Ok…so you have to let me know what you think of that headline! As I took the 7 links challenge post that was on ProBlogger earlier this week I realized I really need to start paying more attention to my headlines! I have to be totally honest here…studying copy isn’t really something that I ever think to just DO…well, I think it’s come to the point where I have to do it. Mainly because I want to keep growing as a blogger and moving my business to the next level. Anywho…

When I saw the preview of this new plugin- I KNEW I was going to get it and give it a go! It’s called PopUp Domination. It was created by Michael Dunlop (I wrote about him in my first post on blogs I read and recommend). I’ll give you a few points about the plugin in the post- but think a video is the best way to demonstrate how much this plugin kicks arse! I’ve played around with other pop-ups (footer & regular)- and while some people don’t necessarily like them- the bottom line is they increase opt-ins! What’s SUPER cool about this plugin though is that you can set when and how often it actually pop’s up! So my regular readers won’t get hit with the popup every time they visit the site! WOO HOO!

Ok…enough of that. Here’s the video! And yes….I am an affiliate of this plugin- but hopefully by now you realize I promote things I use and trust! Let me know if you have any questions or feel free to share you success with pop-ups!

I love it when an idea for a post just shows up…without much effort on my part! This was one of those occasions. I subscribe to Problogger’s feed and have it on my iGoogle homepage (because I’m THAT impatient…don’t want to wait until tomorrow to get the good stuff… ) and here’s the post title from Darren today: “Take the 7 link Challenge Today #7 Links“. I was pretty pleased to see a great idea for a post that I could pull together with some thought and a little reminiscing! So….that being said- here’s my 7 Links post!

1) Your First Post: Yowza….I think this may be a bit embarassing- I enjoyed a good chuckle when re-reading it. Needless to say I haven’t revisited the podcast challenge (dove into video first)- but now am inspired to do so! But I did get the iPhone! Here’s the post:
http://thewordpresschick.com/podcast-challenge/

2) A Post you Enjoyed Writing: I was like a kid at Christmas with this one! When I saw the subject line of this link post I knew instantly which post it was…it was my post and first video on StudioPress Genesis! I was ridiculously excited when Genesis came out! Here’s the post:
http://thewordpresschick.com/video-studiopress-genesisall-wow/

3) A Post which had a great discussion: Hmm..this was a little more tricky- because the StudioPress Genesis had some great comments, but the one that was a little more heated was the post about John Reese’s Outsource Force. You can check that post out here:
http://thewordpresschick.com/cents-john-reeses-outsource-forceunpopular-opinion/

4) A Post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written: This wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be- mainly because there are too many to choose from! But this one was timely (as in today)- and something I think ANYONE who is building an online business needs to read! Here’s the link:
http://www.thelaunchcoach.com/you-only-get-paid-what-you-think-youre-worth

5) Your most helpful Post: This by far has received the most traffic – especially with my tutorials! This post is what made me shift towards doing more StudioPress tutorials! You can check it out here:
http://thewordpresschick.com/inserting-thumbnail-images-video/

6) A Post with a title that you are proud of: This was a little harder than I initially thought it would be- and a HUGE wake-up call that I need to think a little harder about writing better post titles (just hard because studying copy writing isn’t something I’m terribly thrilled to do- but know it’s super important!). Here’s the post:
http://thewordpresschick.com/hitting-proverbial-blog-wall/

7) A Post that you wish more people had read: I knew right away which one I would choose for this! I decided to read this after getting an email from someone whose list I’m on. First off let me say that I think there’s PLENTY of room for everyone to succeed online- regardless of your niche. If you have the drive, desire and are consistent, you can definitely succeed (some niche’s may take longer than others- but if you’re passionate, work hard and come from a place of integrity- you can build a successful business!). But it totally bugs me when people hop from one thing to the next- saying they can teach you x,y or z when they’re not doing it themselves! Don’t get me wrong- you have to start somewhere- but claiming to teach people about blogging when you RARELY post on your own site is pretty lame.
Ok…enough ranting. Here’s the post:
http://thewordpresschick.com/blog-criteria-subscribe/

What about you? Up for the 7 Link Challenge? This was enlightening & fun to say the least!

This has become my latest obsession! I am having an absolute ball with video, optimizing it, creating it, etc! The trick with video is that it’s kind of like opening Pandora’s box….once you dive into it, all of the sudden you realize how deep of a plunge you’ve taken (not sure where all these water metaphor’s are coming from…..summer I guess!).

