In this first of three webinars hosted by WebDesign.com, Chris Garrett talked about critical success factors you need to implement if you are trying to build traffic to your blog and gain an audience. Here are a some notes on a few of the insights he shared…

The first step when deciding to start, or transform, a blog,  is planning. This also happens to be the step that gets short-changed in the rush to get going. You have to know what your goals are with your blog. What is the outcome you want? Being crystal clear about that guides the rest of your decisions.

You make money by helping other people achieve THEIR goals.
To be a profitable blogger, you have to keep your attention on your audience – what do they want, what do they need, and what do they respond to? How can what you say or share help them achieve their goals?

Develop your own voice. “You are your secret sauce.”
Let people get to know you, but don’t make it all about you. Write the way you speak so that it has a more natural, engaging effect.

Think “long-term” when you attract an audience. People need to be with you awhile to trust you, so don’t go for the quick influx of visitors without having a plan for how to retain and convert them.

What should you talk about? Focus on the intersection between what YOU know and what THEY want.

Chris Garrett is all about “being awesome”, so his final words of wisdom were “Hang out in communities and be awesome.”

This is merely a snippet of the wisdom Chris shared.
The full webinar recording is available for members of WebDesign.com. If you are not a member, it just takes a minute to sign up and you’ll have instant access to over 130 hours of webinar, training, and conference recordings.

Parts 2 and 3 of the Chris Garrett series will be on the next two Wednesdays. They are free to attend, but you do need to reserve your seat.
(Webinar recordings will be made available in the members area.)

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Well, yes…and yes. And that’s the beauty of the folks behind WordPress development. The core contributors and the entire open source community are constantly making it better and better (such as with the last essential security update).

So…f you want a preview of what’s in store with WordPress 3.1 – a sneak look at all the cool new features, join the FREE Walkthrough Webinar on Friday, January 7th, 12noon Eastern time.

Related posts:

1. Are You Ready for WordPress 3.0?
2. Are you ready for WordPress 3.2?
3. Is your blog ready for 2010?

WordPress 3.2, scheduled for release in Spring 2011, will be the first WordPress release that drops PHP 4 support. The planned minimum supported version for the WordPress 3.2 release is PHP 5.2.

What does this mean for you?
If your server/hosting company is not running at least version 5.2 of PHP, things will go kaflooey (a technical term) when you attempt to install or upgrade to WordPress 3.2.

Our friends at iThemes to the rescue…again.

They have developed a quick and easy tool to help you discover whether the server your site is running on is ready for WordPress 3.2. It does this by looking at the information returned by your server. If your server doesn’t identify the PHP version being run, instructions for an alternate method will be provided.

Test your PHP version with the iThemes tool.

If you are using Hostgator, the hosting company I recommend, you are probably all set with the correct version of PHP, but it is still a good idea to check just to make sure.

Related posts:

1. Are You Ready for WordPress 3.0?
2. Are you ready for WordPress 3.1?
3. Live WordPress Training – by iThemes

Even so, not all videos go viral. Megan O’Neill at SocialTimes.com says there are 5 main reasons.

If you’re in business, one of the primary reasons for creating a viral video is for marketing purposes. You want to spread the word about your business. The first problem you run into, though, is sometimes the video is too much like a commercial.

OK, that’s a tricky one. If you’re using it for marketing purposes, then obviously it IS a commercial. But it doesn’t have to feel like a commercial. Take this example from Evian water. Obviously a commercial, yes? But does it feel like you are being sold something, or does it feel like you are being entertained and can’t wait to share the video with someone else?

A second problem viral videos run into is that they aren’t promoted “right.” In other words, they aren’t promoted effectively – or enough. Posting the video on your blog and telling your facebook friends about it probably isn’t going to be enough for the average small business owner or solo-entrepreneur. And, unless you are a big corporation, you probably don’t have the gigantic advertising budget to go along with the marketing campaign to market your marketing video.

For the little guy to make the video really go viral, you have to be prepared to do a lot of the legwork yourself. Obviously having an awesome and engaging video is key, but so is intentionally getting the word out.

To avoid making the other 3 mistakes that make videos fail when going viral, be sure to check out the whole story at Social Times.

Looking for some help on creating videos? Two of the best resources I can recommend are:

Rob Schultz’s Video Profits Program

Kim Doyal’s WordPress Video Marketing Program

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1. Did you know that on average a tweet is only retweeted 1.4 times?
2. New Twitter Features – Easier & More Exciting to Use! [video]

Well, what I mean is Twitter is rolling out some new features that make it a more effective way of connecting with people – learning about them as well as sharing more of yourself.

Features such as:

• an easy way to discover new content.
• the ability to view mini-profiles, so you can get to know someone’s profile at a glance, rather than having to click over to their profile (and away from what you are currently viewing).
• view photos, video, and other media content – right there on your own profile. Easy-peasy.
• and, of course, a fresh new design.

All of that is fun, of course, as well as savvy on the part of the Twitterverse leaders. By adding these new features, you are more likely to spend more time on your actual twitter profile – since it’s now more helpful – and perhaps less time on all the various third-party services you may be using.

Savvy concept.
And in terms of marketing wisdom, take a look at the video they are using to promote the new twitter. Fun, fresh, and definitely makes you want to take a look.

What could you learn from this for your own business marketing?

Thought about creating a video? Kim Doyal’s video marketing program and Rob Schult’s Video Profit Pipeline are both top notch.

Watch Twitter’s new video and share what ideas you get for your own business in the comments below!

What do you think?

If you want to create your own video, definitely check out Rob’s Video Marketing Pipeline and/or Kim’s Video Marketing Program.

