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I’ve entered the big contest from www.fresheventure.com - Official Best WordPress Design 2009 Contest!
Whoohoo!
Domain Name (You are creating or maintaining your Personal Brand.)
Protect yourself with Register.com Private Domain Registration service - Only $10.00yr
Business Name
Tagline
Slogan (usually used for a single marketing campaign)
Custom Header/Graphic or Logo
HomeBusiness.About.com - Business Names
Psychotactics.com
Copyblogger.com - Creat a Tagline
Hosting
WordPress centered hosting provider
.htaccess allowed
WordPress.org - Using Permalinks
meets minimum WordPress specifications
WordPress.org - Minimum Hosting Requirements
FTP
Filezilla or other FTP Client
Filezilla-Project.org
Text Editor
Notepad++
Theme
dailyblogtips.com - 10+1 Tips for Choosing a WordPress Theme
lorelle - How Do You Choose a WordPress Theme?
wordpress.org - Themes Directory
problogdesign.com - 40 Free Premium Quality WordPress Themes
Favicon
thefavicongallery.com - What is a Favicon.
goodandcrazypeople - What is a Favicon and How Can I Get One?
404 page
ooyes.net - 50 Creative and Inspiring 404 Pages
no encrypted links/sponsors in footer
themebot.com - How To Remove Encrypted Footer Links in Free WordPress Themes
widgetized sidebar
wordpressmax.com - WordPress Widgets 2.7
Information you need to collect for basic installation:
Contact information
About Me/Bio Information
sprawsm.com - Nailing Your About Page
ProBlogger.net - How To Write Your About Me Page
rsspieces.com - How To Write a Killer Real Estate About Page
smashingmagazine.com - Best Practices for Effective Design of About Us Pages
Home Page content/Blog Content
netmechanic.com - Beginners Guide
5 Categories relevant to your pages and posts
pearsonified.com - What Every Blogger Needs to Know About Categories
API Key for Akismet Spam Protection
WordPress.com - API Keys
The biggest challenge facing the small business owner is that the more business you do, the more administrative tasks you have.
Often, it plays out like this; you can’t keep up with the administrative tasks and still work, so you let the paperwork slide, marketing takes a backseat, or you don’t collect receivables - now you’re not making any money and your business is grinding to a halt.
Now you’re working nights just to catch up with the mind-numbing amount of paperwork stacked everywhere and beginning to resent your customers. You can’t afford to hire someone or take the time to train them or worse yet - baby-sit them to make sure they get the job done.
Virtual Assistants (VAs) are a perfect way to outsource your administrative tasks, marketing, and content management needs. About the only thing a virtual assistant can’t do is stir your coffee for you. With online calendars, fax services, and web based instant messengers you don’t even need someone living in the same city.
A VA may specialize in a specific industry or specific tasks. Just like any employee, you need to be concise and clearly communicate your needs to avoid Karri putting your head in a vice.
You also don’t have to make a big commitment when hiring a VA. Many VAs work on either a fee-per-project or an hourly basis. Even those requiring a retainer may allow for as little as five hours per month.
It may be tempting to hire someone from another country who may work for $5.00 an hour, or less. But again, there is the language barrier and will they perform up to the standards you require. A VA is not an employee - they do not have to do what you say. They are independent business owners just like you and more often than not - highly skilled and trained professionals.
Check out the VA before you hire them. VAs know they need to have impeccable references and may even need to work on a trial basis for you before they prove themselves. But it works both ways - you will need to prove that you can and will pay on time, and provide the information needed to complete the job (remember the messy torture devices - don’t make us use them).
Using the Pareto principle, 80% of your time should be spent in generating revenue. If like most small business owners you spend 40%-60% of your time on administrative tasks, do the math. You are losing money by paying yourself to do something a $25-$65 per hour VA could do in half the time with possibly better results.
A good virtual assistant is worth their weight in gold!
RESOURCES:
Inc. Technology - Why You Need to Hire a Virtual Assistant
Realty Times - Hire a Virtual Assistant
The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce - How to Hire a Virtual Assistant
VirtualAssistantsGuide.com - Hiring a Virtual Assistant - Do You Need One?
I’ve really enjoyed snooping around c.bavota’s site bavotasan.com. This is definitely a site for a thinking girl. It’s loaded with tips, tutorials, and downloads. Okay, I’ll admit - they’re for us geeky, tech-loving squints. But, admit it - we all really wish we we could trump these digit-crushers with a little hard-coded charm. An old-fashioned, arm wrestling, cigar smoking, my code is better than your code throw down. This site is smart!
I love his just released free WordPress theme Snowblind 1.0. It is sleek, well designed, and just begging for some cool css customization.
Here is a list of features:
- SEO Keywords & Description
- Custom CSS option page
- Translation ready
- Multiple sidebar options
- Widgetized footer bar
- Twitter feed widget
- Logo uploader
- Site width options
- Google Analytics
- Thumbnail generator (optional)
- PNG fix for IE6
- And More!
Free WordPress Theme Snowblind 1.0
The best part! And I quote, “This theme is 100% xHTML and CSS validated according to W3C standards, tested in Firefox 3.0, IE7 and IE8 and the works best with WordPress 2.7.x and 2.8.x installs.” I’ve been run off by free themes that don’t validate.
enjoy this killer new theme,
I am an artist. A paint on paper, pen scratching the surface of the deep white tooth of something real and needy artist. Although I have the software to play around and go digital, and am awe struck at the imagery that bursts from my monitor, I find myself holding onto old fabric scraps, bits of tatted lace, and a portfolio of abstract watercolors.