You start looking at one player or plugin, which leads to another tool/resource and before you know it half the day is gone! Kind of like reading a REALLY great book….one you can’t put down and before you know it it’s 1am in the morning (or in my case I’ve been floating in the pool for a couple hours and am now fried…only on the front! Someone needs to invent a raft to float on your stomach so you can read  comfortably!).

Here’s the deal though….you do NOT have to know what you’re doing to get started with video!!! That may sound lame..but really- how on earth do you expect to learn if you don’t start? My 9 year old son has been a perfect example for me. He’s a total Lego nut and watches Lego videos on YouTube ALL the time! So what does he do? He makes his OWN Lego videos! Showing people how to create things! And he doesn’t think twice about what people will think- he just DOES it! He even records video games on the television and puts them on his YouTube Channel! (he’s not the only one to do this…who knew?).

Take WordPress for example. How many WordPress video tutorials do you think are out on the web? …The answer? I have no idea! I’ve never bothered to look (not that I haven’t searched for things I need to learn…afterall- YouTube is the second largest search engine to Google! I just go straight there if I’m looking for a tutorial). I just started with things that I received questions about or had to figure out the hard way on my own. Some videos get WAY more views than others, but that’s ok. With each video I get new stats & insights (YouTube stats) as to what my readers want.

All that being said….I’ve put together a video and new report called ‘WordPress Video Marketing Exposed!‘ (it’s free btw). You can check out the video and report here. After you’ve read the report I’d REALLY appreciate any feedback or suggestions!

I have to say…the response to this idea has been great! I know…that may seem a bit obvious considering the reader will get their site recognized as well as a link back..but regardless of any of that, I’m happy with the responses!

The first site and reader to highlight is the “Personal Growth Princess” by Nina East . “Personal Growth Princess” is a membership /subscription site that provides self-help book summaries for smart, sassy women!

Who this site is for: It is ideal for women who love personal development /self-improvement, but don’t have the time to focus on it as much as they want….and it’s likely they have a pile of self-help books stacked up beside the bed just waiting to be read.

Every month members receive a new 6-10 page summary of a leading book on personal development – many times the books are brand new, fresh off the press. Members also receive in-depth author interviews (transcripts plus audio), plus bonus tools designed to give a quick shot of insight or inspiration…bite-sized to fit into your busy schedule.

The site has been live since March (although there are older posts because she migrated them from another personal development site she had).

Obviously Nina’s site is built on WordPress! Here are some of the plugins she uses on her site:

• Wishlist Member
• Broken link checker (according to Nina this is a life saver!)
• EmbedIt (allows the use of audio acrobat player on the site without causing problems)
• Redirection by John Godley
• Subscribe Remind
• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
• Server Buddy
• Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam

Here are some of the other tools Nina uses in her business:

• 1Shopping Cart (her personal link is personalgrowthcart.com….pretty fun, huh?)
• Inscape Assessments
• PhotoShop Elements
• Roboform
• Web Design University

So, if personal development is up your alley- take a minute to check out Nina’s site! Even if it’s NOT up your alley, it only takes a minute to stop by the site, look at how she’s set things up and leave her a comment! If you’re NOT someone who comments often on other blogs, don’t be surprised when you don’t get comments on your own site. Comments are an extremely valuable part of driving new visitors to your site and engaging with your community! (the blog community in general).

So…as this is the first reader spotlight – I’d love to know what you think! Is there more information you’re looking for? Did I leave something out? Also- if you haven’t thought about submitting your site for this- hopefully this gives you a good idea as to what you should send in. Click the link below to submit your site:

The WordPress Chick Reader Spotlight

Time for some more free social media icons! I really am a geek about the little things…what can I say? I got the idea for these icons from a subscriber, Mirna Bard. She sent me a message that she loved my coffee cup icons, but that she’s a tea drinker, so she told people they were green tea. SO….I figured, why not do a set of tea cup icons?

This is a great example of people reaching out. Mirna was great about letting people know where she got the icons from (she referred them to my site)- so this was a fun way to say thanks for the kudos!

Just click on the link below the screenshot to download the icon set.

