Joyce introduces herself as being recently listed as one of the ‘Top 20 WordPress Bloggers you need to follow’ and one of ’25 Awesome WordPress Women To Watch In 2014′.
Quite true that is!
Joyce, who started in journalism, is trained in web marketing services including search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, e-mail marketing and more. Since 2011, Joyce runs her own company- Clicks Online Marketing, where she specializes in WordPress services and SEO.
Despite her busy schedule Joyce accommodated my interview request and I’m grateful for that. So folks, here’s Joyce talking about content marketing tips and her thoughts about women in WordPress.
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What got you started with WordPress?
I started in journalism and communication. I was hired to work as an SEO with those skills, which then led to WordPress. You can’t really do good SEO without knowing about websites, and WordPress is usually the best option for a good balance between functionality and online marketing needs.
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How do you leverage WordPress to market a business?
Well, this is a loaded question 🙂 It depends on the business – everyone’s strategy is going to be different.
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What factors contribute to a website’s success?
If you can learn how to communicate effectively on the Internet, you can do a lot.
I think the number one thing is how it communicates. Is your message clear? Do users know what you want them to do when they land on your site? Do they even know where they have landed? People miss this all too often. People get wrapped up in design, in showing photos of things, but they don’t stop to look at their site from the point of view of the visitor who has no idea who they are or why they should care. So if you can learn how to communicate effectively on the Internet, you can do a lot. That is where you should start with all the other decisions that go into making a website successful.
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Which guides, books or blogs should newbie content marketers refer to?
A few resources that got me going were:
- Moz.com (especially Whiteboard Friday, those are fun!)
- Quicksprout.com
- Steve Krug’s book, Don’t Make Me Think
- 37 Signal’s book, Rework (for running a business)
- Tim Ferris’s book, The Four Hour Work Week
There are tons and tons of blogs out there though. Search Engine Land, CrazyEgg and KissMetrics, and if you want to get into WordPress specifically, there are also lots and lot of resources out there for that. I wrote a lot for ManageWP and Elegant Theme’s blogs.
But most of all I think you learn by doing. When you come across a problem, you need to know how to Google a solution until you figure it out 🙂 Attend conferences, watch webcasts – you will pick up little tidbits along the way that will all add together to make your knowledge much fuller.
But the learning never stops!
What do you think are the reasons for the skewed gender ratio in the WordPress community?
This is a big topic, and I’m not sure I have the answer, but I wrote about this on ManageWP’s blog: How WordPress is Solving the “Women in Tech” Issue.
Despite stats showing women don’t have a dominant role in tech, I feel that if a woman wants to work as a developer or be a leader in technology, she should go to school, get educated, be smart enough to get hired, and work her way up the ladder like any male would have to do. No pity parties. My favorite statement so far on this subject is by Deanna Ballew who, after giving hope-downing statistics on women in tech says, frankly:
What do the numbers mean? Well, if you’re a woman who wants to be in the tech industry, they should mean absolutely nothing… Whether you’re a woman or man, your success in the tech industry is going to come down to the same factors: Are you really good at what you do? Can you get the job done?
I couldn’t agree more.
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Do you think WordCamps can play a role in improving this ratio?
They can, but they’re not the only thing. I think WordCamps do a few things:
They encourage the community to get together, so more women show up, and they see other women, and realize they’re not alone, and so on.
Women also see other women on stage, and those speakers can serve as role models.
They help to reduce the intimidation of using WordPress. A lot of women that go there might be designers (not a stat I can prove), and so the fact that they go there and learn about CSS and things, is great. They are expanding their knowledge and learning that WordPress and coding are not as scary as they may seem.
If you weren’t into marketing and writing, what would you be doing?
Driving a bus, working at Starbucks, being a psychologist or social worker, decorating my apartment, going shopping, working at a museum, answering phones for someone. I dunno! I guess that means I was probably made for this 🙂
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Joyce, thank-you for your time, and your honest and insightful answers. For more from Joyce, stay updated by following her on twitter @thoughtsofjoyce or on Joyce Grace where she blogs about internet marketing, SEO and more. 🙂
2 Responses
Thanks so much for the interview 🙂 This was interesting to re-read what I wrote! 🙂 Kind of a strange feeling….
It was my pleasure Joyce 🙂