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If every year can be labeled according to the reigning digital marketing paradigm, 2013 will undoubtedly be the year of “content marketing.”  Articles on this promotional strategy are popping up all over the place online – but what is content marketing and how can it be used to encourage engagement and conversions on your website?

Content marketing is simply a synonym for the idea of “inbound marketing.”  Instead of running an advertisement or actively prospecting for sales leads (two classic hallmarks of “outbound marketing”), content marketing relies on the dissemination of high-value marketing pieces and the resulting viral sharing that occurs.

Basically, the idea behind content marketing is that, by publishing great content and distributing it socially, brand awareness, website traffic and on-site conversions will all increase naturally – without the ongoing, concerted effort needed to continually promote traditional marketing initiatives.

If that all sounds good to you, here’s what you need to know about the process of running a successful content marketing campaign:

Step #1 – Develop high-value content

Unsurprisingly, the key component of any successful content marketing campaign is good content.  Cranking out a few “throwaway” blog posts because somebody told you that content marketing is a good way to promote a website isn’t going to get you very far, as this type of activity adds little value to your niche.

Instead, content pieces must meet two criteria in order to work for this type of campaign:

• They must be high-quality (as in, well-written articles, well-produced videos and polished infographics), and

• They must appeal to your unique audience members.

Having one factor without the other will diminish the effectiveness of your content marketing campaign.  If you produce good content that doesn’t resonate with your readers, you’ll never experience viral success.  Or, conversely, if you uncover great topics but then put out mediocre content, you won’t see any better results.

It can take some time to hit on this winning combination, though you can make the process easier by actively soliciting content ideas from your community – either through customer surveys or social media posts.  You may also find it necessary to invest in outsourcing your content pieces in order to ensure that they’re produced as professionally as possible.

Step #2 – Distribute marketing pieces to your community

Once your content marketing pieces are ready to go, you can’t just post them to your website and hope for the best!  Think about content marketing as you would business networking.  It doesn’t matter how qualified you are or how great the product you’re selling is – if you aren’t actively putting yourself in contact with others, you’re unlikely to build any kind of traction.

The same thing goes with content marketing.  For best results, you need to actively seed your social profiles with your best content in order to encourage the person-to-person sharing needed for true inbound marketing.  You need to put your content in front of people and encourage them to share the marketing materials you’ve invested in with others.

It should go without saying that the stronger and more engaged your community is, the more likely it is that your content marketing promotions will be successful.  If you take the time to make yourself present and position yourself as an authority on your industry’s social forums, you’ll see much better results with your campaigns than somebody who pops in, drops a link and doesn’t reappear until there’s another piece of self-promotional content to be shared.

Step #3 – Measure and refine marketing priorities

Finally, keep in mind that content marketing – like any other marketing technique – needs to provide some measurable impact on your business’s bottom line.  We can talk all day about the importance of high-value content or of having an engaged community, but if your content marketing investment doesn’t translate into real-life business improvements, you’re doing your business a major disservice!

For this reason, it’s important to keep an eye on the results you achieve through your content marketing initiatives.  To do so, you’ll need to first determine which metrics you’re attempting to improve with content marketing.  Are you hoping to see an increase in overall sales or are you more concerned with improving “soft” metrics like brand mentions or social followers?

Whatever the case may be, decide on a metric and then set up any tools needed to track changes in your chosen figures.  For many of these needs, pairing Google Analytics’ “Goal” feature with its “Advanced Traffic Segments” will allow you to tie visitors from content marketing traffic sources to changes in your preferred metrics.

Collect this data and then act on it to refine your future marketing priorities and investments.  Content marketing isn’t a perfect fit for every business, though by understanding what it takes to make a content piece successful and carefully tracking your company’s own investments in this promotional technique, you stand to gain significant traffic and brand recognition through this powerful strategy.

Fresh from a successful show at the SXSW Music festival in Austin, TX, BugGiRL rolled through Houston on their current tour and Snappy found himself on stage, and backstage, with the band!

BugGiRL are Australian siblings Amber (vocals & guitar) and Clinno (drums) along with Austin’s own Heather Webb (bass), whom you may remember from a prior Adventures of Snappy post.

