5 Must-Have WordPress Plugins You Need to Know About

5 must-have wordpress pluginsI recently learned a lesson about spamming that prompted me to share with you my list of must-have WordPress plugins.

When I switched to a WordPress-based website, I installed the Contact Form plugin to make it easy for people to request information about my SEO copywriting and social media marketing/consulting services. Everything was going great, until I started getting spam emails through my Contact Form. After searching the Internet for help, I found that I needed a different plugin. That’s when I installed:

Contact Form 7 – This plugin works like a charm for filtering spam. When a word like “viagra” is included in the subject line, the message won’t go through, as you can see below:

Read more

Marketing with Snapchat in Wake of Security Breach

Marketing with SnapchatBy Gloria Rand

Are you marketing with Snapchat yet? You may think twice about it in light of this week’s security breach. An anonymous hacker on Tuesday published a database on SnapchatDB.info containing millions of usernames and their corresponding phone numbers, and the leaked information quickly ricocheted across the Web. Privacy experts say the breach could have been worse, but it still may give marketers pause.

If you’re not familiar with Snapchat, it’s a service that allows you to send photos and videos to your friends that disappear within one to 10 seconds after they receive it. It’s popular among college students (unlike Facebook, which we “old” folks have taken over). And it has been gaining popularity among some businesses as the latest, greatest social media marketing tool. Since Snapchat images or videos last only a few seconds, it can be a clever marketing tool for companies that want to offer sneak glimpses of new videos or products.

Read more

Are You Making These Mistakes with Your YouTube Videos?

YouTube videos can be a powerful marketing tool for small business owners, as long as you do things correctly. A new client has been uploading videos to his YouTube channel, but he’s not getting the benefits he should be because I noticed that he’s been making several crucial mistakes. Here are just a few missteps you need to avoid if you want to be successful at video marketing:

Video Marketing Missteps

1. Videos aren’t optimized – YouTube is the second largest search engine, after Google. But your videos are going to be tough to find through a search, if they’re not properly optimized. Make sure you include keywords in the video’s title, description and tags, as well as in the video content itself.

Read more

How to Go Big in Your Biz in 2014 – FREE Telesummit

How many times have you said to yourself, “THIS is the year my business will finally take off?”

But time flies, and life gets in the way. Unproductive days can turn into weeks and months of a business that flounders or flatlines.

But THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR YOU AND YOUR BIZ when you start it off right–by listening to 21 experts share their very best secrets to building a profitable business without sacrificing your sanity and your personal life.

No travel required. Listen and learn from wherever you are by phone or computer.

Read more

Gloria Rand’s 25 Best Marketing Tips

25 Days 400_edited-1During the month of December, I’ve been sharing marketing tips each day on my Facebook page. If you’ve missed them, here’s your chance to read them all in one place:

Tip #1: Facebook & email — plan ahead. Create a content calendar and provide content your customers really care about. Try focusing on some popular U.S. shopping days, such as Cyber Monday (Dec. 2nd), Green Monday (Dec. 9th) and Free Shipping Day (Dec. 18th). For further info, go to https://gloriarand.com/facebook-email-holiday-sales/

Tip #2: Video marketing — make your first impression count. The new YouTube channel layout allows you to feature a trailer that plays only when non-subscribed viewers land on your channel, encouraging them to subscribe. Take advantage of this prime real estate! For further info, go to https://gloriarand.com/youtube-one-channel/

Read more