I love the immediate solution that the thousands of free WordPress themes give those of us reaching out with social media and mobile connectivity.
Authors, artists, handmade fanatics, and old-fashioned divas like me can enjoy creating websites that share our spirits, beauty, and passions. Without having to pay a developer a fortune and spending months waiting for a site that might now work.
These are a few of my favorite themes. (Including those that are highly customizable with theme options and those that use child themes.)
Art Color
Description: Art Color is the colorfuly artsy wordpress theme for your blog. With great color combos and backgrounds, this will surely boost up the appeal of your theme.
Atahualpa
Description: Version 3.3.3 - Build your own unique, professional and browser-safe WordPress theme: Over 200 theme options, drop down menus for pages and categories, fluid or fixed width layout, 1, 2 or 3 columns, rotating header images, auto image resizing, integrated Feedburner form, 6 extra widgets and more. WP 2.2-2.7 and WPMU. Over 20 language files and support at the BFA WP Forum
Children and Toys
Description: This theme is designed and coded by EZwpthemes.
Crafty Cart
Description: A Retro Shop Theme designed for the WP e-Commerce Plugin
Cutline
Description: A squeaky clean, feature-rich theme for WordPress designed and coded by Chris Pearson and Franky. With updates by David Peralty and Sophia Lucero. Cutline is managed by Splashpress Media.
Grunge Abstract
Description: Grunge Abstract
Intaglio
Description: Intaglio theme by Fly Themes.
PinkLove
Description: Widget Supported xhtml complaint template sponsored by Romow Online Advertising and Web Directory
Torn Paper
Description: 3 columns wordpress theme with torn paper
Treasure
Description: SEO optimized, 2-column, widget-ready theme created for Wordpress
Vigilance
Description: A lean and clean Wordpress theme featuring standards and search friendly code. Theme Options Menu allows for serious customization. Designed and coded by Jestro.
Vigilance PRO *Child Theme*
Description: Custom child theme for Vigilance PRO Members. Make all your custom changes in the themes/myvigilance folder.
Web Hosting Checklist for Moms: This Decision Can Make or Break your Business
If you’re a work at home mom like me, you may also have struggled with finding reliable web hosting. Well, over the years (and many headaches later), I’ve come up with a checklist of essentials that your web host must have before you even consider working with them.
1. Excellent Reliability.
There is nothing more frustrating than finding out your website is down, and has been for hours. Although no time is a good time to have your site down, the timing can be just terrible. That sinking feeling when you’ve purchased advertising and you know the ad is about to be sent out and
you go to your website for last minute touches and … it’s down.
That is not cool. That is not acceptable. You must make sure that the web host you select not only has good reliability, but superior reliability. This is your business on the line, not some hobby site. Treat it as such and get hosting that works for you when you need it. But, you can’t just trust a website that says they are reliable. Make sure they can prove it.
2. Superior Customer Support.
When you do need help, make sure that your hosting will provide it. One thing I recommend is to contact support to ask a simple question about the hosting, before buying. That will give you an idea of what the customer service is like before you make a commitment. Yes, customer service has a difficult job – making sure they do not confuse less-experienced customers, yet, at the same time, also making sure not
to talk down to the geek types. However, you should never feel like you are a “bother” or that your question is not as important as anyone else’s.. or worse, dumb. You should find a web host with superior customer support.
3. The Stats You Need.
Several of the most popular hosts do not offer the web stats that every online business needs. You may not think that you need stats, but, how else are you going to know what is working – and what is not? You need stats that tell you where your visitors are coming from, how long they are staying, and which pages they are coming in and going from. Does your web host offer that? If they have a CPanel as their control panel, they do. Find a web host that uses a standard CPanel.
4. Affordable.
Why spend more if you don’t have to? When looking for a web host, price is always a factor. So, shop around and make sure that the web host you decide upon offers a great price.
5. Room to Grow.
The web host you choose should offer unlimited hosting. This means, that, if you add more websites to your package down the road, the price does not increase drastically for each one. Many online businesses start with one site and grow over time. Can your host grow with you?
6. Bandwidth and Disk Space.
Also, make sure that the host you choose is in the ballpark for bandwidth and disk space. Most programs offer approximately the same amount, but, especially if you plan to add a lot of audio or video, be sure to look into this, as well.
7. A History of Happy Customers.
New hosting companies are popping up daily. Some are being run by a couple of teenagers in their garage. Obviously, that’s not who I want to entrust my business to. Do you? I want to know that the company I’m choosing has been around a few years, and has a history of happy customers to show for it. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, and you shouldn’t either.
Those are the key features that any web host should offer before you consider doing business with them. Choosing a web host can be more important than any other decision you make in your online business – if you choose wrong. So, take the time and find a web host that will work with you, and help you to succeed.
Nicole Dean is co-owner of Mom Webs Hosting - www.MomWebs.com where you’ll find the host that offers everything a work at home mom needs – reliability, unlimited hosting, and customer service that never makes you feel intimidated — all at a price you can afford.
