Twitter Marketing Book 29

In this book on Twitter marketing I thought I’d write a little bit about websites and blogging. One of the better options is WordPress. This is open source meaning it is configurable and has lots of add ons called plug-ins. For business use definitely consider going self hosted. It allows you to use e-commerce which is banned on the hosted by WordPress option. You need an FTP program like Filezilla to upload files to and from your site. It’s also recommended you use Chrome or Firefox web browsers as these keep up with latest developments and are updated frequently. You may have to buy a theme and domain name for your site or blog. You can use a free theme and I use a theme called Grayzed for most of my blogs but ideally you want something unique and if you use a general theme you should consider configuring it at least to make it look unique. When you come up with a domain name bear in mind there is something like 1,000 different domain extensions available. Obviously the best ones are .com and .net but if your domain name is already in use consider using it with one of these. Often if a domain name is already taken you can often find it for sale although this can be some what expensive. You should avoid getting a domain name and hosting from the same company. You have to consider what is going to happen should you decide to change your host. A dedicated WordPress host is http;//bluehost.com that also has a simplified install for your site. WordPress also officially recommend them. You probably don’t need a dedicated server unless the site is going to be huge. You should aim to have at least 1 GB of space for the site and 5 GB of bandwidth. You may need a mobile theme in addition to take advantage of the number of people visiting on mobile devices. I’ve noticed a lot of advancements are being made in the capabilities of mobile devices and often they don’t do too bad a job of displaying a convential website. WordPress lets you embed video and audio from a wide variety of websites including YouTube and Vimeo. There is also a back up feature and it is a good idea to keep a back up copy of your website which can be cloaked on the host in case of problems. You also need to make sure it is kept upto date with any changes you make.