WordPress for small business is a match made in heaven. WordPress is a web publishing platform can provide small businesses a website solution that can manage blogs, portfolios and even corporate websites. It’s easy to use, it’s easily customisable through plugins and themes, and best of all, WordPress is free.
One of the best things about WordPress are its themes, which allow small business owners to change the look of their site with a single click. For more advanced customisations however, users would generally still require the services of a web designer.
Until now.
The Headway Premium WordPress Theme: a quantum leap
If WordPress empowered small businesses to publish web content, the Headway theme completes the picture by empowering users to also control the visual design of the site. Here are some of the reasons why I call it a quantum leap:
- Change the layout of a site arbitrarily by drag and drop, and see the changes take place in real time.
- Change the colours and fonts arbitrarily with mouse clicks. No pre-set colour palettes to choose from, everything is custom.
- Add new website elements and content blocks like featured content block, photo galleries and sidebars with a click of the mouse.
If a picture speaks a thousand words, then hopefully the video above speaks a million (click here if you can’t see it). Watch as I take the default Headway style and customise it into a business website, complete with whizzy hero banners in – all in under 10 minutes.
In addition to the above, it’s also super search engine-friendly and has got a fast-growing community of fans and excellent documentation.
WordPress + Headway = killer small business website
I’m a small business owner myself, so I’m familiar with the challenges of juggling the 101 things to make sure my small business stays afloat. And from that perspective, here’s why I think why Headway makes WordPress even better for small business:
- It’s super quick.
Small businesses generally have little time to build and manage their websites. Getting a web professional to design your website can take the task out of your hands, but you still have meetings, processes and reviews to go through before your site is launched. With Headway, you can get your site up in a day without having to deal with any third parties. - It is good enough.
Most small businesses don’t need a website that will win web design awards. Most just want a site that gets the job done and is friendly to search engines and increasingly, mobile devices. Unfortunately web designers want to ‘add value’ and propose something that’s totally out there and busts your budget. Headway will help balance your website features with exactly what you need. - One theme, many styles
Unlike other WordPress themes which give you one style, Headway is completely customisable. Invest in this one theme and you may never need another WordPress theme. - You own the keys to the house.
For small businesses who do outsource their websites completely, it may be difficult to update the site or can only be updated by the designer. It gets worse if the web designer shuts down his business and you’re stuck with a site that you have no access to.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting down the role of web designers. It’s just been my experience that most small businesses underestimate the commitment they need to see through a successful website project.
Who should buy Headway?
If you’re already familiar with WordPress then Headway is a no-brainer. And if you agree with my reasons above, Headway would be a great choice for you. It will allow you to extend the power of WordPress and have a more flexible website, at your own pace and time.
Web designer types will also find Headway useful for clients, but you may prefer to code your own theme or go for Thesis (which I use on this site). Headway also allows custom CSS and has a variety of hooks to take advantage of, but I think Thesis still leads in that area.
Headway is a premium theme and costs USD87 for a personal license (use on up to 2 websites) and USD164 for a developer license (unlimited websites). For that you get the theme, access to documentation and support forums where the friendly staff will help you with any questions you may have.
Note: There are 2 different products named WordPress. The first is the software which you can download from WordPress.org, and the other is a service that uses the software to let you create a blog for free at WordPress.com. The Headway theme only works for the first product, i.e. the free software that you download and install on your own web server.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 4 comments }
Great video!
I already purchased Headway but now or me this is a great tutorial!
Cheers
Lauchlan
Thanks for that Lauchlan, and good to connect with you outside the Third
Tribe Forums too
Hey David, just got here through Remarkablogger. Good going on the video tutorial. Do you use Headway on any of your own sites?
Didn't know you were in Third Tribe too, let's connect there! My username is Ken_Siew.
Hi Ken, at the moment I'm only using Headway on my personal blog – blogjunkie.net. See ya around in the Third Tribe forums
Comments on this entry are closed.