Playing loud and fast rock n’ roll, BugGiRL are a tight and impressive live band.  Here’s Snappy rocking out on stage with them:

BugGiRL have released two EP’s and two full-length albums (with a new record on the way!) not to mention appearances on multiple compilation albums.  A quick YouTube search will show you exactly what this band is all about; that good ol’ fashioned punk- and metal-tinged rock n’ roll!

Here’s Snappy hanging out with the band after the show:

BugGiRL virtually never stops touring; be sure to catch them live when they come to your town!

If you have an event in the Houston or Austin area that you would like for Snappy to attend, please get in touch with us by emailing feedback@hostgator.com ATTN: Blog.

When it comes to website creation, Joomla represents a great option for beginning and advanced webmasters alike.  Combining the ease-of-use of WordPress with the functionality of the Drupal CMS, Joomla makes it easy to create and manage professional-looking websites.

However, “out of the box” Joomla is missing many of the features deemed essential by today’s business owners.  To expand your Joomla site, you’ll need to add extensions.  For a few of our favorite options, check out the following popular Joomla add-ons:

Extension #1 – K2

Although Joomla has plenty of different advantages, ease of content editing isn’t one of them – at least, not without the K2 extension.  K2 takes the trouble out of article and page creation, giving users the ability to create rich content forms that add fields for images, videos, galleries and more to standard articles.  It’s a great option for users who plan to turn their Joomla sites into magazine-style media centers, ecommerce stores and more.

Extension #2 – SH404SEF

Though its title may look nonsensical, the SH404SEF extension is a powerful solution for turning your Joomla site into an SEO powerhouse.  The extension’s most widely-recognized benefit is its ability to turn auto-generated Joomla URLs into keyword-rich, SEO-friendly alternatives, though recent releases have expanded the extension’s functionality to include Google Analytics support, built-in canonical headers and more.

Extension #3 – JCE Editor

Not a technically-minded developer?  Never fear – the JCE Editor extension has you covered!

This highly-rated extension transforms Joomla’s backend editing panel into a configurable WYSIWYG editor, making it possible to edit pages easily without the need for complicated code.  If you’re new to website management using the Joomla CMS, this extension is a “must have.”

Extension #4 – Mobile Joomla

Given the dramatic increase in mobile usage over the last few years, having a mobile website is a non-negotiable part of running a website these days.  But if you don’t feel up to the task of building your own responsive website design (or you don’t want to pay a developer to do this for you), take a look at the Mobile Joomla extension, which automatically generates mobile website versions based on the digital devices it detects your visitors using.

Extension #5 – SwMenu

Available in both free and professional versions, the SwMenu extension offers an easy solution for transforming your Joomla menus from ordinary to extraordinary.  By giving users the ability to create an unlimited number of Menu Modules using a wide variety of styling options, SwMenu is a great option for updating the look and feel of your Joomla site.

Extension #6 – FrontPage Slideshow

Want to add a professional-looking slide show to your site’s homepage?  Configuring this type of display feature using code alone can be challenging, but the FrontPage Slideshow extension makes the process easy.  Although there are plenty of different Joomla extensions offering slide show functionality, FrontPage stands out for its ability to integrate text and images together, as well as the number of configuration options that are available to enhance the appearance of your slide show.

Extension #7 – XMAP

Anyone with a basic level of SEO knowledge knows how important sitemaps are for both visitor navigation and search engine indexing.  The XMAP extension takes the confusion out of Joomla sitemap building, allowing sites to create both front-end and XML sitemaps based on the existing structure of your menus.  It’s a simple, elegant solution to the issue of sitemap generation, so take a look at XMAP today.

Extension #8 – Community Builder

If you plan to add a social component to your website, the Community Builder extension deserves your attention.  Available in both free and paid versions, this tool allows Joomla site users to turn their pages into highly-interactive communities through the integration of registration features, member profile pages, forums and more.  To take your social integrations even further, the Community Builder works with a number of different modules and plugins that make your site a destination within your industry.

Extension #9 – Better Preview

The Better Preview extension isn’t complicated, but what it lacks in complexity, it more than makes up for in ease of use and time-savings.  Once installed, Better Preview generates previews of the content piece, menu item or extension you’re editing – before you commit your changes to the live environment.  This simple plugin is a huge improvement over Joomla’s built-in preview functions, making this a great resource for all Joomla site owners to consider.

