Have you gotten any gifts from Greece lately?

Back in 9th grade Literature class I remember having to read some atrociously boring stuff. I mean books that caused a “snoozefest” of epic proportions! (Yes, I’m talking about YOU, “The Scarlet Letter”!)

But there were some subjects that were completely fascinating to me. Greek Mythology was one of my favorites, probably because they appealed to my bias towards action-adventure.

You probably remember one of my favorite stories about the Trojan War in which the Greeks gave the Trojans a gift of a large wooden horse that caused the destruction of Troy, ending the war. This is where they get the saying “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”

Well, when it comes to your business website, there are definitely a lot of “Greeks” out there that you need to beware of.

If you’ve done any research in the last couple of years to revamp your website, you’ve probably heard of the WordPress system. It’s what I recommend to everyone that asks and what I use for my clients and my own projects.

I’ll save my WordPress evangelist speech for another time, but one of its key benefits is the ability to apply pre-designed “themes” to change the look and feel of your website with a click of a button.

Many beautiful and cool themes can be downloaded at no charge from thousands of places online, typically found by Googling “free wordpress theme” or some variation of that.

The challenge is that many of these themes are being offered by internet “Greeks”.

While you may get the perfect design for your website, blog, or online store on the surface, they’ll include additional programming code that’s working away right under your very nose.

Now some of this hidden code can create conspicuous and harmless results, like adding backlinks to their website or product sales pages. But others aren’t as nice, hiding more malicious, encrypted code that creates spam links or worse.

I learned about this the hard way. That’s why I stay clear of WordPress themes “from Greece” and only buy them from reputable vendors that offer refunds, support, and accountability.

Here are my favorite resources. I’m not sure where they’re from but I’m pretty sure it’s not Greece…

Prices for themes average between $30-$100 and are WELL WORTH the investment.

FOR THE RECORD, I mean no offense towards Greece or the Greek people. My family and I love their rich culture and attend multiple local Greek festivals every year. In fact, we just had gyros for dinner last night. Food that tasty can only come from good peeps.

Opa!

Philipp

P.S. If you still want to join me tomorrow (Thursday) night in Pasadena to see famed marketer Bill Glazer’s presentation on Outrageous Marketing, you can get still pre-register to get in at no charge at http://eveningwithbillglazer.com. Otherwise it’s only $20 at the door, which is still an INSANE bargain.

{ 0 comments }

All right, apparently I’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months because I just found out that the last day to submit taxes WASN’T April 15th this year. We actually had until April 18th.

Why?

Well, there’s a little known holiday called Emancipation Day that’s observed in Washington on April 16th. Since this year it fell on Saturday, the IRS decided to take Friday the 15th off.

Luckily I got my taxes taken care of weeks ago. But for many small businesses out there, the were “emancipated”, albeit temporarily, from their tax filing.

You know what else most businesses could use to be “emancipated” from on a permanent basis? Boring, templated, same-as-everyone-else advertising.

Every time I flip through the newspaper, browse through websites, and do research in the Yellow Pages I find that most businesses start blending together and NOTHING stands out. They’re all saying the same thing and doing it in the same way!

That ain’t a good place to be, especially today when prospects and customers are more careful than ever about where they spend their dollars.

Make sure you don’t fall into that “just-like-the-others” category by using advertising that jumps out and grabs your audience by the collar.

And one of the best resources available out there that shows you exactly HOW to do that is a book by Bill Glazer called “Outrageous Advertising That’s Outrageously Successful”. It’s a measly 14 bucks on Amazon.com and worth HUNDREDS of times your small investment IF you actually use what he shares.

I’m actually going to see Bill speak here in my backyard next month and learn directly from the man himself.

An Evening with Bill Glazer
Thursday, May 12th, 6:30pm
Pasadena, CA

Seriously, if you’re anywhere within 4 hours of Los Angeles you absolutely WANT to attend!

FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m not getting a single penny for this endorsement. I just feel THAT strongly about what he teaches.

If you want to join me just click on the following link:

http://eveningwithbillglazer.com

Cheers and hope to see you there!

Philipp

P.S. Typically you can only see Bill at paid events where he’s compensated to speak and the tickets to those events are upwards of $2000 or more. But if you just pre-register after clicking the link below you can actually get your seat in the audience for FREE. Otherwise you’ll have to pay $20 at the door. Either way, it’s a no-brainer for me…

http://eveningwithbillglazer.com

{ 0 comments }

Bill Glazer