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Blog Marketing Academy

Building Your Platform

Your website is the platform on which it all happens. It isn’t just something pretty for people to look at. It has to be set up for marketing, receive and route communications, answer questions, take payments, manage customer accounts, send automated emails and more.

My real specialty is in designing and building the platform for online business. This covers things like tools, design and making it all work together.

Top Articles On Building

4 Core Principles For Choosing Software and Plug-ins For Your Site

22 years of experience in using different software and plug-ins for my business resulted in these 4 important lessons. Perhaps they will save you some time.
Read More 4 Core Principles For Choosing Software and Plug-ins For Your Site

Branding Guide: The Exact Components Of Branding, Personal Brand, And How To Determine Your’s

What is a brand, or a personal brand? How exactly do you create one in a purposeful way? This guide to branding will show you the exact components of a brand and give plain-English guidance on creating your own brand.
Read More Branding Guide: The Exact Components Of Branding, Personal Brand, And How To Determine Your’s

Is Your Online Business Protected Against The Unexpected? 6 Points Of Online Business Self-Reliance And Digital Sovereignty

Do you own and control the data, hardware and software that your online business relies on? This mini-workshop covers how to maintain digital sovereignty.
Read More Is Your Online Business Protected Against The Unexpected? 6 Points Of Online Business Self-Reliance And Digital Sovereignty

Building Your Online Business Platform: Taking Payments On Your WordPress Site Versus Third-Party Platforms

When you want to accept payments, is it best to use a third-party platform or build your own with Wordpress? Let’s compare… and look at some software combos that might work for you.
Read More Building Your Online Business Platform: Taking Payments On Your WordPress Site Versus Third-Party Platforms

The 6 Core Pages Of Your Blog – And How To Tweak Them To 2X Your Conversions

In this post, I’m going to talk to you about how to tweak your blog for conversions. We’ll talk, specifically, about 6 important core pages and how to tweak each of them in order to double your conversions (or more).
Read More The 6 Core Pages Of Your Blog – And How To Tweak Them To 2X Your Conversions

Blog Layouts: Is YOUR Blog Designed According To These Conversion Blueprints?

In this post, I’m going to talk about the basic layout of your blog and I’m going to give you a few frameworks that you can use on your own blog to ensure people notice what you want them to see, thereby increasing the chances they’ll convert into a real subscriber and prospect for you.
Read More Blog Layouts: Is YOUR Blog Designed According To These Conversion Blueprints?

Blog Design Audit Checklist

Use this checklist to evaluate your blog point by point… and find what’s good and what you could improve. Available for download free inside the Document Vault.

OPTIN – Blog Design Audit

How I Optimized My WordPress Admin To Turn It Into A Business Command Center

Most WordPress users settle for a cluttered, default admin panel — but your backend can be so much more. In this behind-the-scenes post, I’ll show you how I’ve customized my…

How to Choose the Best WordPress Theme in 2025: A Smart Guide (No Developer Needed)

Choosing a WordPress theme that’s right for you can feel overwhelming. This guide tries to make it simpler – and point you in a direction that will not box you…

FluentCommunity Review: Can This Be A Replacement For BuddyBoss?

A look at the first version of FluentCommunity… a new community plugin that I think serves as a worthy alternative to BuddyBoss.

My (Unfortunate) Experience With WP Grid Builder

I tried to use WP Grid Builder and ran into a snag. I couldn’t get the facets to appear correctly. Not sure what I was missing, I reached out to…

WooCommerce Setup: The Settings I Use For Almost Every Site I Build

I use WooCommerce all the time for it’s customization and integrations. But, I use pretty much the same setup most of the time. Here’s the exact process I run for…

How To Clean Your Options Table For Better WordPress Performance

Did you know that there’s a really good chance that your WordPress database is still cluttered with the ghosts of plugins you no longer use? Here’s how to see if…

xCloud Hosting Review: Good Enough To Switch From Cloudways?