Extension #10 – Akeeba Backup

We’ve discussed the importance of having a site backup in place on this blog before in the context of protecting your site from security breaches.  And if you’re a Joomla user, you can’t go wrong with the Akeeba Backup extension.  This helpful tool runs in the background, creating full backups of your site that can be used to restore your website in the event that it’s compromised in the future.  For your peace of mind, take a few seconds to install and configure this helpful plugin.

If you’re a Joomla user, we’d like to hear from you.  There are thousands of different Joomla extensions out there, so if there are any you’d like to see added to this list, share your recommendations in the comments section below!

There’s no doubt about it – website speed matters now more than ever before!

 As average internet connection speeds increase around the world, web users are becoming less and less tolerant of slow load times.  At the same time, Google has stated unequivocally that it prefers to reward fast sites with higher positions in the natural search results.

To take advantage of these dual benefits, you need to make site speed a priority on your site.  Any of the following seven tips will help you to get started on this important path:

Tip #1 – Size images before uploading them

 If you use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress or Joomla, you’ve probably noticed that you can upload images at full size and then adjust their display size within your website’s backend.  However, doing so forces web browsers to execute multiple commands – pulling up the initial images and then re-sizing them on-the-fly – which can slow down your site.

To prevent this from occurring, use an image editing program to adjust images to the correct size before adding them to your site.

Tip #2 – Eliminate unnecessary plugins

The huge number of plugins and scripts that are freely available today makes it tempting for webmasters to add more than they truly need.  Keep in mind, though, that every plugin you add requires resources to run – and more resources mean a slower site.

 Before adding any new plugins to your site, ask yourself if the functionality you gain is worth the trade-off in site speed, or whether the plugin’s content could be coded into your site’s theme instead.

Tip #3 – Make sure your site’s scripts are up-to-date

Depending on the CMS or ecommerce platform your site uses, you may need to check back regularly to determine whether new releases of your site’s scripts are available.  If they are, upgrade your site as soon as possible (making sure that you have a current backup file in place first).  Site script developers are always working on improving their code for future releases, particularly when it comes to site speed.  Updating your scripts to the latest versions could go a long way towards eliminating coded roadblocks that prevent your site from loading quickly.

Tip #4 – Make use of CDNs

 Content delivery networks – or, CDNs – are vast networks of servers that are housed around the world.  When you store website content like images using these services, rather than storing them locally on your hosting account, you enable the CDN to serve up your information from the server that’s closest to your website visitor.  The result?  Faster load times that will make your customers and the search engines happy.

 To get started, look into the CDN services offered by MaxCDN or Amazon CloudFront.

Tip #5 – Enable browser caching

 Browser caching is a technology that allows a website visitor’s browser to store copies of your site’s individual pages so that, if the visitor returns in the future, the content can be called up from within the cache – rather than reloading the entire page.  This saves on the number of resources used to display your pages, resulting in faster overall load times.

 The easiest way to enable browser caching is with a plugin, like the WordPress W3 Total Cache tool.  Alternatively, talk to your web developer about ways to integrate browser caching into your site’s code.

Tip #6 – Turn on Gzip compression

 Gzip compression is a technology that minimizes the size of browser-based HTTP responses – sometimes by as much as 70%.  If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry.  Long story short, using Gzip compression can speed up your site’s load times significantly.

 There are three ways to turn on Gzip compression on your site.  You can:

1. Add the following code to your site’s .htaccess file:

2. Add the following code to the top of your HTML or PHP page:

3. Install a Gzip compression plugin like the WP HTTP Compression tool for WordPress (just keep in mind what we said earlier about installing too many unnecessary plugins!).

Tip #7 – Keep CSS files at the top of your page and Javascript code at the bottom

 Finally, keep your site’s code neat and tidy by adding CSS files to the top of your page’s code and Javascript snippets to the bottom when working with raw HTML pages.  Adding your CSS files to the top of the page prohibits progressive rendering, saving resources that web browsers would otherwise use to load and redraw elements of your pages.  Adding Javascript to the bottom prevents your pages from waiting on full code execution before loading – leading to a faster browsing experience for your visitors.

