3C Digital

Digital Marketing for Small Business

Small Business Blogging

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Free resources for your small business

Free resources for your small business

 

We all know that being a small business owner means wearing a million hats. You’re the business administrator, bookkeeper, marketing guru, sales executive, social media ninja all rolled into one! Wearing all these hats can be exhausting on the limited resources you have as a small business owner. Our time is our most valuable resource so we’ve done the tedious research. We scoured the internet and discovered the hidden gems also known as FREE resources to make running your small business smooth as.

Business.gov.au

This site offers you simple and convenient access to all the government information, forms, and services you need. They provide essential information on planning, starting and growing your business. They have free templates on just about everything your small business heart desires.

Need to freshen up that dusty business plan? They have the template and guide for that! Need some whiz-bang marketing plan to impress a potential investor? Ask no more, they have that too.

How about an exit plan? Read that one especially if your goal is to hopefully sell your business in the future (so you can retire in Tropical Bali).

NSW Small Business Commissioner

Did you know that about half of us in NSW work for one of the state’s 680,000 small businesses? And those small businesses make up make up 96 percent of all businesses? Ninety-six percent! They’re the micro-engines that keep the economic wheels turning and churning.

In recognition of the crucial role that small businesses play, the NSW Government established the Office of the NSW Small Business Commissioner back in 2011.

Since then they have helped thousands of small businesses like ourselves operate as professionally, as efficiently and as successfully as they can. The NSW Small Business Commissioner help small business owners by:

  • Serving as a neutral party in mediation and dispute resolution between small businesses or between a small business and a larger one or between a small business and government
  • Providing high-quality business advice and advisors with access to world-class tools
  • Speaking up for small businesses within government

Check them out if you haven’t already. Make sure to follow them on social media too.

Inside Small Business 

Inside Small Business is a print and online magazine dedicated to small business stories and issues throughout Australia. We just love this site, their articles are always timely and relevant. Go visit their site and subscribe to their feed. You’ll thank us later.

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Top 10 free plugins for WordPress

Top 10 free plugins for WordPress

  1. Akismet anti spam
  2. Bulletproof security
  3. Contact Form 7
  4. Favicon
  5. Google Analytics
  6. Pixabay Images
  7. Pixelyoursite
  8. WordPress editorial calendar
  9. WP Smush
  10. Yoast SEO

First of all, what are plugins exactly? A WordPress plugin is a software you add to the back end of your WordPress site that provides a certain function. The plugin’s function can vary depending on what you need. It can be for putting a gallery of pics on your site, or protecting it from hackers. It can even be used to compress photos you use so your site works faster.

In all the years we’ve used WordPress, we’ve come across different plugins. We figured out which free ones would be useful for a site. Here is our list of free wordpress plugins you need.

Akismet anti spam

This plugin is popular for millions of users. It protects your blog from spam, basically. It protects your site 24/7 so you can rest easy.

Bulletproof security

This one is for security protection, for things like malware, login security, database backup, anti-spam and more. It is effective, realiable and easy to use.

Contact form 7

The plugin can manage several contact forms for your Contact page. It is easy to customise and looks good too. It supports CAPTCHA and Akismet spam filtering.

Favicon

A favicon is that little image you see at the beginning of your page’s URL. This one generates the icons for desktop browsers, iPhone/iPad, Android devices and more.

Google analytics

This is a good way to add Google analytics tracking code to your website without changing any of the files. You can log in with Google from your WordPress dashboard and choose the site you want to link. Take your time checking out all the features.

Pixabay Images

If you use stockphotos, then this plugin is useful for you. It lets you insert a stockphoto from Pixabay anywhere on your blog. The images are safe to use and paying attribution is not required.

Pixelyoursite

This plugin is good if you have a Facebook page too. If you’re doing Facebook ads (and you should) this plugin helps you insert Facebook pixel code on every page of your site with just one click.

