How to harness the power of Wordpress to run your small business website
October 17, 2008 by Kara-Leah Grant
Filed under Marketing Yoga, Musings from the Mat
There is a revolution happening in the design of websites and it started with the blogosphere.
More and more small businesses are realising that no longer do they have to fork over thousands of dollars for a website that only their web designer can make changes to.
They are realising too that after they pay thousands of dollars for a website, and ask for a content management system (CMS) that there is actually a much simpler system out there that is free and infinitely extendable.
This system costs nothing to use, nothing to add to, and allows small business owners to manage and run their websites anyway they like.
That includes sending out regular newsletters or articles to their loyal database of customers.
It includes changing and updating the website on a regular basis to reflect the changing of the seasons, and the changing events or products offered by the business.
This system offers them an easy way to build connections with their existing customers, and reach out to new customers all over the world.
It provides a sharp, professional face of the business via the website, and demonstrates that their business is at the top of the game in their niche.
Because in today’s world, a website is crucial for any small business. And that’s not just yoga studios and yoga teachers – the same applies to hair dressers and plumbers, florists and dog breeders, antique stores and clothing labels.
What is this miracle system?
It’s Wordpress.
A.K.A the software that this site is built on, and the software that more and more small businesses are turning to because they want a responsive website that they can use to communicate with their customers – software which doesn’t cost them their entire marketing budget (if they even HAVE a marketing budget!).
Wordpress is an open-source, publishing platform that Googles loves – which means if you use it, your website is likely to get to that all important first page of the Google search engine results. Just two weeks after launching my site, if you search for “Prana Flow” on Google, I come up in fourth & fifth place. Granted, it’s not that common a phrase, but that’s still a great result.
Open-source means that all over the world, code enthusiasts write programs to create add-ons (called plug-ins), that constantly improve the functioning of Wordpress and add all kinds of cool possibilities to what your website can do. Plus Wordpress itself is constantly being upgraded, each version better than the last.
Plug-ins include those that can automatically list the most popular articles (or it could be floral arrangements, clothing items, dog breeds, dressers…) on your site according to what your readers, customers or clients are looking at.
Or plug-ins that customise the way your clients can contact you through your site, making it easy to direct new queries exactly where you want them to go.
There’s even a plug-in that maximises your websites SEO (what the? – it’s search engine optimisation, making sure Google gets all the most important information about your site so it can send the right customers your way.)
So how do you make Wordpress work for you?
There’s a couple of ways you can go about this,. The way that’s right for you depends on your level of comfort with computer systems and how much time you have (and what that time is worth to you).
#1: Dive into the World of Wordpress: This means you are the one installing it, choosing a theme, customizing it, adding the appropriate plug-ins, connecting with the other necessary services that will make your site hum, adding all the content, making sure it’s targeted perfectly for your clients, building a databse, and working out how you will use the site to it’s maximum benefit.
This way works.
It worked for me when I set up my first website, Be Conscious Now.
And it worked MUCH FASTER when I set up Prana Flow NZ, because I had all those months experience under my belt from tinkering around with the first site.
This way won’t cost you anything except the hosting for your site (usually around $100/yr), and your time. It’s the way to go if you LOVE learning new systems, and figuring out how to use basic HTML code. Plus you’ll already have a great grasp on how to best use the web as an effective communication channel to connect with your clients and potential clients.
#2: Hire a Wordpress Expert: Get THEM to do the installation. You still choose your theme, which they can then alter to suit your exact needs. They add the plug-ins, get you connected to all the necessary services, talk you through adding the content (which you are then in charge of), give you advice on how to maximise your new Wordpress site to it’s absolute best, and provide on-going support for you as you master the backend of Wordpress. (Which is as simple to use as Microsoft Word.)
This way also works – and it works faster than you doing everything yourself. It will cost you money, but compared with the traditional cost of getting a web designer to create a site that you couldn’t even change afterward without forking out more dosh… it’s way cheaper.
How cheap? Depends on who the Wordpress Expert is that you hire. Over at Monk at Work, Adam Kayce has set up three levels of Wordpress Installation. A basic installation will set you back $1000US, a customised theme will cost you $2000US, and a Built-for-You theme is $3000US. If you live in the United States, he’s the man I would recommend you hire. He creates beautiful sites, and he’s just an over-all great guy to work with.
For a small business, a one-off charge of $1000 to get an clean, functional, creative site up and running is a good investment.
I’ve set up Wordpress-based sites for some of my freelance clients here in New Zealand, including Studio Sangha’s site, QueenstownYoga.com. This site was built on the Brightside theme, and then customised to use Studio Sangha’s banner and colours. Plus a few other changes were made to the theme, including the sidebars, to make it reflect exactly what the studio owner, Peggy Preston, wanted.
One key Wordpress feature which Peggy has made great use of is the ability to subscribe her students to the site by email. Whenever a new student joins the studio, her sign-up form includes a questions about whether or not they want to receive studio updates by email. If the student ticks yes, she enters their address into the box on her site, a confirmation email is sent to the student and if they confirm, that student is then in her database. Whenever the schedule changes, or she’s got studio news to announce, Peggy writes a post and it’s automatically sent out to her database.
As a yoga studio, her timetable can sometimes change on a monthly basis, and Wordpress gives her the flexibility to update the page that has her timetable on it, plus send it out to her database.
As a communications professional, and a Wordpress enthusiast, I can see so many benefits that small business owners can get from using Wordpress to run their sites. Having a presence on the Internet is not just about having a “brochure” website anymore. It’s about developing new ways to communicate with customers and showcase why the service or product you offer truly is awesome. It’s about creating a two-way channel of communication and building a community around your service or product.
After all, when you get great feedback from delivering to a regular customer, imagine being able to instantly photograph that product (if it were say, flowers for a wedding), write up the customer testimonial, and add it instantly to your florist website. People searching for florists in your area would see examples of your latest work and read comments from your happy customers. Plus they would be more likely to find you in the first place when they google for a florist in their city, because your website shows up on Google.
If you don’t have a website yet at all, this is the perfect time to figure out how a Wordpress site could improve and grow your business, and then make it happen.
If you do already have a website, maybe it’s time to migrate it onto a Wordpress system and take control of the design and content so you can improve the benefits you’re getting from your site.
If you live in New Zealand, and want to know more about using Wordpress to run your website, get in touch with me and I can talk you through the process – no obligation, no cost, just because I believe in this system and think if I was a small business owner I’d want to be jumping all over it. Which I have! 
Thanks for the glowing recommendation, Kara-Leah!
I think you’re right on, too; WordPress is an amazing system for running your own website. I can’t imagine creating a site without it these days… there just wouldn’t be a reason I wouldn’t want to use it. It makes so many things so much easier than doing it the ‘old’ way (which I used to do, too).
PFNZ looks great, too — I like how you’ve tweaked the theme.
Hey Adam,
I can’t believe that no one over her in NZ seems to have cottoned on to it yet – although I could be wrong!
I do wonder how it makes web designers feel – threatened? Or do they see it as a system they can embrace?
Since publishing this article I’ve already had two people approach me locally wanting to know about how to make Wordpress work for them. It’s exciting – I love it when someone sets up their site and realises it’s now something creative that they can play with to their heart’s content.