These days, a good many of the new sites I create use the Thesis theme for WordPress. It’s so easy to install and use that even WordPress newbies swiftly learn to manage their own sites. But there are a few simple, free, essential plugins that make Thesis (affiliate link) work even better. Here they are.

Help Google Crawl Your Site

Google XML Sitemaps. This plugin automatically creates a continuously updated XML sitemap that helps searchbots crawl your site and gives you better search results. Every time you add a page to your blog or site, it’s automatically added to the XML sitemap. If you want, you can also register the sitemap’s URL with Google at Google’s Webmaster Central and with Yahoo to get tons of helpful information about how your site is crawled.

Keep the Hits from Your Old URLs

Redirection. Unless you’re starting a brand-new site totally from scratch, you had an old site before your WordPress Thesis site. That old site was probably around for awhile and garnered at least a little bit of SEO mojo. But now all your URLs are different because you’ve deleted all your old pages in favor of your brand-new spiffy Thesis pages. Ever wonder what happens to all the old links—including search engine links—that went to those old pages? Without some kind of redirection, they’re all lost. And anyone who finds a link and clicks through gets nothing but a “page not found” error. Which is not exactly the ideal welcome.

With Redirection, you don’t have to lose all the clicks and search results that your old pages may still be generating. Just paste all your old URLs into the windows the plugin provides. Then, for each URL, paste in the new URL that you want to send your visitor to instead. Now, visitors are seamlessly and invisibly directed from your old URLs to your new ones, without your losing any rankings. It’s quick, simple, easy, and solves a real problem without any hassle.

Choose What Pages Sidebar Content Shows Up On

Widget Logic. My fave. With old html sites, it could be a challenge to get every page to look uniformly the same. Some table or div tag would always act up just when you least wanted it to. With WordPress and other CMS sites, the challenge is the opposite: how to get pages to look different from each other; how to relieve the terrible monotony of a site-wide template and put relevant content just where it needs to be, rather than all over.

Here’s the answer. With Widget Logic, you can control which pages any given widget will appear on. Want your article list on your blog post pages, but not on your “Services” page? Simple. Want an ad to appear on certain posts or pages, and not on others? Simple. In the interests of full disclosure, I do have to say that you need to look up, and paste in, the appropriate WordPress conditional tag. But the intimidation factor is way bigger than the reality of doing it. In about 20 seconds you can impress yourself by using PHP tags… and you don’t have to actually know any PHP. Awesome! (There’s also a YouTube video tutorial.)

WordPress Database Backup

WordPress Database Backup. Would you like a daily or weekly backup of your WordPress database (that’s where all your content is stored) delivered automatically to your email inbox? Trust me, you would. Well, you should. This plugin does it.

Best of luck, and happy Thesis-ing!

Do you want an up-to-date web site with the latest super-cool techie bell or whistle? Don’t we all?  And WordPress: it’s so contemporary, versatile and inexpensive. So, pick a theme already, and get to it! (A WordPress “theme” is the design template that determines layout, type, color, etc. for your content.)

But wait a sec. I’ve found that there are huge differences among themes, differences that are invisible until you start working with them. Choosing a sloppily constructed one, or one that isn’t updated, can be an expensive mistake. Here’s how to pick the right one.

Premium (Paid), or Free Theme?

There are thousands of free WordPress themes. For a long time, all themes were free. And some of the free ones have problems. Issues I’ve encountered include:

• Themes that “broke” when I upgraded WordPress
• Coding so sloppy that basic customization was a humongous job
• Standard features that didn’t work

This being said, if you have simply a plain-vanilla blog, or simple blog plus a few static pages, and you don’t need a custom look, many free themes will work just fine. A good place to start looking for good free themes is the WordPress site:

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/

But if you’re planning a more complex site—for example, you need a content management system (CMS), a magazine- or newspaper-style front page featuring many items, an e-store, a digital portfolio, a real estate site, or a photoblog, selecting a theme is much tougher. You need a specialty theme which has the appropriate features already built into it from the start. For these more specialized and complex sites, as well as for any site that will require extensive customization, I would tend to look at a premium theme first.

Premium Themes

It took me a long time to warm up to the idea of paid premium themes. Now I’m a convert. Most premium themes are cleanly coded, work well, and are regularly updated. Prices generally run from $20 to $80 or so for single-site use. Some wonderful themes I’ve worked with come from:

Ithemes: specialized premium themes including magazine, real estate, ecommerce and online gallery/portfolio (I have used several of these themes and am an iThemes affiliate)

Themeforest: many well-designed specialty themes, updated at the discretion of their authors.

Woothemes: many magazine- and news-style themes, with support. (I have worked with several of these am an affiliate.)

