7 P R O F I T C R U S H I N G W O R D P R E S S M I S TA K E S

Profit Crushing
WordPress Mistakes

1 Copyright 2011, Istvan Horvath

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About the Author

Hello, I am Istvan Horvat h, the foun der and owner of the IMTools4You.com
where I offer simp le tools for Internet Marketers to accomplis h the ir goa ls. As
a former teacher I take pride in the q uality of my tutor ials, gu ides and any
tra ining material. As a former head of huma nitarian missions I have the desire
to he lp those in need an d to prov ide a reliab le serv ice to extend a fr iendly
ha nd to my customers. As a former writer, journa lis t an d pu blisher I be lieve in
the power of truthf ul in formatio n.

I started building web sites around 2000 alt houg h I have been online for years
before. It started as a hobby but soon it grew in to a web desig n b usiness and
later I ventured in to sett in g u p commercia l web sites for my infoproducts. In
other words, I am an infopreneur: an entrepreneur market in g products t hat
conta in informa tio n. I see it as exten ding the classroom I've lef t lo ng t ime ago
into a world wide aud ience.

Now I can teach everybody from t he comfort of our home in rura l Ontar io,
Ca nada where we live.
Ist van Horvath's Blog

What other marketers say about me:

As alw ays , yo u pro vi de quick and easy so l utio ns tha t do n' t nee d the la te st
auto ma te d to o l t hat is be i ng pe dd le d i n the mark e tp lace .
Paul C ho w
Mr . Ho r vath k no w s mo r e abo ut WP th an anyo ne e lse I have me t. (N o o ffe nse
to anyo ne e lse ). I have ye t to se e hi m give wr o ng adv ice . He is o ne o f tho se
peo p le tha t yo u KN O W, k no w w hat the y ar e ta lk ing abo ut ...
Mar k Thur sto n

Yo u pr o vide spe cific co de and cle ar exam ple s t hat fre e up cr e ative and blo g
mo ne tiz atio n po ssib il itie s for us to im ple me nt o n o ur blo gs.
Yo ur ye ar s o f expe r ie nce w it h Wo r dPre ss are e vide nt
Dr. Ro n the N iche Pro f

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Why I wrote this ebook:

I have been blo gg in g for many years, even before WordPress was "invented" . I
was also one of its first users. I have set up many b logs for myse lf, for friends
and for clien ts.
La ter I got involved with Internet Market in g an d helped many fellow marketers
w ith their WordPress b logs.

Dur ing all these years I wit nessed the dead ly mistakes people make when
try ing to set up a WordPress dr iven site. Often I had to literally fight with my
clients or my frien ds in order to he lp them to avoid t hese mista kes. F in ally, I
decided to summar ize a ll the m istakes I have seen d uring the years an d to
show my readers how to avo id them.

You see, it is NOT a bout the technical part , it is not abou t having in- depth
know ledge of the scr ipt (wh ich I have, by the way), it is not about XHTM L or
CSS or PHP.

In this short report I will lead you throu gh the planning pr ocess I use when
starting a new Word Press site , showing you the possible tra ps and pitfalls and
the methods to overcome them.

If you pla n to set up a "hobby blog " just for your own fun to be read by your
fam ily and your b udd ies don't bother read in g it. It is not for you! I am
addressing the serious b log/s ite bu ilders that are us in g WordPress powered
blogs and sites as one of the many in the ir bus iness tools arsena l: internet
marketers, profess iona l b log gers an d site b uilders.

3 Copyright 2011, Istvan Horvath

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Mistake # 1: Theme Obsession

This is the b ig gest one I see it invar iab ly made by first time blog gers,
seasoned marketers and a lmost everybo dy.

I could call it also the "t heme-first-syn drome" an d I w ill exp la in in a m inute
why. Somet imes marketers approach me in pr iva te or they post in a forum
where I hang out, t he fo llow in g q uest ion:

"I want to start a _____________ related WordPress site, can you recommend
me a theme ?"
And my answer a lways is No, I can' t.

I can' t becuse the theme should be the very last thing that you th in k
about. Per iod. OK, I will put it here in b ig ger letters so tha t you won' t forget:

Forget the themes until you figure out everything else

about your WordPress site!

