“Global e-commerce has grown by 13% each of the last five years.”

Wow. Where else in the economy, especially in the past few years, do you see growth at a 13% clip year over year? Answer: Nowhere. The upshot is that “As online sales skyrocket in developing markets, an online presence is a low-risk way to test new markets and complement existing store footprints.”

So yes, e-commerce is hot and maybe even better, fairly easy and affordable to get into. The other cool thing is that, not only does it allow you to sell more locally, but e-commerce also offers you the ability to sell 24/7 all over the world.

iDesigns Solutions offers several WordPress e-commerce options for small business owners looking to get into e-commerce or enhance and improve their current e-commerce solution. We recently launched a WordPress e-commerce website that offers

• UPS integration;
• coupon generation;
• wholesale pricing; and
• country specific shipping and ordering.

Those are just a few of the extensions and plugins available for WordPress e-commerce websites, which means you can tailor your site to your business needs as well as the needs of your online customers.

Contact iDesigns Solutions today for a free consultation to discuss your e-commerce needs and receive a free price quote.

Read the full article on USAToday.com, Ask an Expert: E-commerce 101 for entrepreneurs

Who are you?

Your business name and/or logo should be in a highly visible place on your site (most likely the header of your WordPress site) and it should be in the same place as visitors click through pages on your site.

What do you do?

Along with your branded logo and business name, visitors should be able to distinguish what your business does by glancing at your site. Whether you choose to simply state what you do in a subtitle (see the four short services paragraphs on our homepage with read more links) or portray it through design and imaging (such as a rotating slider with custom banners), visitors shouldn’t be left questioning what exactly it is your business does after viewing your site for a few short seconds.

Why are you good at it?

Next, visitors to your WordPress site should be able to easily see why you’re good at what you do. This plays into the credibility of your site as well as your brand in general.

• Do you have an impressive portfolio?
• Have you received prestigious awards?
• Do you have outstanding testimonials from previous customers?

Whatever it is that proves why your visitor should choose your business over your competitor should be easily visible on your site.

Where are you?

If a visitor is convinced by your credibility, they then most likely want to know if your business, product or service is easily accessible. If you are a local business, make sure your contact info is clearly visible on the homepage and accessible on your site subpages (we have ours in the header). If visitors can access your product or service online, make sure they can distinguish that immediately.

Also include links to your social media profiles in a visible place on the site. We’ve converted facebook leads into sales, so don’t miss out on this opportunity.

What do I need to do next?

A strong call to action is a key factor for any successful site. After all, without a strong call to action, how can you get your visitors to engage in your business? A strong call to action should be visible on more than just one area of your home page.

Is your WordPress website missing any of these features? Check out our three WordPress Website Packages and see which one best fits your current web needs. iDesigns Solutions can help you improve your WordPress site design and messaging to ensure its converting as many visitors as possible into new leads and customers.

Article source: Epic Marketing – 5 Questions Your Site Should Answer in 5 Seconds

Susan Hamilton

To customize her new WordPress website, we brought in touches of the greens and blues in her logo and did a dark wood background to give the site a rustic and welcoming feel.

Some great features of Susan’s site – which come standard in our WordPress Theme Package – are the blog, events calendar and scrolling testimonials.

As an add-on feature, Susan opted for the lite e-commerce package so customers can purchase her services directly on the site. Another feature we added to Susan’s individual services pages are the call-to-action graphics. These call-to-actions bring attention to the “Book Now” option on her pages.

The iDesigns’ WordPress Theme Package is a great option for business owners in need of a website without spending a fortune on a custom design. Contact us today to get started!

People are buying only one thing from you – the way the engagement (hiring you, working with you, learning from you, using your product or service, etc.) makes them FEEL. And the only way to be considered awesome is to earn a piece of valuable real estate in your potential clients’ hearts and minds.

We are inundated on a daily basis with more information that our brains can possibly handle. In order to stand out and be memorable, you’ve got to make an emotional connection, using your passion, personality and personal story.

Here are the seven keys that will move you from just alright, to downright awesome:

