How to Use a Wordpress Blog for An Offline Template

Some guy was talking about seo, keywords and using a wordpress blog for setting up an offline marketing business by putting up websites for brick and mortar stores. He wanted to use static pages in a wordpress blog setup and thought that he wouldn't need the part of a wordpress blog that does the dynamic posting..... I suggested if he was just setting up static sites, he might as well use Xsitepro because it would give him the most bang for the bust! He must have been a newbie because he had some very basic questions. Nothing wrong with being a newbie, so I thought I'd post part of his question along with my comments below....maybe you might be able to glean something from it.

I really need to contact this fellow and show him my Xsitepro Offline Marketing Template. Using an Xsitepro Template for setting up brick and mortar businesses makes a lot of sense since these sites get indexed so quickly. In case you haven't seen my directory yet, I've been experimenting with The Mchenry Business Directory ...an online directory listing Mchenry businesses.

His Question

Basically, I'm going to try and create a stable offline business by providing a certain offline service, to customers which I plan to partially get through organic Google traffic. These customers would only be based locally. I have researched quite a few really nice local keywords, some with 4K+ monthly searches and I'm not really sure how to go about this.

I've decided to use WordPress for the website because of the ease of use and because it's SEO friendly. The website contains a welcome home page as well as faq, contact, terms of service, privacy policy and services page which describes the services that are being offered. The reason for not knowing how to go about this is because the whole website is static nothing really changes on it since it's meant to be a business website. The local keywords I have researched seem to have a fairly low competition although some seem hard to dominate.

My Answer and Comments

You've got a lot going on and some big questions. I'll give you my 2 cents for one small part of it. You're talking about using a wordpress blog for a buisness blog which will be composed mostly of static pages.

First based on my experience, if you're planning on creating a static site I would use Xsitepro. I use Dreamweaver or just plain ole notepad for developing sites and Xsitepro produces results that often times out do Wordpress. So, if you're serious about setting up multiple offline sites, composed of 3 or 4 pages....get a copy of Xsitepro and use it... Your pages will be indexed in some cases overnight and usually stay there with little to no updating. That's my personal experience. Just make sure you use the rss function and create a xml page, ping it and submit it to the directories

However!

Wordpress offers so much and to limit yourself to a couple of pages per site is a big mistake. Many big corporations switch to a wordpress blog...using it as a CMS. There is tremendous potential in using wordpress for your offline sites that you're really missing.

If you want to create a static front page that's fine. But don't dismiss using the blog as part of your site and its entire promotion.

I find a blog is the perfect offline business platform for developing websites and I incorporate both static and regular posts.

You mentioned you have a couple of keywords...I image it wouldn't be too difficult to come up with 50 or more keywords for your niche....especially if it's localized.

This is how a the blog portion of the site would work.

Use the blog to create or build a story about the business. You can expound on any aspect of the business, create a category and post weekly or daily blog posts using your keywords. Your story could virtually be a diary of daily business happenings. People love to read about the more personal side of a business. You could profile the employees....you could follow one employee through the entire week.

I can't think of any business that you couldn't develop some sort of story around. Heck, you could even have a cagegory that focuses on the office life of the business....isn't there a hit TV show called "The Office"!

I like to chronicle various projects, jobs, cases or patients within a business or service.

Let's say your site is for a local chiropractor. You can set up the front end of the site to make it look professional....but don't dismiss developing the blog because this is where you can effectively use your keywords or keyword phrases and start getting organic traffic.

Keeping with the chiropractor example. Find a patient to blog on. Let's say he has arm pain from a ruptured disc. Have the Chiropractor or you blog weekly on the patients treatment and progress. You'll be able to use keywords for the treatment...such as "decompression therapy in Mchenry" or "muscle stimulation therapy in Mchenry Chiropractor".....you'll have enough material for a full year. Use your imagination.

Consider a hardwood flooring company.

Do the same thing, set up your static front page as an introduction to the company...make sure you have an optin form. Then you could set up some blog categories such as "materials" where you would talk about the various hardwoods, finishes etc. Or how about a "projects" category. Pick a couple of good projects to blog about in a diary form. Once again, when you're talking about oak flooring, you would use the keyword "oak flooring in Mchenry" or "hardwood floor sanding in Mchenry".....man, you have more material for an offline blog than any blog on internet marketing or some adsense blog.

You can literally blog about any aspect of any business, talking about information that those familiar with the business would probably think is uninteresting. As the website developer you're presented with an opportunity to use this information to stick important keywords or keyword phrases.

Although you mainly blogging to get your site indexed for certain keywords, by no means, dismiss the fact that people really enjoy knowing the inner workings of a company. People are nosey...they want to know the gossip and whether people are happy with a business......you can provide that information by blogging.

I've purchased and read many offline marketing guru's and nobody talks about what I just did....use this information to beat any and all competitors!

Concerning backlinks.

This forum is full of ideas and methods to get backlinks....some as white as the driven snow and others dark like midnight on a new moon look around and do some searching there are plenty of experts here on keywords.

I can tell you that a handfull of decent backlinks for most keyword phrases for offline marketing will almost always get you on page one and at the top. That being said, why don't you set up a network of blogs for your own links. Set up some blogger and wordpress.com blogs. Then there is always the old fashion method of asking for a link to your site.

You can find a some guys here offing backlink packages.....so getting backlinks should be the least of your problems....just make sure you build it into your pricing structure.

Oh well....I wasn't going to say anything about linking or backlinks...wanted to leave that to someone else.

Hope you get the idea about how you can use a wordpress blog more effectively for your offline sites!