Here is an example, why. Somebody asked me abou t an au tomobile related

theme . Someone else wanted an urban theme .

You know wha t? Let's ta ke the WP 3.0 defau lt theme, Twen tyTen .

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pic 1 default header

As you can see in the first pict ure, I didn 't cha nge anyt hing , except the "title"
of the blog.. . and I came u p with t he very clever name: This is a Blog . Plus, I
added a lorem ipsum place ho lder post.

Every new b log usin g WordPress vers ion 3.x.x looks like th is.

Now, on the same blo g I u ploa ded an image t hat I took in my drive way
showing my truck. (Yes, I love my truck!).

Next I cropped the image an d chan ged the

back ground co lour all t hat w ith simp le clicks
inside the WP adm in area. Now I have a "tr uck
theme", don't I?

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pic 2 car/truck "theme"

(I think I really shou ld start a Dodge Dakota Fans site...)

For the third snapshot an d "theme" I p icked a p hoto I took dur in g our last tr ip
to Montreal where I took more tha n h undred pict ures. I liked t his one because
it has some old an d new architecture together... an d aga in I crop ped it in the
WP admin an d chan ged the backgrou nd colo ur to blue(ish). An d you got your
"ur ban theme"...

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pic 3 urban "theme"

You see how easy it was to create a completely differen t feel an d sug gest the
topic of the b log just by up loa ding (an d crop ping) an existing image from my
computer's hard disc an d chan ging the backgrou nd colour ? Of course, you can
do this as the very first step of your "custom izat ion "... the problem is tha t on
both blogs your content wou ld be the Hello, world! nonsense post and nothing
else.

Here is the lesson : Almost any t heme can be used for any top ic. By using a
n ice photo as header ima ge you create the f irst im pressio n tha t tells your
v isitors: this b log is about ... Dakota trucks or urba n architecture or any thing
you want!

You organize your site (i.e. the content) not wit h the t heme - bu t with
your head. Everybody shoul d have a clear picture, and I mean literally a

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"picture" as in an organiza tional chart of their conten t's structure

BEFORE lookin g for a t heme.

The structure, the h ierarchy of your con tent shou ld determine t he cr iteria you
use for f ind in g a t heme. See t he next pa ges for more details!

Perha ps, I shou ld elaborate a b it on th is theme-first-syn drome . It can be very

costly for you!

I have noticed that novice WordPress users (but qu ite often even seasoned
marketers) spend an awfu l lot of time searching for the "perfect theme".

There is no conten t yet, t here is no idea abo ut t he site's arch itecture b ut they
are chasing the dream of some mag ic theme tha t would make t heir b log (site)
u nique, outst and in g an d u ltra- performing.

If you do the same... you are left beh in d by your smart competition . Your
smart competitio n doesn't care about having a nic he-specif ic theme. (As you
could see, we cou ld create the impression of a nic he-specif ic theme in
m inutes!) They, i.e. your smart compet it ion focus on keyword research, they
focus on wr it in g or outsourcin g the ir content or they are busy drawing up the
structure of the ir next b log.

You and I know t hat t he edge that you ga in by using WordPress is the speed
w ith which you can set up new sites w ith . Especia lly, if you use t he new Multi-
Site feature introd uced in vers ion 3.0. If you do n't use it, you shou ld learn
about it I have some excelle nt t utorials.

Trust me: no mat ter how nice your b log looks nobod y g ives a damn about it
if there is no real, genuine content on it tha t in terests the v isitors an d keeps
them on your site . Wh ich ta kes us to the next mista ke.

8 Copyright 2011, Istvan Horvath

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Mistake #2: No idea what kind of site you plan

In the begin ning this was easy. If you used WordPress you were p la nn in g a
blog. However, wit h a ll the new features an d improvements t he script
nowadays is closer to a full-fledged CMS (conten t mana gement system ) and as
a result you can b uild any ty pe of sites with it.

As good as it soun ds, it a lso creates major problems in the plan ning process.
Let's take a step backward and go back to the start in g po int .

You got a domain. Great.

You got a hosting packa ge. Even greater.
You decided to use WordPress for your site because everybody and their do g
to ld you how easy it was to use. ... (will ta lk abo ut t his later)

You want a site. What kind of site?

