We got quotes for similar wordpress design jobs and we received prices from £5000 to £10,000 for what was in effect just a WordPress theme design.

WordPress is the content management system many webdesign companies use to setup websites these days. It was a platform we started using in 2004.

I wanted to demonstrate a selection of 5 themes that you could use to setup a website for as little as £50.

I will leave it up to you to compare it with examples from webdesign companies to check the quality. You will find many of the themes are far more advanced especially in the admin section so for the lower cost you will actually be getting more for your money.

1. Blux – Responsive WordPress OnePage Theme. Cost = $40

Click here for a live demo

2. The barbershop – New One page tablet friendly theme – Cost $40

Click here for a live demo

3. Encore Responsive Product Showcase WordPress Theme. Price – $40

Click here for a live demo

4. Furies Transparent Portfolio Photography Theme

Click here for a live demo

5. Timedrop – A WordPress Portfolio Theme – Price $40

Click here for a live demo

We found themes in the Creatine wordpress theme section of Theme Forrest. Click Here to view hundreds of more examples.

Challenge your web designers to better these themes !

Cold calling a business and asking to speak to the relevant person regarding a proposal can be a bit hit and miss. If you were to make 100 phone calls your bound to get your fair share of knock backs and probably even insults.

Their must be another way in 2013 ? Yes

You wont be able to transfer all sales lead capture to Follower wonk but you certainly use it to find a key bunch of highly targeted contacts you could sell your products or services. Why not Give it a try it might surprise you at just how effective it can be.

You must have a Moz account to use the service which is around £60 per month on the smallest plan.

We used follower wonk to find managers of popular slimming group Slimmers world. We could then see who was most active on Twitter and contact them via a tweet requesting their emails. We asked if it would be ok to send some more information on our new products and they all approved.

Who could you search for using Twitter bio search to sell your products or services ? The possibilities are endless !

One of the most difficult challenges that we have faced constantly over the past 5 years has been finding good sources of back links for clients sites and our own websites. The Google Algorithm updates would you be believe since 2007 total a whopping 82 so the goal posts have been constantly changing which has meant tactics such as using directories for example have become ineffective.

It is technically against google guidelines to purchase links but it isnt against Google guidelines to agree a trade of articles between webmasters on blogs or news sites. It also is still fine to purchase sponsorships of sports clubs or individuals.

So how do you go about getting guest blog posts ?

The best source for gaining Guest Blog posts is My Blog Guest.com (watch the video below for more information). It works a treat and continues to deliver sustained, long lasting rankings for many of our clients.

1. Empire avenue – Use your social presence to trade stocks with a virtual currency. Completed missions setup by other users to help increase your social presence online. The more you give to the community the more you get back from other users. You Visit empire avenue and sign up for free connect your social accounts.

2. Instagram the image sharing platform where you add hash tags to help people find you on searches. The platform has rissen massively recently in the uk #instagram

3. Vine – Twitters video sharing app insalls on your phone and gives you the chance to shoot short video sections that you can edit together. Again a massive mover in Uk users over the past 12 months.

4. Infographics – displaying a hundred words or paragraphs of text into an image. A perfect way of leveraging social networks with share buttons.

5. Remarketing – using the google content network to run a remarketing banner campaign will help increase your companies retention and conversion rates.

Its been around for years now but as with all of the Google updates and additional features it can take time for webmasters to fully understand the benefits before upgrading. Google Authorship gives you the ability to atribute the author of a post and display an image in the search results. As with all these features it does have its search engine benefits just visually your search result will stand out from the crowd in the listings and this will result in more clicks on your listing.

So is it simple to setup and install ?

1. Rel “Author” Code – This is the code that will help your image display in the search listings.

See here how Carrie Ann Sudlow links back to her Google plus profile page. If you click on her name you will see Carries profile.

So what is the code ?

<link href=”https://plus.google.com/110432107182874731928/” rel=”author” />

You add this code between the <head> tags on your page. You paste the url of your profile within this code. The second part is within your Google plus profile you add yourself as a contributor to the blog your adding content so -

Click edit profile then add yourself as a contributor to the website or blog you have added the Rel Author code. The loop is then completed Google can see your linked and will then start displaying your image next to the search results.

