Do you quickly want to edit an image for your business blog post, but you do not have any app or software to do it. Don’t worry. WP has a tool that lot of people don’t know about. There is not a lot you can do with it, but sometimes that is enough. It can:
Crop images
Scale image size down
Rotate images
Flip images horizontaly or vertically
Most people need the scaling feature, so the images are not huge and download slow, but cropped or scaled to the correct size and download fast.
Edit an image in WP is simple
Let’s take a look at how to properly scale an image in WordPress.
3. Give Your Image a Title
Step by step process of image editing
Add the image to the Media Library.
After added, click to the Eidt Media button at the bottom of the image.
Top editing icons from left to right: Crop, Rotate right, Rotate Left, Flip vertically, Flip horizontally, Undo and Redo.
Image scaling is done with changing the image size in the Dimension area at the right sitebar.
You need to make a selection on the image before the crop icon shows up.
Crop or scale first before inserting the image into the blog post. If you do it after it was inserted into the post, and change the image later, it might not show up correctly.
The image editing tool in WP does not allow drawing or adding text to an image. It is really just very basic.
This Worcester
Historical Museum is the only institution devoted entirely to local history and
artifacts. The scope of their collection ranges from colonial to
twentieth-century, encompassing manuscripts, textiles, paintings, and ceramics.
In 1875, Samuel E. Staples, a
successful grocer and bookkeeper, invited four history devotees to his home at
1 Lincoln Place in Worcester and “…proposed to form a Society for the purpose
of increasing an interest in Archaeological Science, and to rescue from
oblivion such historical matter as would otherwise be lost…” The Worcester
Society of Antiquity was established.
By 1877 the Society was
incorporated with 37 charter members. By the late 1880s, membership had grown
to 160, the library boasted 18,000 titles, and they had assembled 3,000 as of
yet unpublished pages of local history. With the addition of a large and
important collection of books, manuscripts, broadsides, and maps from the
library of Rev. George Allen, a reformer and political activist, the Society
needed a larger home.
In October 1889, Stephen
Salisbury III, founder of the Worcester Art Museum, donated the land at 39
Salisbury Street and $25,000 towards the construction of a new building. The
Worcester Society of Antiquity’s new home was formally opened on June 28, 1892,
and remained the museum’s home for the next 96 years.
In 1919, the members voted to
change their name to the Worcester Historical Society.
In 1978, after another name
change to Worcester Historical Museum, there was a major renovation to the
building’s galleries, and a new emphasis on changing exhibitions. The museum’s
mission, which had gradually become more focused, was now concentrated
exclusively on Worcester history.
In February 1988, the museum
moved to larger quarters at 30 Elm Street. The elegant brick building,
originally built for the Worcester County Horticultural Society, provided
considerably more storage, office, and gallery spaces to support a greater
range of programs.
Today there is one permanent exhibit at the museum in the Fuller Gallery of Industrial History, entitled “In their shirt sleeves.” This collection covers the Industrial history of Worcester. Dealing with a time period spanning over a century, the collection highlights the accomplishment of Worcester locals and the impact their inventions had on the area and beyond. They also have three other exhibit areas that house temporary displays.
Founded
in 1896, the Worcester Art Museum (WAM) has an impressive and unique collection
of more than 38,000 works of art. There are 51 centuries of art and culture at
the Museum.
Visitors to Worcester are often told “you
must see the John Woodman Higgins Armory Collection*.” Another
“don’t miss” is the Wall at WAM mural installed on a
second-story, 67-foot expanse. And
visitors are often quoted as saying “The Renaissance court is
awesome!”
*In
2013, Worcester’s Higgins Armory Museum closed
its doors and its renowned collection of 2,000 arms and armor was integrated
into WAM’s.
WAM
draws many to see its Medieval Chapter House, the Worcester Hunt Mosaic, its 15th-century
Spanish ceiling, and the Flemish Last Judgment tapestry. A more recent
installation is the interactive Reusable Universes and
Organic Concept works by Shi Chieh Huang.
