresh air with it's simplicity in building and executing a digital business workflow. With a competitive price tag, features are kept minimum, specific to those a single small business owner needs in their day to day operations.

#10 Productivity Tool: A Better Email System

Why? If you haven't secured yourself an email provider outside of your web hosting, now's the time. Escape the fickle web hosting server email, with "webmail" logins and bare-bones features and jump into a more integrated solution in the pursuit of a clean inbox.

Qualifiers: Get on an email provider that will allow you to achieve "Inbox Zero." To do this you need a robust tagging and filtering system, ease across devices and integration with online third parties like unroll.me that remove your email from subscription lists.

We recommend: Google Suite for Business
(affiliate link)

There's truly no comparing what you get for the money with Google Suite for Business. We have over 30 different tagging and filtering rules in our email inbox and leverage third parties to connect and access our email to keep our inbox clean and happy.

Choices, choices.

Are there other tools out there that may be a better fit for your business? Of course! But like any good friend, we're sharing what we use and love in hopes we save you time and headache.

Feel free to save this post in "Pocket" and reference it when you have time to work on securing these in your business 😉

 

 

At WP Care Market, we help take the website maintenance and updating off your hands by matching you with a website professional. Reach out today by visiting WPCareMarket.com

The Latest Change for Google Rankings

By

10 Items PDF

Slides and Download

Thank you for listening in to the WordCamp Baltimore talk on the Low Stress/ Low-Risk way to update WordPress.

Click here for a copy of the slides for the talk.

Enter your details below to download the 10 Items you can do in 10 minutes to protect your investment.

Log In With Editor and not Admin

By

With WordPress, there are various user levels and each level grants specific access to your website.

As a website owner, you naturally want "admin" access so you can access every corner of your website. However, logging in regularly with this login is not encouraged.

Limiting the fallout

What's worse, a hacker gaining access to your website with a limited "Editor" login or getting full access with an "Admin" login? We all know the answer.

Keeping a good practice to login to publish posts and pages with the Editor login allows you to take one step closer to keeping your install protected.

Saving admin in a secure place

All logins should be kept in a safe place. That safe place does not mean a post-it note on the inside of our desk.

Use a password manager like LastPass.com or OnePassword.com to save logins in an encrypted database. These managers can pre-populate login fields (and won't get erased like those saved in the browsers).

When to log in with Admin

Consider logging in with your Admin level login when you update your website or need to change admin level settings.

Do not give out your Admin login to anyone, but rather create them a new user account with the giving permissions they need to access your website.

Educate yourself on the user levels of WordPress by reviewing the codex here: https://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities. This will save you any future headaches in knowing who has access to what within your website.

 

Avoiding 404 Page Not Found

By

Many of us get tired of visiting sites and stumbling upon the dreaded "404 Error: Page Not Found" notice. Google feels the same way and this broken link can lead to a downgrading of your search ranking.

These 404-page errors can be avoided by setting up redirects.

Setting up a redirect

Not sure what is a redirect and if you need one? Take a look at a broken link checker to determine how guilt your website is.

http://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/

If you have a few, don't worry. It's a simple task to set up redirect links right in your WordPress admin. When you set up a redirect, you can specify for those trying to visit a page from an old URL how to redirect to the new URL. It's as simple as that.

Let's get started.

Why do this in WordPress?

Redirects are a way for your website to tell the visitor's browser that the page they want to visit has been moved. The browser then automatically "redirects" them to the new page your specified in the code.

There are different types of redirects such as 301 redirect, 302 redirect, 307 redirect, etc.

However, you likely only need 301 redirects, as that's the most common and achieves what we are exploring in this post.

To use a plugin in WordPress allows you to easily create the redirects as well as update them over time. Many plugins will even allow you to see the stats of how many times the redirection is occurring which gives you insight into adjusting areas of your website.

What types of 301 redirects would you create?

 

You need to create a redirect when:

  • you delete a post or page in favor of new content
  • you change the permalinks of your post or page
  • you deploy a new website and the URLs change

Installing and Using a Plugin

We really like using the free plugin Redirection to accomplish setting up redirects in WordPress.

Adding it through the admin is the simplest way to manage redirects over time.

Once you have activated the plugin, visit Tools » Redirection to setup your redirects.

A bonus of the Redirection plugin is that it also allows you to find those pesky 404 errors with their tool.

Once you've narrowed them down, also try to discover if other websites are linking to incorrect URLs to your website and either have them update the link or setup the redirect.

Why WordPress Doesn’t Update Like Your Phone

By

Here we go again! WordPress is about to release 4.9, which will make this release the 9th update this year.

You can review the complete list of WordPress releases here: https://wordpress.org/news/category/releases/

We love a good update and so should you

Now, don't get us wrong, we love a good WordPress update. What we don't love is the groaning of users resisting updating their install.

