Honey Bee Buzz Marketing Blog

WordPress › Sermon Browser « WordPress Plugins

WordPress › Sermon Browser « WordPress Plugins.

Interesting plugin with many features.  Very helpful for churches that publish their sermons.

WordPress › AWSOM News Announcement « WordPress Plugins

WordPress › AWSOM News Announcement « WordPress Plugins.

Ad an announcement, video or audio in posts or pages.  Customizable for top of page/post or anywhere else.

CommentLuv WordPress Plugin – FiddyP

CommentLuv WordPress Plugin – FiddyP.

Well-respected plugin which adds a link to commenter’s last post underneath their comment.  Encourages commenting and community participation.  Some bloggers suggest holding monthly contests to encourage commenting.  This drives traffic, which boosts sales and SERP rankings, and eventually PageRank.

Email Marketing Software and Programs

A fundamental part of marketing is direct mail.

Used to be that companies would spend tens of thousands of dollars snail mailing sales letters and teasers and postcards and the like.  They still do, but much less frequently, because now there is email marketing.

You can just send out a simple, plain-text email.  It works.  But it’s much more effective to use graphics and to use privacy safeguards for the people who have entrusted their emails with you.  And the more sophisticated programs adjust themselves for certain limitations that different email providers like Gmail and Hotmail have.

Below is a list of email softwares and programs.

As always, use at your own risk and after determining which ones will best address your company’s needs.  Two that have been in business for years and which are proven to be both reliable and have integrity are ConstantContact and Awebber.  Let us know what’s working for you or any questions you may have!

There is a free, limited version of G-Lock, AND it has a plug-in for our favorite CMS — WordPress:

WordPress Double Opt-In Manager Widget

or get it directly from WordPress: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/g-lock-double-opt-in-manager/

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SendBlaster, besides having just about the cutest ever animated logo, has several important features:

• opt-in lists
• blacklisting (exclude people who don’t want to receive your email so that they don’t blacklist you, exclude competitors, etc.)
• duplicate email prevention
• multiple lists (for different topics, ie: Caribbean vacations, European cruises, America’s National Parks)
• HTML emails and text emails
• personalization (Dear Charlie)
• visual editor for HTML emails
• there’s a free version, as well as an unlimited pro version for about 75 Euros.

SendBlaster’s downsides:

• no click-through tracking, which is really the whole point of email marketing – you want to track who is looking at what, and even when!  You want to know who is forwarding your emails.  You have to analyze to make the best use of things.
• the free version is limited to 100 recipients at a time.

We’ll be adding more to this list over time.  Please feel free to leave links to your favorites or cautionary tales in the comments section!

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HoneyBeeBuzz

Shopping Carts Compared

Lots of our clients want to have shopping carts.  This is a very good approach to business on the internet, regardless of what kind of product or service you offer, even if you are a non-profit organization.  Once you have a visitor on your site, you want to make the most of the opportunity.  Carpe Diem!

There are many ways to go about this, and they are based on your current website structure and whether you want to add to it, or change it completely.

Below is a list of shopping cart software.  We’ll be updating as we go along, so bookmark this post and check back often.

• WP eCommerce – plug-in for WordPress.  Takes unflinching tweaking and research, but is great once you get it going.  Integrates nicely with the look and feel of your current site/blog.  Has many limitations, but is great if you want a simple shopping cart without having to shell out $3000 to $30000.  Yes, the number of zeroes is correct.  Some of these shopping cart softwares are exorbitant.  But worth it as an investment when you are a large company.
• Magento – also OpenSource, but like WP eCommerce, does not handle recurring billing.  Who wants recurring billing?  Wine of the Month clubs, membership sites such as associations, video rentals/exchanges (think Netflix), etc.  Magento has many more features and controls than WP eCommerce, but misses a hot new market – membership sites.
• MemberWing – allows for “teaser” sections, multiple levels of membership, seems to be free.  Landing page is very unsophisticated.  This is either good, because it’s free, or bad, indicating an overall lack of sophistication.  The levels and teaser ability are good signs.
• Marketer’s Choice – similar to Shopping Cart 1.  Some of the major information marketers are using this, including Bob Bly.  Autoresponders, affiliate program, recurring billing (which is good for membership sites or subscriptions).
• Quick Shop – WordPress plugin.  Sounds simple.  Provides sidebar widget shop, products covered in posts or pages.  PayPal or EFT.

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Honey Bee Buzz Marketing Consultants