Our team did a long work-from-home guide last week.
In the process, we spoke to people who has been working from home for years – translators, web developers, virtual assistants, SEO gurus, writers, online business owners, and designers.
If you were just starting out and in-doubt – this is for you. Some common questions you might have:
Do share this guide if you think it’s useful so your friends can benefit from this guide as well.
Behind the scene
The article itself is the collaborative work of multiple work-from-home individuals. Here are the steps we took to produce this article:
The topic “work from home” came up in our team chat and we decided to go for it.
Timothy, my editor, drafted an outline on what we should cover in the article.
I dived into some market data and see if we were missing any crucial points; article outline adjusted based on market study.
Tim went to work and submitted his first draft.
Discussion and team’s input on Tim’s writing.
Tim worked out a second draft and moved the article to our site backend.
Jason and I reached out to our contacts and interviewed those who were interested to contribute.
The draft sitting in our WordPress site went through a few more edits – interviewees’ inputs merged to the writings, graphics and links and screenshots added, headlines optimized for SEO on-page.
Image sourced from Pagely’s official sales site – WhyPagely.
Peace of mind starts here – Pagely
Proudly placing itself above other hosting brands, Pagely – the premium WordPress hosting provider, promises great flexibility, scalability, and hosting solutions “engineered from the ground up for maximum uptime and durability”.
But, wonder what’s missing from the diagram? The price tags.
It’s nice (and for many, a necessity) to have all the advanced hsoting features, expert tech supports, and ultra-fast servers – but they all come at a much higher price. Does your business need such sophisticated hosting infrastructure; or you are buying it simply because your web developer said so?
For those who are unsure – here’s my input for you.
Advantages of Managed WordPress Hosting
So what makes these high-priced managed WP hosting plans tick?
Faster Speeds – Due to the optimized nature of Managed WordPress hosts, you’re usually getting fantastic architecture to run WordPress sites off. To what extent depends on the host, but generally, this would be faster than regular shared hosting
Built-in WordPress tools – These range from all round tools such as JetPack to WordPress themes for you to use. They know you’re going to run WordPress and they provide for it.
WordPress-specific Support – Rather than rely on tech who are expected to know everything, Managed WordPress Hosts often hire WordPress experts for you. These specialists will know all the tips and tricks that can help you anytime, anywhere.
Automated Updates – Due to the modular nature of WordPress, you must update not only the core files, but also each plugin you run. Managed WordPress hosts can keep all of these up to date for you, reducing security risks.
Tools for Developers – Aside from pre-built tools, Managed WordPress hosting providers know that WordPress site owns often like to tinker. As such they will give you access to development tools and environments that you can play around with and not destroy your site in the process.
Disadvantages
And what’s the downside?
Price – Almost unilaterally, Managed WordPress hosting is more expensive than standard low-cost shared hosting offerings. If you find a plan that’s the same price (or God forbid, cheaper) then you know you’re getting conned.
Only WordPress – You asked for WordPress and you get WordPress. Want to change your mind? Change your hosting provider or switch to an entirely different type of plan. That usually means site migration though.
Automated Updates – Yes, this can be a drawback too, if you opt for auto updates. There are times when developers (of WordPress or other plugins) make a boo-boo and release an update that is disastrous to its users. Your system will auto update. If you’re not around and don’t realize it, you can’t do anything.
So…
Personally I feel that Managed WordPress hosting generally offers at least some form of benefits, but it’s not meant for everyone. As I’ve listed above, consider your situation before looking towards Managed WordPress Hosting.
Note that, if you’re aiming to own a successful, large volume site. technical skills, server management should be part of your web skill set.
It’s not rocket science, there are literally hundreds of tutorial and forums to learn from and you have to playground to fool around in on the WWW. Ignoring the tech altogether is sheer laziness – and could cost you some day. With that, the decision is in your hands.