Is xCloud Hosting just another cash grab… or is it the real deal? It has good people behind it, but how does it stack up to Cloudways? Well, I was…

BuddyBoss Hosting: What’s The Hosting For A Buddyboss Membership Site

Buddyboss hosting is a little bit different than a typical blog. Let’ go over various recommendations for hosting your Buddyboss membership site.

Why Wordpress? Why Not Wix, Weebly or Squarespace?

Heard you should be using Wordpress? Here’s why it is better than Wix, Weebly and Squarespace. And how you can make Wordpress just as simple to use.

Rocket.Net Hosting Review: I Switched And Here’s What I Think

I switched from Cloudways to Rocket.net hosting. I’ve now been using Rocket for over a month. What do I think? Here’s my experience with Rocket.Net hosting…

Web Hosting Change: Moving From Cloudways To Rocket And Here’s Why

I’m moving sites from Cloudways to Rocket. In this post, let me spell out the reasons for making this web hosting change.

Video Hosting For Your Membership And Online Courses: How To Securely Embed Videos And Ensure Protected Access

How can you securely embed videos on your membership site in a way which they cannot be stolen? How do you protect your videos?

Subscriber-Only Content: How To Ensure Only Your Subscribers Can Get Your Lead Magnets

Here’s how you can secure content (like lead magnets) on your site for subscribers only, but without requiring them to log-in to see it.

FluentBooking Review: Why This Scheduling Plugin Stands Out Above The Competition

FluentBooking certainly isn’t the first scheduling plugin for WordPress. So, why do I think THIS one matters?

How To Automatically Import Posts From Multiple Sources Into One Site

I created a “hub” site which I wanted to automatically list content from my other sites. Here’s how I built it using “off the shelf” plugins.

How To Create Online Courses On WordPress Without An LMS Plug-in

In this video, I will show you how to create online courses on WordPress without using an LMS plugin. We will just use custom post types.

How To Show Your Site Analytics Inside WordPress (Without Big Tech)

Here’s how to get your site analytics in the WordPress admin panel using an alternative to Google Analytics.

How To Build A Calculator Form Easily Without Any Coding

Calculator forms can be useful for online calculators, free tests for lead generation, client reporting, etc. Here’s how you can easily create powerful calculator forms on your WordPress site and…

Choosing An Ecommerce Platform For Your Online Business (And My Only Recommendation)

I’ve been through a lot of ecommerce platforms. Now, I pretty much have only one recommendation. Here are my criteria for choosing a platform and the tool I recommend.

Blog Content Strategy: How To Structure Your Entire Blog (So It Will Actually Work)

This guide will show you how to plan a blog content strategy that will serve you into the future by providing a structure and global plan for your entire blog.

Blog Bounce Rate: What Is It And How Do You Reduce Your Bounce Rate?

The bounce rate can often be a matter of concern for a lot of site owners. Is your’s too high? What is a normal bounce rate? What can you do…

Ultimate Guide To Blog Comments: Best Practices For Handling Comments On Your Blog In The Modern Era

Do blog comments positively affect your traffic? Are they worth having at all? And, if you do enable comments, what are the best practices?

The Challenge Of Converting From A Page Builder To Gutenberg Blocks For Your Whole Site

I recently finished converting my site from a page builder (Elementor) to Gutenberg blocks. Here’s how it went… and the results.

Page Builders Vs Gutenberg Blocks: Why I’m Switching Away From BuddyBoss To Kadence Theme

Which is better: Page builders or Gutenberg blocks? After a lot of hesitation, I’ve made my conclusion. And here’s why I’m about to make a theme switch…

Want Me To Build Your Platform For You?​

I build sites all the time for my clients as part of my technical services. And if you have an existing WordPress-based membership site, I can jump in and take care of some needed fixes and enhancements for you. Whether I do it for you or you just want to talk to help choose between all the available tools and options, I’m here to help.

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