The Market Theme: one of the top paid premium theme specially designed for ecommerce (I am an affiliate). (For more on ecommerce and WordPress, see my article “Ecommerce: How to Choose the Best Shopping Cart for Your Site.”)

Theme Frameworks

Recently, “theme frameworks” have come on the scene. These are basic themes which offer the ability to customize the design using more mouseclicks than actual code. (Here’s a somewhat technical intro with a discussion of the pros and cons of each major framework:  including some that are not mentioned here.) So, they’re highly adaptable to your particular purpose, and suffer few update problems. Three of the most popular theme frameworks are

Carrington (free)
Thematic (free)
Thesis (paid premium)
ThemeHybrid (free)

Thesis, for example, allows you to have either a magazine-style home page, a conventional blog page with either 2 or 3 columns, or a simple static home page, with a few mouse clicks and no programming at all.

End Theme Overwhelm!

There are thousands of gorgeous themes out there, and it’s easy to fall into overwhelm unless you have a plan. Here’s how.

• First, know what features you need in your theme and cannot compromise on.
• Then, troll for templates that already have all or most of those features, designed by reputable sources with a good track record in providing working themes.

You’ll end up with a handful—or maybe just one or two—themes which offer the features you’re looking for. At this point, cost might be a deciding factor. Or you may want to experiment among the themes on your short list to find the one that works best for you. Don’t sweat the final decision. If you’ve done your homework, any of the themes on your list will make you happy and serve you well for a long time.

Have you ever chosen a theme that broke? That you love? I’d love to hear your experiences.

If you’re a sole proprietor just starting a new venture, you may not want to pay a designer for a custom web site—especially when you can test your market, concept, and business model with little or no investment of time and money. Here are some web site options that can get your site up and running fast, with no stress about time or cost.

Some require that you already have a domain name ($10) and a web hosting account ($4 to $5 per month); some are self-hosted and totally free.

Free Downloadable Web Site Templates

Do a quick search on any major search engine and you’ll find thousands of free site templates, many of them quite good looking and well constructed. Caveats? Read the terms of service—some require a link back to the site or template author. You’ll need some basic html knowledge in order to input your content and upload the finished files to your web host.

Use Your Web Host’s Free Site Templates

Many web hosts, including Godaddy.com and Yahoo, offer free web templates. You purchase a low-cost hosting plan, then pick a pre-designed template that most closely matches your business. Customize it using built-in or downloadable tools, and voila, there’s your web site. You don’t need to know anything about coding or html. True, you don’t have total and absolute control over the appearance of your site. But it’s quick, and it’s cheap.

Free Google Sites & Blogs

Google offers a totally free online site-building tool and hosting service. You don’t need any expertise whatsoever, you don’t need to pay one dime, and you can use these sites for business and commercial purposes. You can have your own site up in half an hour, no technical knowledge required. Check them out at sites.google.com. Remember to read the terms of service, privacy, and policies pages.

Planning a blog? Google also offers a free blogging service, blogger.com. Your own very attractively customized blog can be online in five minutes.

More Totally Free Site Services

Check out the free services out there, like GoGoPin, or blogging guru Seth Godin’s Squidoo (single-page sites called “lenses,” that gather information on a particular topic, product, project, or business), or the free start-your-own-social-network site, Ning. (Again, always read the terms of service and privacy policies. Be aware that a free, hosted site service offered by a brand-new company may or may not be a long-lived endeavor.)

WordPress for Web Sites, Blogs, Ecommerce and Membership Sites

WordPress was originally developed as a free, open-source blogging platform. It has evolved into a powerful site tool that’s used by major newspapers, universities and businesses—and it’s still free.

WordPress is not the simplest option out there, but it is the most scalable. Starting with a simple one-click template, you can later evolve your site into an extremely sophisticated and powerful system. WordPress allows you to start small and end up big, without ever having to change platforms or portage your content from one interface to another.

WordPress.org offers free downloads to install on your own domain. Many web hosts (including my favorite, Westhost) also offer free, one-click installation.

WordPress.com offers free, hosted blog sites on their domain.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect

The web is not a permanent medium. It encourages flexibility and experimentation. Yes, you can get started now, on a shoestring! A very short shoestring. Or even no string at all. Your site isn’t perfect? That really doesn’t matter, because it will continue to change as you learn and grow. Sometimes it just makes sense to begin simply, even when you’re aiming high.

Do you have your own free site source, comment, or experience to share? Please join the discussion.

I just read a speculative article on Mashable.com about Apple’s rumored tablet computer … a light, slim, Kindle-like standalone screen that could be drawing tablet, computer, internet browser and e-reader rolled into one. Maybe phone, camera, videocam, ipod and bread-slicer as well. It’s exciting as hell, but also maddening, isn’t it? Trying to keep up with new technology, I mean.

