Not only do you lose a heap of time looking for it but there’s the stress and drama that goes with it.

Imagine if you lost your website!

And it happened to a colleague not so long ago. The story gets worse!

There was a server crash and he lost about 30 websites – yup, that’s thirty, as in 3 and 0. He swore… a lot!

What made it worse was there was no up to date backups. And get this, most were client sites.

Here’s the reality, a server is just a hard disc drive essentially, and they fail, it happens. Surely you’ve had a PC issue at some point… “touch wood”, same deal, they break.

I back up my own sites, and all my clients sites of course, on a regular basis.

But how do we back them up?

I have a strategic plan. I have to account for the fact that I might get hit by a Mac Truck, God forbid. If I’m as thin as sliced cheese and my clients can’t get to their back up  that’s not going to help them get their website “live” again.

There are 2 parts to a website backup, this is in real simple layman’s terms.

There is all the database stuff which is all the techy in the cogs and behind the scenes coding and stuff and then there is the graphical elements and images. That’s the oversimplified version but that covers it.

So obviously we have 2 parts to our back up process, well, actually we have 3.

What we do is use a tool for all our websites, mine and my clients, that automatically does the database back up aspect. It even emails the back up out to them.

!Note for Smarter Website clients! You will now get a weekly email that contains a file with this database file. The attached file will look something like – “yourdomain_wrdp1_30102009_xxx.sql.gz”

I was having these all sent to me on a weekly basis but then I had a close shave with a Mac Truck. No, not really. I just figured that no-one knows all the stuff we do behind the scenes to keep your sites up and running and it was about time to blow our trumpet.

What do you do with this email! File it, just in case. (and pray I don’t get hit by a truck)

So what are the other 2 parts to the website back up?

The next is all the files and folders, where all the graphical and other stuff is. We back them up to a separate disc on the server, sort of like a mirror image of the first server drive. That way if there is an issue it flicks over to the other drive so your site is “live” at all times. No down time plus a safe back up.

The last part is to back them up externally, as in “off-site”. Server centres are very secure, they have fire protection and all manner of safety stuff in place but you just never know, especially in today’s world.

So what is your back up plan? Don’t do the “it’ll never happen to me” thing. Look, most shared servers and hosting do have auto back ups done but it is worth asking the question.

Here’s the “Sell” if there is one in this post! (This part either fits for you or it doesn’t)

We now do “reseller plans” so you can actually make money out of web hosting! It’s all on our very fast and sexy “dedicated server”. A “reseller plan” means you can make money from selling web hosting without having to do anything – money for nothing and forever.

I’m not going to go into the techy stuff but if you have multiple websites or reckon you have the opportunity to direct people to or sell good hosting then we need to talk. Contact me through that link or give me a call on 0413 733 272.

UPDATE NOW! Like immediately if not sooner.

Reports are that this attack impacts ALL versions of WordPress up to 2.8.4, which is the most recent release.

What Version Am I Using? If you are using a WordPress version after 2.7, at the top of the admin page you’ll see the little prompt to upgrade. Like this –

WordPress 2.8.4 is available! Please update now.

If your site has been upgraded you’ll see the version listed here…

The WordPress Community is Vigilant:

WordPress is incredibly secure and monitored constantly by experts in web security. This attack was picked up quickly and response was swift – WordPress 2.8.4 is secure. If necessary, WordPress will immediately release a update with further security improvements. WordPress is used by governments, huge corporations, and me, around the world. Millions of bloggers are using WordPress.com. Have faith they are working overtime to monitor this situation and protect your website and blog.

All Smarter Websites Clients Sites Have Been Upgraded So Don’t Panic!

If there are any other security issues we’ll update you.

How Do I Know If My Site Has Already Been Attacked?

There are two clues that your WordPress site has been attacked.

There are strange additions to the pretty permalinks, the website extensions in your browser address bar will be bizarre – something like www.yourdomain.com/andarangeofbizarreletters/numbersandcharacters

The second clue is that another “Administrator” has been created. Check your site users for “Administrator (2)” or a name you do not recognize. You will probably be unable to access that account.

If you want to read up on this go to the main Wordpress Site.

But – For All the Smarter Websites Clients – Your Sites Have All Been Upgraded So Just Keep On Blogging!

