WordPress Is Not Just For Blogs

by Mark Treager Social Media

More people already use WordPress to power their blog than any other blog software and most do not know that WordPress is a powerful Content Management System (CMS) too.  In reality, WordPress is an awesome tool for actually managing your website as well. When I tell people about this, they often ask me for some examples of non-blogging sites using WordPress, so I’m want to show some that really stands out.

I wanted to showcase a good selection of sites that I can point them to for several really great examples of just how flexible WordPress is. Some sites just look good. Some are examples of famous celebrities, companies, or organizations. WordPress can be used for serious projects that can go big scale, we are highlighting the most popular brands that are using WordPress.  Here are a few of the sites that inspired us. There’s no particular order here.

Nikonfestival

nikonfestival

A video contest website from Nikonfestival.Those are 140 seconds or less videos. Powered by WordPress

Icondock

icondock

Icon Dock is a project from N.Design Studio. Offer stock icons in vector and pixel format that you can quickly snap in your projects to speed up the development. Just see how the arrangement of content has been made using WordPress.

Typographica

Typographica

Typographica is for review of typefaces and type books, with occasional commentary on fonts and typographic design. Another awesome example of WordPress as CMS.

Creativeawards

creativeadawards

Creative Ad Awards is one of the best advertising archive, serving all the advertising fan and others who need it. You will feel comfortable here, because of WordPress customization.

Good

Good

GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward.This website is an ongoing exploration of what GOOD is and what it can be.

Champagnewarehouse

champagnewarehouse

Ugsmag

ugsmag

It’s an independent Hip Hop magazine featuring interviews and a daily news feed with underground rap videos, audio and free album downloads. An amazing use of WordPress as CMS. It makes us think that power is in the hands of developer. You just have to mold WordPress according to your needs.

Flickout

flickout

You can watch the best new HD movie trailers for upcoming releases and movies in theaters. Get movie reviews and more all in super High Definition.

Typechart

typechart

For preview and compare web typography while retrieving the CSS,Browse typographic files.

Thesalonhair

thesalonhair

Kmxus

Website is for selling karts and their accessories.

Camachocigars

camachocigars

A brand website for cigars and where to buy those things with events and VIP club.

Nowplaying nokia

nowplaying.nokia

Website for Rihanna fans all over the USA are sitting with their Nokia’s at the ready to buy tickets for the US leg of her tour.

Healogix

Healogix is a global health care marketing research and consulting firm created to meet the needs of executives facing real development and marketing decisions.

Platinumgames

platinumgames

Platinum games is powered by wordpress.Developed in conjunction with cnp_studio.

Popculturetees

popculturetees

Featuring new designs from the hottest retailers and indie artists, tips ‘n tricks, and interviews from industry experts.

H-mag

h mag

H-mag is a high-end luxury magazine for the Hoboken market.They are having blogs ,events and news section too.

Inbound pass

inboundpass

IOKON Media is creative collective that specializes in Digital Media and Marketing.

College crunch

collegecrunch

Probar

theprobar

Andyroddick

andyroddick

Official Website of Andy Roddick, a very famous tennis star. It is also powered by WordPress.

Cornerstone Media Group

Cornerstone MEdia Group Home Page

Did we mention that our corporate site is done in WordPress!  Kind of cool isn’t it!

Our Po!nt: WordPress is no longer reserved for just social media.  It has grow from a small free software application into the sort of power house brand that becomes generational. Use WordPress for your next website makeover.

4 Ways Blogging Can Help Your Business!

by Mark Treager Social Media

With the craze of social networking and all the buzz you here about blogging, Twittering and more does it make sense to start a corporate blog?  You bet!

