Thinking

There are two kinds of WordPress developers, those who build custom themes and those who use purchased themes. Custom themes let you do what you like, but you also must do all the codding. Purchased themes come with a ton of features built in, but it’s easy to end up with a site that looks like many other sites. I personally prefer purchased themes as they save development time and typically have some support. They also usually have a user community where you can get help if needed. The problem is that when 100k people use the same theme, they can all end up looking the same. That's why I like to limit the number of themes that I work with so I can become an expert with each of the themes I use. And, to prevent the site looking like other sites that are also using that theme, I try to choose themes that offer a number of customization options.

Over the last ten years, thousands of podcasts have been launched. Some have managed to garner a large following, made money, or brought in leads, while others have come and gone with barely a whisper.

Live streaming video has been around a while now — with services like Periscope, Google Hangouts, Slack, Ustream on the scene. But as is common with most new technologies, these services have now been perfected by the early adopters who, like the western settlers of the 1800’s, forged the path for live streaming so that in 2016 it was something that anyone could do.

It's time once again for my favorite fall pastime... Inbound! On November 8th-11th, I will be joining more than 14,000 other marketers in Boston for this year's Inbound 2016 conference, hosted by Hubspot. This is number four for me, and over the last several years I have watched Inbound grow from a decent sized event to the huge can't-miss event that it is. I have enjoyed the conference each time and I have witnessed the changes — both good and bad.

I was not an early fan of CMS systems. I spent years learning HTML, CSS, etc. — so they always kinda seemed like cheating. I eventually came around and decided I should commit to one of the top three and WordPress seemed the best fit for the type of sites I build most often. It was a great mix of simplicity, extendability and customizability. One of the things I love most about WordPress is the ability to use plugins to extend your capabilities.

Often times when creating corporate videos, you spend a lot of time waiting for others — copywriters for the script, voice talent for the voice over, shooters, designer, etc. More often than not, the pre-production and/or production will hit some snags along the way. This means, if you have a hard deadline that can’t be changed, it will start eating into your post production time. Instead of sitting around watching your edit time tick away, here are a few things you can do while waiting that can help make up for the lost time.

When Hubspot first introduced their Content Optimization System I wasn’t sure what to make of it. After all, I had spent years learning HTML, CSS and then came content management systems which required me to begrudgingly relearn how to build a website. I was not a big fan of Content Management Systems (CMS), I felt like after all the years spent learning to hand code it took away too much control.

It's hard to believe this was my third Inbound conference since Aloft Group became a Hubspot partner agency. It seems like only yesterday I spent hours watching training videos so I could get my Hubspot, inbound, COS, and Partner certifications. Actually it was only only yesterday, I had to renew my certifications for the year. At any rate, I noticed a change at this year's conference. The focus has shifted from creating content, selling inbound and methodology to how to do all of these things smarter and faster.Most of us know what great content is, the problem we seem to have collectively run into is how do we create enough of it and how do we do it quickly and cost-effectively.

Inbound marketing can be an extremely effective way to generate leads and close new customers, but it requires lots of high-quality content to be effective. Creating content that’s targeted to your buyer personas can be time consuming. Here at Aloft Group, we are always trying to find ways to get the most bang for our, and our clients’, buck. We’ve found that surveys can be a great way to generate multiple pieces of inbound marketing content. Not only can surveying be cost effective, it also allows us to create content for multiple levels of our sales funnel. Here are five ways you can use surveys to generate inbound marketing content that your prospects are really interested in.

Just ten years ago, online video was still something of a frustrating novelty. Bandwidth limitations caused even short videos to stutter and pause with some version of the dreaded "buffering" message blinking on screen. Long-form content was practically non-existent. Fast forward to 2014 and video rules the web and is continuing to grow. For those of you who think we've already reached the online videos pinnacle, here are 7 Online Video Stats You Need to Know.