MainWP Blog - WordPress Business

The gurus tell us all the time; we need an email list. Now, I am one of those guys who take what the gurus say with a grain of salt, but this is one that you can ignore at your own peril. Why? For one, an email list where readers opt-in means you have a list of emails with individuals who are willing to hear what you are saying and, possibly, what you are selling. Building that list can take your Continue reading the post...

A couple of things are certain around April, Spring and the time to do our taxes. Change starts to happen at this point in the year with the emergence of warmer weather and new life. Some people are digging out of a long Winter’s freeze while others are busy dodging the pollen. This time of year we start to see things come alive, and hopefully, our businesses start to come alive. Are you Spring cleaning? Are you cleaning out things Continue reading the post...

One of the big mistakes freelancers make is not treating their work like a business. Freelancers act more like an employee on a contract than a business. The problem with this is that if you are on a contract, then you need to manage the process of the work you do for the client rather than the customer telling you how and when to do the job. “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” ― Benjamin Franklin Continue reading the post...

It was around 2008 when I started the website. I tried to do a niche site for football (American). I built one meant to cover all football in the Dallas – Fort Worth area. Unfortunately, at the time, I didn’t have access to guys like Jon Morrow. Morrow, undoubtedly, would have stopped me (hopefully!) to tell me that the niche was still too broad. So, as I started this website, I thought that a good place to start was with Continue reading the post...

The Welcome Phase of our onboarding process is the place to articulate your working procedures as well as set expectations for the project. During the welcome phase, you will want to take advantage of various ways to give your client important information which will help welcome to the team. During the Welcome Phase, you are inviting your client to be part of your team, making them feel part of your family. Do you want to know what will make you Continue reading the post...

Oops, I did it again. Rather, oops it happened again. This is not just a veiled reference to years gone by where Brittany Spears was in her heyday as one of the most famous pop singers. Oops, you got another cryptic lead through your website. You mean to make some changes to keep that from happening. Maybe yours look like the one I got earlier this month where the person submitting the message was, “I want a website.” Over the Continue reading the post...

“It’s not a mistake. They don’t make mistakes. They don’t do random. There’s always an objective. Always a target.” Nicky Parsons, Bourne Supremacy Do you have an objective when it comes to onboarding clients? Are you like Jason Bourne as Nicky Parsons describes him? The scary part could be that your client is handling your onboarding. Don’t let that happen. Have an agenda for your onboarding. Onboarding is a term that comes from human resources. The initial idea was to Continue reading the post...

Note: In our last post, we looked at a letter written to a fictional person, Freelancer Fred. This is the second part of our advice to the WordPress freelancer. This sentence from the last post applies: “Today, I am going to share a letter I am writing to Freelancer Fred, fictional of course. You may have to put on your imagination cap.” Dear Freelancer Fred, Last time I wrote about some basic things to help improve your freelancer career. I Continue reading the post...

Writing letters have become a lost art. When is the last time you have written someone a letter, especially using your own handwriting? There is something about that task, writing letters, where you spend time writing what you think, what you feel, and taking the time to communicate your message. Today we fire off emails, text messages and other quickly worded messages on social media and the like. The result is, I think, the world seems angrier. We are more impulsive Continue reading the post...

See if this sounds familiar. You get a call about a website. You are excited. The “lead” wants a proposal within the next 48 hours. Everything comes to a stop. No client work, no work on your own business, and you jump into action. You and your team (or dog or cat) start putting together a top-notch proposal. You sort through options for using a template for a proposal. You make sure to have a killer scope, features, and all Continue reading the post...