As a WordPress web designer and freelance Internet marketing consultant, I have some advice about writing articles for your blog that will show up on search engines and capture your reader’s interest.

First of all, you need a WordPress blog… If you don’t have one I can help with that shameless plug I know!

Secondly, you need to have a topic that you want to write about AND something that will mean something to your reader, add value to your business by offering sage advice or new information for your existing clients AND a topic that you anticipate will be worthy of people using search engines trying to find useful information about what you have on your mind.

This may sound like good old fashioned common sense, but in practice its not that easy. The reason is that as an expert in your field and as a small business owner with a WordPress blog, you may find yourself gurgling with an abundance of information, confusing concepts to the layman or worse yet – wasting your time explaining something in great detail that is totally worthwhile info, yet you can’t wrap it up and present the blog article in such a way that it can be found on a search engine, or that people don’t click on because the blog post title or excerpt is not appealing.

So what’s the secret to writing effective blog articles? Well – Honestly there is no secret to writing effective blog articles. There is only hard work and honing your writing skills, so that the blog articles you write for your small business make sense, are on topic and contain the key phrases you hope to get found on search engines for! Try, try again…

When writing blog articles to attract visitors to your website, you should be thinking of the people you want to find and read your blog article, then hopefully they look over your website and even better yet – they might call you or email you because they need what you offer. Think about their needs and how you can help them with that. Its called SOLUTION SELLING. In other words, your potential customers have a problem and YOU have the solution. Of course, you’ll need to identify what their problem might be and be confident you can help them with their problem once its identified and your potential customer realizes they have a problem which needs to be solved.

For example, in THIS blog post I’m obviously addressing the problem of how to write effective blog articles for your small business. Chances are very good that if you are reading this article, especially if you found it on your favorite search engine, that YOU probably have a small business and your problem is that you have to figure out how to write effective blog articles. Simple enough right?

So ~ If you were captivated, (or at least mildly interested in), by my WordPress Blog Article on “How To Write Effective Blog Articles for Your Small Business”, lets examine why you found my blog article, clicked on my blog article and are now reading my blog article…

1. You had a problem: You were trying to learn how to write blog articles.
2. I had a solution to your problem: I know how to write blog articles.
3. I wanted you to find my blog article.
4. I wanted you to click on my blog article.
5. I wanted to give you free blog writing advice.
6. I wanted to expose you to my blog web design services.
7. I wrote a blog article about how to write a blog article.

Moving right along…

Now that you understand that your need is learning how to write effective blog articles, and you’re aware that I can teach you how to write effective blog articles, lets examine how effective blog articles are composed, structured and authored.

I’ll sort of go through this briefly, so you can see how to write a blog article step by step (the quick version covering just the basic things you need to do to write effective blog articles).

• EDIT POST PAGE: Lets assume you have logged into your WordPress blog, (yoursite.com/wp-admin) and you’re now staring blankly at the New Post page after clicking the “Add New Post” button.
• BLOG POST TITLE: The first field you should be concentrating on is the TITLE, which is the black field below the thumbtack and “Edit Post” verbiage near the top of your screen. Creating a good title for your blog article is super important. Its the first thing a search engine will see, the most weighted textual content that the search engine will consider and it should accurately reflect the blog article, while at the same time acting as a headline to grab attention.
• BLOG POST PERMALINK: Underneath the TITLE, is something called a “Permalink”. This will be the actual URL address of your blog article. You should have your WordPress Permalink Options set so that it displays the post title. If you don’t know how to setup your WordPress Permalink Options, just send me an email. If you’re writing blog articles for a WordPress website I built for you, this option is already setup and you may notice that your “Permalink” contains today’s date, followed by the great Blog Post Title you just created.
• BLOG POST ADD IMAGE: The next thing you want to do is consider adding a photo or image of some sort. C’mon… Everybody loves a picture book more than one with just words. You want a photo or illustration that helps reinforce the topic of your effective blog article. BEFORE you upload and insert the photo, rename it to be more on topic with the blog post as well, because yes… search engines also search pictures, by name “________.jpg”, as well as by ALT TAG which is the alternate verbiae that appears if the picture is unavailable or takes a while to download. The alternate tag is displayed in what is called an image placeholder, (little red box with an X in it), should the photo download fail or delay.

