Category Archives: Tips and Hints
Traditional Advertising is Truly Dead | Copyblogger
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
Here are three steps to creating a “campaign” that will last:
- Build a minimum viable audience with useful, educational, and entertaining content.
- Listen carefully to their frustrations, fears, problems, and desires.
- Create or adapt products and services that better serve them.
– Robert Bruce
via Traditional Advertising is Truly Dead | Copyblogger.
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Posted in Marketing, Online Marketing, Opinion, SA Music, Social Media Marketing, Tips and Hints
Tags: advertising, Marketing
Cape Town Small Business Websites
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
I am sure I don’t need to convince you that getting your small business onto the internet is of vital importance.
I love WordPress.com because you can have a website where ordinary people can update their content without paying for web hosting, graphic design and web development.
As an example of this concept, I built a new website today using only a free email address from Gmail.com and a free account from WordPress.com.
My new business, Cape Town Small Business Websites, now has a Search Engine Optimized, Mobile-Friendly website with a blog section and a Contact Form.
If you would like my help to get your Cape Town-based small business onto the internet without breaking the bank, then please use this form:
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Posted in Blogging, Cape Town, Entertainment, Fashion, Marketing, Mobile, New Media Marketing, Online Marketing, SA Music, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Technology Made Easy, Tips and Hints, Tourism
Tags: advertising, Blogging, business, creating websites, hosting graphic design, Technology, Wordpress.com
Using WordPress.com to create a Mobile Presence
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
It is becoming more and more important to optimize your website for mobile.
The Smartphone is transforming communication and publishing.
490 million smartphones sold in 2011. – Jeff Bullas
When a visitor browses to your WordPress.com blog website using a mobile device, WordPress.com will show special themes designed to work on small screens focusing on fast load times.
Some WordPress.com themes are mobile-ready, also called “responsive width”, that adapt themselves to the device of the user.
However all WordPress.com themes are already mobile-friendly by default. The Minileven theme (a modification of Twenty Eleven) is displayed on modern mobile devices.
Users using older mobile devices will see a version of the WordPress Mobile Edition theme.
WordPress.com also provides a special theme called Onswipe for the iPad.
So by using WordPress.com your website is already mobile-ready without you having to do anything.
Just another great reason why you should be using WordPress.com for building your Web Presence.
Sources:
WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
3 Steps To Success With Digital Marketing – Jeff Bullas
See also:
Why you should be using WordPress.com for creating a Web Presence – Brian Currin
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Posted in Blogging, Marketing, Mobile, New Media Marketing, Online Marketing, Opinion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Technology Made Easy, Tips and Hints, Tourism
Tags: Blogging, brian currin, bullas, cellphones, Digital Marketing, iPad, iphone, Mobile, Mobile Phones, Smart Phones, Smartphones, special themes, Technology
Why you should be using WordPress.com for creating a Web Presence
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
and the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org

The Yoga Factor
The quick version:
People need to Find You and Talk To You.
Finding you is called Marketing and talking to you is called Sales.
I have now just saved you 3 years of study at University.
Yes, it is that simple.
A WordPress.com website is the perfect tool for marketing and sales without breaking the bank, especially if you are passionate about your business and would like to get involved with your own online promotion.
I love WordPress.com because you can have a website where ordinary people can update their content without paying for web hosting, graphic design and web development.
Not that those things are wrong, of course, but you can always build up towards having them as your business and brand grows.
Some examples in action:
- The Yoga Factor
- The Lyzyrd Kyngs
- Blk Sonshine
- Crimson Chrysalis
- RockFest Radio
- Billy Forrest
- 1001 South African Songs
- Rhythm Records (The Label)
Some of my pending projects that will be using WordPress.com:
- Triple M Entertainment
- Stars Of Africa Football Academy
- Masauko Chipembere (from Blk Sonshine)
- The Production Person
The long version:
WordPress.com is a hosting platform that utilizes the same WordPress software that anyone can download from WordPress.org.
With WordPress.com, the hosting and managing of the software is taken care of for you.
With the freestanding WordPress.org software, you need to install it on your own server or a 3rd party hosting provider.
WordPress.com Benefits
- It’s free and much easier to set up
- Everything is taken care of: setup, upgrades, spam, backups, security, etc.
- Your website / blog is on hundreds of servers, so it’s highly unlikely it will go down due to traffic
- Your content is backed up automatically
- You get extra traffic from the WordPress.com community
- Your dashboard is secure (SSL) making it even safer to log in on shared networks
WordPress.com Cons
- Provides 170+ themes (and adding more every day), but you cannot upload a custom theme
- You can’t modify the PHP code behind your blog
- You can’t upload plugins
If you are a web developer, or you are happy to pay a web developer for their time, here are the benefits of WordPress.org:
WordPress.org (self-hosted) Benefits
- Ability to upload themes
- Ability to upload plugins
- Great community
- Complete control to change code if you’re technically minded
However, for me, the Cons far out-weigh the Benefits:
WordPress.org (self-hosted) Cons
- You need a good web host, which can get expensive.
