One tragic thing I keep seeing on the web is creators – people who make stuff, tangibles or intangibles – without their own home on the web.
They’re taking up space on Blogger, WordPress.com, Typepad, deviantArt and other places that give ‘em an illusion of having their own home.
Landlords may be nice and kind or rude, sneaky and evil. You never really know what kind that landlord is until you get on their bad side.
I’m not saying that those companies that offer free blogs and web sites and portfolios will turn on you, but do you really want your business at the mercy of the terms & conditions of some other company?
You need to own your own home on the internet.
- The investment isn’t all that bad ($10 for a domain name, $100/yr for decent hosting).
- It’s your brand and your name that’s up at the top instead of Blogger’s.
- It enhances your authority in the eyes of your potential customers and clients.
- It gives you something authentically you to put in the “your web site” area on those portfolio and networking sites.
- You have more flexibility to make the site look and work the way you want to.
- And you are the one who wields the power (barring the restrictions of the less-strict TOS’s of your new web host, but as long as you’re doing business honestly, you have nothing to worry about).
If you have a “home” on the internet that you don’t own, it’s time to reconsider. For your business’s sake.
If you need help deciding on how to go about getting your own home on the internet, please email me. I’m here for ya.
photo credit: vonSchnauzer
Wow, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?
Well, let me tell you that lots has been going on. New ideas, more work, shifting focus…
What does that mean for WPChick? Not much for now except maybe a renewed focus.
I added 2 more maintenance packages to the Packages page, and I’m working on making that page less cluttered.
And regarding the “Does my blog make me look fat” series… I started this with the intention of being informational with a bit of attitude (but not too much). Unfortunately the further I got into it, the more the tone became a little icky to me. It wasn’t “me” but some know-it-all that I thought I left behind when I was 10.
So I’m re-evaluating the series and may rework it, or I may just leave it behind completely.
Instead I think I want to focus on how to make WordPress, blogging and all sorts of other internet wizardry work for you – a small, heart-based business owner.
I apologize if I lost ya there for a while.
But I’m back now!
So, on to a new year and new stuff for WPChick!
It’s WordPress Essentials week at WordPress Guerilla. Over 50 posts on must-have plugins for WordPress. If you ever needed a bit of direction with the hundreds of thousands of plugins out there – this is definitey the series to follow!
Just wanted to let you all know that I’ve decided to add several packages for you to choose from. I figure it’s easier to to than just say “hire me…”
So if you look at the top right, you’ll see a new option, “Packages,” where you’ll find things like a kitchen sink and some security.
I have services ranging from just the basics to everything you need to get started blogging, to maintenance agreements so you don’t have to remember to update WordPress each time a new version gets released.
Yay. So go check ‘em out!
Well, it’s been a while, and I do apologize to everyone who’s following “Does My Blog Make Me Look Fat” (aka DMBMMLF). I stopped at lesson 3 and haven’t gone further.
The rest of the lessons are in the wings, but just not up here.
I’ve been a bit on a rollercoaster regarding my working life and unfortunately DMBMMLF has been a casualty. It’s not dead, just recovering.
I’m starting on a new path, involved with a group coaching program with Suzanne Evans, and I’ve let WPChick sort of languish. I need to pick it back up and keep going because I still believe in what I’m doing here. I have a few things up my sleeve with regards to DMBMMLF, a few products and services related to the series, which will be coming out soon.
The other thing that’s been taking my time and energy recently: I switched all my sites over to Fat Cow hosting because it’s what I’m encouraging clients to use. I figure I’d better put my sites there too. It was a painful process moving 15 sites, but it’s finally done! And I have a new idea for a blog post on moving your WP site from one host to another. Look for that soon, too!
One more thing:
If you have a business and can’t afford thousands of dollars for a business coach, here’s the next best thing.
Dave Navarro’s put together a great series of calls with business coaches such as Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz, Chris Garret, Mark Silver, Pam Slim, Brian Clark of Copyblogger and more.
Twelve excellent teachers in their own right talking with Dave Navarro the Launch Coach on various ways to help you in your business.
You can get the More Buyers Mastermind* for $97 until Friday. Then the price doubles. And 30 days from Friday it triples…
So you not only get 12 calls, but you get transcripts, workbooks and follow-up calls.
An hour with just one of these folks is way over $97, so I suggest you get in now. Lots of solid information you can go back to whenever you need it.
*(yes, this is an affiliate link)
So that’s it for now.
If you’re following the Does My Blog Make Me Look Fat? series, I’m running a little behind editing week 3. The flooding where I live has me a bit distracted lately.
It should be up later this week, and if you’ve subscribed to the blog’s feed or to get emails in a previous post, you’ll be notified.
Alrighty! Time to get on with week 2. I updated the post that used to be “Day 2″ with a couple of screen shots & a bit of clarification.
But first, did you do anything for week 1?
Did you run into any snags?
If you have, let me know in the comments & I’ll do a once-weekly Q & A Post along with the assignments.
So, without further ado… Week 2: Personality.
This is part of a series called “Does My Blog Make Me Look Fat?” – a now 10-week series on how to improve your blog doing small, relatively simple things that don’t take up all your time.
Since I switched this to be a weekly thing, I’m going to take the opportunity, as the first in the 10 week series, to go over what has been posted so far and what’s coming up next.
If you stared out with me and tried to keep up, take this opportunity to go back over the first four days at your convenience. This week I’ll be updating and revising the last few posts so you will get some new and clearer information.
So, Week 1 is Look & Feel. This is essentially how all the parts of your site work together to emphasize your site’s mission.
So this week, with your site’s mission in mind, re-read that post. read more…
Please upgrade your WordPress installation to 2.8.4 if you’re still hanging on to an older version.
There’s a particularly nasty worm that will do awful things to your WordPress sites. It will infect your site and use it as a launching pad to find more sites to infect. Google and other sites will label your site as dangerous, your traffic will decline and on top of that you’ll most likely lose months worth of posts just like Robert Scoble did.
So, as in past update-your-site-now posts, please back up your database (Tools > Export is the easiest way to do so – it’ll get all your pages & posts), disable all your plugins and run the update.
DO IT NOW.
I urge you.
Keeping WordPress updated is so much easier than recovering from being hacked.
If you need help, don’t hesitate to ask. I check Twitter often & you can always email me.
I’ve been getting some great feedback regarding this series and because of the sheer volume of information, I’ve decided to change it from posting daily to weekly.
This will give you more time to absorb the info and do the exercises without stressing out.
So there won’t be another post for a few days. I’ll start up again on Monday.
I’ll also be editing the first four posts based on some comments and questions I’ve received.
Thanks if you’ve made it this far, and I hope you’ll stick around for the rest!