I know you’re anxious to start writing your blog article, especially now that it has that cool picture and has a good title, but whoa there pardner… There’s still a few more fundamental things I need to explain first, so you can learn how to write effective blog articles all by yourself.

• BLOG POST CATEGORIES: Every blog post should be categorized, or associated with related blog categories. You will see the “Categories” towards the right side of the Edit Post page. If I setup your WordPress blog, chances are I have already added some on-topic categories for you to select. Simply check the box next to the categories that relate to this effective blog article. Search engines connect the blog categories to the article and it will give the blog post a boost in search results if they match.
• BLOG POST TAGS: Every blog post needs Post Tags. You’ll see the “Post Tags” underneath the Categories on the right side of the Edit Post page. Think of tags like key words and key phrases. You want them to match your blog post title and also include the major on-topic key phrases that are in the textual content of the blog articles.
• ALL IN ONE SEO PLUGIN: If you’re writing blog articles for a WordPress blog I built for you, it will have the “All In One SEO” Plugin installed and you will notice three or more extra fields towards the bottom of the Edit Post page. In the fields, you will simply repeat your Blog Post Title, add a description of the blog post article and add key words and key phrases that relate to the blog article. If you don’t have All In One SEO Pack Plugin, I recommend installing it.

Woo Hoo ~ So we are finally ready to start writing our effective blog article for our small business! Here is where the fun begins.

Some folks love writing and others do not. As for me, I love writing and I tend to ramble or interject some humor here and there. Other folks just want to write what they have to say and get on with it. Either way is fine. Your blog is YOURS and it should reflect YOUR personality, style, professionalism, expertism, or whatever “ism” you are trying to portray. Just try to be honest. Don’t rant, nobody likes a whiner. Say what you say confidently because you have done your research and your experience and success proves your point.

Since I tortured you already with the rigorous, tedious, yet necessary exercises of creating a Blog Post Title, Blog Post Permalink, Blog Post Categories, Blog Post Tags and then repeated that drudgery with the All in One SEO Title, Description and Key words, you should have a fairly clear idea of “what” exactly your blog post will be about by now.

You might not know exactly what you’re going to say yet, but you know what the topic will be, (that’s your Title and main key phrases), you know basically what the article will be about, (that’s the description and categories). Most importantly you know what WORDS and PHRASES you will be using.

After doing SEO since 2002, this comes naturally to me, but for for beginners here is what I suggest: Copy and paste your Blog Post Title into the area where you will be composing your effective blog article. Paste it a few more times… Paste it in there about 5 times in separate paragraphs. Next, copy and paste or type your Categories and Post Tags. Copy and paste them a few times in a few different paragraphs.

At this point, if you’ve followed my advice your blog post is almost ready to publish. It has a title, permalink, categories, post tags, and the SEO meta tags. It has a cool picture and several paragraphs that contain your title, categories and tags. The only problem now is that its not an EFFECTIVE BLOG ARTICLE yet, because it makes no sense right? Now,  you will need to start weaving all the words together. For a perfect example of what I mean by weaving it together, you can study this blog post “How To Write Effective Blog Articles For Your Small  Business”.

Basically you want to get your main ideas across, while utilizing the key phrases that people would search for the information by. In this instance, I knew I wanted to write a blog article to help my clients with WordPress blogs to better their blog writing skills. In case you were sleeping, I’ll bullet point some of the key phrases I used throughout my blog article:

1. How To Write Effective Blog Articles
2. Effective Blog Articles
3. WordPress Blog Articles
4. WordPress Blogs
5. Writing Blog Article
6. Effective Blog Article

I also included a myriad of combination’s, you can see the syntax and how my key words “effective”, “blog”, “articles”, “wordpress”, etc. are all tied in with natural, organic sentences and paragraphs that make sense.

