One of my favorite Wordpress plugins is the cFormsII plugin by Oliver Seidel.  I really love that plugin because it makes creating contact forms VERY easy!!  It’s also really fun to make other types of forms.  This plugin also provides spam protection functionality by adding the Captcha feature or a visitor verification random question.

Another thing that is awesome about it is all of it’s settings that are available.  Adding CSS to the form can be very easy to because ID’s and classes can be added to each form field automatically.  Yay, thanks Oliver!!

Do you like the cForms plugin as well or do you have a different favorite contact form plugin?

One of the most common questions about website development comes from business owners asking whether their business should be online. The short and sweet answer is YES, if you have a business and you provide a product or service than you should have a business website. Absolutely. Without a doubt. Period.

In today’s market there’s simply not much that can’t be presented online. Whether your business sells products or services your business partners, potential employees, customers and perhaps even investors should be able to quickly locate you and the products and services you sell, and the most effective way for them to do that is by accessing the world wide web’s database. The truth is that NOT having a business website these days can be more costly to your business than investing in having an online presence. In our immediate economy consumers of all ages and types virtually see the World Wide Web as a credibility factor. When they can’t find you online, then you might as well not exist.

That being said, it is also not enough to just have a website. Because your image and the value of your product or service will be determined by the presentation of your website, you want to strongly evaluate what type of presence you want to create and then invest in your project accordingly in order to make a good impression.

Last note—don’t forget that the World Wide Web levels the playing field for all products and services. Now you’re not just competing for traffic and business locally but you’ve entered a pool that is literally boundless. This shouldn’t scare you, it should excite you and entice you too think all the more about how you can make your online presence unique, professional, enticing and trust worthy.

Your website will be an extension of your business, so treat it as the important “X” factor that it can be!

To blog or not to blog? That is a question that many businesses ask themselves. Well, here’s the thing: as a business, you need to reach out to your target audience with a blog. It has been proven that a blog can definitely increase sales and profits.

Here are 13 reasons why your business isn’t complete without its very own blog.

1. Attract potential customers
Use a blog to attract an audience. No business can survive without traffic, whether the traffic is physical or virtual. A decent blog will generate plenty of traffic, and retain it as well.

2. Interact with your audience — and learn from them
Blogs are interactive tools that can be used to reach out to your audience. But you can also interact with your audience by informing them of new products and services, and in turn you can learn from them. Educate and inform your visitors and watch them morph into loyal customers that are confident in what you have to offer. With more people turning to the internet to research before they commit to a purchase, it makes sense to turn your company blog into a go-to resource that provides the information they’re looking for. In turn, you will be able to gain valuable insight and find out just what your customers want and need. Use blog comments, polls and surveys and feedback forms to keep the market research and conversation flowing.

3. Keep a hold of that audience
Advertising and attention-seeking stunts can momentarily grab the attention of an audience, but if you want to retain your audience, you’ll need a blog. Hold a prospect’s interest for a longer period of time, win over customers and bring them back to you long after that initial contact.

4. Spark some energy within your audience
Your blog can help generate an audience that is ever-growing and continuously loyal, while at the same time motivating them to actually do things that relate to your business.

5. Recruit contacts, employees and other help
The internet is all about advertisement, but who says you have to pay for special marketing gigs? Use your blog as a call to arms, and watch your blog’s audience provide you with the networking contacts and employees that you need.

6. Respond to customer feedback
Good customer service and transparent public relations have never been more important these days. Use your blog as a responsive outlet if you need to respond to any type of hype about your business.

7. Direct traffic links
Confident and authoritative content will no doubt attract attention from other websites. Leads and links will not only bring in visitors, but boost your SEO potential as well. Expect links to come from other blogs, from forums and discussion lists, and from a whole slew of social networks.

8. SEO potential
Links bring in visitors via direct traffic, but they’re also useful in bringing in visitors who have come from search engines. The more linkable your website is, the better your search engine ranking will be. Blogs are almost always built to be SEO-friendly, which means that the search engines — and human visitors — should be able to find you.

9. Build familiarity and trust
Allow your customers and prospects to become familiar with you by maintaining a blog. Build trust in your company, since it is vital for that ultimate sale. Encourage visitors to opt into your lead-generation process by providing compelling information and resources, and constant communication. Over time, you’ll create trust, which leads to a higher conversion rate and sales.

10. Branding
Create a strong, better, long-lasting brand by generating positive attention via your blog. As your blog reaches more people and is mentioned on an increasing number of other blogs, forums and social networks, you can expect word-of-mouth advertising to kick in, and sales to rise.

11. Grow your own community
Through your interactive blog, discussion and comments will help to create a sense of community, which can lead to familiarity and an increase in trust.

12. Provide better service
Beat out the competition by providing better service to your prospects and customers. Having a blog shows that you’re both human and approachable, which may put many visitors at ease.

13. Initiate more sales and better profits
All of the steps outlined here will add up to increase your sales and web presence.