There’s the coolness factor, of course. (I tell myself frequently that this should be a minor consideration.) Closely related to coolness, for me anyway, is the little-kid-loves-colored-lights phenomenon. And then there’s the money thing. Can this gadget/software/etc. help you make more money? As a businessperson, does it help untether you from the many demands of running your own show? Make your life easier? Allow you to do things you never did before?

Some technologies entirely transform the way business is done. The web itself, for example, back in the early ’90s. People who figured out how to use it, early and well, made a ton of money. Remember Netscape? Ebay? Paypal? Google’s IPO? The founders of these now-giants cleaned up. And many of the early adopters, like the ones who figured out how to sell things on eBay while the rest of us were barely cranking up our copies of Netscape 1.0, also made fortunes.

This is still going on today—the revolutionaries and the early adopters reap amazing benefits. Then the rest of us straggle along trying to imitate their success. And eventually, that early success turns into a formula which others try to sell. Take blogging, for example. We’re not all Chris Garrett, or Darren Rowse. But how many of us have bought e-book after e-book, trying to make our blogs as successful and profitable as theirs?

I call this the Magic Ticket Syndrome. I would love to find a Magic Ticket to instant fortune and prosperity. Wouldn’t you? Innumerable folks find their own Magic Ticket by selling what purports to be your Magic Ticket to a profitable online business or blog—getting rich through publicizing your business/product/site/self, or being on national TV, or writing killer landing pages, etc. etc. I’ve got at least a dozen of these things in a “to read” folder on my desktop. I’ll bet you do too.

And then sometimes a technology comes along that really can help your business. For example, a client of mine manages vacation rental properties. Yet she herself could never travel, particularly during the summer, because of the logistics of collecting rents and deposits from renters and potential renters. A typical web-based shopping cart wouldn’t work for her, because her payment amounts always varied according to which property was being rented, for how long, in what season, how many people, etc.

Solution? I researched online invoicing software and services, and after extensive testing, suggested an online invoicing software called FreshBooks. Now, my client and her potential renters come to an agreement on dates and location, she emails a link to a custom invoice, and the renter pays online via credit card before arrival. No more checks, no more hassles with foreign exchange. And for her, no more being stuck in the office.

After seeing how smoothly FreshBooks worked for my client, I gave it a whirl in my web development business. I used to hate invoicing. Hate it. I’d procrastinate weeks before sending out my old MS Word invoice template. This handy little tool, however, makes invoicing—dare I say it? Not only easy, but almost pleasurable. And, it offers value-added statistics that I used to have to track in a separate Excel spreadsheet. So now my invoices get sent out on time and my cash flow has improved. Simple, huh? (In fact, in the interests of full disclosure, FreshBooks’ proven track record, speed, reliability, and responsive support have met all my stiff affiliate criteria. So yes, I am a FreshBooks affiliate and will make a minuscule amount of money if you click these links and decide to become a paying customer.)

I came across another business using this technology in a different way. WPhelpcenter.com offers technical problem-solving services for WordPress site developers. You describe your WordPress issue or glitch over the phone, they ask some questions, then give you an estimate. If you decide to have them do the work, an email with a FreshBooks invoice link appears in your inbox a few minutes later. As soon as you’ve paid, the guys at wphelpcenter are ready to start working. Again, simple.

Is this bit of technology a Magic Ticket? Nope. But does it enable business owners to be happier and more productive? Yes and yes, for my property manager client and for me. Does it elegantly facilitate a web-based business model that might otherwise be unfeasible? In the case of WPhelpcenter.com, yes.

Invoicing software isn’t exactly super-cool. Nor does it totally revolutionize the way business is done. But it’s useful. And it’s just one of dozens or hundreds of such products that appear with astounding regularity these days. How can we possibly keep track of them all, let alone figure out which ones will truly be helpful, let alone transformative, in our particular business?

March 2010 postscript: I’ve started a free weekly tips sheet to–one usable, bottom-line-enhancing tech tip per week. Sign up here: http://creatingwebsuccess.com/free-stuff/

And if you’d like to go one better, and give your business and your bottom line a shot in the arm of motivation, inspiration, and practical steps you can take right now to jumpstart your business, check out my new product, 99 Ways to Use Social Media and the Web to Grow Your Business, Reach More Clients, Sell More Products and Services, Make More Money, Make Your Life Easier, and Change The World!

So let’s forget the coolness factor for the moment. Is there a new piece of software or technology that helps your business work better, differently, more easily? I’d love to hear about it.

Do you wonder how to start a web site—whether you should hire an expensive designer, or use one of the off-the-shelf template systems that promise an “overnight site”? It’s a decision that can paralyze people before they even begin their business. And many clients have come to me some ways down the road, realizing they made the wrong choice and their business is suffering for it. When you’re just starting out, how do you know what kind of web platform to choose?