If your first blog articles are lacking don’t sweat it, because they will still add valuable content to your wordpress website and you need the practice… The important thing is that you keep writing blog articles. With each one try to narrow the focus of your topic and tighten up the Title, Categories and Post Tags.

Happy Writing

In this article I’ll try to briefly explain website templates in layman’s terms. The reason for the article is two-fold. First I happen to get a lot of visitors to my website who are looking for information or resources that might help them build their own website, so this will help them understand what a website template is, (or is not), and how to use a website template. Second, since I build websites from templates, it helps my clients understand how I use website templates to build a website.

Website Templates

What website templates are: I’m not sure if there is an actual definition for website template. The term website template is used rather loosely in my opinion and to make matters worse, there are definitions for website template, or rather explanations of what a website template  is, which are actually more deceptive than anything else. For example I found  a wikipedia article that attempts to give  a definition for website template:

A web template is a tool used to separate content from presentation in web design, and for mass-production of web documents. It is a basic component of a web template system. Web templates can be used to set up any type of website. In its simplest sense, a web template operates similarly to a form letter for use in setting up a website.

The above definition for website template is inaccurate in my opinion, because while a website template is a tool used for producing web documents, it does not necessarily “separate content from design”, because the design and content of a site are most often integral. Its not limited to mass production of web documents either, because a website template can and should be setup for every website, regardless of the site being two pages or 2 million pages. Really the only thing remotely accurate about this definition is that web templates can be used to setup any type of website. The last part of the definition which would lead someone to believe that a website template operates like a form letter is completely wrong however, because they certainly do not. As a matter of fact, this is most likely the biggest source of confusion for do it yourself website builders.

I will try to explain what a website template is so that my readers can get a better understanding of it:

A website template is actually just a website. Its an electronic document made to be visible on the World Wide Web. Its written in code called “html” which stands for hyper text markup language. A company or designer who produces the website template is producing something which looks and feels just like a website, because it is a website. The only difference between a website template and a website is that the website template it typically populated with generic text that reads something like “Lorem Ispum, blah, blah, blah” and it has stock photography and artwork instead of photos, logos and artwork that are made for a specific company or business. Many of the links on a website template don’t link to anything either. Aside from that, you can upload a website template to a web hosting server and it will look and feel like a website.

How to use a website template

In essence, a website template can be used “as-is”, or only used as the skeleton or layout for a website. This latter method is how I use website templates. Selecting a website template to use for website project is a matter of finding a template that best suits the design goals of the project in terms of the layout and general aesthetics. Other than that, the website template will most likely need to be customized for the web project. Sometimes there is very little customization, other times a great deal of it. From the width of the template to the graphics, photos and color scheme used in it, many aspects of it will most likely be changed. Page names and navigation also obviously change. For example, by the time a web designer gets done with the website template customization, you may not even recognize it as the website template that was originally selected for the design.

Example of Website Template Customization

To provide a better visual idea of how website templates can be customized to suit a particular design goal, look at the following websites which all look markedly different, yet are all based on the same website template, (actually the same template that is shown on the top of this article).

Creating web pages from a website template

Perhaps the most confusing part of all for a non-designer, is figuring out that the template they just downloaded can’t simply be used as the generic definition of website template suggests… Like a form letter or like you just somehow open  some program, fill in fields and then publish the whole thing to the web. There is a whole bunch more to it than that and here is why:

To open and customize a website template, you need software to do it. You’ll need a website design software, which allows you to see both the html code as well as the design view. For example, I use Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.0. With the website design software, you will create editable regions, or designate certain areas of the website as something which can be altered, like a certain area of text or a photo. The web design software will also enable you to convert the template design into an actual template that you can apply to the various pages within a website. In other words, after the template is customized, it has to be “saved as” a template, so that brand new pages can be made based on the template design.

The web design software will most often also have a built in file transfer device so you can connect to your web hosting server and upload the files. The web design software also allows you to make changes and updates to the website and synchronize the local version with the remote version of the website.

