My first ever website was in Hebrew.
This was back in the late 1990′s and I simply wanted to create an informational website about cats and cater to the local cat lovers population, seeing as there were no cat-related websites in Hebrew at the time.
The site was a huge success in terms of media attention. The internet being such a novelty back then, I was interviewed by national newspapers, radio shows and even twice on TV. Traffic followed, of course, but back then, monetizing on the site proved to be difficult.
There were many reasons for my decision to shut down the site, and in retrospect, I’m not sure it was the right thing to do. In fact, I did not so much shut it down as switched to a website in English, catering to the far larger English speaking population of the world in a cat website in English.
And so, over a decade later, I am thinking of testing the small Israeli market once more. Different niche altogether, but still, a website in Hebrew!
Building the site is so much easier now!
Hebrew is a difficult language on the net. Not only does it have a different set of letters, it is also written from right to left. Back then, you actually had to type words backwards in order to get them to display properly in an HTML web page. Thankfully there was a small script that would reverse the letters for you, but it was still very time consuming. These days, browsers have Hebrew versions that can read Hebrew right off the HTML code page. What’s more, popular content management systems, including WordPress, all have Hebrew versions. Just type and hit press!
Monetizing sites in Hebrew is also easier. Adsense offers ads for Hebrew pages, and there are Israeli CPM networks too. Since I’m now opting for the international travel niche, hopefully I’ll be able to use some good international affiliation programs as well. Of course, that’s all in the future – I’m still in the building and promoting phases.
I’d love to hear feedback on this from webmasters with websites in languages other than English. Have you ever tried that with your home market (or any other market)?
Hey, guess what? The best WordPress gallery plug-in out there is not even a plugin!
For years, managing collections of images in a WordPress blog post required a plug-in. NextGen was one of the most popular plug-ins around but there was no shortage of alternatives.
I’m not a big fan of using Plugins. Sure, they allow you to customize your blog in unique ways, but they also require a lot of attention in the form of keeping them up to date. It may not be an issue when you manage just one or two blogs, but when you run a few dozens or more, trust me, you want to keep updating to the absolute minimum. What’s more, plugin developers sometimes give up on the project, leaving you stuck with a plugin that eventually stops working with some new WP version. Been there, done that…
If a feature is important enough to enough bloggers it needs to be incorporated into WordPress itself and eventually, almost always, it does become an integral part of the script.
I always felt that the ability to add galleries to your posts was an important feature. Over the years, I’ve tried a bunch of different gallery plugins with various results, but now, finally, no more plugins!
Having tested it in several blogs, I am perfectly happy with the WordPress gallery feature. Here’s how you use it -
1. Upload more than one image to your post – just use the “insert image” button as usual. Either add one image after the other, or select multiple images by holding down the CTRL key.
2. Once you have your images uploaded and saved WordPress automatically creates a gallery tab for you:
3. You can click the Show link next to each one and edit the file name, alt text and description. The little box next to that link is for you to order images in the gallery if you wish to.
4. The gallery settings at the bottom allow you to control where the images lead to when clicked. Here’s the real cool feature – you can automatically create a page for each picture in your gallery, complete with your full template, comments and everything else that you get from WordPress.
5. Finally, set up the order in which you want your images displayed and the number of gallery columns and voila – insert the new gallery into your post:
As you can see from the above gallery, every image that you upload to your post will be included in the gallery. I still haven’t found a way to easily exclude images from the gallery, unless you actually upload them to another post or page and then just link to them there. I guess the wonderful people who code WP still have some work to do there.
However, I think it’s the best gallery generator for WordPress I have found so far, and hey, it’s a “Look, Ma! No Plugins!” moment!
I’d love to hear from those who have tried this feature. How do you feel it compares to existing gallery plug-ins? And if you’re not using it, care to share why?
I got the best gift ever for my husband’s birthday: a brand new computer!
Yes, it was his birthday, and technically, he was given the computer, but since I’m the one who works from home, I always get the best computer in the house. So, here I am with a brand new machine!
The fun parts are obvious – this computer is so much faster! I can work with tons of windows and they all just fly! I love the new Windows 7 I have here too – neat design. This may sound silly, but I even love the new keyboard I got with this computer.
Still, switching computers is always a pain. It’s been three days now and I still keep finding little things I’m missing. A password here, a piece of software I forgot to install. An application that has issues with Windows 7. Not huge obstacles, but enough of them to make this a particularly annoying week, work-wise.
I wish they had found an easier way to switch. Our guy tried his best and transferred everything he could, but with a different OS, some things just need to be manually re-installed and/or patched up.