Is your vision modest, or ambitious?

One business owner I work with, Jim, runs a huge web site selling workshops, e-books, audio downloads, hard copy books and DVD packages. This site is the source of most of Jim’s income. But three years in, Jim found his template too restrictive, even though he spent a lot of money to customize its look at the beginning. Updating the store was very tricky (one expert Jim hired accidentally brought the whole site down for a week), and expensive. Jim felt frustrated that he couldn’t easily create custom landing and sales pages for co-branded products and events he was developing with colleagues. He couldn’t “escape” his template. What could Jim do to make his site work better for him?

Another client, Deborah, is a bodyworker with a large long-time clientele. Deborah, unlike Jim, simply wanted a place to display her office info, briefly explain her techniques and philosophy, and announce special workshops from time to time. She has no merchandise to sell, nor is she interested in developing any. Ever! Deborah sought a very simple web presence with zero maintenance. Does she need to pay a designer for a totally custom site?

Do you have the budget for major changes?

Jim’s livelihood depends upon developing products based on his expertise, and selling them online. After I started working with Jim, we decided to migrate his entire site to a custom Dreamweaver-based design which, along with 1shoppingcart, allows for a unique look, and relatively easy updating and alteration.

The ubiquity of the platform means that anyone who knows html and CSS can easily modify his site. As his needs evolve, he’s not stuck forever with one design, or one designer. In the long run, this new setup saves Jim money and gives him the flexibility his business needs in order to grow. However, the time and expense of porting the whole site over could have been avoided, had Jim known the restrictions of his original choice.

Deborah, on the other hand, knows herself, her clients and her business—and she knows she’s not going to going to need more than a “brochure” web site. We set Deborah up with a simple WordPress template whose blogging platform offers a quick and easy way for her to announce special events and workshops without knowing anything about web technology. She isn’t likely to outgrow this site for many years… but if she ever does, the WordPress platform offers enough flexibility for her very small site that a complete “redesign” will be neither time-consuming, nor expensive. This is a good decision for her.

Are you particular about color, layout, look, branding?

Another client, Terry, wanted a masculine, professional look for his business consulting site. Terry is a do-it-yourselfer who’s often in a hurry. To create his first site, he purchased a template package which included a number of design and color selections, one of which matched the look he wanted. However, after spending six hours one afternoon trying to figure out how to position an image in precise alignment with the text on a page, Terry called me in frustration. It took me another hour to determine that the package Terry purchased didn’t allow the fine level of control that Terry was after.

Terry had made an impulsive decision, which, luckily, didn’t cost much money. However, it cost him a good deal of time before determining that he needed a more customizable platform. For many of us small business owners, time is the most precious commodity of all.

Which brings me to the last question.

Do you have the desire or expertise to modify and update your own site?

If not, is the expertise required to help you change your site widely available, or is your platform so unique or “techie” that you’ll have to either find a super-specialist, or pay someone for their learning curve? This happened to a client, Thomas, who bought an expensive blogging system which did everything he needed, and offered lots of flexibility. But, you had to be a programmer to run it!

Thomas is not a programmer, and he discovered too late that unfortunately, experts on his platform are few and far between. Thomas couldn’t make simple changes himself, so he procrastinated on his updates and got way behind what his active mind was able to dream up. His income was suffering from the limitations of his web platform.

After Thomas and I began working together, we migrated Thomas’ site to a WordPress platform, with a custom design. Thomas now happily does all his own modifications and updates, and is quick to take advantage of the latest plugins to add cutting-edge functionality to his site.

The best of both worlds

For many years, a custom Dreamweaver site was the gold standard of small business web design. However with the explosion of database-driven content management software, this is no longer the case.

Open-source blogging and content management software such as WordPress and Joomla have matured to the point where they offer the best of both worlds: flexible design platforms, plus the ease of ready-made templates (which exist by the thousands).

You don’t need to be a blogger to take advantage of these systems. These days, more designers are working largely, if not exclusively, in CMS systems like WordPress to create ordinary business and ecommerce sites as well as blogs. And if you’re a do-it-yourselfer, these systems let you handle a lot of your own updates without needing to know any code at all.

So what should you do?

If you need a small, quick, inexpensive site which you don’t expect to grow—and you aren’t fussy, or really like a ready-made template design—go with an inexpensive template system. There are very simple WordPress templates for small business sites, as well as many available from reliable providers like Yahoo Stores and GoDaddy.

If you’ve got, or plan to have, a large, unique, and constantly changing site which makes money from merchandise, and you have no interest in doing any updates or maintenance yourself, a fully customized site, whether using a CMS/blogging system or not, will give you the flexibility you need in order to grow. Hire a designer and get to it!

