Welcome to another edition of Sites Weekly.
I hope this email finds you in the midst of a productive and fulfilling week. (Because if you’re being productive, but it’s not fulfilling … what’s the point??)
Before I get to this week’s roundup of external links, I have a few links to internal content that I think you’ll find useful.
First, remember that Brian Gardner has a new series on the StudioPress blog in which he’s giving quick tips on how to make better use of the Genesis Framework. I’ll start including them as part of Sites Weekly.
This week’s Genesis Quick Tip: How to Add an Instagram Feed to Your Site Footer.
Second, we have a new 10-part series of ebooks that deliver expert information to help you build a better website. The series is called Essential Tips for a Faster, Stronger, More Secure WordPress Website.
New subscribers will receive these guides as part of a free weekly course, but you can have immediate access to all 10 ebooks right now.
Here they are:
- How to Attract Your Ideal Audience
- How to Make Your Competition Irrelevant
- Design 101: Dress for the Job You Want
- Smart SEO Steps that Help More People Find Your Website
- Mobile Generation: Give Your Visitors a Great Experience on Any Device
- Socialize: How to balance the short-term and long-term benefits of social media marketing
- Building Relationships with Content: How Sticky Do You Feel?
- The Need for Speed (and Why Slow Websites Are Unacceptable)
- Cache Rules Everything Around Me: How to Be Ready for Your Next Big Online Moment
- Face the Change: Professional Standards for Modern Business Websites
And finally, don’t miss Brian Clark’s latest Quick Copy Tip over on the Copyblogger blog: Supercharge Your Benefits with Contrast Storytelling.
Now on to this week’s links …
Content: Kill ’em with kindness, wit, and a few ounces of prevention
It’s inevitable.
It happens to all of us who create content online.
Eventually you are going to get negative feedback. Most of it will be well-meaning, some of it will even be helpful, and occasionally you’ll just get a troll or two wasting your time.
Regardless, it’s good to have a plan and a few strategies for how you’re going to deal with negative feedback when it comes. This post includes seven solid ideas, with examples to show you the way.
7 Witty Ways to Respond to Negative Feedback on Your Content
Design: How could your design be better, bolder, or more elegant?
I’m a big fan of the podcast TED Radio Hour. If you’ve never listened, each episode is organized around a general topic, with snippets from 4–5 popular TED Talks about the topic as well as interviews with the speakers.
The most recent episode was a replay of a May 2016 episode about design. I found the story told by the founder of Airbnb to be most illuminating and inspiring. The entire episode is worth a listen.
And here is a bonus Design link for you …
Looking for color scheme ideas for a new site or a redesign? This blog post provides a rundown of the best free color palette tools.
Two of the most important decisions you will make about your WordPress website are your theme and your hosting. Wouldn’t it be great if they worked together to make your website more powerful?
Now they can.
Discover why over 213,675 website owners trust StudioPress.
Technology: How to grow your YouTube audience
Video is already huge, and it continues to grow. And while Facebook is obviously making a big video push, and warrants investigation (especially if you’re doing live video), don’t forget about YouTube.
Just because YouTube has been around and synonymous with online video forever doesn’t mean it’s a dinosaur or past its prime. YouTube remains hugely popular for video, and recent updates are giving content creators even more power over their channels.
This blog post by Noah Kagan provides some extremely useful tips for how to take advantage of YouTube’s built-in tools to get more subscribers to your channel.
How to get 100,000 YouTube subscribers by 2018
Strategy: Content comes first, then SEO
This article begins with a brilliant metaphor. If you’ve ever felt like balancing content strategy and SEO strategy was a challenge, this metaphor will speak to you.
Bottom line: No matter how great your SEO is, it won’t matter if your content is terrible. (Not to mention, your terrible content will torpedo your SEO in short order.)
It’s obvious, yes, but we can all use a regular reminder of the fundamentals.
So …
Which of the ideas in these posts will you put to good use immediately?
I’ll be back with a new edition next week.
Keep building.