There is art from the ancient Near East and Asia as well European and
American paintings and works by contemporary artists from around the world. John Chandler Bancroft, a wealthy Bostonian, bequeathed more
than 3,000 Japanese prints.
European paintings include Flemish Renaissance paintings, an El Greco, Rembrandt, a room of Impressionist and 20th-century works by Monet, Matisse, Renoir, Gauguin, and Kandinsky. The American painting collection includes works by Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, William Morris Hunt, and Elizabeth Goodridge. In the 20th-century gallery, the Museum has works by Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, and Joan Mitchell. In 1901,
Worcester History
In September 1896, Stephen Salisbury III and a group of his friends founded the
Art Museum Corporation to build an art institution “for the benefit of
all.” Salisbury then gave a tract of land, on what was once the Salisbury
farm, as well as $100,000 to
construct a building designed by Worcester architect Stephen C. Earle. The
museum formally opened in 1898.
In 1905, Stephen Salisbury died and left the bulk of his five million-dollar
estate to the museum.
Between 1932 and 1939, the Worcester Art Museum joined a
consortium of museums and institutions to sponsor expeditions to the
archaeological sites where the city of Antioch once stood. The Antioch mosaics were
split up among the institutions.
On May 17, 1972, the museum suffered a major theft of artwork. Two men wearing masks entered the museum just before closing. The two men stole The Brooding Woman and Head of a Woman by Paul Gauguin, Mother and Child by Pablo Picasso, and St. Bartholomew, attributed to Rembrandt, a collection of works worth over one million dollars.
Worcester Art Museum 55 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA 01609 508-799-4406 www.worcesterart.org
Most future business owners know that they need a website to show that they exist. So they hire a local web designer to build an awesome looking site. A good web designer will have a discovery period when they ask a lot of questions about target customers, current marketing materials.
After a couple of weeks, the website is finished. Done. It looks awesome.
They paid about $5,000 for it, and wait a couple of month to see result. But there is no result. Nobody find and visit the website. So it doesn’t bring in any sales.
So why did the website fail?
There are many small parts needed to build a successful local business. Things like recognizing what clients actually want, how to talk to them, how much to charge, what to sell, and how to sell it in a way that the client wants. And let’s not forget that you also need to figure out where the potential clients are, how to find them, how to present the service, or product to them.
All of these require time and commitment to find out.
These are not things that a website designer can figure out on their own. They do their best to create you an effective website, but you already need a deep understanding of your customers to help develop a website which will really boost and elevate your business.
Once I had a client who knew she needed a website for her business, but when we had the discovery session, she could not tell me how she was going make money off of her site. It was a great idea but was not developed completely, so I referred her to a business coach first, before starting on the website project.
How can you build a website without experience?
There are many different easy to do, DIY website builders out there, some of which you might have heard about already.
I have experience with a couple of them, but not all. Website builders are great for small business owners just starting up and have no budget to hire a website designer for a real custom website. The website templates are nicely designed and can be customized to specific businesses with the addition of images and text.
Even when you’re just starting out, you need a great looking website, otherwise you lose customers. People judge the website and make an assumption of the business based on what they see. So a good looking website is a must but is does not have to cost an arm and a leg.
If you are a little techy and willing to learn, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube how to work with these templates.
What do you need before building a website?
Instead of focusing your energy on the website, focus on more critical tasks:
Get to know your potential customers to understand what problem they really need solved (it might be very different what you thought of before)
Listen what they are really saying and not what you want to hear
Develop your service offer based upon this information
Start promoting your service which will teach you how to communicate with your market, how to convince them to use your product, and so on
Start making money by running your business
A good website works only if your business works.
I am not saying that you do not need web designer, you will later, when you know your business and customers and when you can allocate a budget for a real custom website.
My post ideas comes from issues that my web design clients encountered over the years and they needed help to resolve it.