The conference sessions are divided into 2 tracks:
WCKL Track 1
Opening Remarks
Building the perfect service business website by Shaan Nicol
“Create one, publish everywhere” by Leonardo Losoviz
One coder agency – 3 steps framework for building one-man WP agency that lasts by Nathan Onn Yeap Chuen
Bagaimana membina landing page yang berimpak tinggi (BM) by Adlan Khalidi
Managing your online presence on Google search by Cherry Sireetorn Prommawin
WordPress CLI in depth by Sanjay Willie
Work, Travel and Join Global Community by Mayuko Moriyama
Secure Your WordPress website by Liew Cheon Fong
Demystify SEO and Google algorithm by Matthew Knighton
WCKL Track 2
Google Tag Manager untuk Markter (BM) by Amirul Nordin
The magic of headless WordPress and REST API by Hasin Hayder
Content strategy for lead generation and SEO by Ivan So
Getting more done in less time – WordPress automation using Ansible by Ivan Yordanov Ivanov
10 tips utama untuk melajukan laman WordPress anda (BM) by Abdul Rahim Abdul Rani
Contributing the WP mobile apps by Cesar Targdguila
WordPress optimization by Ramon Sim
Expand your network: WordPress multisite by Ian Labao
Closing remarks
HostScore was one of the event sponsors – we setup a booth, gaveaway some merchandises, and meet people from 8am – 5pm, non-stop. All of us – Timothy, Jason, and I, have not talked so much in one day for a very long time. We were all exhausted by the end of the event.
Having spent more than ten years researching and testing web hosting services, we felt the need for greater transparency in the market. HostScore was built with that in mind – a resource for the public which would monitor how web host servers perform and make that data readily available at no cost.
Being first of its kind in market (as far as I know), HostScore gives hosting consumers a new, data-driven way to evaluate and choose a web host.
We have been collecting data since July 2019 and the site went live early this month (September). I’d love you to go check out the site and let me know what you think.
Yet, this page has 20+ errors and 70+ warning in Chrome browser inspection, failed horribly in various speed tests, comes with multiple annoying pop-up / pop-under ads – and they rank in multiple position 0’s and ranked for thousands of highly competitive search terms.
Page ranks more than 5,000 keywords.Search traffic valued at $98,430 according to AHREFS estimation. Page speed test results at GT Metrix.
SEO guidelines by Google and gurus are only for your reference. They are basic knowledge that serves, at max, as your foundation and can only carry you to a certain distance.
The best SEO thing you can do FOR YOURSELF is to monitor SERPs closely and run your own experiments.
This was a rare chance for people in Malaysia to get answers from a Googlers, face-to-face, instead of Google the Search Engine.
When? August 02, 2019.
Where? Aloft Kuala Lumpur Central.
Who? Googlers from the search team including Gary Illyes, Stacie Chan, Lucian Teo, Takeaki Kanaya, Duy Nguyen, Anna Ogawa, Cherry Sireetorn Prommawin, and Aldrich Christopher.
Why? It’s a conference for website owners, digital marketers, web developers, and SEO professionals.
There were 9 talk sessions and 1 Q&A / panel discussion in the fully-packed 7 hours event. Titles and topics covered were:
Keynotes / welcomes – by Lucian Teo
How search works – by Cherry Sireetorn
What’s new in search – by Gary Illyes
Search console – by Gary Illyes
Partnering with Google Search and Assistant – by Stacie Chan
Image Search – by Gary Illyes
Towards a safer web – by Aldrich Christopher & Takeaki Kanaya
SEO mythbusting – by Gary Illyes
Let’s talk about links by Duy Nguyen
Key Takeaways
Per Googler’s on-stage talks and guidance
eCommerce spending in Asean is estimated to hit US$250 billion by year 2025.
Content is king.
Businesses should focus on its core and worry less about SEO
Rankings are tailored to moment. Search engine crawl, index, and rank content in real time.
HTTPS is a must – make use of free SSL like Let’s Encrypt .
Link out to trustable resources – it helps Google understand the web better and your site rankings.
Any links that are obtained with exchange of money should be “nofollow”.
Google human raters will check and compare search results before an core update goes live.
Speed up your site.
Google is working with other relevant orgs to standardize robots.txt
New sites discovered by Google will fall under mobile first indexing.
Google now renders a web page when crawling a website – just like how users would see the page on browser.
Javascript should be used in moderation.
Fun story – Facebook used up Google storage capacity when the two tech giants team up to test out hreflang implementation.
Use “hreflang” to gain more localised traffic, but prepare to lose traffic if you take it off.
Businesses are encouraged to control their online presence by claiming their knowledge panel and creating content on Google Posts and Cameos.
Use schema markup to help Google understand your website better – including the new FAQ and How-to markup.
You can now markup your videos with spreadsheets.