Scott

Local Gas Prices on Xsitepro Local Business Directory Template

I know I keep threatening to release the Xsitepro Local Business Directory Template and I apologize for the delay. I keep finding ways to improve the template and working on a script for rotating some of the contents.

The Mchenry Local Business Directory has been gaining visitors steadily and I haven't really done anything with it. By that I mean, I haven't added any more businesses or other content. I've been surprised at the number of returning visitors along with the steady increase of traffic. It's not much, but Mchenry isn't a very large town....in fact it's quite small.

The performance is just as good, if not better than a wordpress blog.

I found 2 tricks that keeps Xsitepro sites ranking in the SERP's and the rankings have staying power....that is they don't drop in rank for the keywords I've targetted. Here's 2 results:

Mchenry Oak Flooring Contractor



Or how about Mchenry Chiropractor



As you can see both keyword phrases are on Page 1 of Google. The best part is both businesses list for a handful of buying keywords each!

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I was experimenting on adding a script to the local business directory template that will hopefully turn browsers into regular visitors. I purchased a script that pulls in gas prices from across the country. I put up a quick page, however, I haven't had a chance to customize the gas price page. The idea is simple. You simply enter the zip code or city and state and you'll get the gas prices for your area. Check out Mchenry Gas Prices and let me know what you think of the idea!

Offline Marketing Directory Works

The OP talks about using one aspect of internet marketing to market to one aspect of the offline or brick and mortar world. In my eyes, an excellent post with great ideas. A business model anyone could follow and a niche most anyone could target. Yet I see questions on the reality of the idea....does it work...will it work for me....my dentist's are poor....my dentist's have too much money....my dentists won't talk to me, my dentists won't pay that much.....and on and on.

Offline marketing works only if you make an effort to apply it. If dentists don't work for you, try chiropractors or.....just keep trying till something clicks. I said it works but it isn't necessarily easy. If you're looking to have your paypal account magically filled over night.....it ain't gonna happen

The biggest joke was the so called "mentor" who said it the idea stunk....yep, and Al Gore invented the internet!

Here's what you have to remember. Chances are, if you're here, you know buckets more than any brick and mortar store, service or professional about marketing online. These guys are clueless...period! You have one of the most sought after assets in the whole world...that is, KNOWLEDGE!!!

For one minute forget about your pockets and concentrate on the pockets of your customer or client. If you approach this market from the genuine standpoint of providing value, help and profit for your customers.....you'll win. You see, this philosophy is counter intuitive to most. In fact, most people on this forum are interested in one thing....that is, making money for themselves.

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Offline Marketing Guide for Selling to Online Businessess

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Get this concept right and the mechanics of developing websites, directories or whatever for offline clients will work. You provide the best solution for their business to start making money or start making more money. Its all in the mindset and people can sense that....even through email or just phone calls.

There are so many different angles you can approach the offline world with that it really is mind bending. The OP's concept will work if you only try it. I'll give you a simpler model to follow.
Mchenry Business Directory

Pick a business in your town....could almost be any business, and find their webpage. Lets look at restaurants. So we go to Google, and search for "restaurants in XXXXXX" go through the first 10 results. How do their websites look? Could you improve them? What could you do to help them make more money?

Here's where you'll look like a star. How many of the restaurant websites have an autoresponder form on the first page...at the top, or above the fold? Find the one's that don't. Now make contact with the owner and ask what their slowest day is...they say Tuesday. Ask them if they'd like to make it one of their busiest. Ask them, "What if you had a way to contact all your best customers and tell them you had a special gift for them on Tuesday....a free meal...2 for 1, free sandwich....you get the idea. Explain further ways could build a list of customers from their website and how they could market to that list to make more money.

If they aren't interested....just walk away. You might want to tell them you are going to their competitor next

Next you need to figure out what you want to charge for simply putting up an autoresponder form. Maybe $100 or how about $400 one time charge....sign them up for an Aweber account with your affiliate link.....or put them on your own account. I've seen some marketers charge $1000 or more for setting up an autoresponder....it really depends on the business, the business volume and the business profit.....similar to the same money issues with Dentists, they have more money so your improvements will be worth more money. You might even want to load the autoresponder with a set of messages....again, something you should charge for. Up to you how you want to configure your business model.

I guarantee you get more business from them regarding their website because you are now the local internet marketing expert. Of course, you could set this up any way you want and live on the east coast and market to businesses on the West coast.

I could go on with this but let me tell you about another offline project that works.

Set up a Local Business Directory. Do some SEO and get your site on page 1 for "YourCity Businesses" Getting traffic to the site is easy, you can focus on various aspects of the town or local area. For instance, I installed a script the shows the Cheapest Gas Prices in Mchenry and visitors love it! They keep coming back to the site to check on gas prices!!!

You can put up free listings of local businesses. Send an email and tell them of the business when you get their listing on page 1....tell them its free, tell them it will stay there for 10, 50 or 100 bucks a month. Whether you charge for the listing or give it to them free, offer a complete web package...with autoresponder.

I can tell you from first hand experience that the "Mentor" doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground and I certainly hope he didn't charge you for his advice because this works. Wordpress brings excellent results, and Xsitepro sites are just as good if not better when developing directories....but you really need to know how to use Xsitepro and all it features.

The bottom line is, any method or platform you use when contacting an offline customer can be used to build and expand your business model. Whether you start pounding on doors selling autoresponders or start by developing some sort of local directory...use them as a funnel to bring your prospect and customer into more development, adding monthly or yearly charges. Provide outstanding value and you will have customers and friends for life!!

Hope this helps