by on March 5, 2013 Leave a Comment

Are Online Deals Right For Your Business?

Just a few short years ago online deals were all the rage. The timing could not have been better of course with the fallout from the banking crisis meaning that people everywhere were suddenly much more conscious of their spending and more inclined to shop around for a better deal.  Attitudes to online deals seem to be a bit more mixed these days which means business owners are faced with the conundrum of trying to determine how they can make these types of deals work for their businesses. Here are a few keys considerations before embarking on an online deal:

Is This The Best Way To Use My Budget?

This should be the first thing any business owner considers – is an online deal the most cost-effective way of getting your message across and maximising revenues or are there other opportunities which would work  better and cost less.For most business owners funds are finite, so it is essential to spend your marketing budget in such a way that you get the biggest bang for your buck.

The problem is that unless you have tried an online deal before you are not going to know how effective it can be, so there is an element of trial and error involved. Business owners may have to look beyond the immediate returns they might generate from an online deal to take into account increased brand awareness and social media activity, which may lead to increased sales further down the line.

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Is Your Business The Right Kind To Succeed In Online Deals

Not all businesses benefit equally from online deals. Those businesses which generally find these deals work well include businesses like restaurants, hairdressers or retail outlets because they are generally familiar and well frequented and people are usually willing to try something new if they are being offered a financial incentive to do so. Businesses where sales are more of a one-off event, such as car repairs, or outfitters, may find online deals do not have the same appeal for potential customers.

Will An Online Deal Help Achieve Your Business Targets?

Businesses owners should try to step back to see whether an online deal will actually help further the business in the longer term. It may work to bring a  short-term spike in sales, but if your goal is to increase sales month on month, then an online deal may not be the answer. To achieve this, your marketing needs to bring increased footfall to your store or more visitors to your website, not just as a one-off event but over the longer term.

After considering the above points you may conclude that an online deal is the right way to go for your business. Alternatively, you may discover that you can use your advertising and marketing budget more productively, in a way that helps you achieve the objectives set out in your business plan.

Filed Under: Internet, Internet Marketing, SEO
by on March 5, 2013 Leave a Comment

Interflora Breathes A Sigh Of Relief

As newsworthy events go, it probably isn’t quite up there with the latest  current affairs events around the globe, but management at Interflora, the UK’s largest flower delivery service, will be delighted today to know that they have recovered – at least partially –  their ranking in Google’s search engine less than two weeks after they disappeared altogether in what was presumed to be a penalty.

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Interflora is back ranking again when you search for the brand name and the business  Google+  box is visible once more alongside the relevant search results. As of yesterday, a search in Google.co.uk returned Interflora as the number one result for the search term “florists”, but there are a number of other key phrases and terms for which the company is not yet back ranking in the same position it was before the site was penalised.

Prior to the penalty being imposed Interflora ranked in the top three results for a variety of other key phrases including “flowers”,  “mothers day flowers”,  “flower delivery” and “roses”.  At the current time it ranks in the bottom half of page one for them, suggesting the penalty has not been completely removed. Google made no official announcement after Interflora’s removal from its  results, but perhaps significantly, just a few days  after the penalty took effect, Google delivered a warning against the use of Advertorials designed to pass PR.

All things considered perhaps Interflora should consider themselves to have got off quite lightly. The penalty did not come into effect until shortly after Valentine’s Day and their rankings have been at least partially restored in time for another major day in the calender for all florists – Mothers Day!

Image: Freedigitalphotos.net

Filed Under: News, SEO
by on March 5, 2013 Leave a Comment

WordPress: Managing File Permissions

If you install, move, add WordPress Themes, Plugins, or just rearrange things on your server, you are going to run into the challenges associated with file permissions with WordPress. If you are concerned about security, protection from hackers, viruses, and other evil, get familiar with file permissions in WordPress.

In general, file permissions are variables set on server files to control access and usage of the file for individuals, browsers, code, and programs. Consider them the firewalls to your WordPress website, dictating who can do what with each file and folder.

All these folder and files permissions can be confusing in WordPress. Recently, I had a site offline for three hours, going through a variety of tests to figure out what was causing the problem. It boiled down to a single folder being set to the wrong permissions. I had to go through every file and folder to figure out which one was set wrong, so take care when changing file permissions.

There are three levels of access: Owner, Group, and Public. There are three options under each level to fine tune the control and access, read, write, and execute, and you can set these in a variety of combinations. Permissions can be the same or different on folders and files both.

There are key files and areas of your WordPress installation which must be “writable,” able to be edited and changed. If you’ve ever used permalinks or the built-in WordPress Editor for Themes or Plugins, you may have encountered a warning “that said changes could be made if this file were writable.” This means that these files or folders are set at a permission level that doesn’t allow access to make changes. In order to change from from within WordPress, you must set their permission levels to be able to be edited.

Among the writable files and folders in WordPress, some must be writable by the user account, others with less restriction such as the folder to which you upload images.

Luckily, WordPress is fairly easy. All folders must be set to 755, and files set to 644, except for wp-config.php at 640, and all files you need to be writable, like WordPress Themes, need to be set to 666 if you wish to edit them from within WordPress. If you edit them through FTP, then you can set them for tighter security levels.

What this means is that when people or bots try to access these files, they will get a forbidden error, keeping them safe from intruding viruses and malware.

There are many ways to set file permissions on your server. The easiest way is through FTP access. Depending upon how your FTP client program works, usually selecting the folders and/or files and right clicking to select Properties or File Permissions will get you to the file permissions menu. Select or type in the file permissions, select whether or not to apply to folders or files or both, and apply.

For those used to direct access, you can use chmod to set file and folder permissions.

We’ve put together a chart of recommendations for the various files and folders for setting the permission levels with WordPress. You can change these at any time to accommodate work you may be doing on the server. For example, if you need full access to a set of files, can set it to 777 or something slightly less secure. Remember to reset them for maximum security on your site.

There is one caveat to WordPress file permissions. Not all web host servers are equal. Some have dedicated security levels that can protect your files almost no matter what permissions you set, while others are not quite as locked down. Check with your host for specifics on what they recommend to be sure your files are set at the highest level of security and access, while still allowing WordPress to function.

Filed Under: Blogging
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