Make use of Tenor.com, one of Google’s latest acquisitions, to improve your brand visibility.
Q&A (in private and during panel discussion)
How users interact with content affects how Google understand intent (in real time); how Google understand intent affect how they serve their results in real time.
First meaningful content paint is what matters the most to Google in measuring speed.
When a website roll back to single-language from a multilingual setup, it will retain its (bigger) crawl budget for short term, which allow new pages get discovered quicker. This elevated crawl budget would be reduced and normalised based on the website size eventually.
Personal Thoughts
Met my school mates – Sebastian and Chik, during the event.
In overall I think it’s a well-organised event.
Plenty to networking opportunities with other digital marketers and developers.
Plenty of good food – breakfast, lunch, and two tea breaks, to whack throughout the session.
Plenty of clear guidance and tips for newbies and local businesses.
A few attendants I met mentioned their disappointment with the depth of the topics. In overall they thought what covered on stage were too basic and lack of insights.
(Biasa-lah.. Of course the Googlers are not here to teach us how to SEO and manipulate their system.)
More
True or false: There is an optimal keyword density that can help rank better for the desired keyword Answer: False, because Google is a lot smarter today. So don’t stress if you don’t a green light in @yoast for keyword keyword density #wmcklpic.twitter.com/19am2n3Dsn
Tired of free crappy logos? Some time ago I worked with Chee Ching and made 50 super-beautiful logos.
I was suppose to build a newsletter chain with these logos but I never got time for the project. It would be a huge waste to keep these logos in my hard drive so I am giving out these original logos for free on BuildThis.
The logos are available in .PNG and .SVG format, you can download all of them here in one big zipped file > https://www.buildthis.io/free-logos/
No signup is needed – I am not collecting emails from this.
I had the opportunity to speak at one of the WordPress Meetups in Kuala Lumpur recently (thank you David). My session was about growing a blog. I shared my ideas in content and non-SEO marketing to ~70 attendants that afternoon.
To grow your blog, you need to produce the right content for your target audience consistently and promote your blog actively.
The Basics – Create evergreen content. Do onpage SEO right. Don’t overload your blog with ads. Be original. Don’t post irrelevant stuffs on your blog. etc etc
Generating Ideas – Gather and make use of data you can get from others, such as Quora, Patroen, YouTube, and competitors, to generate content ideas.
Growing without Google – Repurpose and distribute your content in different channels to build your brand and traffic. Network with other bloggers / brands / developers for win-win.
Public speaking is something I have no done for years (ever since I left Bridgestone). Thankfully there wasn’t many big screw-ups in my presentation (according to feed backs I got).
Freestyle feels easier (and probably better) – There was a moment in the beginning where I struggled to stick with my script and my mind just got shut off. Eventually I went freestyle and it worked out smoother.
I need practice – Obviously. Must get rid of the “uhhhm” “errr” and “ahhh” when presenting.
Speaking is fun and useful – The audience comes to you with their problems and questions – this helps me to understand people better and generate new ideas from speaking to them. Should / will definitely do more.
And by the way …
The Kuala Lumpur WordPress Meetup is for all WordPress users from new to experienced to get together and discuss all things WordPress.
Regardless of whether you use WordPress for business or pleasure, as a blogger, developer, or designer, our monthly meetups are sure to help you get the most out of this amazing open source software.
Just like WordPress, joining the group and attending our meetups is absolutely free!
Another year and another list of the top selling domain names, showing once again why certain domain names are much more pricey (pricier?) than others. If you haven’t been keeping up with the domain name game, let me give you a little spoiler:
All the of the best selling domain names are all single-word, generic domain names.
Now, for most of you, that might not come as a surprise. But, I’m pretty sure there’s someone out there who’s thinking of buying their first domain name and are tempted to be as outlandish as possible.
Well, if you take a look at both 2018 and 2019 Top 100 Domain Names Sales (see table below), the big money is always going to be with simple, single-word domain names.
Again, this shouldn’t come as a big surprise as brands with single word names tend to be more popular (and sells better) than those with complicated names. Why? Because it’s just easier to remember and to market – which in turn bring extra value to businesses.
I can go on and on, but I think you get the picture.
Bottom line, single-word domain names or brands will continue to grow in value over the years. I mean, just take a look at Facebook when Mark Zuckerberg decided to drop the “The”.