I wonder how other webmasters and bloggers are dealing with the same issue. How often do you upgrade to a new computer and how do you deal with the move? Drop me a comment if you have any tips – thanks!
My brother is quite the entrepreneur. He ventured into online marketing a few years ago, after moving to England from Israel and looking to start a new business in a new place.
There is a lot of similarity to what we do. Creating websites and promoting them is something we have in common. One big difference though -
I just create the websites and place ads on them – affiliate ads or others. My brother actually sells things on his. I mean, he does actually buy merchandise, stocks it up in his house, and then markets it online via his website as well as on Ebay.
Every now and again, he tries to talk me into taking the same route, telling me how his profit margins are so much higher than mine. When I advertise a product with my affiliate code, I rarely get more than 6-10% in commissions. My brother, on the other hand, buys wholesale and sets up his prices like a real merchant does – sometimes with hundreds of percents in profit.
I always say the same thing: I do NOT want to deal with clients. Let the merchants deal with shipping and customer service – my focus is with websites only.
As he and his wonderful family are staying with us this week, I got to see first hand what a headache those clients can be. As much as he had prepared for the vacation, he still had to deal with a couple of clients who didn’t get their orders, due to issues with shipping. They were furious, despite the fact that shipping was still within the time frame they had been guaranteed. Why? Go figure. Because they’re people, that’s why.
My brother had to deal with emails and make phone calls to appease them, promising compensation and gifts. All was well, in the end, but let me tell you – I’m glad I didn’t have to handle that!
Bottom line?
I guess it’s one of those cases of different strokes for different folks. My brother still prefers his way, and I mine. I guess it’s a good thing we each found the path that is right for us.
How about you? Do you market any actual “bricks and mortar” product? or even an e-product of your own? how do you deal with customers? Or do you, like me, stick to the web publishing end of things and let others handle them?
I am always looking for new and different projects. I get bored fairly quickly, so repeating the same kind of work for a long time just isn’t for me. I am fortunate to have a steady stream of revenue by now, allowing me to spend time learning new skills. You know, I think I probably spent a third of my working time as a webmaster on some sort of a learning curve for something brand new!
Right now, I am looking into designing sites for iPhones.
As an iPhone surfer, I tend to come back to websites that recognize my iPhone and offer a design that’s easy to view and navigate. Give me large fonts, a fluid design that uses up the screen and lots of easy to press buttons and I will be coming back to that site in the future. Just check out the galleries on this CSS for iPhone website to see what I mean.
Of course, with iPhone, you can always have an application for your website. Many of the larger websites offer that. Wikipedia, hotels.com, Times magazine, and Google itself. Just a few names there. You go to the Apple App Store and download a free app for those services. Many of them make use of iPhone’s special features, such as the geo-locator, camera etc.
However, I am not looking for an app at this point. What I want to do is create iPhone friendly websites. Sites that will appeal to iPhone users so they will bookmark them and return at a later date too.
Here are some resources about web design for iPhone -
Excellent Tutorial
Another good tutorial
Some technical CSS advice
The WordPress WPtouch plug-in – I have a feeling I’ll end up using this one a lot!
I was actually thinking about SEO for iPhone. Admit it, it sounds cool. However, as far as I can tell, there is no special SEO for iPhone compatible websites. This would just be regular SEO for my target phrases.
I was actually surprised to see how little there is out there, in terms of resources for web design for iPhone. If you have any good resources to share, please leave me a comment – thank you!
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Engagement – At the Core of both Content AND Promotion
June 17, 2010
in blogging
In a recent blog post Dan Keller from Tycoon Blogger shared an interesting insight with the blogging community. Dan was reviewing that old ‘Who do you love more, Mommy or Daddy?’ question, or in webmasters terms: ‘Who is King? Content or Promotion’. His new take on the topic was that there’s a third contestant for the crown: Engagement.
Let me say I really enjoyed seeing a new take on this question. However, if I may further develop this line of thought, I suggest that engagement is not separate from either content or promotion. You can direct both your content creation efforts and your marketing efforts into being more (or less) engaging.
For example, you can promote your blog in many ways. Some are more engagement-oriented, such as commenting on people’s posts or participating in forum debates. Even your social media promotion can be more “engaging” – as in actually participating in Twitter conversations. Your level of actual interaction with your readers (i.e. engagement) is something you can actually fine tune, to make your promotion effort more (or less) engagement-oriented.
Your content can also be more or less interactive (interaction being at the core of reader engagement). Asking your readers questions, replying to comments, or referencing other bloggers’ content – these are all ways of making your content more engagement-oriented.
So, you see, engagement, IMHO, cannot replace either content or promotion as the royal pair of blogging. It can and should be where you orient both your writing and your marketing efforts.
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