Customizing a Website Template Using Graphics, Images and Photographs…

You’ll also need graphics software to work with the artwork, graphics and photos in a website template or on the individual new pages created from the website template design. For example, I use Macromedia Fireworks to produce and modify graphic images. I used my graphics program to create the images you see throughout this website and in this article as well.

Defining a Website As A Website… Directories and Publicly Accessible Pages…

So far, you’ve learned that a website template is actually just a website that someone made which contains generic information. In order to be used, the template must be customized and then saved as a template, allowing the web designer to create new pages built on that template’s design. While this is all necessary, by no means does it result in a website – the way most people envision a website, which is a group of web pages that all share the same design look and feel and link to each other with a “home page”, “about us page”, etc.

In order to create a website, a web designer uses their website editing and designing software to “define” a directory and all the cohesive web pages contained in that directory which make up the “website”. Then, the web pages and all the various image files that make up that website are transferred to a web hosting server where they are publicly accessible and can be visited when someone types in or clicks on the URL or domain name of the website.

Where to find a website template

There are literally 1000′s pf places online to find website templates. The main thing that needs to be considered is what type of website template you’ll need, (For example, in most cases I employ transitional html, CSS based templates). There are also website templates for Flash Websites, Joomla Websites, WordPress Websites, etc. The other thing you’ll have to consider is how much you’re willing to spend on a website template. There are free website templates and premium website templates. The free website templates are – well – FREE. In some cases they are pretty decent and in other cases they are junk. Premium website templates might be great or just as crummy as a free template, the exception is that you are paying for the right to use that template design with what’s referred to as a user license. Premium templates typically come with some level of technical support in case there is something wrong with the template. They won’t tutor you on how to use a website template of course, but they will offer a fresh download or an updated version of the template if something is technically wrong with it. Expect to pay $50 – $150 for a single use license for a premium website template. There are also companies and freelancers who offer templates you can buy the copyright to, (this means that you can literally purchase the template design and they don’t resell it to others). Expect to pay $2000 – $3000 for the copyright. Lastly, there are also designers who will design a website template for you. Expect to pay $2000 – $5000 for a custom designed website template from a freelancer.

Website Template Based Editors and WYSIWYG website builders

As one last note, I’ll mention that this article focuses on website templates as they are most often used; a pre-designed website that can be customized, modified and used to create a website. To add to this dizzying array of choices and information surrounding traditional website templates, its important to note that there are also website template based editors and template based WYSIWYG, (what you see is what you get), web builder softwares. Some examples of this would be Intuit’s homestead websites, GoDaddy Website Tonight websites, Netfusion Websites, Yahoo Websites and there are more… Lots more. There are also “theme” based websites, such as WordPress websites. The template based editors are primarily focused on the do it yourself market and I don’t recommend them for commercial use, although they can be used this way if you’re willing to put up with the pros and cons of template based editors. In the future, perhaps I will dedicate an article to the template based website builders.

I hope that this article on website templates provides you with some answers to questions you may have had.

Should you use Facebook Marketing and Social Network Marketing?

Okay, lets be honest… Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past two years, you have undoubtedly heard of Facebook and Twitter, two websites that have defined SOCIAL NETWORKING. In this article, I intend to tell YOU my honest opinion about Facebook Marketing and Social Network marketing in general and whether or not its all its cracked up to be!

The term social networking and all that it stands for has been forever emblazoned into our brains. As a marketer… A Web marketer or Internet marketer especially, I have been aware of the concept of social network marketing for quite a while, after all – web marketers live for this sort of stuff right? I do get excited when a new or creative marketing idea comes along, but I tend to be more conservative and get a bit skeptical of anything dubbed latest or greatest including social networking. I like to see results before I make recommendations.

Social networking has its place and has some value I suppose, but in my opinion, (contrary to the current zombie like fascination in social network marketing), I think social network marketing is highly overrated and fails in comparison to the hype surrounding Facebook Marketing, Twitter Marketing and so on.