Finally, if you’re a do-it-yourselfer with big ambitions but starting on a shoestring, a WordPress site is the perfect choice.

The question I am asked more than any other is how to choose a shopping cart. It can be an intimidating decision, because there are such differences in price, capabilities, and setup. And, the wrong cart can seriously cut into your sales. So, after working on hundreds of sites, here are my simple guidelines to help you find a cart that will do everything you need, as easily, flexibly and affordably as possible.

There are five types of carts I’ll mention: template-based carts, all-in-one services, free carts used with Paypal or Google Checkout, WordPress carts, and last but not least, my favorite and most recommended carts.

1. Template-based carts

Yahoo Stores, Miva Merchant, Shopify and Zen Cart are some of the most popular, although there are dozens, if not hundreds out there. To actually collect money, these carts usually require you to have an Internet-enabled merchant account, and a payment gateway such as Authorize.Net, Payflow or CyberSource. For the merchant account and gateway, you’ll pay a small percentage of sales (1.5% or so to upwards of 5% depending on your credit rating), plus a fixed per-item sales charge (usually $0.25 to $0.35), plus a gateway fee—in addition to the purchase price of the cart.

Many people are very happy using these template systems. However, I tend to feel they’re not worth the time and trouble. First, being template-based, designing the appearance of a store using these carts can be a real pain. If you’re particular about the look, feel, and layout of your store, you’ll tear your hair out in frustration again and again… and still not have it looking ‘right.’ Second, because your store is tied to a template, you’re pretty much wedded to this cart for the foreseeable future. Locking yourself in can feel like a costly mistake once a cheaper, better technology comes along. And finally the killer: I find the entire system to be too costly for low-volume or novice sellers.

2. All-in-one carts-plus-payment-collection

For example, 2checkout.com and ccnow.com. These carts advertise themselves as “merchant account alternatives” because they handle the entire transaction from start to finish, collect and hold all sales proceeds, deduct their own fees, and send you the remainder by check or direct deposit on a monthly or weekly schedule. You don’t need a separate merchant account, gateway, or payment collection service of any kind.

They generally offer a web-based interface through which you can create purchase links for products on your site. They handle multiple currencies, offer a clean, easy interface for your clients, don’t require much up-front investment, allow you to accept a variety of credit and debit cards, and are easy to administer.

Pitfalls? First, expense. With 2checkout, for example, you’ll pay a $49 setup fee in addition to a per-sale fee of $0.50 or so, plus roughly 5% of each sale.

Second, what if the company you’ve selected goes under? A client of mine lost a month’s sales, over $4,000, when her all-in-one company (located in another state) went belly up without warning, and without paying out the money it had already collected for products already sold. State agencies were useless in attempting to recover the funds. She lost all her Christmas sales that year.

Third, the payment page tends to prominently display their brand, and offer limited customization.

And finally, these carts don’t usually support affiliate programs.

This kind of cart can be a good choice when you’re not too concerned with pinching pennies, want to easily and quickly “test the waters” with marketing a product or two, don’t have a track record selling online, or want to provide a multi-currency option for your customers. But, caveat emptor.

3. Simple, free carts that require both the merchant and the buyer to have an account with an online “pseudo bank”

E.g., Google Checkout and Paypal Web Payments Standard. This is also a cart-plus-payment solution. For payment processing, Google and Paypal charge a per-fee transaction of $ 0.20 to $0.30, plus a tiny percentage of each sale. Both services “hold” your funds, acting as a clearinghouse until you choose to transfer them to the bank account of your choice.

The carts tend to be simple, bare-bones carts with elementary shipping calculations. Using them is quick, cheap, and easy. They have the benefit of brand recognition and financial credibility.

The drawbacks? First, some buyers simply won’t buy if they have to sign up for a Google or Paypal account. And Paypal buries the “no Paypal required” option, so many potential buyers won’t spot it. Second, the payment pages are not beautiful, and are customizable only to a limited extent. Third, and often most imporotant, these services do not provide hosting for secure digital downloads.

These services are a good choice if you’re on a budget and can work around the digital issue.

Very importantly, the payment processing portion of both Paypal and Google Checkout can be used with many other free-standing carts.

Also note that Paypal offers another payment processing option for an additional $30 per month, called Web Payments Pro. It must be used with a third-party cart, but it makes credit card payment sans Paypal account a much more visible and easy option.

4. Carts that work exclusively with the WordPress blogging platform

There are ecommerce WordPress themes which have the cart integrated into them, like the specially designed Market Theme and the Ecommerce Theme. There are also free plugins which can be incorporated into any existing WordPress site or blog, such as the Ecommerce, the eShop, and Shopp plugins. The themes tend to cost from $50 to $100; the plugins are usually free.