Will it be a real blog in the classic mean in g of the word: regu lar, daily
u pdates (posts) abou t a top ic? In th is case in a year you will h ave 365 posts
and you w ill need some idea how your conten t will be organ ize d. If you wish,
you need some taxonomy or in other words, criteria to categorize your
content.

Or will it be a five pages small site that will never be upda ted once it is done?

Are you going to sell somet hing on it or you will pro vide useful information
only (to build aut hority) an d sen d them to external pa ges/sites to promote
products?

Is this your main site or just an "appen dix" to your ma in money making site?
I kno w, it's a lot of q uestions b ut you rea lly need to have the answers to a ll
of them. Your success depends on the accuracy of your answers!

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P lease, ta ke a moment and write down your opt ions. Then eliminate one by
one what your site is NOT going to be. At the end you shou ld have a clear idea
wha t kind of site you are p la nn in g. It may take m in utes or a day, depen ding on
how well prepared you are for sett in g up your Word Press powered site. It
doesn't matter j ust do it!

When you get the answers, we can move on to the next mistake.

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Mistake #3: Unorganized (uncategorized) content

The eas iest way to expla in th is would be t hrough an examp le.

Let's say I am a beer lover and I pla n to have a blo g abou t beers and
everything related to beer and my idea is to write every other day a post about
my beer drink in g experiences, breweries, bran ds etc.

So, how to prepare the organ iza tio n of this site? OK, I am not a beer
lover/dr inker b ut I will pretend to be one for t his example .

If you were lucky, you have a domain like beer.com (at the moment of writing
this, it is even up for sale!)
Even if I am not a beer guy I know there are different kin d of beers:
lager, pilsner, a le, dark... what else? (fill in t he gaps with your knowled ge)

Now, I know my beer posts will be in some "grou ps" tha t in Word Press should
be categories . M y daily posts would go u nder different "groups", i.e. in
Ca tegories t hat wou ld be the very first class ificat ion of my posts. For some
of them I m ig ht even have sub-categor ies: I know, for examp le, t here are red
and brown coloured dark beers. So, u nder the Dark category I wou ld create
two sub-categories : brown and red.

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And the categories and subcategories will contain the posts the real
content !

If you take a look at t he diagram on the next pa ge you will h ave a

v isualization of what I just described above: this is t he "pict ure" we should
have about our future web site!

Beer

Lager Pilsner Ale Dark ?

etc
Many lager Many pilsner Many ale
posts posts posts

When I used to live in Winn ipeg there was a Mex ican-sty le cantina where they
called their red beer Murp hy's Red . If I was to write a post about it, the path
(bread crumbs) to my post would look like:
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Beer > Dark > Red > Mur phy's Red

It doesn' t matter whether your b log or site will be about food recipes or
f lowers or a irplanes or ba by toys or trucks or love making posit ions... You
should always fin d the best way to p la n ahead how your conten t will be
organize d an d structured.

My point is: if you just throw in post after post in a h uge p ile of content , the
who le thing will become chaot ic. You need some k in d of orga nizat iona l
pr inc iple to b uild on it.

Of course, we will need some additiona l stuf f, called Pages in WordPress

they are not categor ized and t hey are not part of the chronolog ical stream of
the posts (althou gh, tech nica lly, they are also entries stored in the WP
da tabase).

Pages are best used for About Us , Contact and similar "static" con tent, as well
as for a ll the le gal documents t hat you can , usua lly, fin d in t he footer of the
websites: Privacy , Terms , Disclaimer etc.

Just a quick note regard in g Pages. When you have a complex web site in mind,
a clever comb in at ion of Categor ies an d Pages will g ive you a very flex ib le site
architecture: you can tweak Pa ges to show both static and d ynam ic content;
categories can act as "silos"; a lso Pages can be used for opt in or sa les pa ges
etc.

I want to make it clear, you don't have to make a fancy chart like I tried to
show you above. I did it on ly for th is report. Norma lly, I just take a sheet of
pa per and draw a ba sic schema of the future website .
(see the next chap ter)

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Mistake #4: Missing structure

Aga in, I will go w ith a live examp le to make it eas ier to u nderstan d.

