Get Your Free Pass to the Interviews of ‘The WP Summit’

The WP Summit is a free virtual conference that brings together 23 world-leading WordPress developers and online marketers. They each get interviewed and the interviews air on the website.

Each speaker has proven to be a true expert when it comes to WordPress, building online business, and creating marketing techniques that work.

All interviews are packed with actionable strategies and insights that WordPress users and online entrepreneurs can implement right away!

Here’s an overview on 10 of the best advice that came up during the interviews.

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1. Good Design Is Important, Good Content Is Too

From the interview with Dan Norris - wpcurve.com

Beginning WordPress users shouldn’t worry about fancy designs and plugins too much, they should rather invest their energy into creating really good content.

When starting from scratch, WordPress sites only need a good designed theme and some basic plugins for SEO, caching, security, and live search.

Then the focus should be on creating outstanding content consistently, so that the website builds a loyal audience and turns random readers into fans.

2. The First 5 Seconds Matter

From the interview with Alex Harris - alexdesigns.com

When a new visitor lands on your site, the first 5 seconds decide whether he stays or leaves. This works like it does in real life, you get no second chance for a first impression.

Having a good design in place is crucial. Beginners should start with investing in a well-designed premium theme, whereas established entrepreneurs should think about getting a designer (if they can afford it).

The purpose of your website needs to be crystal clear as well. What do you have to offer for your visitors? Who is your site for and what’s in it for them if they stay?

3. You’re Not Too Small To Get Hacked

From the interview with Tony Perez - sucuri.net

There’s a common misconception in place. Most WordPress users (and basically all website owners do) think that their website is too small to ever get hacked.

What they don’t understand is, that hacks are almost fully automated these days. Malware programs search through the Internet for vulnerable websites, and once they find one, they hack it.

The core of WordPress is fairly secure though, vulnerabilities often come from 3rd-party themes and plugins. That’s why I highly recommend to only install themes from trusted sources, to update your website regularly, and to have the minimum number of plugins possible.

There are a number of security plugins out there that even the not-so-technical WordPress users can install and use to protect their site. Our WordFence is just one example, there are other good ones as well. WordPress users only need to use those plugins.

4. Summits Are Podcasts On Steroids

From the interview with Navid Moazzez - navidmoazzez.com

Podcasts are great tools to build a loyal audience and to position yourself as an expert. Summits however, are like podcasts on steroids.

Usually within a matter of 2 or 3 months you can build your list massively, build relationships with influencers in your field, and increase awareness for your brand drastically.

People love especially the model of free summits, meaning you offer the interviews for free (for a limited time). This allows your attendees to see each interview at times convenient for them, and thus to get the most out of these interviews.

Quick note: having a good designed summit page is mandatory, because you want to be perceived as serious!

5. The Perceived Value Of Lead Magnets Matters

From the interview with Tim Paige - leadpages.net

We do a lot of testing with our lead magnets, and we see a very specific evolution. Website owners tend to give away offers that they personally perceive as valuable, yet their visitors don’t seem to care.

In fact, we even gave away 1-hour chats with our CEO to new subscribers. Yet a simple yet powerful tools guide outperformed the 1-hour chat with Clay Collins by far.

We think the reason is that people want lead magnets they can fully grasp and take action on quickly. Having a 1-hour chat with Clay means to schedule the call, prepare questions, and actually spend a full hour.

The tools guide instead gives information about something your visitors can buy. They feel that those tools will solve their current problems, so you take away the pressure from them to solve the problems themselves.

6. Don’t Have Distractions In Your Sales Funnels

From the interview with Amber Vilhauer - ambervilhauer.com

My team and I built more than 300+ WordPress sites and over time we started to recognize patterns in the best converting sales funnels.

First of all, their design was straight to the point. Most often it was a premium theme with a simple structure, highlighting the contents and call-to-actions.

Funnels are meant to gradually turn visitors into subscribers, leads, and eventually into customers. To fulfill that purpose, they need to be structured very clearly.

We only have text, media like images or videos, and the call-to-actions on our funnel pages. No sharing buttons and no unnecessary fancy (but distracting) design elements.

We want the visitors to go through the contents at their own pace and to understand what we have to offer (and what’s in it for them). Only if we achieve this, the funnel will turn visitors into subscribers, leads, and customers.

7. WordPress Multi-Site Rocks!

From the interview with Rachel McCollin - rachelmccollin.co.uk

Since WordPress version 3 it supports multi-site installations. You can have one root install of WordPress and a number of child-installations - all managed through one admin dashboard.

This is extremely powerful, especially for those who manage multiple WordPress sites either for themselves or for clients.

You now can manage your updates for all sites, manage your themes and plugins, and your users in one place.

The multi-site installation is very well documented in the official WordPress codex and is quite straightforward. Even non-technical WordPress users should be able to follow along.

I fell in love with multi-site, because I randomly host WordPress sites for my clients. And now I have them in a multi-site installation.

8. Don’t Rely On Backups From Your Web Host

From the interview with Akshat Choudhary - blogvault.net

Most web hosts offer daily backups these days, which is a step into the right direction. It’s good, because most WordPress users don’t even realize the opportunity of losing all their data due to a server failure or hack.

However, there’s a caveat with having backups only done by your web host.

You can’t access those backups if your account get’s suspended because of a hack or another random issue. If you’re then required to remove the malware or resolve the issue, you’ll have to do it completely on your own - whereas you could just recover a backup from your own storage (if you had it).

There are countless good and free backup plugins for WordPress, which allow you to store backups on storages like Dropbox or Google Drive, or send them to you by email. If you’re really serious about your site, I’d recommend getting a 3rd-party service to provide off-site backups.

9. Designing Beautiful Websites Doesn’t Need To Cost 1,000’s

From the interview with Mark Asquith - dmsqd.com

In todays world, websites need to be beautiful and functional at the same time. They need to adapt to mobile screen sizes, to convey the brand of the website owner, and to turn visitors into avid readers.

Especially those who start from scratch tend to obsess about their designs. They think of investing in a web designer, whereas a well-designed premium theme would be totally sufficient.

They just need to know what theme to choose, so here’s a quick checklist:

• The theme needs to be responsive and come with flexible layouts
• The vendor needs to provide updates and support. I prefer well-known vendors over unknown ones.
• Don’t go crazy with colors. Keep it simple and use kuler.adobe.cc if you’re not sure.
• Same goes with fonts. Keep them readable and eventually make use of Google Fonts or similar ways to add custom fonts.

If you keep it simple and focus on conveying your message to your visitors, starting with a premium theme is totally cool.

10. Podcasts And Video Marketing Build Deeper Relationships

From the interview with Hani Mourra - simplepodcastpress.com

It’s good to have a blog and to publish written posts regularly. But podcasts and video marketing are the real relationship-builders.

Listening to a podcast creates a very intimate relationship with your audience. They listen to it in the car, during their workouts, or when they have some simple tasks to perform.

You’re right in their ears, telling your story and spending some time with them. I think this is far more intimate than written posts will ever get.

Video marketing is great to make yourself accessible as a person as well. Your audience sees how you behave, hears your voice and sees your face. Now they can put a voice and face to all your written content.

If you manage to embed both media formats in an easy-to-use format on your site, which most themes allow these days, you’re set to build a multi-media brand with a loyal audience. Great content is mandatory of course.