These can be a great alternative to standalone carts, although in my experience, the plugins can be slow and slightly glitchy. Both themes and plugins require a payment processing service (either a merchant account, a “merchant account alternative,” or Paypal/Google).

I don’t recommend any of these carts (yet!) for high-volume sites.

5. In a class by themselves

There are two carts I most often recommend, based on their ease of use, features and flexibility: 1shoppingcart.com and e-junkie.com.

The luxury model. 1shoppingcart is used by so many high-volume Internet retailers and marketers for good reason. It’s a web-based cart (nothing to install) which generates product links to be added to your existing site. You can handle thousands of products, and generate discounts, cross-sells, upsells, and specially priced bundles. You can use automatic recurring billing to sell subscriptions or create installment payment plans. You can automatically put buyers on product-specific email lists, and send them as many automated emails as you wish. You can also manage your newsletter or mailing list in the same interface. Both hard products and digital downloads are well supported. The interface is generally straightforward, both for you and your customers. Technical help is available via phone and email, and the technical staff is responsive and helpful. The cart works with most payment services and gateways, including Authorize.net, Cybersource, Paypal, and 2checkout.com.

This cart is expensive. It will do everything but slice your bread. But if you’re serious about selling on your site, this is THE top-of-the-line cart and helps you do everything possible to maximize your revenues.

The economy car. E-junkie is the up-and-coming low-budget alternative to 1shoppingcart. It’ll get you where you need to go, with quick, inexpensive, and no-frills secure sales of digital or tangible products.

It’s got most, but not all, of the features of 1shoppingcart: secure download links, somewhat-customizable cart, some shipping options, product bundles and gift coupons. It works with about half a dozen of the most popular payment processors, including Paypal, Google Checkout, 2Checkout, and Authorize.Net. It also offers the ability to manage your own affiliate program.

Downsides: It does not offer programmable autoresponders or recurring billing. Its interface is sometimes convoluted and slightly confusing. Limited number of payment gatweays accepted. Simple but ugly checkout/download pages.

Bottom line

My final answer:

• If you want to sell very cheaply, don’t mind appearances, and don’t need secure download links, use Paypal Web Payments Standard or Pro and/or Google Checkout to process your payments. As your shopping cart, use a WordPress ecommerce theme/free plugin, or use the free Paypal/Google carts.
• If you need secure download links for digital products—ebooks, mp3s, video, etc.—then your quickest, cheapest, easiest option is to use Google or Paypal to process your payments, and pay a small monthly fee to use the E-junkie cart.
• If you want a top-of-the-line experience for you and your customers, with maximum flexibility and ease of use, use 1shoppingcart, along with a merchant account and gateway like Authorize.net or Cybersource.

And th-th-th-that’s all, folks! Happy selling to you.

Now more than ever, business IS change. Your focus, your processes, your technology, your products, your services, your interests, your employees—which of these isn’t continuously evolving, shifting, changing and growing?

To cite an extreme, one of my clients was called crazy for moving his retail location four times, to three different cities, in his first ten years in business. But during that time he built a thriving business and a loyal clientele. Recently, he’s had such great success with his latest move—putting his business online—that he doesn’t have to maintain any brick-and-mortar retail location at all.

Those who risk nothing, gain nothing. How can you create a web presence that changes and grows with your business… and continues to enhance your image, effectiveness, and profitability?

Old, Inflexible Web Technologies

Some web technologies create web sites that are much more difficult to alter later. In earlier web days, there wasn’t much choice among site technologies. You’ll often find these in legacy sites, and in poorly designed sites as well.

1. Nested tables. Altering the structure of a site with tables can be time-consuming (read: costly) beyond belief. Until recently, most sites used nested tables, so don’t be alarmed if your site does too. Just make sure any new site uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for layout, rather than tables.

 2. Graphic sites. Even recently, I’ve worked on sites that were nothing but Photoshop files exported as jpgs. To change the tiniest comma on one of these pages means opening a Photoshop file, making the change, re-exporting the file as a jpg, piecing the page back together, and loading it in the browser to verify. And doing that whole process over if for some reason the page didn’t look as it should. If you’re trying to update the site and don’t have the original Photoshop files, you’re out of luck… you’ll need to re-create the entire page from scratch. If you have one of these sites, replace it!

3. Flash. Flash is a way of creating animations that look very slick and gorgeous on the right site. But can be difficult to find a developer who knows how to work well with Flash, and a site that is built entirely from Flash is not search-engine friendly and is tough to update. Unless  you’re an architect, videographer, filmmaker or game designer who really needs cool animations on a site, use Flash sparingly.

Building a Web Site That Can Change and Grow with Your Business

On the other hand, there are technologies that lend themselves to allowing easier alterations down the line. I’m talking about common, ubiquitous site-building tools; nothing that requires custom programming or is beyond the budget of most small businesses and creative entrepreneurs. 