Although these are only a few of the different techniques that can be used to speed up your site, they’re some of the easiest to implement.  Start with this list if you notice your site slowing down, but don’t hesitate to contact a developer for more technical solutions if these steps alone don’t solve your site speed problems.

What is web hosting?  Simply put, web hosting is a service providing the availability of space on a server connected to the Internet.  Ostensibly, this server space is used for hosting websites, although there are potentially numerous other reasons that one may want to employ the services of a web host.

There are many different types of web hosting available today.  This infographic endeavors to explain these different types of web hosting:

<a href=" http://blog.hostgator.com/2013/03/21/webhosting-simplified/ " ><img src=" http://blog.hostgator.com/~/tmp/wp-uploads/2013/03/WebHosting_Explained.png " alt="Webhosting Simplified" width="550" /></a></br><a href=" http://blog.hostgator.com/2013/03/21/webhosting-simplified/ " >Web hosting Simplified</a> via <a href=" http://hostgator.com " > Hostgator</a>

As a webmaster, is there anything scarier than the thought of seeing all of your web developed work being altered or wiped out entirely by a nefarious hacker?  You’ve worked hard on your website – so take the time to protect it by implementing basic hacking protections!

In addition to regularly backing up your files (which you should already be doing, for various reasons), taking the following three easy steps will help to keep your website safe:

Step #1 – Keep platforms and scripts up-to-date

One of the best things you can do to protect your website is to make sure any platforms or scripts you’ve installed are up-to-date.  Because many of these tools are created as open-source software programs, their code is easily available – both to good-intentioned developers and malicious hackers.  Hackers can pour over this code, looking for security loopholes that allow them to take control of your website by exploiting known platform and script weaknesses.

As an example, if you’re running a website built on WordPress, both your base WordPress installation and any third-party plugins you’ve installed may be vulnerable to these types of attacks.  Making sure you always have the newest versions of your platform and scripts installed minimizes the risk that you’ll be hacked in this way – though this isn’t a “fail safe” way to protect your website.

Step #2 – Install security plugins, when possible

To enhance the security of your website once your platform and scripts are up-to-date, look into security plugins that actively prevent against hacking attempts.

Again, if you’re running a WordPress website, you’ll want to look into free plugins like Better WP Security and Bulletproof Security (or similar tools that are available for websites built on other content management systems).  These products address the weaknesses that are inherent in each platform, foiling additional types of hacking attempts that could threaten your website.

Alternatively – whether you’re running a CMS-managed site or HTML pages – take a look at SiteLock.  SiteLock goes above and beyond simply closing site security loopholes by providing daily monitoring for everything from malware detection to vulnerability identification to active virus scanning and more.  If your business relies on its website, SiteLock is definitely an investment worth considering.

Step #3 – Lock down your directory and file permissions

Now, for this final technique, we’re going to get a little technical – but stick with me for a moment…

All websites can be boiled down to a series of files and folders that are stored on your web hosting account.  Besides containing all of the scripts and data needed to make your website work, each of these files and folders is assigned a set of permissions that controls who can read, write and execute any given file or folder, relative to the user they are or the group to whom they belong.

On the Linux operating system, permissions are viewable as a three digit code where each digit is an integer between 0-7.  The first digit represents permissions for the owner of the file, the second digit represents permissions for anyone assigned to the group that owns the file, and the third digit represents permissions for everyone else.  The assignations work as follows:

4 equals Read
2 equals Write
1 equals Execute
0 equals no permissions for that user

As an example, take the permission code “644.”  In this case, a “6” (or “4+2″) in the first position gives the file’s owner the ability to read and write the file.  The “4” in the second and third positions means that both group users and internet users at large can read the file only – protecting the file from unexpected manipulations.

So, a file with “777″ (or 4+2+1 / 4+2+1 / 4+2+1 )permissions would then readable, write-able, and executable by the user, the group and everyone else in the world.

As you might expect, a file that is assigned a permission code that gives anyone on the web the ability to write and execute it is much less secure than one that’s been locked down in order to reserve all rights for the owner alone.  Of course, there are valid reasons to open up access to other groups of users, but these instances must be carefully thought out in order to avoid creating a security risk to your website.