I needed to narrow the niche that I’m marketing too so I was refining my lead generation “Funnel” on my site. Trouble is I forgot that the auto update was turned “On” so the edit that I did went out automatically to my list.

This would have been the starter of the email you got…

Attention: Self Employed Professionals & Small Business Owners!

Really am sorry about that, it was just an internal site edit and wasn’t supposed to go out.

Anyway, the blessing is that it’s a good subject for a post.

Are the leads that you’re harvesting “qualified”, or anywhere near the mark of the “Ideal Client” for you?

It’s a valid question.

I had people signing up left, right and centre but in running them through my “process” I realized that in building this list some of these leads weren’t after what I was offering. Now, you could argue that it doesn’t matter because it’s all done online that it doesn’t cost me anything.

Well, yes, and the extra traffic to my site can be a good thing for ranking but obviously if we can all refine our process to attract that “Ideal Client” then the faster our business will grow and the quicker we’ll slip into the serious money stream.

Un-qualified traffic can also be a negative too – if they come to your site and leave quickly that will increase your “bounce rate” which is the percentage of single page visits. This is bad if it’s too high, it means they’re not finding what they came for. Google God demerit point!

The point being, always “Test and Measure”.

• Check your offer – how many clicks on your offer (Your button or newsletter opt-in) compared to new visitors?
• How many people are then following through and filling in their details to get your stuff?
• How many “unsubscribes” down the track?
• How many convert into a paying client?

Here’s a quick starter check hit list – In Google Analytics (which we install on all our sites – that was subtle “sell” on one of the many sexy things we do) you should be looking to compare – “new visits” to “click throughs to your opt in page” to “actual opt ins”.

Test and measure and refine always. Websites are a work in progress!

Yup, that means 7 rebuilds on Ivor’s website.

It seems we have a knack for getting websites right the first time round… and we’ve had this comment a lot…

Why? Marketing focus first followed by design.

It’s all about getting leads and prospects to say “Yes, I want to know more”.

Why would you spend so much money on a promotional tool in your business and not expect a return? I mean, you wouldn’t spend even $500 on a newspaper ad and not expect a few enquiries and new clients… right?

Yet business owners continue to throw money at their websites and supposed web experts and designers to make it look sexier than their competitors and live in the hope that it’ll bring in some money. Good luck with that – it’s called dreaming or maybe “hope is a strategy”… not!

If you don’t have a clear cut path or journey that you want to take your prospects on then how can you expect your reader, viewer or listener to know? You have to hold your prospects by the hand and guide them through, step by step, so that you get their details and they get some “stuff” and you start building the relationship.

Quick check on your own “process” or “journey” for your clients.

Out of 100 visitors to your website how many are you now able to market to?

Look, I’m not going to “drill down” into the specifics of this today but needless to say that the following rave is a common response we get. Why? Like I said - Marketing focus first followed by design.

Hit the big blue button on the right to find out more.

Just had this rave from a client come in.

We have been developing our website since 2000.

About 6 different web developers have been involved over that time.

I met Peter recently, and he came over as being first and foremost, a marketer, and then a web developer. This approach was totally different from my previous web site programmers.

We have now started my website rebuild with Peter, and it is looking great. Simple things that used to be buried in the context are now visible on all pages.

All the important information is right there on the front page and I just know because it’s now so clear and simple to follow that my lead conversions will be better.

The site has a clear sense of direction that a visitor can follow. The colours are nice and eye catching as are the images displayed of the front page. I really like the slide show gallery on the main page.

Ivor Kosowitz
Managing Director – Fast Track Computer Solutions.

Fast Track Computer Solutions are Winners of:
•    Australia Post Stirling Small Business Award 2004.
•    Finalists in 2 categories in 2007.
•    Australia Post Stirling Small Business Award 2008.
•    Overall Best Business Finalist 2008.

I’ve just come from a great mastermind session this morning. A colleague who has become a good friend John Denton runs these “Connect” groups and we meet on a monthly basis.

The power of ‘connecting’ with others, ‘networking’ and having ‘mentors’ is very powerful!

In this session I was able to help a member, Andrew Huffer with a particular marketing piece and he just sent me the following email. I don’t show this to boast but to simply draw attention to the power in what I call “Third Party Objective View”.