Website domain name
You buy a domain name once, which you hopefully pay for an extended period of time, say 5 years. You have your website done, your business is growing, the website brings new clients every month and you’re really happy. Then suddenly one day the website is down, not just down but disappeared completely. This could affect your business in a big way. Even one day of your website being down could mean hundreds of customers lost if you have an online store, or perhaps a handful of prospective clients lost if you are in a service business.
How to lose your domain name?
This is a true story, as my posts are always based off of, that happened not once, but a couple of time with different clients. Web design clients paid for the domain for 5 years, and when after 5 years the renewal email was sent from the hosting company, and it ended up in the spam folder, which not many of us check regularly. The result was the loss of their precious domain name.
It is a shock.
It is really bad for any small business online marketing. You built your business around this domain name, it is everywhere. On the business card, brochure, on all the social media accounts, newsletters, online lead generation program depend on it. It is life-line for a business to reach new customers.
When you realize that your domain is not paid, what do you do?
If your domain name is expired, you should immaditaly contact the registrar that provided you domain for possible renewal options available to you.
Not remember where was the domain registered? You may conduct a WHOIS search.
(Good to know that all the registrars have a couple of days grace period. In this period, the domain is reserved for you and you as the previous owner, can renew it up to 10 years. After that most domain names have a redemption period. This period can last from two weeks to 30 days, and, during this time, the current registrant can renew the domain name by paying a redemption fee along with the domain name’s renewal fee. If the redemption period is over, the domain is open for anybody to buy.)
Now, you head back to your domain registration company to renew it, then comes the shock. Somebody already bought the domain you had for 5, 10 or even 15 years! Somebody else now owns your domain!
Previously you paid around $15 a year for the domain, and now you could buy it back for $400 or $3000. What happened?
Recently some companies are jumping to buy used domain names that were not renewed, they just grab it and wait for companies to wake up and ask to buy it back their previous domain name.
But at what price?
Most of the times 10 or 20 times more than the original price was, or even higher depending on how the domain is ranked on Google. There were thousands of visitors per month on your site, then you will be desperate to buy it back for thousands of dollars.
This is what these companies want, don’t let it happen to you and your business.
What should you do so it won’t happen to you?
When you buy your domain name add your domain name renewal in your business calendar. Yes, plan ahead for 5 years, it’s really worth it! In this case, you will be waiting for that renewal email, or just head to the registration website and renew it.
Who can blame solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and small business owners for looking thoroughly at where they spend their marketing dollars? The options seem countless, and some strategies work better than others. Below, I gathered seven free and low-cost ideas for budget-conscious people running their own business that are worth considering.
Cross-promote your products and services with other local businesses
Teaming up with other small businesses provides an opportunity to get bigger exposure to your potential clients. You can combine your resources for promotional materials before an event. Add each other’s logos and send info out to your client list for an extended reach. Successful cross-promotion opportunities can include a co-branded resource booklet, a co-produced informational video, a shared booth at a local fair, and even shared coworking space.
Ask for referrals
Once you’ve been able to show your skills, or sold products and have satisfied customers, it’s time to ask for referrals. Referrals are free to ask and give, so don’t be shy, and take advantage of this resource. People trust other people’s recommendations, and word of mouth is the best marketing.
Start a contest and promote it in all your
online and offline groups
Most of us love playing games or enter challenges, so why not make it fun, and create a contest. You can offer a gift basket of your products, provide tickets to an upcoming event, or raffle a gift card.
Sign up for the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) email list
It’s a less known resource, but it can be a valuable one for you and your business. HARO collects reporter requests from a number of newspapers, magazines, and online media outlets. They’re looking for experts in different topics to quote and contribute. Imagine what it would mean to your business if you get exposed in a national magazine. It might require some due diligence to keep your eyes out for the opportunity in your area of expertise, and several submissions before yours gets accepted.
Add or claim your business on Google My Business
This is an untapped marketing opportunity for many still. Even though Google + went away, claiming your business and filling out as many details as you can will get you visibility on Google. You can also post here on a regular basis to increase traffic on your website, or on Google Maps. There are rumors that Google My Business will become a paying option, so take advantage of it while it’s free.