So I just got back from vacation last weekend- a week in Cabo San Lucas with my girlfriends. These are  friends I’ve had for over 25 years (which is crazy because part of me still feels like I’m 25 years old!)- one I’ve known since kindergarten. We’ve taken girls weekends almost every year since college- but decided to go for the week since we’re all turning 40 this year (and PROUD of it! ).

I was SUPER nervous about unplugging for the week- but it was WELL worth it. I actually hadn’t bothered to enable my iPhone before I left (you had to call to enable the ‘Mexico’ plan….which I found out when my friend had her husband enable her phone)- so I couldn’t even get my email (came home to over 800 emails). And I survived…..and more importantly, so did my business!

In trying to get back into the swing of things here and get back to posting, writing, creating, etc. – I decided to go back to my week in Cabo with my friends and see what I could pull from my ‘week off’. The FIRST thing that jumped out at me was a conversation I had with one of my friends while enjoying a margarita in the pool (this is what we did pretty much every day).

She has a really good job with a major US corporation (no details as it’s hardly my place to share this publicly without asking….nor would I want anyone in her company to come across this randomly)- she makes over six figures and is able to work from home a couple days a week. She also has a 6 & 3 yr. old at home. She works a TON….and while she is one of the most in control/even keel people I know- she is constantly worn out by her job. While we were chatting I asked her “But you at least LIKE your job, right?”  Her reply? “Um…yeah, no, not really”. She said she liked the people she works with and the company – but doesn’t enjoy what she does.

HUGE wake up call for me!

It’s easy when you work for yourself to paint a picture of “maybe a job would be easier”……”at least I’d have more security”…. I’m not ashamed to say these thoughts have lingered with me since I’ve started this business. My conversation with my friend changed all that. When I thought about the fact that we’ve got another 25 years of work ahead of us (although I don’t see ever really needing to retire from this….it’s too fun and is constantly changing)- it made me a little sad for her and GRATEFUL that I took the risk to do what I’m doing! Not to mention the only person I need permission from to take time off is myself.

My business has grown month after month…. consistently! I know that as I continue stepping outside of my comfort zone, taking more risks and simply putting myself out there- the rewards will continue to come (and I don’t just mean financially). I’ve got a couple of projects I’m working on that were scary to start….but I’m in the thick of them both and could not be more thrilled! Will they be a huge success?… TOTALLY! Regardless of the income they bring in….knowing I followed through and did it was half the battle!

This experience (that and driving into San Francisco to catch my flight reminded me that I don’t have to commute anymore and that ALONE is a ‘sane making event’) has taught me that stepping back once in a while, getting outside of this space (online marketing) is VITALLY important!

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change” ,Wayne Dyer.

The Genesis theme framework has been out for a while now (over 5 months now) and I’ve been working it with it ever since. As soon as Genesis came out and I saw the power of this framework,  I immediately started using it with StudioPress child themes for client sites. The simple fact that I could upgrade Genesis without having to re-do all the visual changes to the theme (because the child theme is where all the visual work is done) made me ecstatic! (As soon as the magazine theme comes out as a child theme I’ll be switching this over to Genesis as well!).

I haven’t worked with EVERY child theme, but I’m working my way through them and have worked with or tested most of them. The Lifestyle theme is still super popular with clients. I think because it’s one of the themes where they can easily see how their content will work within the layout (or maybe it’s just a comfort level….who knows!). What excites me doesn’t always make the client excited initially, but I think that is because of their comfort level with WordPress or technology in general.

If you’re building your site with WordPress (which I’m assuming you are- or you probably wouldn’t be reading this)- and are in this for the long haul- it makes sense to work with a theme that not only does what you want from the start- but also has the ability to GROW with you as your business and site grows as well. That’s what Genesis does! I’m not going to get into all of the child themes available in this post (you can check out the post I did with screenshots of all their themes). This video walks you through installing Genesis and a child theme, and getting the basics set up. The next video in the series will continue where this one leaves off.

This past year I’ve been spending a lot of time looking into video and how to integrate it with WordPress. Much of this came from working with clients who wanted to integrate video into their WordPress site. What made me dig deeper into this ever evolving realm is that each client wanted something different…something I hadn’t necessarily done or come across yet. Which then presented the opportunity to find out how to make something work or come up with a solution to what they wanted.