Andrew is pretty savvy in his own right and is a very powerful facilitator – hence the marketing piece he had created which had lots going for it but sometimes we’re to close to be able to “nail it”.

From: Andrew Huffer & Associates
Sent: Friday, 17 April 2009 1:30 PM
To: Peter
Subject: Revised flier

G’day Peter

Thanks for the feedback on the flier

A revised version is attached.

Now it:
Uses simpler language that audience will understand
Connects with their frustrations
Paints a picture of the ideal world for audience
Is easier to understand what the hell is on offer!
Has a story about me
Makes the bonuses clearer
Has a PS to create more interest

So thanks again – feel free to use this in a testimonial (the Master & his Apprentice?) I’ll keep you posted on results.

Cheers

Andrew

Now, although the “third party” is powerful you do need to be careful which “third party” you’re using. You wouldn’t get advice on real estate from the granny next door would you? (Unless she has a huge property portfolio of course)

I see it all the time with lead generation and converting websites from internet places to visit to internet places to qualify new clients (and actually make money).

A website has 2 simple tasks – as a tool to capture leads and prospects and qualify them as well as communicate with clients. There are different things that occur within those 2 but that really covers it, unless you sell direct from your website of course.

John Denton had “7 Keys or Secrets To Successfully Prepare Your Business For Sale… or Lifestyle” on his site which is great information for any business owner, whether you’re ready to sell or not. Stuff most people don’t think of until it’s way too late.

John is a very successful business broker and consultant and he had that information readily available for the world to read, a great service.

I’d been talking to John about the merits of using Wordpress as a website platform and especially the template we have customised. The penny really dropped for John when he realised that we could combine his “blog” and “website” into 1. That’s one of the major benefits of using the world famous Wordpress as your website platform, you control your site and the Google Gods absolutely love websites built on this.

So that’s what we did this week, built John a new site. I analysed John’s old site first so back to the “7 Keys or Secrets To Successfully Prepare Your Business For Sale… or Lifestyle”.

I could see that John was going to miss out on building a list of people that would be prepared to exchange their contact details to get that info. See, not everyone is ready to act when they find your site and your great info. And if you live in the hope that they’ll come back when they are ready, well… good luck with that.

By you thinking more strategically and getting their details in exchange for this info means you can implement whatever follow up process is appropriate for your business. It might be an email, a series of emails, maybe a follow up phone call.

This is where the real power of the “Third Party Objective View” comes into play. With all my focus on “lead generation” and using “Wordpress” as a “Smarter Websites” model I was able to bring clarity to John’s website and marketing funnel that he didn’t pick up on. As savvy as he is!

If you think that our No Obligation “27 Point Website Prosperity Check” might unearth some holes in your website and marketing funnel then you really do owe it to yourself to go here NOW!

“27 Point Website Prosperity Check”

Get that professional “Third Party Objective View”.

Back to John’s new site! No, I’m not going to take you there… yet! It’s about 75% built and I don’t like to show my “wares” until their done. The baker wouldn’t show his pie until it was fully baked right!

Here’s what I will do though – over the next few weeks I’ll be doing a “before” and “after” so you can get to see what changes and find out the why.

PS: Don’t forget, sometimes we’re so close to what we’re doing to see the wood for the trees.

PPS: Ironic note to self – use my 2 mastermind colleagues to be the “Third Party Objective View” and critique my own “marketing funnel”- like I said, sometimes we’re too close to see. Could be too much wood or maybe not enough trees?

To get your Free Report “7 Secrets To a Profitable Website” and Bonus “How To Generate Fresh Qualified Leads on Auto Pilot” Go Here NOW!

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Money,

Peter B Butler

“7 Points To a Profitable Website” and “How To Generate Fresh Qualified Leads on Auto Pilot”

Finally: An Automated Marketing System & Website Platform That…

* Systematically Generates Fresh Leads.
* Automatically Qualifies Leads and Prospects into Clients.
* Predictably & Easily Makes You Much More Money!

… All On Auto Pilot? All Those In Favour Of That Say ‘AYE’!

Get Your FREE Marketing and Website HEALTH & PROSPERITY Check! valued at $350 Here.

Is it really going to make one iota of difference for you in business?

