Are You Needing Help With A Wordpress Blog?

Maybe you need to figure out why a plugin isn’t working? Or maybe you need to move your pmachine blog to wordpress? Or you just need to have some customized work done to it.

In any of these cases, I know just the person for you. One of my clients needed to have her blog moved from pmachine to wordpress. Now, there is not a good importer for doing this.

But, Kai, from The Blogging Coach took the extra time and care to make the import work — at least six hours worth. Wow!!!

My client is happy, I’m happy… hire Kai to work on your site, and you’ll be happy, too!

Domain names

This is the address or URL of a particular website. For example www.Google.com is the domain name for the Google search engine. The domain name is the text name that covers up the numeric IP address of a computer that is hooked up to the Internet.

Domain names make the World Wide Web more user friendly. Instead of having to remember a string of numbers, we can remember the name of the website.

Registering a domain name for an online venture can cost as little as $8. Website domain names are registered to prevent people from using the same name for their website. There are several different companies that allow you to register a website and many of these companies offer hosting packages as well.

You can register a domain name at Watersweb Hosting for $15. The domain is in your name, so you can transfer it at any time, and we can help you manage it.

Financial Planning Can Keep The Fun In Your Business

Welcome to Episode #7!

Dr. Taffy Wagner of JourneyToWholeness.net shares her tips for using a financial business plan to build and grow your business. Dr. Taffy says that many new business owners are so excited about starting a new business, they create unrealistic expectations, and fail to plan for the reality of running a business.

With Dr. Taffy’s tips, you can avoid financial and emotional burnout in your business.

del.icio.us

del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) is referred to as a social book marking site. It is for storing and sharing web bookmarks with other users. The service is completely free and relatively new. del.icio.us first came online in late 2003.

Everything that is posted on del.icio.us is viewable by the public, although you can choose to make specific bookmarks private. Bookmarks are publicly viewable for a purpose. Many people use del.icio.us to publish links to their personal or business blogs. You can use the del.icio.us interface to keep links to your favorite articles, blogs, music etc. You can also share your favorites with anyone who has an e-mail address. del.icio.us also has a search function that allows you to explore what others are book marking, and find other websites that are related to your interests.

How To Find Ideas For Your Blog

Everyone who has a blog will surely suffer a case of writer’s block from time to time. It can be difficult to constantly think of ideas for new blog posts, especially if you post on your blog regularly. Here are some ideas for finding things to write about when you feel like you have run out of ideas.

Keep your blog readers informed about the changes you have made to your website. If you have added a new article, create a blog post with an excerpt from the article. You can include a link to your website which will allow your blog readers to read the full text on your website. If you have made major changes to your site, let your blog readers know about them. You can also include posts on your blog about new products or services you are offering, specials you may be having, and any other news about your business.

You can use a service such as Google News to search for news stories that relate to your business. For instance, if you are a virtual assistant, perhaps you can find an article about the increasing number of companies that are using a VA’s services. If you are in direct sales, you may find a news article explaining the benefits that a career in direct sales offers (which would make a great recruiting tool). You can post your thoughts or feelings on the news item and include a link to the original article.

Perhaps there is something going on in your local area that your readers may be interested in. When you watch the local news or read the local paper, think about how the story might affect your customers. If you think they would be interested in it, create a blog post about it. If you can find a way to tie it into something about your business,

If you are a regular reader of a blog and the author recently posted something you found very interesting, let your readers know. Some of them may be readers of the other blog as well. This can stir up a lot of discussion and traffic on your own blog.

One of the main reasons to have a blog is to give your readers a glimpse of yourself. Every post doesn’t have to relate directly to your business. You can blog about a particularly busy day you had and include your favorite crock pot recipe. The people who read your blog may be very busy business people as well and can appreciate the fact that you too are struggling to get everything done.

You can also give reviews of products and services that you have personally used. This is a great way to monetize your blog as well. For instance, if you recently tried a product and loved it, find out if they have an affiliate program. If so, sign up for it and write a blog post about how much you loved the product, including your affiliate link.

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes…

My son Christopher asked my husband: “Where are you going?”

DH (Dear Husband): “Crazy”

CW: “Can I go with you?”

Crawler

A crawler (also called a spider) is a program that searches the Internet and locates new public resources. These resources can include web documents and other types of files. Crawlers report their finds to an Internet database (called indexing). Each search engine has its own crawler program that crawls the Internet for new material to list on the search engine. Spider technology is necessary because the amount of information being added to the Internet on a daily basis is more than any human team can index.