Your website and consistent efforts to promote your website should be your focus, while social networking is optional and supplemental if you choose to pursue it. By no means am I discounting the possibility that social network marketing might work for some or that some people or companies might experience some good return on their social network marketing efforts, but your energy should be spent on your website and traditional methods of marketing – not social networking.

Here’s my advice about social network marketing based on my experience, with a dash or two of common sense added for flavoring.

First let us examine social networking sites like Facebook:

1. Who uses social networking? Really – Think about this… Almost 500 million people have Facebook accounts so it SEEMS like the perfect opportunity to tap into a giant pool of regular users. Unfortunately I think, (perhaps you’ll agree), that the majority of Facebook users might be pre-teens, teenagers and twenty somethings who are less likely to care about or recommend your “stuff” to their friends unless of course you have the hottest iPhone app on the planet or a pair of tickets to Lady Gaga you’re giving away. The point is, that if you maintain a social networking profile for the purpose of marketing, you’ll need your friends or followers to be people who are potentially interested in your goods or services, (as well as folks you can communicate to effectively), therein lies the conundrum of finding the perfect pool of friends or followers.
2. Why do people use social networking? If you can answer this question, you’re among a small percentile who perceives the value in social networking. Sure, its kind of neat to find old classmates or friends you have lost touch with. Yes its cool to build your clan of family members, (spouse, children, siblings, etc). I’ll admit its easy to post pictures to share. I love that its an instant method of obtaining or sharing late breaking news and events… BUT what is there beyond that? Social networking sucks up a bunch of time and can result in some very real relational issues that probably would never have arisen if you were not “Facebooking” at all.
3. What do people talk about on social networking sites? Hmmm… The field that pops up on Facebook when you log-on invites you to let the world know “What’s On Your Mind”… From what I can tell, most people don’t have much on their minds if anything… They are tired, their feet hurt, they went to see a movie, they went out to dinner… Blah blah, blah so what? If you’re a high-level thinker forget about Facebook because what’s on YOUR mind, is rarely if ever anything that concerns the bulk of the populous that makes up your friends list. Don’t believe me?  Just try talking about anything that truly matters like your product or service, current events, politics, the wars, religion, etc and you will quickly become either frustrated, ridiculed or ignored.
4. How do you make your important message viral using Facebook? The truth is you can’t… Not unless your important message is a funny video, or stupid chain post. Think about your audience. First – they don’t care. Second – Your post is stupid.  Third – You’re embarrassing their cool friends who see their wall. Fourth – Why are they your friend again?
5. How much time does it take to do social networking? Setting up your Facebook profile or similar is easy enough. Its the finding friends, inviting friends, adding friends that can become time consuming. Of course that time is nothing compared to the countless hours you get sucked into it, almost in a trance state, discussing nothing and somehow justifying that its time well spent.

You’re probably thinking that I’m not a big supporter of social networking initiatives. Well ~ Not so much… I admit that, but you’re reading this because you want an honest opinion right?

Facebook, Twitter and Social Networking actually does have some positive points.

I’ll point out the few I know of and you’ll be able to decide for yourself whether or not to incorporate Facebook marketing or social network marketing into your overall web marketing plan.

• Your personal Facebook page can help YOU (your name) get found on search engines. If you’re someone who needs their personal name to show up well, (a Doctor, Lawyer, Music Artist, Actor or Actress, Politician, etc.),  then a Facebook Personal Page might just be the answer. If you are trying to promote a business however, the business pages at Facebook do NOT get crawled and do not show up on search engines. If you must have a Facebook page, make sure its just a personal one not a business one.
• A social networking profile can give you a softer more personal image. This is nice because customers like when they can see that the people who run a company or an organization are real people that have real families and they talk about regular stuff – not just business. If you prefer to maintain a professional image however, social networking is probably not the best idea because it does demystify your brand and expertise.
• Its a Back-Link Paradise. When you place a link to your website or web page in a Twitter post, (or a personal Facebook post), it can certainly help a search engine crawl your website or web page – sometimes your site or page will be crawled within hours thanks to just a single link.
• Its cool to be connected. Having a Facebook, Twitter or other social networking widget on your website can draw site visitors to it like moths to a flame, show them that you are connected and they will sometimes even click through to your social networking profile page – maybe add you as a friend or follow you.