Here is what I d id when a customer wan ted a web site powered by WordPress
and (based on the ir old site) they wanted to have:
pa ges like Membersh ip, About, President welcome, Contact (later we
added L inks)
"sections" where we can put
news and events rela ted to the organ iza tio n:
a) press releases;
b) med ia coverage
their lib rary, i.e. a b unch of stu dies writ ten by members
their on line magaz ine orga nized by issues
a bookstore (for aff ilia te lin ks)
the newslet ter arch ive
FAQ
copyright and usual lega l docu ments (preferably linked from the footer
area)

After listening carefully to what they wanted I ma de up something as you

can see on the p hoto below. Then we went throug h the who le th in g aga in and
they remembered what you can see as ad ded later in red. I also pu t my next
questions there in red to be clarif ied dur in g the following "clar ifica tio n
session".

Your adva nta ge is tha t you don 't h ave to listen to anybody's requ irements.
Although this cou ld be your disa dvan tage as we ll. In my exper ience when
somebo dy is forced to exp la in the ir idea lou dly to someone else it helps to
be more focused and be able to clearly formulate their thoughts . Hey,
why not give it a try? Sit down with your partner or your fr iend and te ll them
wha t your site is going to be about an d how its content w ill be orga nized.

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Luckily, I am fa irly familiar w ith what WP can and can not do so I q uick ly
added with a high ligh ter to my initial p lan: C for categories an d P for Pages . It
is not a perfect p la n at t his stage but even t he most perfect site tha t you' ll
ever create starts w ith these bab y steps.

In my case we ha d to fine tu ne the whole setup as I adva nced with t he

prepara tio ns but you have an eas ier job: you have to work only wit h yourself,
so the process shou ld be even faster because you do n't h ave to wait for the
replies from the other party !

The follow in g p ict ure is just a samp le of a first draft I've made when starting
out a WordPress powered (non-blo g) site. You can a lso use the mindma p I
prov ided in th is packa ge to fo llow a more sysmat ic way to p la n your own
WordPress site.

Don't skip th is step it will save you a lot of headac hes an d frustrat ion later...

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Mistake #5 - Not knowing your Market

But how do I know in wh ich way to orga nize my conten t you may ask. And I
am gla d you asked. Because t here is a simp le step you should never skip as
well. It is called market research . In some in dus tries they call it the KY C-
rule: Know Your Client .

Your client is every an d any member of the target gr oup your site will be
a imed to. Let's say I will be aiming gran dmothers who just started to use the
internet . This is what I shou ld keep in my m ind:
they don't know as much abou t the internet as you and I do
they are not familiar with t he usual b log n avigat ion system as we are
they are not familiar with a lot of "web" conventions
e.g. click header img > home; click t it le > whole post

The list above might look silly for you... because you h ave already seen many
WP blogs an d you know what to expect when clicking on a lin k like " 5
comments " it will ta ke you to the commen ts sectio n of that partic ular post.

So, for my gran nies I w ill have to set up a very, very clear an d self-
explana tory navigation (menu) system . I w ill have to make sure the
navigation is v isible on every page of the b log/site. I should a lso h ave a He lp
or a FAQ pa ge (note to myself: Self, they may NOT know what the abbrev iation
FAQ stands for...)

With all that in min d I w ill want to org anize my content to follow a very
natural flow th at even those generatio ns that grew u p us ing different media
types could use int uitively. Just as a side note: When think in g abo ut t he fina l
design I will also consider t heir eye-sight , so I w ill use b ig ger fon t size than
usua l!

OK, so far we know who our tar get market is, alt houg h tha t's qu ite a huge and

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not we ll- def ined market. You cou ld narrow it down to somet hing like
"gra ndmo thers who wan t a b irth day cake with a chocola te statue of t heir
gra ndchild on it " and that wou ld be a narrow niche . Narrow b ut very well
targeted nic he!

We have the market we have narrowed down t he niche we know we want

to organize the content for them...

But do we really know WHAT we want them to do on t he site? And more

importa ntly: WHY are we setting up t his site? What is the goa l? If you have
the answer to th is quest ion(s) t hen it is easy to figure out how to avo id
m istake #2.

You see how all the steps are in ter-

related?

Next mista ke: P lu gins... Can you tell

how many p lu gins are on t he blo g
shown on the pict ure?

