Posts by Lorette

TGIF! Thank Goodness It’s Free – Join.me

Jan20
2012 Leave a Comment Lorette Written by Lorette

More and more people are having online meetings these days then ever before. If you are looking for a quick and FREE way to have an online meeting, check out this great resource http://www.join.me

Follow the steps below to get started….

1. Go to http://www.join.me – and click on “Share”, this will install the application on your computer and will go into your Program files.

Online webinar service

Join.me has great features, the expanded list is below. The two features that I think are the biggest benefits of using this service are:

1. You get a free conference line – phone number and a call in code

2. Ability to invite up to 250 participants

online webinar service

2. Once the application is downloaded, it will be installed in your Start menu on your computer. Click on the icon to launch the application.

3. Once you click on the icon to launch the application, you will see the control panel at the top of your screen.

To invite others to join your meeting, simply provide them with the url that shows up in the control panel (in this example, join.me/474-432-577). You now have some cool features that come along with it, like a conference call number, ability to chat, turn screen share on and off and see a list of participants.

(The control sharing option is if you upgrade to the Pro version. )

Online Webinar Service

How can you use this tool in your business?

  • Meeting with a client (especially those that are not tech savy, there are very little steps involved)
  • Need a quick conference call number for a meeting
  • Meeting with team members to review a project

How is this better than screen sharing in Skype?

Someone asked me the benefit of using this over doing a screen sharing session in Skype. The answer is the volume of people that can be added to this meeting. Skype is great to do a screen share with one person, but it can only be used for group screen sharing if you have a Mac.

If you are looking to do a webinar or host an online meeting for FREE, visit http://www.join.me

Note: The only thing that it does not have (that I wish it did), is the ability to record the webinar.

 

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Posted in TGIF! Thank Goodness it's FREE - Tagged , , , ,

WordPress Wednesdays –> Building Custom WordPress Menus

Jan18
2012 Leave a Comment Lorette Written by Lorette

This tutorial is going to walk you through how to add a custom menu to the top of your blog/website. Now, keep in mind, this may vary depending on what theme you are using, but this is the generic way to do it and works with almost any theme.

Here are the steps.

1 – Login to your wordpress dashboard and click on “Appearance” then “Menus”

2. You will see a screen like this. First, create a name for your menu and click “Save Menu”

Custom WordPress Menus3. The next step is to choose the pages that you want to appear in your menu. In the bottom left, there will be a list of all the pages that are on your site. Just check the box next to the pages that you want to show up.

Wordpress Custom Menus

4. When you choose the pages, they will show up in your menu area. Each one represents a page that will show up in your menu/navigation.

Wordpress Custom Menus

5. If you would like to create drop down lists, simple click and drag the pages as seen below, then click “save menu”.Wordpress Custom Menu

6. In order for the menu to show up, on the left hand side of the Menu screen, it will ask you what menu do you want to show, choose the name of the menu you just created from the drop down box and click “Save”.

This is what your final menu/navigation would look like.

Wordpress Custom Menu

Have Fun!

Lorette

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Posted in Wordpress Tips - Tagged , , , ,

WordPress Wednesday –> Understanding Your WordPress Settings

Jan04
2012 1 Comment Lorette Written by Lorette
Every WordPress Dashboard has a variety of configuration options to help set up your site to your specific requirements. In this post we are going to review, the “Settings” area in your Dashboard.
I am going to go highlight the settings that you should pay close attention to…

1. General – This is where you would update your sites title and description (make sure it is keyword rich). You would also update the date and time to display on your site.

2 – Writing – Customizing the way your posts are written (recommended to leave all the information as default)
3 – Reading – This area is where you can choose how your website is “read”. You can choose to either show your blog posts on the front page of yours site or even choose a static page for your front  page.
You can also choose how many posts are displayed at one time – for example if you only want to show 5 posts on the front page, simply change the default number to five, and how to adjust RSS syndication feed features to determine how the information from your site is sent to a reader’s web browser or other applications.
Wordpress reading settings
4 – Discussion – In this setting you can control how people interact on your blog. For example, are comments autoposted or approval needed.
wordpress discussion settings

5 – Media – This area is where you can specify the maximum dimensions to use when inserting an image into a post (leave these as default)

6 – Privacy – Choose whether you want your site to be indexed by search engines—like Google, Bing, or Yahoo, or only to your specific visitors, of course you would want to choose the first option to get maximum exposure to your site.
wordpress privacy settings

7 – Permalinks – Create a custom URL structure for your permalinks and archives.