I’m sure you would have heard about the supposed benefits of social media marketing. I’ve had a Facebook site for a couple of years now and didn’t do a lot with until quite recently. I didn’t really ‘get it’ – how I could leverage it but now it’s starting to gel.

I also set up a “LinkedIn” site about a year ago. It was pretty dormant until I started to make it work for me too but more on that later.

The Facebook site I attended too a little more often simply ‘cause of the friend requests I was getting. Then as my ‘friends’ base grew, some of these I don’t even know but maybe they’re a friend of a friend, and then it started to get a little interesting. One part that was surprised me was the blasts from the past, some of which I’d rather forget and am in total denial about – “That must have been another Peter Butler, wasn’t me” – but the point is this…

In Facebook I started to read and track the dialogue on the wall, if you know nothing about Facebook, that’s the ‘posts’ on the page – ‘wall’ and saw some interesting dialogue and started making comments. Just in the last 2 weeks I’ve made contact with 2 people that will lead to a venture or at least an introduction to ventures.

Now you need to get this, my interaction on Facebook hasn’t been all about flogging me or my wares. I posted some photos of how I broke my $20,000 swimming pool 2 days before Xmas, and I mean broke it, like the Xmas that was only 3 weeks ago but that’s another story, it’s in the photo shoot on Facebook. A sad story and we don’t talk about that anymore…

This is about making you known and real to people.

Like I’ve said many times before “People want to do business with people” and it’s great to show our weaknesses, our strengths and most of all our ‘humanness’.

Facebook is a great platform to do that, getting personal but from a distance.

Now you can also plug what’s happening for you in business. Using the “What are you doing now” feature is one way to go about that. I try to be more factual than do the ‘sell’ bit. Some people are really ‘in your face’ but they don’t do it for long. Remember, nobody wants to be ‘sold to’.

That’s the ‘social’ side of Facebook but the side spin is you’re also creating a name for yourself too.

Here’s the sexy thing for business. You can post video’s, straight from YouTube, you can post links direct to your website and you can create a specific ‘page’ for your business too.

I’ve posted my video to my personal profile and I’m just posting it to my business ‘page’ as we speak.

“Groups” can be created, something like ‘Smart Mortgage Marketers’ or whatever Your Niche Is, but I simply haven’t had time to set that up as yet. I’ll keep you posted on tips and tricks with that too.

Want To Get the Google Gods To Smile Upon You?… Yet Again.

You can also customize your Facebook link to reflect you or your business that you can use in on your website. This can be a good thing with your profile showing up with the blessing of the Google Gods. Think about it, your name is in the URL link. It will show up in all the search engines.

When I search my name I’m now on page 1 in Google and nearly fill the page. Two of those links are my Facebook site. Not bad considering I only showed a single result on page 5 only a few months ago.

I’ve got my Facebook social link as a link on my main website too.

My Facebook URL is http://profile.to/peterbutler/ and I’ve also got this set as a link on my Smart Mortgage Marketing site under ‘Social Links’.

There’s a whole host of stuff you can do to promote yourself using Facebook but it does need to be in balance time wise as there are other “social media” marketing sites out there and other ways to promote yourself.

Is Facebook worth the time? So far it’s been useful to me, just got to manage the time aspect, it’s very easy to get side tracked.

I tend to do the techy stuff like the video’s and stuff in my “primetime”, my most productive time, but I leave the chit chat and “friends’ list building for when I’m fatigued later or in the evening.

Have I made money from it yet? Not yet, but I most certainly will. When I check my Google Analytics I can see that traffic has come direct from Facebook so it is definitely working already. The more traffic the better always.

So what about “LinkedIn”?

As I said I also set up a “LinkedIn” site about a year ago but I certainly haven’t valued it as I should have. I’ve now invested time and started to make it work for me but that will have to be in the next post.

You’ll love the “toys” they’re adding that can help give you leads and also to improve its functionality.

Because “LinkedIn” is a professional platform there seems to be a high level of integrity too with protecting clients from abuse and the making “friends” or “connections” process.

I’ve generated 1 hot lead through it already so I’ll share that in a later post.

PS: My apologies if you’ve recently been getting random mostly empty emails from me, I’ve been doing some updating on the site and the automatic posting feature sent out an email with every minor tweak I did, woops, sorry about that!

Committed to Generating “Highly Qualified” Leads and Making You More Commissions,

Peter B Butler.