1. CLARITY: You’ve got to get crystal clear about your WHO, WHAT, WHY and HOW. If you aren’t clear about who you are, who is your target market, what you offer and the value you provide, how can you expect your ideal client to be clear about you, and most importantly, buy from you?
2. CONFIDENCE: In every moment and in every interaction you are teaching others how to treat you and how to interact with you, and whether they should view you as a leader or a follower. If you make a conscious choice to be at the top, then ultimately, that’s what you’re going to get.
3. CONVERSATION: Effective communication is not a one way street – it’s a conversation, a back and forth, a natural flow. What works now is engagement, not the megaphone approach. Engage, ask questions, give examples, tell stories, show genuine interest and ignite a relationship.
4. CONTENT: One of the best ways, hands down, to position yourself as an authority is to create and repurpose great content that your target audience finds valuable. Notice that I didn’t write what YOU find valuable. Remember, it’s not about you. You have to create content that your potential clients actually want to consume and consider valuable. When you consistently create and distribute valuable content , you create a perception of value in the eyes of your target market.
5. CONNECTION: In the online marketplace, it can be easy to get trapped behind a monitor and keyboard. You have to remember that business is about people, not numbers. It’s about relationships, not computers. In our rapidly evolving business environment, the entrepreneurs who are going to thrive are the ones who engage their clients and build long-term relationships.  So get out there and develop your cheerleading squad, refer business to others, join a group and create joint venture partnerships.
6. CARE: How much are you showing you care about your clients and potential clients? Most brands have only one intention: to sell their product or service. This puts you at a HUGE advantage if you spend some time showing your community how much you care. As we all know, great customer service is rare.
7. CONSISTENCY: Does what you say, post, tweet etc. align with your brand? Is what comes out of your mouth consistent with how you dress, how you interact with others and what’s on your website? Branding should be a part of your DNA. Everything you do – every phone call, meeting, blog post, social engagement and personal interaction – is a unique representation of YOU.

The foundation of an Awesome Brand is built on these seven C’s.  You are unique. You do have something important to offer. And whether you help ten or ten thousand people, being an Awesome Brand allows you to MOVE people in a much more compelling way.

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Liz Dennery Sanders wants you to build your brand with style. As the CEO of Dennery Marks Inc., a brand development and celebrity outreach firm, she founded SheBrand, to help female entrepreneurs build powerful personal brands, attract more clients and position themselves as authorities in their industries. You can reach her directly at info@shebrand.com or www.shebrand.com.

Why backup your Database files so often? Did you know that with a WordPress site all your content is stored in a Database, unlike an html/css/jquery site where your files are just static html files?

So what does this mean to you, you ask? Think of it as a safety net if your server gets hacked or, in one instance, we actually had a client’s host accidentally delete their account. If this was to happen to you on our WordPress Maintenance Package, we would be able to quickly get your database back installed and up and running. We even backup your wp-content folder. This is important because this folder holds your WordPress theme (the actual design of your site), uploads folder (all your images/media files) and of course your plugins.

So to recap: We backup the Database, WordPress files and even do updates quarterly for all plugins and WordPress version.

So the question is are you rolling the dice on your business? Do you have a backup plan in place in case of something bad happening? If not, you should really contact iDesigns today, so we can get all this taken care of for you. If you don’t contact us, then please try and get something in place as a just in case…

• Widget with complete bio
• Most popular widget or currently trending photos on Instagram
• Your latest photos widget with a neat lightbox effect

Here’s an example of the latest photos widgets from one our clients:

Contact iDesigns if you are interested in adding an Instagram Photo Stream to your WordPress site! We can get it up and running today!

Well, iDesigns has a new WordPress Maintenance Plan that will allow us to go in and do monthly backups on all your WordPress files to include images, content, plugins and, yes, even database. We will also update all plugins and WordPress versions every quarter, so your custom WordPress website will stay up-to-date with latest patches and security measures to provide that extra security, so in the event that something did happen we could easily get everything back up and running.  Got a content-heavy site? Weekly back-ups are also available.

What the WordPress Maintenance Plan Includes:

Oh, and all backups are stored on our external drives, so even if something happens with the hosting company – no worries! We could get you up and running on our hosting plan and you would be back in business in no time. Don’t wait until something happens to get this plan. Get it now and save yourself the headache of the what-ifs.

Get in touch with us now to find out how to get started. We will provide you with a quote based on your WordPress theme.

Having good-quality external links also makes your site stand out a little bit more than your competitor.

What are ways to increase my incoming links?

1. List your website on reputable business directories which organize listings by location and/or industry type. Some we recommend are Yelp, Manta and YellowPages. Sometimes a quick Google search for “your industry + online business directory” yields some great, free directories that you can submit your site to.
2. Have a friend whose blog content relates to yours? Ask to link share with her by adding a link to her blog from your site and vice-versa.
3. Update your social media profiles with the link to your website. Social media is another really big indicator of how your website is viewed by others on the internet. If there is a lot of hype, chat or discussions about your website, then you are on your way to becoming an area of interest for the search engines too. Plus, many social media profiles are now returned in search results.

Check out this article by Inspired Magazine for more SEO Tips.

Looking for a company to kick-start your SEO efforts? Read about our SEO Start-up Package and then contact us to get started today!

Many of our clients have started a blog using another platform, but want to incorporate the blog into their website so they don’t have to update multiple sites – and oh, how that helps with SEO!

As part of our development process, we import their WordPress.com blog into the Open Source CMS WordPress.  Then, we migrate all the content from their static website into their new custom WordPress website. Now, you have a dynamic site with a built-in blog that is ready to start marketing your company, products and services. Oh, did I mention the SEO benefits of having it all in one place?!

Also…did you know iDesigns offers free website consultations? You can ask us all of your burning questions about creating a new site or moving your current site into WordPress. Contact us today to make your appointment!