How To Creat A Swipe File

If you are new to writing, you may be full of ideas. You may be able to post on your blog every day without a problem. You may be constantly finding new ideas for content on your website. Unfortunately, there will be a day when writer’s block hits. A day will come when you just “get stuck” and cannot seem to think of anything.

When this day comes, a swipe file can be a real lifesaver. A “swipe file” is a collection of writings that you can go to for inspiration. Please note it is not a collection of work that you copy or plagiarize. There is a big difference! A swipe file is there just to help out in case you get stuck in the creative process.

A big part of the learning process is to mimic what others have already done. As you are reading magazines, newspapers, email, blogs, and web copy, start making mental notes of what catches your attention. What are the things about the writer’s style? Take notice of the fonts, colors, and graphics that were used. You can clip the tangible pieces and save them in a manila folder. And you can create a virtual folder on your computer desktop for the digital items you liked. This is your swipe file.

It does not matter what business these clippings are for. The only thing that matters is that you are in some way inspired by them. If you have a business targeted to mothers with children and you see an ad for basketball jerseys that you like, save it. You can take the things you liked about the ad, article, blog post, etc., and adapt it to fit your business.

Creating your swipe file may be the hardest part because using it is quite easy. For example, let’s say that you recently created an information product that explains how to make homemade gifts. If you find yourself sitting at the computer and trying to come up with an idea for the sales letter, take a look at your swipe file.

Perhaps you had saved an ad for a women’s watch company. Maybe the headline read something like, “It’s Time To Make A Statement.” And perhaps the ad had a graphic centered just below the heading in a way that you found very attractive.

You can adapt those things for your own product. Since the above example is for an information product about homemade gifts, perhaps you can use a heading such as “Avoid The Mall Rush – It’s Time To Get Started Now”, and you can place a graphic of a present or other holiday symbol in the same way that the graphic in the ad was placed.

As you can see, you are not plagiarizing anything that the original author wrote. You are simply taking something you liked and adding your own spin to it. A swipe file is something every writer should have, as they can save you lots of time and frustration.

Copywriting

The process of writing words to promote a business, person, opinion or idea. Copywriting can include plain text messages and a variety of other online media. The main purpose of copywriting is to persuade the reader to act somehow, whether that is buying a product, signing up for an e-course or clicking on a link.

Copywriting can also refer to the SEO methods that are used to achieve higher rankings in search engines. This type of copywriting is often referred to as content writing. Copywriting for website placement involves the strategic repetition of keywords phrases within articles.

If you’d like to know more about copyrighting for your product selling website, sign up for our free Product Seller’s Content newsletter.

How To Create A Contest For Publicity

People love the prospect of winning a prize and that is why contests are a great way to gain publicity. Another reason that contests are great for publicity is that you can create buzz for your business before, during, and after the contest. You can use a contest to gain exposure for a product or service that you offer, or to create general traffic to your website.

When deciding what type of contest to have, take a look at the type of business you have and who your target market is. If your goal is to create traffic for a website devoted to cooking, you can hold a “worst cooking disaster” contest where entrants can write in about their biggest kitchen mishap. If you have a website selling baby slings, hold a “pretty attached baby contest” where contestants can send in a picture of their infant riding in one of your baby slings.

You can also do a search on the internet for unknown holidays or other events that are taking place that may have something to do with your business. For instance, June is National Iced Tea Month. In using the above example of a cooking-related website, you could hold an Iced Tea Recipe Contest. June 18 is National Splurge Day. You could create a contest that asked the contestants to name their favorite “food splurge,” such as ice cream, cake, etc. Or you could create a contest asking entrants to describe the biggest splurge they made on a cooking appliance, such as a Panini Press.

You do not have to offer an expensive prize for the winner. If you are creating the contest to gain publicity for an information product that you have created, perhaps you can give a free copy to the winner.

Another option is to find sponsors to help contribute prizes to the contest. Find some websites that offer complimentary products or services to what you are promoting. For instance, if you have a website that provides sells jewelry making products, such as beads, you can find a polymer clay or jewelry findings supplier, etc. who may wish to donate their products as a prize to the person who creates the best bracelet with your beads. In exchange for their donation, make sure you give them lots of publicity on your contest page and in your communications with the media.

Send in press releases to the media several weeks before the contest will begin. Follow up with a press release while the contest is in full swing. Then send in another release after the contest is over and the winner has been announced. You can also ask your sponsors to send in press releases to their local media and to the winners’ local media.

Don’t forget to follow up with the people that entered the contest but did not win. Send them an email and let them know you appreciate their efforts. You can make them feel like a winner by offering them a special discount on one of your information products, for instance.

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