2008 November | CarmelBaird.com

Archive for November 2008

Neat Way To Save Reference Stuff!

I just found a neat way to use Screen Steps and help myself out with information I wanted to keep for reference from ebooks.

I prefer to read offline and so will print out many ebooks or pages from ebooks that I want to use as reference later.

As Screen Steps are so quick to use, I have just taken the sections from an ebook that I wanted to keep as references, put them into SS and exported them as a PDF. Took so little time to do too.

I finished up with eight pages instead of forty-eight pages to print out and keep for referring to later.

If you do any tutorials and want the facts handy this is just the ticket.

I know you can go through and select pages and print just those, but mostly I only wanted sections of a page so this is ideal. I have also done a similar thing with Snagit, but this is so much quicker.

My printer ink and paper man is not going to like me very much, his takings will be down considerably but the trees will thank me, although I always use recycled paper but you never know, had to come from a tree once.

Posted in Tutorials

For Trying Times, May The Vibes Be With Us All!

The well laid plans of mice, men and Carm oft do go astray…..as the saying goes.

I had the first part of this week planned so well as the last part of this week will be taken up by the first cricket test for the Australian cricket season and I’m lucky to live in the city where the first test is played each year.

And so……the first ball of the first test is a special occasions for us cricket fans. For those of you who don’t know what cricket is, just Google it. That ball is bowled at 10am on Thursday November 20th 2008 at the wonderful Gabba in sunny Brisbane, well I’m hoping it will be sunny Brissy as it hasn’t shone much in the last few days. We have some folk here who received incredible damage to their homes after a very bad ‘storm’ on Sunday. My heart goes out to them, It is hard to imagine how I would feel in the same circumstances.

Now for my well laid plans, Monday was going to be a ‘cruisie’ day,my first task was to install a website I plan to put up for auction onto my reseller hosting account. Easy stuff…….NOT!

Not sure what happened but downloaded the latest WordPress version, uploaded it ready to install the new site and got all these errors, deleted it all and started again, same thing. I did the >turn computer off and on and start again, get rid of the cache etc, etc<, you know all those things but to no avail.

To cut a long story short, every attempt was similar. So gave it away for a while and went out shopping for my son’s birthday present, I had his wish list and after four shops telling me whatever I asked for would be in next week, I gave up on that too and came home.

Two tasks down and two tasks bombed.

I think the gremlins were after me or Darby O’Gill and his little people were at play. So spent the afternoon in the garden and left it all to yesterday.

Had a luncheon to go to and before I went, found another version of the WordPress I was trying to install, uploaded it, all fine, installed the site no problems. After the luncheon, went to another part of the Mall and first store got everything I wanted for my son’s birthday and all in less than a half hour.

So when the vibes are right, all’s well with Carm’s world as long as Darby O’Gill and his little people are playing somewhere else.

Now I’m off shopping again, food this time, hope the vibes are with me as I don’t want to go back food shopping tomorrow night after the cricket.

Love you and leave you, be back soon, take care

Carmel

PS May the vibes be with me! and you too!

Posted in Wordpress

IMTW A Podcast Not To Miss!

Well after most of yesterday redesigning one of my sites, an older HTML one that I built a few years ago, I didn’t get much else done.

This site has just bubbled along but I felt it was time for an update and adding WordPress or the other way round. This is going to be a work in progress for a little while yet, I didn’t realise how much I had added to the site over the time.

I intend to give the product a bit of a ‘cut back and polish’ too.

I have only just caught up with the Internet Marketing This Week podcast for this week, that’s #4 and well worth a listen.

In case you haven’t heard about it. Ed Dale and Paul Colligan started out a few weeks ago doing a podcast each week and then brought on board, Lynn Terry and Michelle MacPherson. I’m tipping this will be “the must not miss” event each week.

So go on over and check it out, there are several options for you to subscribe or you can listen right there on the site. Here is the URL
http://www.internetmarketingthisweek.com/

What I really do like about this is, I can download the podcast to my iPod and listen to it while I work, walk or do so many other things and I don’t have to be ‘watching’ at my computer.