It may seem pretty straightforward- but once you start getting into video it opens up a huge new world…one that’s pretty fun too (if I do say so myself….I swear I never knew I was such a techie! ).  There are SO many options and solutions out there for video that it can be overwhelming at times (where to host your video, how to create it, showing a playlist, using a lightbox, incorporating links, etc.)- just type video into the plugin directory at WordPress.org and you’ll get over 40 pages of plugins..yikes!

You may have noticed that my videos have evolved over time. Once you get one piece of the puzzle down it’s easy to start adding more features to your videos. The important thing about video is just to START! I’ll be incorporating some more personal style videos very soon… (me talking into the camera….I’ve avoided this a bit as I tend not to ‘get ready’ ….. who needs to when you work from home? But that’s another post, for another time). The more personal your videos are the better. And when I find an easy video solution- of course it’s time to share it!

I found this video lightbox plugin when I was working on a clients site. I had found a different solution- but it wasn’t something the client could easily do for himself – so I knew I needed to keep looking! This plugin will allow you to add a lightbox to your videos (when the reader clicks on the video, a lightbox pops up with the video, shading out the rest of the site). This plugin works for videos hosted on YouTube, Vimeo and Blip.tv. There are two steps to this plugin- the first is downloading & installing it…( I know, kind of obvious)- but then you have to add a few files to this plugin (super easy….I show you how in the video). Then voila! It’s ready to roll! The two things you’ll need to download for this are the plugin (Lightview plus) and the actual lightview file. You can get those here:

Lightview Plus

Lightview

Let me know what you think.

It seems like lately many of posts are about finally getting around to doing something I should have been doing a while ago..or maybe it’s just that I’m just now writing a post about it? Who knows…either way, this is one of those things!

In one of my recent posts I wrote about & created a video for the SEO Scribe plugin – which is about optimizing your posts and pages. Adding a related posts plugin is one way to add to your overall SEO efforts and increase your links. Obviously you don’t need to use a plugin to do this- but if you can (and aren’t running with too many plugins to begin with)- then it’s the easiest way to add related links to your posts without spending too much extra time. My posts tend to take me a little longer than I anticipate (almost every time)- but mainly because I want to make sure I’ve added  the right thumbnail, probably will add a video, make sure all the SEO stuff is done,etc. Which is why using a related posts plugin is TOTALLY the way to go…for me.

The plugin I use is called Microkid’s Related Post plugin. It makes it super easy to manually add related posts by searching your content and selecting the posts you want to link to. What’s so fab about this plugin though is that it automatically creates a reciprocal link to the post you’ve linked to. SO…if I link this post to my SEO Scribe plugin post, it will automatically link the SEO Scribe plugin post BACK to this post. Cool, huh?

Here’s a super quick video showing you how this works!

It isn’t until I go to do posts like this that I realize how much catching up I’ve got to do in certain areas of my business (I have SERIOUSLY neglected my social media acct.s over the last few months).

I’m sure you’ve seen the Facebook ‘like’ box on many sites now. Facebook has changed to the ‘like’ box from the fan box. I wish I could give you a lovely, detailed explanation as to the why for this…but…sorry (any social media experts out there? Feel free to add a comment if you know ‘why’ ). What I do know is that I definitely knew I needed and wanted to add this to my WordPress sidebar!

There are two ways to add the ‘like’ box to your sidebar. I’ll show you both options in the video, but keep in mind that it’s better to run with less plugins- so any time you can do something on your site without a plugin- use that option instead. However, many people prefer using plugins- so  I thought it would make more sense to show you both options. And feel free to ‘like’ my page while you’re here!

OK..no more more grovelling….back to the post. There are plenty of different ways to incorporate Facebook into your WordPress site. One thing you need to be aware of though is doubling up on things. Meaning- if you are already pulling your tweets into your Facebook account and have also installed a Twitter plugin for WordPress that automatically sends your posts as tweets…that’s all you need. Which is why I don’t have another Facebook plugin which pulls my posts into Facebook- I just let them get there via twitter. Makes sense? (kind of seems like a mouthful, huh?)

The next thing will be on adding the Facebook share button to my posts. I still haven’t gotten around to adding a few social media buttons to my posts via code and getting rid of the sexy bookmarks plugin…but I will. It’s a BEAUTIFUL plugin- and I have to admit I feel guilty for deleting it because I know the developer, but as Google has now decided that site load time will be taken into consideration when ranking sites…I need to do everything I can!

Ok..enough said. Enjoy the video and feel free to retweet or share your comments. It’s ALWAYS appreciated!