21 Quick Tips for WordPress Starter Sites

Today I’m sharing a list of 25 “quick tips” for startups that will get them up and running with their WordPress starter sites. I first blogged about these concepts back in February.

Web development for startups is, to say the least, challenging. For one thing, you’re trying to get money to spend on a tangible product, without making it painfully obvious how to accomplish that. Indeed, that’s one of the first hurdles — how to sell your own “product” without being too obvious about it.

A few other things: It’s not easy to draw an actual line between “consumers” and “customers.” And so in some ways, a writing-intensive Web site designed for a writer can just as easily draw in photographers and radiographers as it can the base consumer.

To close, I want to offer these tips as humble-brags. Others may not adopt them, but I think they’re helpful for any startup.

Helpful hints:

• Expose your site’s visitors to your field’s heavy hitters and tutorials.
• Support your “core contributors” (all the writers you employ) on your site with organic and paid coverage links, and frequent feature articles.
• Use WordPress themes from outside your community (Tribdubs.com is a good example) to attract new visitors and build your brand.
• Create “collector” sites around your home page’s audio samples.
• Create guest posts for other sites.
• Make sure your articles are post-it-not-saveable, so that they show up on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere as soon as possible.
• Use sections and sub-sections to crowdsource content. For example, if you feel that you need additional recipes, write about a specific dish, then list them off as you read it.
• Include plugins of useful, easy-to-use tools (like QuikPub).
• Write your own Google AdWords for your site’s landing page. Have it up to 3,000 ad conversions.
• Don’t shoehorn a newsletter into your WordPress site. The format makes your list short and your tone (confusing and fragmented) shoehorn-based. Instead, offer your readers a newsletter each week.
• Use coding “printers” to build for-pay plugins that their users can download and integrate into their own sites.
• Be responsive to (and live in) the community in which you’re building your site. In other words, make sure that your users are able to quickly and easily find out what features are available on your site.
• If you find that a particular tool is too much for your site’s users, back off and try another one.
• Creating content without context is like talking about someone else’s shoes — you can have the best pair, but the impact is meaningless if you don’t know what they’re really for.
• 15. If there’s a way to make WordPress an enterprise-type site, do so. It is a sexy name and a smart corporate move, and you can get a great deal with it. (For more on this topic, see this post.)
• If a writer has something he thinks you could use (maybe something new, like a cool recipe or tools) post it to the tip list. Don’t ask him to publish on your site. Offer him a notice to share and leave a review somewhere else.
• Keep an eye on adding servers, plugins, and more features — and make sure they work the way you’ve intended.
• Adding in a static site design helps sell your site to visitors. Imagine you’re your page: your Page 1 (or Page 2) (or Page 3) (or page 35). How much “visitation” can you get from a single Page 1 or Page 2 visitor? The more visitors you can convince to come in through Page 1 or Page 2, the more money you can make.
• Use an unpaid intern to help with your site. They’ll look for opportunities to test plugins, help write for your site, and take your site across the United States (as many others are doing).
• Don’t write your WordPress app without input from all your editors and advisors, and see what they tell you.
• Take advantage of the free tools out there. Automattic has them, and its ilk from Google, Wix, and Joomla — try them out, and they’ll help you.

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