2. Rel Publisher Code – The idea behind the Publisher code is to link up your companies Google plus page to your website. The benefits of this are search engine optimisation wise and you will also get a new display box at the side of the listings.

<link href=”https://plus.google.com/b/104620215661486301897/” rel=”publisher” /> (Simply add the url of your google plus page here)

You can check you have the code added correctly by checking the Google rich snippet tool.

Ok I want to add this code but I want to pass it to my Web developers will it cost a lot to update ?

No it should take around 15 minutes to complete and setup. You should be paying around £50 to £100 for this task at the most.

You can circle me on Google plus here -https://plus.google.com/110432107182874731928/

When it comes to online marketing, there’s three major factors you should be bearing in mind:

1. Conversion rate. One of the ways that you can really tell if your online marketing campaign is bearing fruit is whether it translates into more sales or inquiries. A good website will have methods for tracking this, such as Google Analytics.
2. The composition of your backlink profile. Backlinks are more important than ever now that Google has again updated its Penguin algorithm. When it comes to SEO marketing, backlinks matter, and an unexamined backlink profile will harm your place in the Google search rankings without you even knowing. A good online marketing service will be able to access your backlink profile and optimise it.
3. Visitor time and engagement. Another key indicator of the success of a campaign is how long visitors spend on your site. Ways to monitor this include tracking the average time a visitor spends on-site, tracking the number of visitors that venture beyond your home page and the number of ‘shares’ visitors make on social media sites. Increasingly, such metrics also factor into your SEO rankings.

When all is lost in your efforts to bolster your web presence, should you hire an internet marketing expert?  One would initially answer ‘yes’ to that haunting question; however, it really needs to be construed as a last-ditch effort to either get sales, or head for the hills.  Many people that want to assist you in your internet marketing efforts are simply out to assist themselves into your business petty cash – or your personal savings – while offering absolutely no resolve for your internet marketing quandary.  There are several steps that you should consider before you throw out the marketing ‘white flag’ and submit to the mercies of another company.

Taking a step back and evaluating your current efforts and tweaking the marketing plan you follow is perhaps the first step in knowing if you should hire an internet marketing expert.  Have you evaluated your current website to make sure all pages are properly optimized for content, your sitemap is properly constructed and submitted on a regular basis, and links inside the content are point to links on other points of your site? These first simple yet crucial steps can alleviate overspending for a simple foresight in your web site’s looks.  If needed, print out hard copies of your website and see if the content looks smooth to you, is easy to read, contains a title and keywords relevant to your discussion and/or information, and has a proper pictorial presence to fellow visitors.  These are crucial steps necessary for search engine inclusion, and the first thing an internet marketing company expert is going to do, anyway.

Next, if you are running a PPC campaign, look at the historical data and your cost per click stats, and weigh out the keywords you are using.  Do you have negative keywords? Are you using long-tail keywords that historically do better than singular words? Simply give your campaign a good look over, and if all is working within your budget and soundly enough for you, then put that portion of the testing aside for now.  Again, this is a step that internet marketing experts and entities will do for you as part of a monthly charge.

Finally, what do the search engines see when they index you? How many links do you have currently? Well, it is best to first put your website URL into the search box and see what comes up.  IF nothing, then stop reading this and know that you should hire an internet marketing expert immediately as something is flagrant about your domain name.  If this passes to your liking, then type “link:(your site)” into the Google search box, and this will render all of your internal and external links as seen by the search genius.  If not enough, then it is time to link build and submit content to directories, which will ultimately boost link relevancy incrementally.  Following all of the above steps, perhaps not necessarily in order, will give you the answer to whether should you hire an internet marketing expert or not.

Greg H., very astute in online marketing, promoting the search of lost persons and knowing about people’s backgrounds, shows his affinity for the internet through his writings. He currently helps others to find email addresses of people as well as helping people to locate cell phone numbers through Free Phone Tracer.