The WordPress Wizard

Facebook: Commenting Strategy vs. Dislike

By cathy · Comments (1)

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

The most recent post on the Facebook 'dislike' scam generated a lot of comments – most from people e-mailing me about ignoring stuff you don't like. "Do you mean that we should just ignore stuff we don't like"? Not at all. That is not what I was saying at all.

If you've followed me for awhile you know that I advocate commenting – particularly if you have a different point of view. That is a lot more than pressing a button that says 'dislike'. My Commenting Strategies e-course talks about commenting on other blogs as one… Read More→

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Use Google for Your WordPress Keyword Research

By cathy · Comments (1)

Saturday, August 14th, 2010

Google is getting ready to release a brand new keyword research tool. I hope you are already using Google for research but even if you aren't, watch for this one.

It's going to combine it's already good Keyword Tool with its Search-based Keyword Tool. So what's the difference? The keyword tool is advertised to be used primarily for AdWords but if you've been with me for awhile you know that I advocate using it for keyword research for your blog posts, articles and anything else you might write. The search-based keyword tool is based on actual Google search queries.

Combining these two tools will surely create the best keyword research tool ever. If you use a fee based search tool, you'll want to look at Google's new tool when it's released and probably consider getting rid of your fee based tool. Google says their new tool will "offer flexible search options, enabling users to search by any combination of keyword, website/URL, and category and receive a single set of results. Users will also be able to filter result by word or keyword match type, and even view statistics for mobile search and use data filter based on local search, as well as search and ad share."

Remember – the best keywords are the words you use that are directly related to what you are writing. BUT it never hurts to have a little help along the way.

I will let you know when this new tool is released AND what they decide to name it.

Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

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How to Attract Cappuccino Clients in a Medium Roast World

By cathy · Comments (3)

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Of the many problems we all face as solopreneurs or small business people is attracting and keeping the right people. Rosey Dow, The Prospect Profiler has written a guest post and I'd like to share it with you. Why? Because she has the solution – it works!

One of the biggest complaints I hear as a Prospect Profiler is, "I wish I could draw in contacts who can afford me. Everyone I talk to is down to their last dime." There are a couple of reasons for this phenomenon. Some of it is real and some of it is perceived.

I like to live in the real world, so let's begin with the perceived element.

Business coaches far and wide agree that how you see yourself has everything to do with the rates you charge. In conferences across the globe, mediocre trainers take the stage and ask 5 figures for their training–and get it–while excellent heartfelt professionals sit in the audience with an entire product line that's less than $1,000. Why is this?

The person on stage has loads of self-worth. The person on stage believes it and expects you to believe it, too. Do you offer something valuable that people truly need? Of course you do. So, start believing it and your prices will go up, too.

Back to reality.

The central reason we attract prospects who are skinny in the bank account is that we market to them. Would you love to draw in clients with cash? Think of a client (or even a prospective client) who has some financial success and pay attention.

*What makes them tick?

*What personality do they have–demanding or reserved, loud or refined?

*What's their relationship to their family?

*Do they have lots of close friends or are they socially aloof?

*What about hobbies and goals and dreams for a legacy?

I call this Prospect Profiling. It's digging into the personality and makeup of the people you love to work with, finding threads and correlations that take your marketing in a focused and clear direction. Your findings will give you the very words that will make you irresistible.

Is your prospect a hassled caregiver? Then talk about peace and rest.

Is your prospect involved in fighting for causes? Then talk about justice and security.

The more defined your prospects are, the stronger your message. Take a moment and think about your current clients who CAN afford you. Which one of them is that special someone you'd love to clone? Take a moment to jot down what you know about that unique individual and then go after more of the same.

Are you still fuzzy on who your prospects are?

Join us for a free training call giving 3 secrets for finding your Perfect Prospects.

Rosey Dow, The Prospect Profiler

A best-selling award-winning author with more than half a million books sold, Rosey is a marketing specialist and she is now known as The Prospect Profiler. What an FBI profiler does to find an unknown suspect, she does for her clients in nailing down their perfect prospects.

Do attend the call. It's free and I'll be there! But you must register to get the dial in details so do it now.

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An Annoying WordPress Feature

By cathy · Comments (3)

Friday, July 30th, 2010

Have you noticed that LONG list of post revisions in the post or page editor. If you haven't seen it, it's at the bottom.

While it can save your butt if you accidentally go away from the page before you save or publish, it's annoying and it bloats your database. When there are zillions of entries in the database it definitely affects page load time. Remember what I said in this post about Google and their new interest in page load time? Well, this can affect it BIG TIME.

