Here are some links to some great Wordpress themes.

Thanks to SmashingMagazine.com!

Wordpress I 

Wordpress II

Wordpress III 

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After roaming around the site for a moment, I got an email through the contact form which essentially said (paraphrased), “Not sure if your site is just informational, but do you have a normal site with information about your practice?”

This took me back a bit. Instantly, I pulled up the site and browsed around to see if there was anything about the site that was perhaps disorienting or otherwise confusing to the “average” web surfer.

Was I on the verge of a legitimate argument AGAINST blogging?

Blogs have a different look and feel. If you could print your entire blog, it’d just be analogous to roll of paper with story after story after story. And unless your site visitor knows that you have a handy search feature, he or she might find the site frustrating to sort through.

Let’s face it. Not EVERYONE knows what a blog is. Go poll 10 random people and ask them if they truly understand the difference between a website and a blog.

Yes, you’re trying to put out some good content. Yes, you’re trying to rank higher on Google. But your ultimate goal is increasing the conversion rate from “prospective client” to “client frantically emailing you, thirsty for more information”! Ain’t it though?

So I urge you to take a step back and put yourself in a prospective client’s shoes. You know your own blog all too well, so perhaps you might want to have a few friends or colleagues critique your blog. (Don’t ask another blogger for a critique - fellow bloggers are all too familiar with the unique blog layout and format and can’t give you a “layperson’s” perspective.)

Ask them the following questions:

1. What’s your first impression of the site? (Is it attractive? Anything in particular that draws your attention?)
2. Are there any elements of the site that distract you?
3. Do the articles interest you or are you more interested in finding out what the person behind the site has to offer you?
4. Do you find the layout of the site to be “comfortable” or “too busy”?
5. Do you find that it is easy to navigate around the site?

Remember, the web is about speed, efficiency and accessibility of information.

Are you burying your true skill or service in a mountain of content that might lose or confuse prospective clients?

No, I’m not about to stop blogging. The SEO results have been staggering (I’ll be discussing this more in an upcoming post.)  It’s still the easiest way to publish new content without knowing much HTML and heck, even if visitors are confused, at least I can be glad that they found me in the first place via my SEO efforts.

But let’s not forget that we’re trying to convert readers to clients! Not just spew off at the keyboard.

Just some food for thought.

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I just discovered ScribeFire, which is a addon for Firefox.

It allows me to manage all of my blogs quickly without logging in to each and every site’s control panel. I only use Wordpress, but it apparently supports posting to other blog engines such as: LiveJournal, Windows Live Spaces, Typepad and Blogger.

Once installed, look to the bottom right for a little orange notebook and pencil icon. Double click and get started! Very intuitive, pleasantly efficient. In fact, this is my 4th blog post in 10 minutes without ever logging into the typical web interface!

One of the things that I can’t yet figure out how to do is to split pages (so that a long post is truncated with a “read more” link). Other than that, this is a great tool for busy bloggers.

Even if you’re only managing one blog, it helps you skip around and navigate through the vital blog elements that you’re accustomed to accessing.

Love Firefox? Love it more.

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Sure enough, within 3 weeks, her blog appeared on the first page of Google! (Great for her, a little frustrating for me, since I’ve been working on mine longer…granted, my desired search terms are much more competitive.)

I then wondered why anyone would even need a “standard” website anymore? And this morning on Solosez, an attorney asked a question about website design, which wasn’t really on point, but had me thinking about the true need for a “standard” website.

Wordpress, Blogger and now Typepad all offer “pages” which need to be distinguished from blog posts. A page serves the purpose of showing static content such as contact information, a description of your business, background info on your education, experience or credentials or anything else you’d want to put on a rarely changed page of your site.

If you think of a blog is a constantly scrolling page of stories, advice and thoughts where you constantly append new blog posts. If you were to start your first blog post with a description of what you do and your contact information, that blog post would eventually get buried down at the bottom of a long string of blog posts.

So a “page” would allow you to have easily referenced static information for your audience, rather than requiring them to browse through your entire blog or search for it.

A “standard” website is just a collection of pages, which are difficult for the average joe to keep up to date with fresh content.

A blog with a “pages” feature is a one-two punch that would allow you to keep adding fresh content (which is what all the search engines are looking for!) and simulataneous maintain static pages of information for quick reference.

Fresh content draws high(er) search engine placement, which draws more readers and hopefully, more clients.

I’m not going to run and dump my current “standard” websites, but I’m certainly not putting anymore time or money into them. Blogging is cheap (often free) and more effective for SEO. EVERYONE who is interested in internet marketing should have a blog.

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