Finally: A lead generation and marketing system that generates a stream of “highly qualified” clients for brokers that’s self managed so they ‘own’ it and it positions them as the experts in their area and ends all lame and frustrating and sometimes costly prospecting methods.

All those in favour of that say ‘AYE’!

To find out more go to Smart Mortgage Marketing or go here to get your FREE Marketing and Website Audit!

Oh My God People are Contacting me and leaving messages!

This was my early morning thankyou email from a client we’d just done a website for. David O was ecstatic after 8 years of having a website that suffered rigor mortis (it was stiff and dead)

______________________________

Oh My God People are Contacting me and leaving messages

I received these two comments last night from my site…………WOW……

David O

Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.

Tom Humes

Very interesting analysis. Moves my thinking along in terms of helping clients measure the impact of the leadership development work that I do, mostly with non-profit social service organizations. Thanks.

Larry Wenger, MSW
Workforce Performance Group

David O

______________________________

You need to realize that David was so excited because we had only re-published his site 2 weeks prior and after 8 years of disappointment, well, I’m sure you can see why he was over the moon.

You need to understand this. To be indexed by Google, found by the search engines and then these articles even found by humans in that time frame is nothing short of miraculous.

How did we do it? I’ll cut straight to the chase.

The Wordpress Platform!

…and our little box of tricks and very sexy plug-ins and how we use them. You didn’t expect me to give all our secrets did you?

Why was David so excited even though we told him to expect this sort of thing?

Because he’s been told similar things in the past. David had spent $18,000 over the past 8 years with 4 different web developers with all the promises in the world and none had delivered.

Here’s the thing…

• Did any of those websites generate leads? – No
• Did they capture lead details? – No
• Was he able to relate to his prospects and clients through his website? – No
• Did he actually make any money through those websites? – No

If you answered no to any of the above then you have to question everything you’ve ever been told about website world. The problem with most web designers is that they are not marketers.

It’s not their fault, they know how to do sexy graphics and know some code and stuff but they don’t understand marketing. And especially direct response marketing. For the most part all you end up with is a very sexy online corporate style brochure… and that’s it!

It won’t actually make you any money. Makes you wonder why you would bother doesn’t it. The whole point of a website is to build your business so you make more money through…

• Generating leads.
• Generating fresh and qualified leads consistently.
• Capturing the prospects details so you can market to them consistently.
• Being able to relate and respond to your prospects and clients.
• Actually make money.

So David was well on his way to achieving that with his new style website based on the Smart Mortgage Marketing model. Already he had 2 people respond to the information that he was able to post easily and quickly on his own to his own website, he was rapt.

He was able to respond to these ‘comments’ and start a relationship with these people. That seems to be a fundamental flaw in most peoples thinking with websites and business today. So many people have forgotten the basics…

People want to do business with people!

That’s what this style and model of website will achieve. It’s all about being able to relate to your prospects and clients. The side spin to this is other people visiting his site will see this and it starts to bring the barriers down and the trust factor up. The world will see that you’re a real person who knows what they’re talking about and not some big impersonal corporation.

The Google Gods will smile upon you!

Not only that but it means that the Google Gods will smile upon you because you have a web 2.0 based website platform. Without going all techy it basically means the search engine world will love you and your site which means that more people will find out about you.

And that’s without any marketing per say. This style is the way of the future for websites but more importantly for NOW because you really don’t want to get left behind and have your competition getting the jump on you.

David is now able to run direct response marketing pieces, both online and offline and direct people to his site, qualify them, capture their details and market to them at will.

How good is that?

I’ll keep you posted with David’s progress as it all really starts to snowball for him.

“Breaking News”! I’ve just done an interview with David so can listen in to what David actually had to say! Click here to Listen!

Do you want these sort of results? Jump on this NOW and get your own FREE Marketing and Website Audit Here Right Now!

Make 2009 Your Best Year EVER!

You will have the power to cut through the crap and market with such sharp shooting market specific accuracy that you’ll be blown away at the ease of the marketing and the quality of the leads.

Your website will become a practical tool instead of just a gorgeous looking piece of art on the net. Gone are the days of the ‘dead’ glossy corporate brochure style of website…

Well, gone for Smart Mortgage Marketing members anyway.