So far they have all been really good value and I know with Ed involved there will always be great info and I’m betting you will hear the latest there first ‘coz Ed is just like that.

Okay I’m back to the designing and a few other things, like playing with this site too, this WP-Flex template has so many options, Leanne, the WPQueen has finished the ebook to help with all the options for the template.

Bye for now and take care

Cheers
Carmel

Posted in Internet Marketing

Screen Steps, Good Stuff!

I have just had some great fun creating a PDF tutorial with a new ‘toy’ I found.

It’s called Screen Steps and definitely not a ‘toy’, very powerful especially if you do any kind of tutorials.

You can find it at Screen Steps

You can turn screenshots into documentation that you can then export to PDF, HTML, Blogs, Wikis or ScreenSteps Live.

I can hear you say, Yeah! Right! I can do that now with Snagit or whatever. And yes you can but not as easily as this.

So far I’ve only exported using PDF and HTML.

With the PDF you are able to add clickable links and the HTML is all set for you to upload to your site or wherever you wish, complete with CSS file and images folder.

And…..they say it is for a PC and a MAC, so how good is that! I don’t have a MAC (yet) so I can’t check it out for you, so go do it yourself.

They have a free trial at the moment for 30 days but even if you want to purchase, they are not asking for your right arm plus three toes, it is a reasonable price. No, this is not an affiliate push, I don’t even know if they have an affiliate program.

Just thought you might like to trial it too and let me know what you think. I’m off to read the tutorial and watch the videos, who knows what I might be able to do once I do that.

Take care

Cheers

Carmel

Posted in Tutorials

Twitter Updates for 2008-11-12

Animoto http://is.gd/e4I Cool fun site MYO videos, I did this one for my daughter’s site, 30 secs are free http://is.gd/76q2 #
Browsing http://is.gd/78wb so many docs,some interesting stuff now going to sleep, nite all #
Morning all looks like it’s going to be a DL and UG day today so many at once ..some are large too #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Posted in Web Hosting

The Ultimate WordPress Package Plus A Great Plugin

I have had a really good day so far. There have been a few frustrations but that goes with what I’ve been doing, par for the course as they say everywhere except in the golf club.

I bought WPQueen’s WordPress Package and what a good buy it was. Hope you were able to get it at the lower price as this is the best value in anything I have bought or seen for WordPress.

The package is for Leanne’s book on all things WordPress as well as a great WordPress template. There is a WSO running at the moment.

I’ve been playing with the template, it is very versatile and from now on, no two sites will look alike unless I intend them to do so.

This site is the one I’ve been playing with, very basic playing, so once I get into the swing of it, no saying what I will achieve. There are a couple of areas that I want to tweak and haven’t found how….yet.

As far as the book goes that comes in the package, Leanne’s book is on another level altogether from what is out there for WordPress, much higher level that is.

It is more like a WordPress Encyclopedia, not the book you sit down to have a good read, it is the quintesential WordPress reference book. Actually it is six volumes plus Resources and ReadMeFirst. think of something you want to do with WordPress and check the contents and there it will be, how to do it in great detail.

I don’t think Leanne has left anything out, while I haven’t read it all, what I have read has covered the minute details that are usually missing from other tutorials and books.

Leanne had done a great job and certainly deserves the title WPQueen, she certainly is that.

Get yourself over to the Warrior Forum and see for yourself, you won’t be disappointed.

Now the other thing I have been doing is trying out a plugin. I can hear you, yeah! what’s the big deal?

Well, this plugin is for an autoresponder that is working like a treat. At the moment the free version only lets you send out once a day, there is a pro version that if this works as well as it seems to be, I will get.

The beauty of this is, it is right there, no going over to Aweber or GetResponse to set up messages, broadcasts etc. If you use WordPress for your niche marketing, how easy is it to have your list for that niche right there, accessible from your Dashboard. All neat and tidy.