Please read a previous post on how to correctly set up your Permalink settings.
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Enjoy!
Lorette
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Posted in Wordpress Tips - Tagged , , ,

WordPress Wednesday –> Adding Your Gravatar

Dec28
2011 Leave a Comment Lorette Written by Lorette

This is not necessarily a WordPress tip…but, it’s a good tip to know that relates to blogs :-)

Have you ever wondered how people comment on blogs and have their picture show up next to the comments?

Those pictures are called Gravatars. Why would you even want to use one?

If you frequently post on blogs and leave comments (which you should to bring backlinks to your website), it is a good idea to have a Gravitar so that people and the blog owner begin to recognize you and it will help build relationships…and relationships is what its is all about these days.

This goes along with the whole social media craze, of networking and relationship building, and this will only help with your relationship building.

So this is how to create a Gravatar that will travel along with your email address everywhere you post something online with that email address.

Here is exactly how to to do….

1. Go to www.gravatar.com and click on “Get Your Gravatar Today”

Gravatar

2. Enter the email address that you want associated to your new Gravator

Gravatar Images

3. Next, click on the bottom where it says “Add one by clicking here” to upload an image

gravator images

4. Upload a picture. If the picture is too big it will automatically crop the picture and then you can choose which picture you want to associate to your email (if you uploaded more than one).

5. Now, go test your Gravatar! Go through the steps above, then post a comment on this post below to test it out!

You can see my sample post below (responding to a post on a blog on if it is a good idea to put a picture on a business card), so when entering my email address, it automatically associates my picture and posts it when my comment is posted.

Have fun!

Lorette

 

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Posted in Wordpress Tips - Tagged , , ,

WordPress Wednesdays –> Adding Videos To Your WordPress Sidebar

Dec14
2011 2 Comments Lorette Written by Lorette

We all know how powerful videos are today. Not only can they be educational but they can also be very entertaining, and a great marketing tool.

If you have a video that you would like to showcase on the sidebars of your WordPress website, check out the tips below and cool plugin to help you along the way.

There are a few ways to do this, but this one is the easiest…

Follow these steps…

1. Login to your WordPress Dashboard

2. Click on “Plugins” -> “Add New” and search for the plugin called “Video Sidebar Widget”

Wordpress Video Widget3. The first results in the search is the plugin you need called – “Video Sidebar Widget”, click Install then Activate the plugin

4. Now to set up your widget, go to “Appearance”, then “Widgets” and you will see the installed widget, click on Add or drag it to the sidebar that you want to add the widget on.

YouTube Sidebar Widget

5. Next, find the YouTube video that you want to add and get the Video Id. This can be found in the URL of the actual video.

YouTube Video Widget

6. Now that you have this information, you can start to create your video sidebar widget.  Create a title, choose YouTube from the drop down, and put in the video ID. For the width and height, this will vary for different blogs, leave it blank to start, then you can adjust the size. You can choose to have text under the video as well as if you want to video to autostart when someone visits your site.

video sidebar widget7. After you fill out the details, click “Save Widget” and go look at your website. The image below is what my widget looks like to start. So, now I need to go back and edit the size and I would like to make the link under it “clickable”

video widget wordpress

8. Go back to the Widget area and click on “Edit” for the widget. The changes I made:

Width: 290   Height: 280

For the video caption box, I added code to make it clickable and centered: (use this code and replace the url and the title with your website)

<center><a href=”http://www.mygoldenrolodex.info”>My Golden Rolodex </a></center>

The image below is the end result!

Enjoy adding videos to your WordPress Sidebars!

Lorette :-)

 

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Points.com Review – Cash in on Your Points.

Nov22
2011 3 Comments Lorette Written by Lorette

This Tuesday we are not testing any new software, but I wanted to share a great site with you. Since we’ve been doing a ton of traveling lately, I was raking up a bunch of points but all of my points were in different systems that I had to login to different sites and I didn’t know how much I had in each one.

So, I found this site called Points.com and I LOVE it!