There you have it ~ My honest opinion on Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing and social network marketing!

A WordPress website can be a powerful tool for web marketing! There are literally thousands of various ways companies and organizations are using WordPress websites and in this article I will provide a brief overview of the typical benefits of a WordPress website. I’ll explain how you can use a WordPress website to increase your exposure online and provide your website visitors with a more interactive experience because WordPress websites have distinct advantages over more traditional websites. There are very few downsides to using a WordPress website, but I will note the few I can think of as well.

1. WordPress websites show up on search engines. While I could probably mention more than a few reasons why WordPress websites show up well on search engines, suffice to say that I will focus on the major reason, which is that WordPress websites are easily updated so your website presents FRESH CONTENT that is recognized by search engines and website visitors. In other words, by utilizing the blog within a WordPress website, a person, business, or non-profit organization can become virtual authorities on various subjects. By composing brief, highly focused articles, (blog posts), on a regular basis, an individual, business or an organization can add textual content to their website. Search engines crawl and index textual content and then regurgitate that information in the form of organic search results. The more textual content your site has, the more search results it might be relevant for – plain and simple.
2. WordPress websites are easy to maintain and update. The main drawback to having a traditional static html website is that it can be challenging and expensive to maintain and update. Anything that is “more challenging”, or “more expensive”, will often get shoved on the back-burner. This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons so many traditional websites have information that has not been updated in a very long time. Its too difficult, too time consuming, or too expensive, so it never gets updated! The main advantage to having a WordPress website therefore,  is that it is easily maintained, making it less expensive in the long run because the website owner does not have to pay for a professional to update the site. The second benefit is that because the site is maintained more often, it will also perform better, both in terms of traffic originating from search engines, as well as website visitor experience, number of page views and more opportunity for generating revenue.
3. WordPress websites have a built-in CMS – Content Management System. This means that the back-end of the WordPress website can be accessed from any computer with Internet access and simply by logging in, the WordPress website can be managed and updated from a simple to use Dashboard / Control Panel. Multiple people can access the site via “User Roles”. In other words, your WordPress website could be  maintained by just one user with full blown administrator privileges, or by as many people as you’d like, all setup with varying degrees of access, or privileges from the most simple “Subscriber” who is only allowed to comment on a post or page, to Contributors and Authors, who can create or edit blog posts and pages they are assigned to, on up to an Editor who can review posts and comments and approve, reject or edit those before final publishing. They can also post blog articles, create pages, etcetera.
4. WordPress websites are modern. A large majority of businesses and organizations hire freelance web designers, or professional web design firms to build, host and maintain their websites. Many of those websites were built before WordPress websites were available. The WordPress technology is relatively new and it is being employed more frequently for new website design. As you surf the web, you’ve probably noticed certain websites and considered them to be “fresh” and “clean” and “modern”, offering high levels of interactivity and features. Those were probably WordPress websites, which instinctively have a very clean style, an abundance of interactivity, yet can have designs ranging from extremely professional and business-like to very casual or fun.
5. WordPress websites are THEME BASED. What that means is the initial WordPress website you may see upon installation is very plain, “Just another WordPress Blog…”, but can be replaced simply by selecting, downloading and activating a new theme all from the comfort of your dashboard. In addition, if you get tired of that WordPress theme and want to give your website an entire face-lift, you can do that simply by choosing a new WordPress theme, downloading it and activating it. You can switch themes whenever you like, yet all the content in the WordPress website remains intact. There are seemingly an endless number of free WordPress themes to choose from, but if your WordPress website is intended for business, I recommend a PREMIUM WORDPRESS THEME. Here’s the deal: WordPress is built on an “open-source” license, which means that PHP developers from around the globe develop themes for it. However, just like most things in life, you get what you pay for and WordPress themes are not any different… I always recommend choosing a premium WordPress theme, because they typically work better, look better and they are backed by the support of the developer or company which produced it. Here are several premium WordPress theme developers which I recommend:

If you need HOSTING for your new WordPress website… That is, a web hosting account where you will put the site, there are plenty of web hosting providers out there, but if you intend on using your WordPress website for business, I recommend a reliable host that offers free technical support 24×7 like GoDaddy.com.