If you use the sidebar Widgets with your WordPress blog, then what could be easier than adding the GWA Autoresponder to your sidebar with the optin code already there, no setting that up either. When someone opts into your list, they receive the email asking them to confirm and as soon as that is done, they receive the welcome email that you have set up,

You can also add the code to another site if you wish, it is right there waiting for you. As I am using the free plugin, there is a little ad that goes with the form, I think this doesn’t happen with the pro version.

If you are into flipping niche type websites, what could be better as a selling point than to have an ecourse all set up with the buyer not having to pay out extra to get an autoresponder and learn how to operate it.
The link for the GWA autoresponder plugin is on my WordPress Plugins page here

So there you go, I am having a good day and so can you. Nothing like good resources and tools to work with to make the job so much easier.

BTW I just checked the WSO that Leanne is running, she was only selling 50 Packages of the WordPress book and the Template and looks like they are all sold. But…….

You are in luck as individually she is only selling 50 of each too and she still has them to purchase individually and the price of the two combined is well worth it.

So hop on over and take a look, this is not an affiliate push, I’m not an affiliate, I don’t think Leanne has opened up an affiliate program. It’s just such a good product and you get all the updates as WordPress grows and all for free too…….Bargain.
Take care

Cheers

Carmel

Posted in Wordpress

Ping Without Being Pinged!

Ping services allow you to automatically notify blog directories and search engines that your blog has been updated. The bigger your ping list the higher the chances of receiving traffic from those sources, so check out the list below and include it on your blog (WordPress users can modify their ping list on the Control Panel, then Options, then Writing).

There is a list of Ping Services here. Just click right here to copy the list

If you have a WordPress blog, you can add this list to the backend of your WordPress site.

On your dashboard, click on Settings and then Writing, scroll down and you will see the section to add this list. There will probably be Pingomatic.com there already, just copy this list and paste into that section, Pingomatic is included in the list, and don’t forget to hit the Update button. Then each time you post to your blog, these sites will be notified.

I’m not sure how well this works anymore, blog and ping seems to have been pushed aside by other things like RSS etc, but you never know and getting traffic is not just reserved to the latest thing. RSS has been around for quite some time but is very much in vogue right now and Ping has taken a back seat. There are very successful marketers who still swear by the pinging technique.

So, to save yourself getting accused of spamming, this could easily happen if you go back and edit your post a couple of times very soon after publishing, there is a plugin called MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer:

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer is included in My WordPress Plugins or your can download it here. The download link is at the bottom of the page.

After you install MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer…..

» When you create a new post, your blog will ping and notify all the ping services that it has been updated. This encourages search engines and different blog directories/services to index your updated blog properly.

» When you edit an existing post, it won’t send any unnecessary ping to ping services and saves your blog from getting banned by such services.

» When you post a future post by editing the time stamp, it will ping only when your post appears in future. It won’t unnecessarily ping many times when you schedule posts as WordPress does by default.

So there you go, blog and ping to your heart’s content without having to go to the ping sites, even if it gets you only a few extra visitors, it didn’t take time from your busy schedule.

Cheers
Catch you later
Carmel

Posted in Wordpress

WordPress Google Analytics Plugin

I’ve added a new WordPress plugin to my Stash you can see this new one and all the others here

This one is

Google Analytics Plugin

I’ve only just installed it so can’t say yet how it is. The person who recommended it to me, was using Google Analytics by adding the code to the WordPress theme footer like I had been doing too. They changed themes and later noticed there were no stats coming through to GA. Let it go for a few days and still nothing.

Did a few checks and you guessed it, no code for Google Analytics. Lesson, change themes, add codes.

So having done that a few times myself, changing themes and not added the codes, I was pleased to be pointed in the direction of this plugin.

Now I’ve told you too, so there will be no excuse if you do the same thing and wonder later where your stats have gone……they will be out in cyberstats land wandering around looking very out of place.

So now you know

Catch you later

Carmel

Posted in Wordpress

The Latest Buzz And A Little Bit More!