For this reason, a good rule of thumb is to set your permissions as follows:

• Folders and directories = 755
• Individual files = 644

To set your file permissions, log in to your cPanel’s File Manager or connect to your server via FTP.  Once inside, you’ll see a list of your existing file permissions (as in the following example generated using the Filezilla FTP program):

The final column in this example displays the folder and file permissions currently assigned to the website’s content.  To change these permissions in Filezilla, simply right click the folder or file in question and select the “File permissions” option.  Doing so will launch a screen that allows you to assign different permissions using a series of checkboxes:

Although your web host’s or FTP program’s backend might look slightly different, the basic process for changing permissions remains the same.  If you have any questions about modifying your folder and file permissions, please see this helpful link.  Don’t put off taking this important step – securing your site using all of these different strategies is a big part of keeping your site healthy and safe in the long run!

As a small business owner, deciding when to make the leap to website ownership can be challenging. After all, you’ve got dozens of other tasks on your “to do” list – why should you waste time building a website if you aren’t even sure that your customers will visit it?

Well, the answer to that question is pretty simple.  Research conducted by marketing agency Hubspot indicates that as many as 78% of consumers conduct product research online before making purchases, meaning that if your business isn’t online, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with potential customers!

Of course, that isn’t the only reason to take your small business online.  Consider all of the following issues before making the decision that’s right for your company:

Website creation is easier (and less expensive) than ever before

In the past, building a new website required specialized knowledge and potentially even a sizeable budget.  Considering the circumstance, it was reasonable for small businesses to weigh the costs of getting online with the advantages such a move would bring about.

However, the number of different web building technologies that have come out since the Internet’s early days have effectively negated this conversation.  Now, small business owners have access to dozens of different tools that can have a professional-looking website up and running in just a few hours – including everything from our own BaseKit Sitebuilder to WordPress, which allows webmasters to form everything from blogs to fully-fledged e-commerce systems with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Put simply, the idea that website creation is complicated or expensive just hasn’t stood the test of time.  If you’re still clinging to these ideas, take a few moments to learn about the many different tools and programs that can help you to create a business website quickly and affordably.

Your customers are already talking about you online – a website helps you to control the conversation!

Of course, as a business owner, you likely already know that just because something is cheap and easy to do doesn’t mean that it’s a necessity for your company!  But the importance of taking your small business online goes far deeper…

Many small businesses opt-out of website creation because they fail to see how the time and resources needed to maintain a web presence can fit into their already-packed “to do” lists and cash-strapped budgets.  Unfortunately, this is shortsighted.  Even if you haven’t invested in the creation of a small business website, you have a web presence – but it’s your customers that are controlling the conversation.

Today, consumer interactions don’t occur in a bubble.  If a customer is frustrated, he doesn’t just tell his close friends – he tells the entire world through review websites, social media networks and other varied web outlets.  And if your company isn’t there to either refute claims or make amends, this feedback – whether positive or negative – is the only thing future customers will find when they look for your business using the search engines.

Obviously, simply having a website won’t prevent your business from receiving negative reviews or critical feedback online.  But by being a part of the conversation, you demonstrate that your business is committed to its customers, preventing your company from losing clients that might otherwise go to your competitors on the basis of your minimal web presence.

Having a website makes your business “discoverable” by potential customers

Believe me – losing customers to your competitors is a valid concern if your company fails to maintain a web presence.  Consumers today make it a habit to research companies online before they do business.  If you don’t come up in this search because you don’t have an active website (or, if your pages convey a dated look that’s better suited to 1996), you miss out on even being included in this critical initial research process in the first place.

But it isn’t just potential customers using search engines that you risk alienating by failing to maintain a web presence.  Many other consumer research tools – including GPS devices, local business aggregator sites and review platforms like Yelp and Google Places – all draw information from your company’s website.  If this web property doesn’t exist, your business may not appear in consumer searches, leading to yet another loss of potential customers.

The bottom line is this: Your small business needs a website, and it needs one now.  Fortunately, using any of the different website building tools that are available today makes the process as simple and painless as possible – so pick your favorite program and launch your company’s new website today!