Many users see their website running, therefore, don't see the need to update. "What if it breaks my site?" says the site owner.

Granted, many times WordPress updates and new features are released that may conflict with plugins installed on your website. This is why you need a backup every time you do an update and to check your site carefully.

However, most updates are security releases, have little to do with new features and require you to update in order to keep the install protected.

WordPress is not your iPhone

iPhone iOs releases an update about once a year with a few in-between for security fixes. So although site owners groan that they don't have to update their phone this much, they don't take into account the response time for the WordPress community to react to security vulnerabilities and roll out a release. This is a beautiful thing.

For this reason, as well, WordPress does not account for your plugins. Those authors will need to check their plugin against every release to make sure there are no conflicts - hence why plugins have a need to update when a new version of WordPress is released as well.

Update asap

So like an iPhone that forces an update after a certain period of time, your web host may do the same. Therefore, update your website asap and don't fear the complications. As long as you take careful steps to backup your website, you can restore if you have issues. If you do have issues, reach out to WP Care Market and we'll match you with a web pro that can help.

 

5 Reasons Your Old Developer is No Longer in Business

By

Transactional vs Relational

Time and time again I speak with website owners whose old designer or developer has abandoned them. The fickle nature of not being able to access the person who created your site often leads to mistrust of the website development industry as a whole.

Contracting into a relationship with a new website developer can be scary territory if you have suffered this betrayal in the past. By first understanding why developers abandon projects to begin with, we can give clarity on how to avoid it.

In my years in the industry, I've seen 4 main reasons why website designers and developers don't return your email when you reach back out to correct issues on the site they created. The reasons vary and speak a lot to this emerging industry.

Reason #1: They closed their doors

This seems obvious, but the reasons why they are out of business are insightful. Often times, website designers and developers are no longer in business because they were failed by the old antiquated model of website design.

Simply put, they weren't profitable. Too many $500 websites and a "project-to-project" mentality cost them their business and they closed the doors to work for someone else.

Many of these pros start out teaching themselves. As they grow in skill level they find that an agency or tech startup will pay them upwards of 150k and see no reason to continue a business of their own and bail.

Why does this matter? Because both the website professional and the website owner need to recognize the value of the goods and services they are receiving. Respecting the skill set of the professional, weighted against the value of the project to return on the investment for the website owner, is a business model that works to keep everyone in business.

Reason #2: They're focused on transactional short-term projects

This reason begins similar to reason #1, but this professional has moved up the chain of project pricing and isn't convinced you can now pay their new rates (and you indeed may not be able to).

Like the pro from Reason #1, they bought into the old model of transactional website design but lucked out in improving their reach and skill level to stay in business by charging more for their work.

Turning your future work away isn't an insult to your request, but it is a reflection on the short sided nature of project-to-project work that's purely transactional.

Reason #3: They're relationship based but have no process and no support

Website professionals that are relationship-based are those that welcome working with clients on an ongoing basis. They value the work they did for you and want to provide an ongoing service to support it.

Their hearts are in the right place, but they need to turn away work because they've yet to carve out a process or hire a team to support the workload.

For professionals in this place, they may want to work with you but they are over their head with too much work because of their lack of processes and support.

Reason #4: They can no longer serve you well (chosen a niche)

Finally, a website designer or developer may turn you away because they've evolved their business to focus on a niche.

For freelancers and small agencies, this is the smartest change they can make in their business (on top of focusing on the relational business model of website design).

With this reason, they would turn away further work on your project because they are focusing on a specific product offering to better serve clients and deliver high-quality work.

Focusing on a niche is what we encourage at WP Care Market. For our network, we select website professionals who've niched their business, have a process and follow the relational model of website design by providing ongoing website services to clients.

Where to go from here

The quality to look for in a future partnership is always to go with someone who provides ongoing website care within their business model. This means they focus on relationships and are more likely to provide quality and care in their work. Choosing someone who also specializes in your niche is a great bonus.

The best "type" of website professional to choose is a small agency (a company with a team of 2 -5) rather than a single freelancer. When a company has a team, it speaks to stability in the business and lessens the unpredictability.

To read more about why the small agency model is preferred view the "Who Do We Match You With" article on our WP Care Market website.

3 Reasons Mass-Market Web Care Doesn’t Work for Your Business

By

In looking for critical help, maintenance and improvement on your website you've likely stumbled across sites like WP Curve, Maintainn, WP Site Care (or any of the many one-size-fits-all maintenance shops) and were greeted with a checkout button.

Something may have stopped you, or you gave it a try, and realized you simply wanted something more; a relationship, an actual person…

Don't get me wrong, mass-market website maintenance fits a need for a specific segment of website owners, but for small businesses where their website generates revenue and sales, it simply doesn't cut it.