So is there a solution. But of course – a great plugin called Disable Revisions. Go to your Add New Plugin page and put disable revisions in the search box. If you would like to save some revisions 'just in case' another good plugin is Revision Control by Dion Hulse. Put revision control in the search box at Add New Plugins. After you activate this plugin you'll be able to access the configuration page. Here you can set the number of revisions to keep. 1 or 2 is plenty!

Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

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WordPress 3.0.1 Released July 29

By cathy · Comments (1)

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Well, it only took WordPress 42 days to create and release a maintenance version. They do listen when people report problems and the release of 3.0.1 is proof.

Here's what the WordPress Development team has to say:

"After nearly 11 million downloads of WordPress 3.0 in just 42 days, we’re releasing WordPress 3.0.1. The requisite haiku:

Three dot oh dot one

Bug fixes to make you smile

Update your WordPress

This maintenance release addresses about 50 minor issues."

I just upgraded The WordPress Wizard (following the correct protocol) and there were no problems with it. What is the protocol, you ask?

1. Backup your database

2. Disable all plugins

3. Activate all plugins

4. That's it!

Blog On! Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

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Are Your Plugins Working in WordPress 3.0?

By cathy · Comments (1)

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

A follower wrote me to report that Flashfadr plugin does not work in WordPress 3.0. When I went to the plugin page to see what was going on I noticed that the plugin has not been updated since 2005. No wonder it doesn't work in WordPress 3.0.

Whenever you upgrade to a new WordPress version you must check your plugins. If one is not working, don't automatically blame WordPress. Well – you can blame WordPress if you want because it's their fault that they updated to give us more features, security, etc.

Always go to the plugin page (preferably in the Codex) to see when the plugin was last upgraded. If it's several years ago, that's your first hint that it might be the fault of the plugin author.

Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

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Bing Is Here – Is Your WordPress Site Ready?

By cathy · Comments (1)

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Bing (by Microsoft) has been around for awhile but they are ready to 'come out' in a big way. Shortly Yahoo will start serving Bing's organic search results. Good news for us!

While analysts are predicting that Bing will garner only about 30% of the search engine market, don't be lulled into thinking they are not important. According to Website Magazine, "data indicates that this percentage of users will be statistically closer to purchase than Google’s much larger share. That’s more than enough reason for e-commerce merchants not to ignore this significant change in the search landscape."

Bing's Webmaster Tools are really good. Set up is very easy. After you create your account, simply type your url into the space provided. It will ask you if you want to put a file in your hosting account or a line of code in your site. Whichever you choose, after you do it click on 'verify site' at Bing. They tell you it will take about 3 days before data starts appearing.

When you see data in your account you can generate a list of back-links (incoming links) This is great for your commenting strategy. You can also generate a list of outgoing links – see who all you link to and spiff up that strategy if needed.

The summary tool gives you the most recent crawling data and other info about your sites, and checks the domain score and page score and the estimated number of indexed pages.

The main thing you want to do is put up a sitemap. Apparently Bing will be paying much more attention to your sitemap than Google does. Since it's important for your sitemap to be up to date, it's a good idea to use a plugin to create (and update) your sitemap. A good sitemap plugin is Google XML Sitemaps - just put google xml sitemaps in the search box at Plugins -> Add New and install it. It's really easy to configure and is for all search engines – not just Google.

Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

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More WordPress Plugins – Here’s One I Really Like

By cathy · Comments (11)

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Just found another great WordPress plugin. Have you seen it on this post yet? It's the FaceBook Like Button. It lets your friends 'like' your post right from your blog!

Here is what it says about this plugin in the WordPress Repository:

The FBLikeButton Plugin for WordPress allows you to configure and display the FaceBook Like Button before and/or after each post and/or page, and whether or not you want the button to appear on your homepage.

The FaceBook Like Button enables users to make connections to your pages and share content back to their friends on Facebook with one click. Since the content is hosted by Facebook, the button can display personalized content whether or not the user has logged into your site. For logged-in Facebook users, the button is personalized to highlight friends who have also liked the page.

Get it by going to Plugins -> Add New in your WordPress Dashboard. Key this (without the quotes) into the search box – "fblikebutton". To make sure you have the right one, the plugin author is Dean Peters.

After you activate it you will find a configuration screen. I set mine up to 'like' before and after each post but NOT to appear on pages.

Try it on this post. Then look at your own FaceBook wall and you will see that you 'liked' this post. What does that do for you? It extends your FaceBook reach to friends of your friends! Enjoy!

Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard

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