Some of these tools, like CSS and include files, can often be grafted on to an older site to extend its lifespan. Others, like Dreamweaver templates and WordPress or other blogging/CMS platforms, are best implemented as part of initial site construction.

Here’s a quick list of common technologies that can bring more flexibility to your web presence:

1. Dreamweaver templates & libraries. Dreamweaver has been the web site workhorse for the past ten years. Even with a table-based site, Dreamweaver templates can make site-wide alterations much easier. Using Dreamweaver templates to set up your site, you can:

• Instantly make site-wide changes in things like background color, headline styles, or minor layout adjustments.
• Add or subtract menu items, sidebar, header, or footer include files.

CONS: Dreamweaver templates tend to be error-prone and temperamental to create and maintain for large sites. Implementation and updating requires Dreamweaver. And they’re very difficult to apply to a preexisting site, so they’re best included from the beginning of the design process.

2. Include files. This is a way of including a smaller file within an html or php page, such as a menu that appears on every page of the site, a header, a footer, etc. The main benefits of include files are that:

• Updating these site-wide “include” files requires only one file change, and one upload. In some ways they’re easier to manage than Dreamweaver templates because, for a large site, you only need to upload one file per change, rather than reloading every single page in the site.

CONS: sometimes require special URLs & host setup, so best to be added as part of the initial site (.shtml vs. .html) Because include files can become unwieldy if there are a lot of them in a site, they’re best used for clearly demarcated functions, like a navigation block, or an ad block, rather than for general layout.

3. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS has tremendous versatility. With a site that’s been set up in CSS, you can:

• Alter the entire layout, color scheme, type size and spacing by changing one CSS files alone. Check out Zen Garden for examples of how changing CSS code (and artwork) can create completely different “looks” for the same material.
• Create visually rich and varied designs that would have been impossible using old-style web pages.

CONS: CSS can get very complex. Trouble-shooting can be quite tricky.

4. WordPress or other content management system (CMS). With most of these, you can:

• Easily migrate your site to other blogging or CMS platforms
• Change the theme (look) of your site in minutes
• Quickly add and configure plugins and new technologies
• Automate your site with auto-archive and auto-RSS capabilities
• Add content with no html knowledge
• Post to your site via email

CONS: WordPress or another database-driven site can be costly and labor-intensive to customize. If something goes wrong, you may need a programmer to troubleshoot.

If you’re planning a revamp, or creating a new site, it’s important to think about the issue of flexibility up front, and talk about it with your designer. You’ll save time and money down the road with a site that’s easier to update… and, your bottom line will benefit from a site that stays current with what you’re actually doing in your business.

While  we can’t predict all the changes and adaptations we’ll be called to make in the coming years—who knows, the next generation of web sites might be 3-D spaces accessed with virtual reality goggles instead of monitors!—at least for the foreseeable future, your business will be more likely to prosper in changing times with a site that has the ability to grow and change built into it from the start.

So what’s the big deal about RSS… it’s just another intimidating ingredient of Internet Alphabet Soup, right?

Not quite. RSS is a way of putting a message into an envelope. The message can be anything digital: an article, an mp3, a video, whatever. The envelope is a few lines of code (XML, to add another ingredient to the soup). With it, you can send your messages to anyone who can read the code—anyone who has a newer browser, or an RSS or “feed” reader. Once a person sets their browser or reader to “tune in” to the URL of your RSS feed, they can receive all of the messages you broadcast, in sequential order. Why is this a great thing, and how will it make your life easier?

You Don’t Have to Know Any Code

To read RSS, you need a newer browser, or an online reader like Google Reader or My Yahoo. Or, to read an audio RSS message (a “podcast,”) you can also use an audio RSS reader like iTunes.

To create RSS, you can use a simple program like Feeder or Feed for All. Or, you can use almost any blogging platform—Blogger, WordPress, Moveable Type, etc., to create RSS feeds automatically, without lifting a finger.

Why Bother Using RSS? Time Savings.

Well, first, let’s start with the reader’s point of view. Is there a subject that you’re really interested in, or follow, by regularly checking certain web sites? Suppose, for instance, you have a Macintosh computer, you write on and about Macs for a living, and you need to keep up with everything Mac. Does this mean you click on a list of bookmarks to log into 40 or 50 web sites several times a day to check breaking Mac news and rumors?

Absolutely not! You use your RSS reader (I personally favor Google Reader) to cut the time you’d spend checking sites in half, or even less. 

Speed Through Updates and News Using RSS

 How? Simple. First, subscribe to a site’s RSS feed by entering its URL into your feed reader. Often this can be done with one click of your mouse. 