The best part is it is not only for Travel, but you can register your credit card points programs and even retail locations like Best Buy.

This is the blurb from their website….

Points.com makes it easy to Trade, Exchange, Buy, Give or Redeem your points, miles and rewards from many of the world’s leading programs. You can manage over 100 of the top loyalty programs, such as Aeroplan®, American Airlines AAdvantage®, American Express® Membership Rewards®, Airmiles, Delta SkyMiles®, Priority Club® Rewards, US Airways® Dividend Miles® and many more all from one convenient location.

Here is what you do to get started.

1. Register with the site, Click Here to register (opens in new window)

2. Enter in your information for the different points programs you have.  It will automatically pull in your points balances and keep them updated in your account.

They have tons of programs in their system from airlines, hotels, financial and retail.

Yo can see mine below, most are airlines and I have some Best Buy rewards:-)

3. After you have your points entered into the system, the next step is to decide what you want to do with them!  You can just keep collecting, or trade, swap or redeem them.

As soon as you login you will see on the bottom of the screen “Earn Opportunities”, this lists people that are willing to trade points based on the points that you have in your account.

Each trade has a fee associated with it (set by the loyalty program). But, if you are trying to get a plane ticket for example and need an extra 1,000 miles, just go to this site and trade miles from another program into the program that you need.


You can do a simple search to see all trade opportunities that are available, and even have the options to post your own trade for others to accept.

You can even  choose to switch between your own programs . For example, I can exchange my 300 Best Buy points for 143 American Airline miles. (not that exciting but just an example)

So, be sure to check out this site, Points.com,  it can come in handy when you need some points!

Have fun

P.S. I am traveling home from Australia to Orlando on points!

 

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WordPress Wednesdays –> Blog Directories

Nov02
2011 1 Comment Lorette Written by Lorette

It’s great having a blog and posting content to it, but it really doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have any traffic. This can especially be a challenge if you are new online and haven’t created a following yet.

One tip is to get your blog listed in blog directories. Why is this something that can help you?

There are a few reasons…

1- People that visit these blog directories are usually looking for something specific. So, if you have your blog listed and in the proper category, you will be sure to gain extra traffic and visibility!

2- Many of these blog directories are well established and credible, therefore if you are listed in their directory, you will now have more quality backlinks leading to your site, which helps with your organic traffic.

3 – Submitting to blog directories in combination with other traffic strategies that you are implementing will only make your results in the search engines even more powerful.

Some people may argue that directory submissions is not a way to get fast traffic, and I agree! You will not get a flood of traffic instantly, but you will get traffic over time and it is critical for your SEO strategy to have a variety of traffic strategies working together driving traffic to your site.

Here is a list (short list) of some of the top blog directories to list your site:

Although I provided a short list above on where you can submit your blog, I don’t recommend doing it yourself. This is a very tedious and time consuming project. I HIGHLY recommend outsourcing this project and not through the use of software, but outsourced to a human.

If you are looking for a great low cost service that can help you with this, just click on the Contact Us tab and we will connect you!

Enjoy!

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WordPress Wednesday –> Build A Site for 3 Bucks

Oct26
2011 1 Comment Lorette Written by Lorette

We recently did a Live webinar walking people through, in 5 easy steps, how to set up your first WordPress Website…for only $3!

If you missed it, check out the replay link below!

Build A Site For 3 Bucks

Description: In 60 minutes you will learn everything you need to set up your first WordPress website. Our training is easy to follow, we cover the entire process so that after the webinar we guarantee that you can set up a wordpress site by yourself!

(Ideal for newbies or anyone wanting to understand WordPress)

Webinar Replay: http://www.buildasitefor3bucks.com/webinar

Read what people are saying about this webinar….