Which is why I was persuaded against building a large website maintenance shop by one of the most influential business gurus Seth Godin.

[QUOTE: I was persuaded against building a large website maintenance shop by one of the most influential business gurus Seth Godin.]

In the summer of 2015 I was doing really well with website care and development. I had great relationships with my clients, I loved updating WordPress, and I was finding regular website care allowed me the focus to offer my clients suggestions to further grow their website. I quickly saw I wanted more clients like this. I wanted more website care plans.

And then, I had a chance encounter with Seth Godin. In speaking to grow a larger company with website maintenance, he discouraged me. Seth pointed out that my strength with my clients was my personal connection to them and that wasn't something I could scale.

He was right. To achieve what I had in mind, I would have to hire more staff, invest profit into lead generation and ultimately decrease the quality of my services to my clients to achieve that mass scale.

 

The Drawback of Mass-Market Website Care

In the two years since that critical insight, the idea to scale website care never left me. In fact, I watched the WordPress market boom with website maintenance companies who offered fixed one-size-fits-all plans, impersonal connections, and a strict menu of deliverables despite their "all inclusive promises."

These maintenance shops provide a great service for a certain level of businesses but that's not 80% of the SMB market. It doesn't work for three simple reasons:

  1. One size fits all plans: You see, they have to do this. Because as they invest in lead generation marketing and scaling their support team, the only way to be profitable is to have a fixed process - generic and broad - and one that's automated so it can be run by anyone. They need to make it "plug and play."
  2. No one to call, no solution outside of small fixes. What's also lost is no way for you to contract extra services to add more functionality on your website. Let alone, the ability to just get someone on the phone to get feedback on what's not working, or what can be improved.
  3. Inability to capture low-hanging fruit. Finally, there's no personal connection with the website professional - the ability for the website owner to look to that person who's performing care on their website as a consultant who can help them grow. You could have low-hanging fruit, ripe and ready, but no one there to show you how to grab it.

Every business owner that's come my way wants the personal connection with the website professional who will not only perform work on their website but act as a consultant when they need one.

How WP Care Market is Different

In the past years since my conversation with Seth Godin, I have trained over 2,000 website professionals in providing quality website care. I showed them what works, I show them what processes they need to have, I showed them how to properly price their plans so they can be profitable and stay in business for their clients. I have accidentally scaled quality website care by training others like me to properly serve the small business website owner.

[QUOTE: I have accidentally scaled quality website care by training other like me to properly serve the small business website owner.]

Each of the website professionals I have trained have their own specialties, their own unique plans and serve their own specific niche.

WP Care Market brings together a select group of those that have truly nailed it and deemed them Authorized Partners.

You won't find these partners in a public facing mass-database.

The type of web professionals that most business owners want to work on their website are not going to be found on a mass-marketplace like Codeable because:

 

  1. They've been in business for years and have an established referral network
  2. They know their value, are priced accordingly, and see public facing marketplace are often a race to the bottom with price competition
  3. They run a tight ship and wrong leads waste their time as well as the website owner's. Public facing mass-marketplaces leave the match-making up to the website owner and it's often recipe for disaster

WP Care Market is made up of these web professionals because we keep our marketplace private and we take the time on our end to match website owners with the right web professional for them.

[QUOTE: WP Care Market is made up of these web professionals because we keep our marketplace private and we take the time on our end to match website owners with the right web professional for them. ]

We match small business owners with existing websites to website professionals after a phone call and website review so nothing is left to chance, no AI, no auto-matching algorithm.

It saves everybody time and frustration. You're only getting matched with someone that we feel confident will be able to deliver on needs specific to your business.

Our Authorized Partners don't have monthly website care plans that look alike, each one is different because each one has specialties and levels of experience. That's the beauty of WP Care Market.

Why should I trust the Care Plan Queen?

My process for website care has been shared across all the major web hosting blogs. I've run webinars for GoDaddy, ManageWP, Beaver Builder and other major players in the WordPress space, spoken at WordCamps, podcasts, and held in-person workshops. I've been working as a coach in the top WordPress business coaching program WP Elevation where I've earned the affectionate title "The Care Plan Queen."

With WP Care Market, I get an opportunity to educate business owners about what's possible with their website, why they need website care, how to protect their investment, and match them with a website professional.

This isn't done off of a mass-market database, it's not in a one-size-fits-all maintenance shop, you are matched with someone who has a manageable list of clients who can offer you the personalized attention that you need, with the special skill set that fits your website and your business.

We are different. And not many people can do what we do. It's an alternative to the current market and a pretty darn good one.

So if what Seth Godin said to me was true, that "personal connection is not something you can scale," well Seth, I think we found a way.