WordPress editorial calendar

This is how you manage your blog posts without having to be on your site all the time. Schedule your blog posts and check out your schedule through the calendar. It provides an overview of your scheduled posts.

WP Smush

The smush plugin will compress all your photos so that your site comes up faster. Make it a habit to upload smaller files. But if there are photos over 2MB the plugin will smush it for you.

Yoast SEO

You want this plugin. This is a favourite tool for SEO management and it is easy to use. If you get a headache talking about SEO then just use this one plugin for it.

Need help with your site and plugins? Contact 3CD for a free consult!

small business digital marketing

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Why your small business needs a blog

If you are a small business owner you might have wondered why your business needs a blog. What is a blog anyway? A blog can be part of your website that’s written in an informal tone, aimed to give you more credibility while providing free helpful information to your readers and customers at the same time. In this post, we will discuss why your small business blog will help you.

A blog gives you street cred

You know that you know what you’re doing but aside from family and friends, others might not know that. Writing blog posts on topics related to your business will show to your customers (and potential customers) that you know what you are talking about. You are the expert of your business. That expertise will show when you share knowledge that others find helpful. You might think you have very little to share or talk about but if you sat down and thought about it, you’ll find that there’s more than you initially thought.

small business blogIt helps people find your site

A well written, helpful and SEO-healthy blog post is a big boost for your website’s online presence. Without making it too complicated, it basically means when people Google certain topics ones that you’ve written about on your blog will pop up on the search. But you need to make sure that your blog posts are SEO healthy. Stuff like featured image, internal and external links as well as keywords will help boost your online presence.

A blog helps convert readers into customers

Your blog posts will show readers you know your business and your products/services inside and out. This gives them confidence that you are there for the long haul. It also shows them that you can help them with whatever it is that they need because you have the capability to do it. The confidence they have on you will convert them into new customers. Once they become customers, and they love you, they will then share your site and blog posts on their social media sites, bringing new readers to your website. It’s an evergreen process.

If you need ideas for blog topics, try Googling ‘blog ideas generator’ – there are plenty of sites out there that can help you.

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What not to do on your small business blog

What not to do on your small business blog

  1. Plagiarise
  2. Copying and pasting other articles
  3. Not crediting sources
  4. Not using quotes
  5. Not researching trends

We’ve previously written about why small business websites need a blog. Not only does it help with your SEO ranking, it also provides good information for your customers (if you do it right). It’s a lot of hassle, we know. It can also be quite daunting especially if you’re new at this. In this post, we will give you some tips on what NOT to do on your blog. You really need to read this because we’ve seen these mistakes in some of our clients. And they can get you in trouble.

Plagiarise

This is the most serious one of the lot. What is plagiarism? It’s when you copy all or part of an article published somewhere else, written by someone else, and then passing it of as your own. You and your small business can get in serious trouble with this. No matter how ‘small’ the website is, or how unknown, you shouldn’t just copy and paste the content and put it on your site. We’ve met clients where their previous ‘website guy’ just copied and pasted entire articles from another website. Then they just placed a tiny accreditation of the website at the bottom of the page. That’s still plagiarism.

Not crediting sources

If you are using a part of the content from another website or source, you need to make sure you credit them. How do you do this? Add their name on the post you’re writing, with link to their website and their position. You always give credit to the website/writer and use quotations marks when you lift a blurb from a certain article. Also, linking out to the original article is also good for your SEO. Not giving credit where credit is due is just bad form. And also, it makes your small business blog look dodgy.

Not researching trends

There are hot topics in your small business industry all the time. You want your content to stay current so you need to do some research as to what everyone is talking about right now. If you don’t do your research you are going to get left behind. Also, it will be good for your small business to stay on top of things if you figure out what’s hot and what’s not. Pick a hot topic, find your angle, and write a post on your blog about it. Your spin to the latest trend will make your content original and relevant.

Need help with content for your small business? Contact us for more info!