  • “I love you guys. You are honest and sincere. I’d do business with you at the drop of a hat. You are valuable help in this marketing world. Give me more. I’m hooked.” – Vernial Batts
  • “You ladies are simply AWESOME! This webinar was very helpful.  It took me 2 weeks to hash through all the steps to create my website. You guys did it within 1 hour. I’m impressed. Thanks for being real!!” – Eartha Dingle
  • “Thanks girls you are great- woo hoo from australia!This 1 hour webinar clarified what I struggled in a weekend seminar. Do you have more courses?” – Nick Elflett
  • “Great webinar…easy to listen to and learn at the same time! Thanks Alicia and Lorette” – Arley Owens
  • “This was a great webinar I have been trying to figure it out for at least a year now. Thanks” – Aerica Karriem
Posted in Wordpress Tips - Tagged , , ,

WordPress Wednesdays –>Creating Custom Headers

Oct19
2011 2 Comments Lorette Written by Lorette

Have you found a great blog theme that you LOVE but you want to get a custom header created? Maybe the header is a plain color and you want to add your picture or some graphics to it?

The blog theme on this site (www.alicialyttle.com), for example is a free theme with a custom header.

Follow the quick, easy (and low cost – only $5) tips below to get a custom blog header created for your site.

1. Find a theme you like (do some searching in Google) – Type this into Google:

free (put what your are looking for) wordpress theme.

Example: free golf wordpress theme

Download and save the theme to your computer.

2. Go to www.fiverr.com

3. Type in “Blog Header” into the search box or “WordPress Header”

4. You will get a bunch of search results, click on “Rating” to sort your results by the best rated designers

5. Look through the results and pick the best one for the job! Here are two sellers that have great feedback…

6. Now depending on your theme, some themes have an area under “Appearance” in the left navigation of your WordPress site that says “Header Images” and you can upload your new header there. Some themes have specific areas within their theme settings where you can upload your header. Some other themes on the other hand may be a bit confusing, if you are unsure, just hire someone to do it for you (on www.fiverr.com of course)

Just type in “Install blog header” into the search box and find someone that can do this. Here is one that I found with great feedback.

The best part about using Fiverr for your header design, is that the cost is so low you can get a few made by different people and pick the one you like best!

Have fun!

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Posted in Wordpress Tips - Tagged , , , , , ,

WordPress Wednesdays –> Generating Content For Your Blog

Oct12
2011 1 Comment Lorette Written by Lorette

YES!! You finally have your blog up and running, great theme, great ideas, you’ve written a bunch of blog posts….but then you get writers block and can’t think of anything to write about.

Does this ever happen to you?

Well,  you are not alone. But, unfortunately, as they say “Conent is King”, so where do you get it from?

Here are my Top 4 Tips For Generating Content For Your Blog

1. Guest Bloggers

First of all, I am a guest blogger on THIS blog, so this example is one of my favorites. There are many people out there with great content that need a place to share it and get extra exposure. To find guest bloggers, simply send out an email to your list or post on Facebook that you are looking for a guest blogger on a specific topic and for them to send you some of their writing samples.

This is a win-win for both parties because it gives you extra content for your blog and it gives your guest blogger extra exposure. If the guest blogger has a website, you can allow them to refer back to their website at the end of each post.

2. Wiki-How Articles

To get some “How to Articles” to add to your blog, go to www.wikihow.com

In the search box on the top, enter in your key word. For this example, I used “flat tire” (which can be used if you have a blog about automotive repair, cars or something related)

When you click search, you will see a list of result of different articles. Pick the article that you like the best.

Once you choose the article, scroll all the way to the bottom and you will see a link that says “Embed into your blog”.

After you click the link, it will take you to a page with a bunch of HTML code, just paste that into your blog post in the HTML tab section.

When you post the article you can make any changes to it that you want, but you must keep the last line of the post giving credit to the wikihow website.

3. WP Robot

This is a plugin that can autopost to your blog. It depends on what your blog is about and what the focus is, but this plugin can autopost content based on keywords that you set.

You can set the autposting at whatever interval you want, by hour, by day etc. It can post content from Amazon, Yahoo answers, YouTube, Article Base, Flickr, Yahoo News, Twitter, PR Web, Yelp, Linkshare and more!

This is a great tool to automate your blog posting as well as brining extra traffic to your blog. We’ve personally used it to autopost Amazon, YouTube and Yahoo Answers.

To learn more about this plugin visit – www.wprobotplugin.com

4. Top News Sites

If you are looking for inspiration on blog topics, see whats happening in the news and write stories around those topics. For example, if you are in the Heath Niche and there is a new diet trend that is in the news, write a blog article about it.

Some places to check out for news stories:

I hope these tips help you keep your blog full of new, fresh content. Happy writing!

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