- Requires more technical knowledge to set up and run
- You’re responsible for stopping spam
- You have to handle backups
- You must upgrade the software when a new version comes out
- If you get a huge spike in traffic your site will probably go down unless you have a robust hosting setup
Why I love WordPress.com
For no charge, WordPress.com provides web hosting, unlimited database storage with redundancy and backups, automatic software upgrades, community support forums, multi-lingual administration and themes, real-time traffic stats, comment tracking, blog and post rankings and other features not available anywhere else. These features will always be free for blogs started on WordPress.com.
WordPress.com offers paid upgrades as a way to provide premium features without forcing people to host their website / blogs elsewhere. These upgrades are optional.
- Currently over 170 themes to choose from, some are Premium, but most are Free.
- Integrated Statistics on where your visitors are coming from, and a whole lot more.
- Excellent support available from fellow users (on Forums) and WordPress staff.
- Robust server back ups.
- Multiple users, great for clubs, communities, bands and so on.
- Mobile-friendly
Resources for this article:
WordPress.com, WordPress, and WordPress.org
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Posted in Blogging, Cape Town, Facebook, Fashion, Guest Posts, Marketing, New Media Marketing, Online Marketing, Opinion, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Technology Made Easy, Tips and Hints, Tourism, Twitter, working from home
Tags: Blogging, graphic design, hosting graphic design, Social Media, Technology, web development, web hosting, websites, Wordpress
3 Steps to Success with Digital Marketing | Jeff Bullas
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
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The Facebook Timeline Countdown Is Ticking: Update Your Page This Week | Baker Marketing
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
This Friday, March 30, 2012, all Facebook business Pages will be migrated across to the new-look Timeline layout.
This means that the Facebook Page you have worked so hard to set up with its welcome page and long profile image, will shortly be turned on its head.
via The Facebook Timeline Countdown Is Ticking: Update Your Page This Week | Baker Marketing.
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Google Will Change Web Marketing in 2012
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
Google is poised to completely alter how websites market themselves over the next year. While easing users into changing search results pages, Google has also designed a new method for websites to structure data so that its crawler can better pull information. This is a tremendous strategy. Google doesn’t need to own all of the information in the world, but does own the methods of accessing that information — as well as the ability to advertise to people who use that access. - Brian Whalley
via Google Will Change Web Marketing in 2012 – Brian Whalley – Harvard Business Review.
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Posted in Blogging, Cape Town, Facebook, Google+, Marketing, Music, New Media Marketing, Online Marketing, SA Music, SA Rock Digest, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Technology Made Easy, Tips and Hints, Twitter
Tags: Google, Google Adwords, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SEO
Google AdWords Gets Social – Make Your Customers Love You | Jeffbullas’s Blog
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
First, it creates a huge incentive for advertisers to capture +1s for their Google Plus brand pages, just as these advertisers now spend money capturing likes on Facebook. If advertisers previously didn’t care much about their Google Plus pages, they might very well now. – David Rodnitzky
How Google AdWords is Becoming More Social | Jeffbullas’s Blog.
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One of the reasons why Google+ is important
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
Why Google+ is important … I ran a Google Rich Snippets Test for http://macstanley.com/
Verified: Authorship markup is correct for this page.
Success.
Webmaster Tools – Rich Snippets Testing Tool
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Posted in Digital Music Sales, Google+, Marketing, Music, New Media Marketing, Online Marketing, Opinion, SA Music, SA Rock Digest, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Tips and Hints
Tags: Google, SA Music, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SEO, Social Media Marketing, Technology, websites
Add another string to your marketing bow: Google+ Business / Brand Pages
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
Google has added another product to its range of excellent products.
Google+ (pronounced Google Plus) Business Pages are a great way for promoting your business and especially for marketing music artists, bands, labels, studios, retail stores and other businesses involved in the promoting and selling of music.
This is not an either / or with a Facebook Brand Page. There is no need to choose which place to be. In fact, it is important to be on both places, as Facebook has over 800 million users currently and Google is, by far, the most popular search engine on the planet.
My Google+ Page is at https://plus.google.com/110464835235151479946/
So when are you planning to add Google+ to your online presence and web marketing activities?
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Posted in Brian's Best, Facebook, Fresh Music, Fresh Music, Google+, Labels, Marketing, Music, New Media Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Shops, RhythmMusicStore, SA Music, SA Rock Digest, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Technology Made Easy, Tips and Hints
Tags: Facebook, Google, Google Plus
OK you’ve got a website, so now what?
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
Having a website to promote your brand and business is very important, but if nobody sees it then it is not much use.