 Once you’ve subscribed, a list of articles, audio files, etc. will appear in your feed reader or browser. In Google Reader, for example, the list of sites you’ve subscribed to shows up like this:

On the left is the topic, “mac,” and below it, a list of sites with RSS feeds you’ve subscribed to. The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of unread messages. (The sites that are not bolded contain no unread messages). 

Say we want to check the site “9 to 5 Mac.” We highlight it with our cursor. On the right, appears a list of recent updates from 9 to 5 Mac, by title and date. The white background means they’re unread; the blue means you’ve seen them already. 

Click on any one of these titles, and you can read the entire article… without ever having to leave your feed reader.

See what I mean? You can scan all the latest headlines and news—or simply see whether or not there is any news—on dozens of blogs or web sites. You can do this just by opening your reader and clicking down your list—and you can do it in five minutes.

RSS, An Easy Way to Communicate

Now, from the site-owner’s point of view, why publish an RSS feed? Well, so people who are interested can keep up with your site quickly and easily. If you have a static site which rarely changes, this will be less useful. But if you own a blog, or frequently post newsletters, software updates, talks, music, etc., RSS is a fantastic and simple tool for keeping in touch with your fans, clients and customers. And, with the current blog explosion, it will be used more and more.

Blogs and RSS

One of the really great things about using a blogging platform to create your web site is that the software is automatically set up to publish RSS. You don’t have to do a thing! All your updates are being automatically streamed to readers who “sign up” by bookmarking your feed’s URL in their feed reader.  This is one of the great benefits of creating sites using WordPress or another blogging platform rather than creating a static site.

But no matter what kind of site you have, RSS can help you keep up with news and new developments more quickly and easily. Try setting up your own feed reader, and when you’re reading a blog you like, and see a (usually orange) graphic like this one… you’ll know exactly what to do… and you’ll have one more little way to make your life easier.

What do Martha Stewart, Discover Magazine, the NFL, the Royal Navy, the Wall Street Journal, and Danielle Steele have in common? They all use WordPress.

But these are mega-money megastars. And besides, you say, I’m not a blogger. I don’t want to have to write every day or even every week! So how can you, the entrepreneur, small business owner or sole proprietor, benefit from using WordPress over hand-coding a traditional site?

Here’s the thing. Blogging software—any blogging software—automatically handles chores that traditional, hand-coded sites (yes, we can call five or ten years “traditional” on the web!), built with Dreamweaver or other coding programs, need lots of human attention—i.e. time and money—to do..

• A blogging platform allows you to publish to the site without knowing or doing any html or web coding
• You can change the total appearance of your site with—literally—one click
• The software automatically publishes your updates as an RSS feed (more on this in another article click here to learn how RSS can make your life easier)
• And most wonderfully, blogging platforms automatically archive your published articles without any action whatsoever on your part.

But Why WordPress, Rather Than Blogger, Moveable Type, Expression Engine, or Some Other Platform?

A couple of years ago, the choice wouldn’t have been clear-cut. Now, more top-100 bloggers use WordPress than any other single platform. It has evolved from a promising but clunky tool, back when I first encountered version 1.0 in 2003 or so, to a thriving, highly extensible platform that has managed to maintain its accessibility to the novice user while offering professional-level technical and design sophistication. It’s a stand-out among blogging platforms.

The 18 Reasons I Recommend WordPress to My Clients

1. It’s free. There’s nothing to buy, no subscriptions, no editing software needed.

2. Ready to use, right off the net. All you need is a web host.

3. Infinitely customizable. You can download a selection of free themes—and apply them yourself, instantly. Or, you can purchase premium themes for special purposes (real estate site, business site, ecommerce site, etc). Or, of course, hire a designer to create your own custom look, feel and function.

4. You can easily create, organize and update your own site, without knowing any coding.

5. Like other blogging software, it automatically archives all your posts.

6. Like other blogging software, it automatically creates RSS feeds, and pings the services of your choice when you update your blog.

7. You can publish to your site via email, or your phone.

8. You can use it to podcast, videoblog, photoblog, or write.

9. You can also use it to create a totally non-blog site or an integrated blog-plus-conventional-site.

10. Reader comments can be configured in a variety of ways to enhance the sense of community on your site.

11. Twitter, microblogs, and other new platforms can be integrated into your WordPress site easily.

12. It’s continuously updated and supported by a huge team of users and developers.

13. It can be quickly extended to perform many additonal functions via hundreds of plugins.

14. Can be updated automatically… no need for tricky reinstalls.

15. Comprehensive support and instruction, both written and video, is widely available at little or no cost.

16. It’s very SEO-friendly. Traffic, traffic, traffic!

17. There’s a quick learning curve.

18. And last but not least, has an easy-to-use admin interface.

With all these advantages, why would you use anything else for your blog or site? That’s exactly what I started thinking, and why I have redesigned this site in…guess what?…WordPress.