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Mistake #6 - Useless Plugins

We f ina lly f ig ured out a ll our answers and we installe d Word Press on our
doma in. And we just saw this cute litt le p lu gin that will do th is an d tha t... and
another one t hat w ill do someth in g we don't rea lly need bu t everybod y seems
to have it... t hen we f ind another p lu gin.. . and another one...
... and before you know the WordPress ins talla tio n has 36 plug ins !

One of the deadliest mistake s you can make while setting up (and using)
your WordPress powered site is to f ill it up w ith a truckloa d of plug ins . There
are thousan ds and thousan ds of free an d paid plug ins out there but you don' t
need to use all of them. Learn how to be "plug in m in ima list": use only the
plugins that are absolu tely necessary to ach ieve your goals an d settings that
you came up wit h d uring t he plann in g sessio n. Am I anti-plu gin? Yes and no .

Yes , because not all t he plug ins are coded equally we ll. Ma ny of them are
h uge resource hogs t hat will slow down your site; some of them will in troduce
vulnera bilities (read: make your site easy to be hacked); some of them
"perform" tasks tha t cou ld be eas ily done with a simp le copy/paste. Don' t go
after every sh iny litt le p iece of garba ge be very select ive when it comes to
plugins.

No, because there are th in gs for wh ich you absolu tely need a plug in . For
example, an ti- spam protect ion or some k in d of automat ion to avoid to do the
same stuff repeated ly. If you f ind a plug in tha t fits exact ly your needs, please
a lways check its source, t he repu tat ion of its aut hor and t he resources
required.

Remember: there is no "must h ave" p lu gin (except anti- spam). Peop le are
posting those 'must-have-17-p lu gins' lis ts because they do n't k now better.
They are ignora nt amateurs. Now you hear it from a pro WP user. And you a lso
want to be a profes sional Wor dPress user ... don' t you?

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Mistake #7 The 5 minutes trap

D id you also fall in the 5 minutes trap ?

The famous 5 minutes install has almost become the trademark of
WordPress. Actually, desp ite t he many fa iled ins talla tio ns, it is true ! If you
are not do ing anyt hing stup id , WP can be installe d in five minutes or less. The
lo ngest act ion is waiting unt il t he files u ploa d us in g a F TP clie nt.

And with this - all the five minutes things are over. Forever . And the user
should be warned about it . And t his is m iss in g from the sales pitch.

Unfortunate ly, this very easy ins talla tio n process creates very ba d, false
expectations. That s what I ca ll the 5 m inu tes tra p. It is a trap because the
u nsuspecting new user thinks t hat everyth in g would be such an easy f ive
m inutes job.

Most often s/he wants the customizat ion to be an easy, simp le one-clic k
thing. Someth in g t hat can be do ne in five m in utes. Th ink: insta nt
gra tif ication. ..
The rea lity about a WordPress blog is t his: it is easy to install and it is equa lly
easy to get a free downloa dab le theme to chan ge the default look if it.
And this is where the "easy stuff " ends...

If you are th in king of do in g more, like customiz in g your theme, modify ing the
layout of a theme, add in g custom features etc. here are your opt ions:
f ind a theme that allows you to mod ify/custom ize a lot of th in gs in it
hire a pro (no, I am not taking clients at this momen t)

Listen, WordP ress is a tool just like your car: it takes you from where you
are now to where you would like to be. Do you get fam iliar wit h all the buttons
and gizmos on your dash board before you start driving for a lo ng tr ip ?

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Yes, of course you do. You need to k now how to start the windsh ield w ipers,
how to turn on t he ligh ts, how to chan ge gears, how to release t he parking
brake and so on.

Why would it be different wit h th is tool calle d Word Press? My advice is learn
the too ls provided inside your adm in pane l (i.e. click all t he links an d b uttons
inside your wp-adm in to see what t hey do). I promise there is a lot to
discover.

#8 (BONUS) You are halfway with this...

And here is the fin al and biggest m istake:
Not reading t his report an d not appl ying what you learned from it. If you are
here, you've done ha lf of it: you have a lready read the report. Great, and
congratulations!

Start applying what you learned.

Now you don't have excuses anymore. I have to ld you everyt hing that you
should know. Use it, please!

Congratula tio ns to myse lf, too: I th in k I just invented the "Bonus M istake"...

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21 Copyright 2011, Istvan Horvath