Related posts:

1. Video Marketing – upcoming program you must check out
2. Did you know that on average a tweet is only retweeted 1.4 times?
3. What do physics and marketing have in common? [video]

But you know, how much twitter is helping your particular business may be a tad over-rated. I first read about this on Jeannette Paladino’s blog.

It turns out that for most of us mere mortals, our tweets are only retweeted 1.4 times on average. If you are using twitter to build your business, that’s not so inspiring.

Of course, social marketing is still in its infancy…plenty of changes still to come. It might be hard to think of a world without facebook. But it was hard to imagine a world without vinyl records at one time, as well. So things change.

So the question for you is “how much time and energy do you want to invest in social marketing – and how will you know it is working?”

The answer, of course, is it all depends. If you enjoy it, and it hasn’t become an addiction, and you’re getting a little traction, then it may be worth it.

If, on the other hand, you dread it, you don’t understand it, and you don’t seem to be getting any gain out of it, it might be worth taking a hiatus while you step back and reconsider your overall marketing strategy.

If you want some help examining your marketing strategy, and in particular how your website or blog fits into this, contact me and we’ll see what we can do together.

Related posts:

1. New Twitter Features – Easier & More Exciting to Use! [video]
2. Viral Videos – why they fail, and what to do about it

Conscious Business Tribe

Here’s the brief description from the Conscious Business Tribe website:

Has blogging lost its zing for you? Are you new to blogging and looking for a strong start on the mechanics and the mindset? Join us for a conversation on:

• What to write about to keep your readers coming back for more
• Where to find juicy topics your audience, and search engines, will love
• Creating headlines that hook your readers into engaging your content

Make blogging easy, natural and fun. You’ll not only look forward to blogging, but your blog will have an authentic flair that will serve your readers, build your list, and position you as an expert, etc.
Read about the Conscious Business Tribe to see if it’s for you.

Remember…if you don’t have a blog or site set up yet, I can make it a snap – often having you up and blogging within hours. I help business owners and leaders design and implement practical, effective search engine optimization strategies that fit your individual lifestyles…which means you have more time to be and do what you want.

You know…less worry. less hassle. more blogging.

Related posts:

1. 9 common blogging mistakes and how to avoid them.
2. Top 4 Reasons Businesses Should Be Blogging
3. Is the iThemes team really that nice?

What’s the big deal with being hacked?

It’s more than just an annoyance.

Among other things, a hacker can  insert spam links and keywords on your site that will be invisible to you, but major red flags for search engines. When Google finds a site with this content, they drop if from their search engines…along with any ranking you’ve built up.

This slideshow, from Brad Williams of WebDevStudios, is a top-notch training on what to look for (how to recognize if your site has been hacked), how to evaluate the “hackability” of your site, and how to fix any damage that gets done.
(You’ll probably want to click on the menu button – bottom left – and select “view full screen”.)

Let me know your thoughts. And, of course, let me know if you want help with any of this.   [superemotions file="icon_exclaim.gif" title="Exclaimaition Mark"]

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If you are, I’m right there with you. I use a little video here and there, but haven’t learned all the specifics.

Like you, I’ve heard how important it is to use video in my marketing – and on my blog – but honestly, most people still aren’t doing it.

Do you know why?

It’s because we don’t know how to do it….or, we think it must be really complicated…and mostly because we don’t know where to start.

I’ve seen probably 20 different people try to explain why video marketing is important and how to do it the “easy” way. Only none of the info was what I would call “easy”.

I’ve recently learned that it’s actually quite straightforward and doesn’t require thousands of dollars of equipment and software to get going. And wouldn’t you know it…I learned it from one of my own mentors!

Kim Doyal, one of my favorite WordPress experts (and not JUST because she featured my other site, PersonalGrowthPrincess.com as one of her highly recommended ones) is sharing some new information and secrets about video marketing.

In this video, Kim Doyal, aka The WordPress Chick, shares some staggering facts about
WHY you need to using video to drive traffic to your site and increase sales!

She’s also written a free report which explains why you don’t need to be Steven Spielberg
or spend tons of money to get started! (That’s my kind of plan.)

Check out the free video and report here:

Let me know what you think!

Don’t get left behind because you’re not using video.

Related posts:

1. New Twitter Features – Easier & More Exciting to Use! [video]
2. What do physics and marketing have in common? [video]

WordPress 3.0 is live and rarin’ to go!

If you’ve been a bit out of the loop, here’s a post I wrote about some of the cool new stuff coming in 3.0.

And of course you’ll want to be ready for it – so make sure you take a look at the tips I gave for preparing for the transition.  Specifically I recommended using a plugin that helps with the backup process, so you won’t lose any valuable info if things go a wee bit kaflooey.

You’ll probably want to take a look at the official release announcement for a thorough understanding.  There is a video from Matt Mullenweg giving a “State of the Word” address, so you can understand where this release fits into the history. You might think that would be too geeky, but truthfully it is really fascinating, particularly given this is all done via open source, with volunteers. Pretty impressive.

And if you’re impressed, and grateful, that you get to use such impressive and constantly improving software for free, consider a donation to the WordPress Foundation.

Here’s a video that demonstrates the newest features and functions of WordPress 3.0.
If you have any questions, please let me know.

Oh, and if you are using the themes I recommend, from iThemes, or any of their plugins, you are good to go for 3.0.  [superemotions file="icon_cool.gif" title="Cool"]

Here’s the video:

Let me know what you think!

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1. Are You Ready for WordPress 3.0?
2. Cool changes coming with WordPress 3.0