It is like having a billboard next to a gravel road in the middle of nowhere.
As much as we might like to think otherwise, the world is not looking for you specifically. If they were, they could just type your web address i.e. briancurrin.com directly into the address bar of their favourite browser and up would pop your website.
What people are looking for is solutions to their problems, and if your website offers the right solution, then it needs to appear on the first page of search results.
Assuming that your website is already search optimized (though many aren’t) here are a few ideas on how to drive traffic to your website.
Facebook Brand Pages
Creating a Facebook Brand Page is essential now. These pages work very well for big corporates, but are also proving highly effective for small businesses. A Facebook Page is another portal to your website and when you post comments and status updates on your wall you can include links to your website.
http://facebook.briancurrin.com
Paper.li
This portal allows you to create your own online newspaper aggregating information from the Twitter, Blog, RSS and Facebook sources that you choose. Paper.li automatically produces daily news, which means every day there is at least one new quality link to your website.
http://paper.li/briancurrin
Google Adwords
Over 90% of searches done on the internet use the Google search engine. Adverts appear above and on the right-hand side of search results which try and match what it is you are searching for.
Google Adwords provides a very effective pay-per-click method of driving traffic to a website, and they also supply extensive analytic information to help with the adjusting and tweaking of this online advertising medium.
Are you using any of these tools and platforms to help grow your business?
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10 Ways to Get More Fans on Facebook | Social Media Today
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
Have you created a Fan Page, but now you’re wondering – “How Do I Get People to ‘Like’ my Page? If so, you’re not alone. Many people struggle with getting Fans. Here are 10 ways to get more Fans. – Joy Fleming
via 10 Ways to Get More Fans on Facebook | Social Media Today.
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Social Media Consultant Cape Town
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
Goal: appear on first page of results for social media consultant cape town
Tick.
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Posted in Blogging, Cape Town, Facebook, Marketing, New Media Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Technology Made Easy, Tips and Hints, Twitter
Tags: Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), SEO, Social Media Marketing, Technology, Twitter, websites
WordPress Blog can now post to a Facebook Page
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
WordPress has been able to post to a Facebook Profile wall for a long time already, but I would much prefer to be able to post to the wall of my Facebook (Brand) Page.
Pages have so many advantages over Profiles for brand building purposes.
WordPress have introduced this feature today, that I have been waiting for.
So this post is also a test, to see how it works.
Once I am happy, I will start adding it to the WordPress Blogs of my retainer clients.
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Google Search Instant Preview
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
If you hover (or click) on the little magnifying glass next to a search result, you get a preview of the page with some appropriate text highlighted.
Google says:
Click once on the magnifying glass
in the search result to instantly see a preview of the web page.
After activating Instant Previews with that one click, you can hover over any other search result to see a preview of the web page. Learn More
Also interesting to see who is paying to get their results above my organic results.
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Posted in Music, Online Marketing, Opinion, SA Music, SA Rock Digest, Technology Made Easy, Tips and Hints
Tags: Google
2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report | Social Media Examiner (via Web.Marketer)
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
In this free report, you’ll discover:
- The top 10 social media questions marketers want answered
- How much time marketers invest with social media activities
- The top benefits of social media marketing and how time invested affects results
- The most used social media tools and services
- Marketers’ future social media plans
- Activities social media marketers are outsourcing
- And much more!
via Web.Marketer
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WordPress meets Tabpress
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
Figured out how to build a WordPress Blog Feed into a customized Facebook Welcome landing tab using Tabpress from HyperArts Web Design, Feedburner and some HTML and CSS skills.
http://www.facebook.com/SARockDigest
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Brian Currin: Music Fan | Web Marketer
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
From now on the blog at http://briancurrin.wordpress.com will be my Music Fan blog. I concentrate mainly on South African music but will also cover International music on occasion.
For those of you interested in my blog posts on Online Marketing, both for music and in general, these will now be on the Web Marketer blog at http://webmarketersa.wordpress.com
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Interview with Rigby Rocks (via Michael Currin’s Blog)
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
For the Eleanour Rigby’s blog. Rigby Rocks: When did the photography craze start? Michael Ashley Currin: I got my first digital camera for my gap year in 2008. I bought a better compact camera at the end of 2009, which gave me decent live band shots. I did my first paid event in February 2010, which was a 40th party. By … Read More
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4 Key Steps To Growing Your Online Social Media Assets | jeffbullas.com
Posted by Brian Currin, Music Fan | Web Marketer
Some basic rules that you need to know
- Google likes fresh up to date data over old news
- Google likes well known social media websites with lots of traffic such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Slideshare and Flickr
- Google likes Blogs because they have the promise of fresh up to date data that continues to make Google relevant
- Google now likes “RealTime” data and Twitter is in this frame now
From http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/02/01/4-key-steps-to-growing-your-online-social-media-assets/