Here are four ways blogging can help your business (we know because we are using the same techniques to grow ours):

  1. Blogging puts a face to our business – People have a tendency to buy from people they know, even if that relationship is virtual.  When you blog you are building a relationship of trust and confidence.
  2. Blogging helps new customers find us — Since blogs are now search engine friendly you can use the power of your blog to add more content to the search engines to improve your rankings.
  3. Blogging demonstrates our expertise in our business field — Our hope is by blogging about the problems we are solving for our clients, those who have been hanging around our blog, but never bought might cross the line and begin a relationship dialogue with us because of our insight.  They may even give us a vote of confidence that we know what we are talking about.
  4. Blogging is our way of educational marketing — We are trying to be practical bloggers and give readers something they can use in their businesses. Blogging is a great medium to teach from. Since the web is immediate we can share with our readers valuable insight, tips and information  to them even if they don’t buy from us.

As you can see blogging has some tremedous up side for any business in building customer loyalty and confidence.  Our followup article to this will be how to actively start and maintain a corporate blog.

As always we welcome you comments and thoughts about corporate blogging.

The 20 Essential Blog Directories

by Mark Treager Our Blog

Gaining exposure for your blog is critical to building a following, readership, and revenue. Besides the basic SEO steps of adding compelling and keyword friendly titles, URL structure and descriptions (along with the basic WordPress SEO plugins) basic link building for blogs begins with listing them in blog directories.

There are many paths to consider when building links to your site or blog such as link baiting or blogroll link swapping, but few are as easy to implement and cost effective as submitting to blog directories.

Let us take a look at 20 popular directories worthy of your consideration.

1. Best of the Web Blog Search Best of the Web’s Blog Directory is very selective and only lists aged and valuable blogs. A link from here is well deserved.

2. EatonWeb Blog Directory has many aged inbound links and a blog rating system. You may have to pay a fee for your blog to be reviewed, but like Yahoo, the review fee is well worth the few dollars.

3. Blog Hub offers a drop down category and member blog list.

4. Bloggernity is a crisp, clean, and easy to navigate site. Scrolling down, you find the new blogs.

5. Blogarama has an impressive listing of over 65,000 blogs. The site is well designed and follows the same content categories as many other sites.

6. Blog Search Engine is one of the most selective Blog Directories on the web (and WordPress powered).

7. Blog Catalog features a vast directory of categories, from academic to writing, while offering the ability to search by country, language, or user. It has a no frills design, but offers convenient member access through simple blog registration.

8. Globe of Blogs has too many features to list. In order to be listed on the site, the blog must not be commercial.

9. The ultimate directory of British blogs connotes all things British. Being listed in this blog reaches readers all the way across the pond if that will help you grow!

10. Blog Universe is the perfect place to promote your video or podcast themed blog. Its layout is easy to navigate.

11. Bigger Blogs is a relatively new blog directory with only a few blogs registered. The blog is intertwined with a business directory. However, the benefit is that the earlier you are accepted on a blog directory, the more exposure your blog will obtain.

12. Bloggeries has the best categories and subcategories home page on the internet.

13. Bloggapedia Innovative categories and a colorful design make this blog directory a hit.

14. Spillbean is a well-designed blog directory site with some great categories.

15. Blogging Fusion is a blog with over sixty categories. It has a good amount of blog listings within the directory.  Visitor stats are available as well.

16. Blogflux is not only a tool for bloggers, but a directory that has the listings in alphabetic order.

17. Bloglisting displays the page ranking blogs, which is a helpful tool when determining with whom you want to exchange links.

18. Blogio is a small blog directory with few listings, but it worthy of a submission. Despite its small size, there are quality blogs listed within the site.

19. Blog Explosion claims to be the Internet’s largest blog promoter. They have a vast directory but do not seem to have direct links. However, the listing in the directory can still show up in SERP’s, so keep this in mind.

20. Super Blog Directory is a great site that offers tools to posters that others do not. You can see the latest submitted links and blogs on the site, which is a perk that draws traffic into the directory.

The above listings are just a short list of the large and vast world of blog directories and the valuable inbound links that your can build for your blog and your business.

There are even more directories that can improve your rankings and they are just a Google, Yahoo, MSN or AOL search away.

The Bra!nstorm:  Taking the time to find additional directories related to you website and content will help your rankings even more.  And as we know, BLOG = Better Listings On Google.

What blog directories do you recommend? Leave your recommendations below.