Plan a local business workshop
Depending on your marketing goal, you can offer it free, or charge a small fee. At the very least, you can collect contact info from people new to you. You may want to use this opportunity to talk up another event or promote your products or services.
Advertise on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram
You can expect more engagement
and brand recognition if you include paid campaigns in your social media
efforts. A well-designed and targeted ad is still very reasonable compared to
magazine or TV ads. Choose the appropriate platform depending on the type of
your business. You can expect most success on LinkedIn if you serve other
businesses, Instagram if you run a creative business, like jewelry, and other
art. Facebook ads target most other potential clients.
Even if you run a small business or a part-time side business, there are countless opportunities to market what you have to offer. Explore some of these options or find your own perfect fit.
Monika Anderson is an entrepreneur and a small business marketing specialist based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. She started her own digital marketing agency in 2016, called Kameleon Digital Marketing. She serves clients in the IT, travel, health and wellness, finance, and banking industries. She enjoys exploring new marketing ideas and has a passion to guide small business owners through the intricacies of online marketing.
Skincare Studio approached Turek Design to re-design their website. Their website was full of broken images, links and didn’t flow very well. This was in contrast to the beauty facility that they have in downtown Hopkinton, MA. We completed this spa website design in 4 weeks. We recommended buying a domain name with location info in it, as skincare studio was already taken. We used the colors of their logo – purple and lavender – for all the elements of their website.
Their website homepage features the owner and the main spa services in addition to the variety of quality product she carries. The spa website design process was focused on using the bright, clean photos and product images and an easy and fast online booking feature.
After completing the spa website design, SkinCare Studio works with Turek Design for maintaining the website.
Amazon, eBay, Angie’s List, Google, Facebook …. So many opportunities where customers can talk about your businesses and their positive or negative experiences with your services, products or customer care. We live in a world where online reviews are a significant influence as to where we spend our money and whom we trust with our wallet. Ninety percent of customers say they check online reviews and their decisions are influenced by what they read.
Have a place where you can be reviewed
First things first. If you want to generate online reviews you must provide at least one platform to send customers where they can post their opinions. If you want to generate Google reviews, you have to have a Google Business Panel for your business.
Check to see if you already have one or create one, if needed. If you have one that Google automatically generated, “claim it” and that will give your access to many different business tools, including one to ask for and receive (and answer) reviews.
Many 3tr party review websites generate their own records automatically. You must claim the account to make ensure you have the ability to edit the address, phone number, service descriptions, and answer the reviews, etc.
Among the best review sites are: Google, Yelp, Merchant Circle, YellowPages, LinkedIn, TripAdvisor, BBB, Manta.
Where do you want to collect your reviews?
This is the key question for your business. You have to determine where your prospective clients are looking for your service. For a local gift shop probably the best option is Google, but for an adventure park TripAdvisor would be the best.
Once you have identified where you want your reviews to be left, copy the link to your account. This way, you will be able to provide this link when asking for a new review, reducing the time and effort of your clients to find the correct account in order to provide you with great feedback.
How to get more reviews?
If somebody had a bad experience, it is highly likely they will complain about that service. Unfortunately, if they receive great service, they are less inclined to have a shout out for that business. Sadly – this is our society.
It is key to ask for reviews, not just wait for good reviews to happen.
Some businesses have an automated way to collect online reviews but most do not.
If you are in a business where you are able to collect your client’s email addresses, you should send an email with the link to seek their feedback. Like this: Turek Design Review Link
The easier you make it for people to leave customer reviews, the more likely they are to leave one.
The best time to ask for a review is when the value of what you’ve delivered to the customer is at the top of their mind, making it easy for them to write a timely and honest review.
That could mean:
When the project hit a milestone
When you send your invoice and reinforce the value of doing business with you
When they’ve contacted you with positive feedback
What is a really good review?
The best reviews are not generic, like ”Great service, I will be back next month”.