How the Internet has grown and matured over the past however many years!

You only need to look at the US elections for the President Elect and here in Australia our last election at the end of 2007 to see how the World Wide Web has been accepted. When the leader of a country has his own Blog, when politicians are tweeting then, Hey! WWW is powerful stuff!

One of the latest in Internet Marketing to go after is the, what I have always called, the ‘dirt world’ or the bricks and mortar businesses.

I had my own ‘dirt world’ business for 15 years until I needed to retire and sold it. Sad day but all good things must come to an end, so they say. It was time for me to retire.

Towards the latter part of those 15 years, the Internet was just getting going. I had been through the, wait for it, Fax stage. Yes! to have a Fax number was the be all and end all of being in business. A fax number and the good old automatic credit/debit card processor, you know that little machine that has become a way of life.

Well I had the fax and the credit/debit card auto processor but I didn’t have the www.mybusiness.com. And…..my business was one of those that could benefit from the www.

So, one day along came the ‘salesman’ to get me that presence with my very own www. They would build me the website, just how I wanted it and get me all set up so in no time I would have all this new business.

Well, the website looked nothing like what I had detailed how I wanted it. From the color scheme to the layout, there was no comparison with what I had asked for. So back they went to fix.

Well after three times, I cancelled the order and with the help of my son, (he was about 15 years old and very into computers, he now codes and designs computer games) set about to built the site myself. Well we did it and it looked pretty good. But then I thought I need to get people to see my site so they can order my products, so how do you do that?

And so began my affair with Internet Marketing.

If someone has walked into my store then, to show me what Internet Marketing people can show today, I would have jumped at the chance to implement what they advised.

Today all small to medium business in the offline world are being told, they need a Web presence. Many of them already have a website but apart from adding the address to their business cards, they have no idea what else to do.

That’s where those who know how to Internet Market, come in.

If you are one of the online people who know how you can help these offline businesses not only have a Web presence, you can make that Web presence profitable for them, then you have a new market but….. you will need to learn how to market to these offline people.

You are going to find that there will be a lot of information coming at you about this offline market. This along with the new ‘email’ called Twitter and the new word for group/groups which is Tribe/Tribes and add a little continuity and blueprints for anything and you will be right in the new “Marketing Zone”

Twitter—> Utter Succession of Tremulous Sounds
Tribe—> Subdivision of Race of People
Continuity—-> A Logical Sequence
Blue Print—-> Original Plan

And……my term that can be used with TTCB or whatever TTCB becomes in the future.

Marketing Zone—> Offering a Region/Area with Particular Characteristics or Uses

So my wish for you “May You Always Stay In The Zone”

Look out for my next post, I’ll help you with how to get on side with the offline business owner, from a voice with experience.

Cheers
Carmel

Posted in Internet Marketing

A WordPress Installer Puzzle

Most of my WordPress sites are hosted with Hostgator, either on my Baby Croc account or my reseller account. There are a few others that are with another hosting account I have.

Now, I have a problem and I’m not sure if there is anything I can do about it.

I have sold and transferred to the buyers, several WordPress sites and all without a hitch. All these sites have been on one of my hosting accounts.

All these sites I built especially to sell, they were all turnkey sites.

Now, as I’ve been able to do that successfully, why is it that when I try to transfer a site that I built with the PLRPro WordPress Installer when I was doing the PLRPro 90 Day Challenge,( that was some time back), to my Hostgator account, the transfer goes ‘A over T’. The site is there, the database is there but neither one recognises the other. Have no idea why, everything I have tried to correct hasn’t worked.

One of the main reasons I like Hostgator is, they have all the permissions enabled, no need to CHMOD any of the files. If you have the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin active, then the updating is so easy, with my other host, I have always encountered problems.

But all that doesn’t get me an answer to why I can’t transfer any of these sites I set up with the PLRPro WordPress Installer to my Hostgator account.

Another mystery of the Internet I guess.

Posted in Wordpress