The best ones are detailed and specific. ”Monika came to our home to help my husband and I improve website optimization for our individual companies. I wanted to get her opinion about what I could do better on my website to get more visibility online. We met and she taught me what to change, and how to make my site more google friendly. In a 90-minute session, there was a lot of great information and clarification on how I could manage my website better. It was convenient, very specific to our needs and was just want we needed. I would recommend her highly! „
Dealing with negative reviews
The flip side of asking people to provide an online review? The possibility of receiving negative feedback. In most cases, you shouldn’t be surprised at occasional negative reviews, as you simply can’t please everyone. Don’t be afraid. Consider them an opportunity to show more of your business. When a negative review come in, you should handle it as you would handle the person face to face.
As soon as you read the negative review answer it. Be prompt.
Be polite and professional.
Let the customer tell their story.
Figure out who this person is and what the complaint is about. You or your coworker might remember the situation.
You should acknowledge that you read the comment and you are ready to do something about it.
Try to resolve the issue quickly, if possible.
Get to the bottom of why the mistake occurred; focus on fixing the process so that it does not happen again.
Your interaction below a negative comment can show your customer service and can be a great opportunity to gain more clients.
Don’t forget to also acknowledge the positive feedback and thank the reviewer.
Google Business Listing is very important for reviews and also for showing up in the searches. GMB is getting more and more complicated and offer more features than ever before. We help business owners to optimize and verify they business listings.
Summary
Getting people to provide an online review of your business may be challenging but it is a rewarding process.
Did you know that you can optimize your images for SEO? That means you can use your images to help improve your search engine ranking. Unfortunately, small business owners, who update they website regularly with blog or new content aren’t aware of this and are missing out on getting free traffic from Google.
So what exactly is website SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is the process of optimizing your content so that you get organic traffic to your blog from search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.
I know SEO is confusing. It covers so many different steps that most people do not understand.
The tips I’m sharing with you today are extremely easy to implement.
1. Change your file name
I know that it is easy just to upload your pictures from your phone with the name like “20180310_143742.jpg”, or if you buy images from stock websites, like Depositphotos.com, “Depositphotos_156590_original.jpg”. But it does not help Google at all to know anything about the image on your website. The images on your site talk about the content of the site as well. When saving your image to your computer, give it a descriptive file name.
2. Give Your Images Alt Text (Alternative Text)
If you upload a picture of a green backyard to your blog, it’s clear to you and your readers that the image is a backyard.
However, search engines can’t actually see your images, so they use your alternative text (alt text) to determine what the image is about.
To edit your images alt text, in your media library in WordPress (Media > Library), click on your image, and place a short description of the image in the “alt text” box.
3. Give Your Image a Title
Never keep the images default title (such as 20180310_143742) when uploading images to your website. If you saved your image with a descriptive file name, you can use that as Title.
For example, if saving an image of “children_at_backyard.jpg”, you can name the image “children_at_backyard”.
To name your image title in WordPress, go to your media library (Media > Library), click on the image, and insert your title in the title box.
4. Pay Attention to Image Size
Your website load time also contributes to your SEO ranking. Keep your blog speed up by re-sizing your images. WordPress has a couple of option to resize your images.
You can upload to your site and in the Media Library click on the Edit image button and use the side options to scale your image to a web-friendly site. 2000px width is OK for a heard image, but if your image is just part of a page and take only the half of a website width, keep it around 700px.
You can also crop and flip images in WP, and cropping can also help to reduce the size issue. There are also Plugins to resize your images.
At the end, or maybe at the beginning check out how fast your website download and where Google Speed Test find some issue.
A client needed a Google verification, because she moved her business to a different town. Google business listing still showed the old location, and for a small business it is really important that it shows the correct info. We went through the process how to ask google for a new mail verification. And we waited, 1 week, 2 weeks, nothing. We requested a second post card verification and nothing arrived. It was weird, never happened to any of my clients before. So I suggested to contact the GMB ( Google My Business) and request a Video Verification to show her location is not fake.
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Have a place where you can be reviewed