Lastly, I mentioned that despite all its great benefits, WordPress has some downsides when compared with traditional websites… Here are the main disadvantages that might apply to your particular situation:

• WordPress is PHP driven and requires installation of the latest version of PHP to your web hosting account. Some web hosts make this totally easy, or will do it for free, while others present more of  a technical challenge.
• WordPress is an open source project and there are always updates and revisions that you may need. Many of the cool interactive features that make WordPress websites so cool, are called “widgets” and “plugins”. The majority of widget and plugin developers are hobbyists, while some are professional developers or firms. A plugin or widget you may have installed and come to rely on, or need to use, might become inoperable following the update of the WordPress version itself, or when you update another Plugin or Widget. Most of the time widgets and plugins can be updated without a problem, but sometimes it does cause problems, so be prepared that with any update, its possible your site might not work correctly.
• WordPress websites are not ultra customizable like a static html website. With traditional websites, a designer can basically make it look anyway you can think of… WordPress websites are theme based, so even though you can alter the general aesthetics of the website, for the most part the structure is very much the same regardless of which theme is used. There are theme providers who will customize or create new WordPress themes exclusively for you, but it is fairly expensive and again – they are not as flexible as a typical static website.

In addition to updating the site to show what I offer more clearly, I have also added an additional payment option which I feel will better serve my clientèle. I’ve introduced a Net 30 “bill me later” option because this is easier for many businesses than using the Google Checkout credit card payment processing, (is still offered and best suited for individuals who wish to prepay for services using a major credit card). You will see both payment options upon checkout in my online store. Listed below are the freelance web marketing services I offer (click on the images for prices and detailed descriptions):

WOW ~ An Almost Free Website! Okay, so I’m a softee for start-ups and small businesses operating on shoe string budget and I love to help, so I actually do offer an almost free website solution… Here’s the deal: I have a particular template I use that is perfect for promoting any business, but is easy enough for me to customize that it takes me hardly any time at all to build it and publish it. The website does a nice job of getting you online and being seen on search engines… As a matter of fact this website has all the features and functions of my other sites, but in return for my generosity you agree to allow me to run some Google Ads on your site. These ads sort of share your online space and I get a little commission when folks click on the ads. Its sort of a you scratch my back I scratch yours deal.

The Affordable Website Project is my typical package that covers most needs. Choose this package if you have no site currently and this will be a brand new site, or if you have a site that is going to be replaced or reworked. This package includes basic s.e.o. (search engine optimization), and search engine submission.

Sell your goods online with an ECommerce Website. Do you have aspirations of being the next big online retailer, or perhaps you have a traditional brick and mortar store and you want to offer your products online as well. Ecommerce solutions are the perfect solution for online marketing when you offer a number of physical products for sale. Whether its a public accessible online store for a retailer or a secure B2B wholesaler portal, I can help by setting up the appropriate ecommerce solution for you and stocking it with your primary products. Sell your products online, take payments with credit cards, offer electronic downloads and more with an ecommerce solution.

Choose Search Engine Optimization when your website requires additional search engine optimization. Perfect for large websites containing multiple pages or products, or if you want to be more competitive for highly sought after and popular key word search phrases. If your website has been online for a while and does not seem to be attracting as many targeted visitors as you would like, additional search engine optimization may improve your traffic and conversion.

I provide Telephone Consulting when you need help, information or advice that simply is too involved to discuss via email. Hey ~ I’ve got over 8 years of experience, so why not call and pick my brain a little or get some professional guidance before embarking on major site changes, SEO work, etc. Or maybe you’re not the type of person who embraces email and you just need to speak to a real person on the phone regarding working on your website or web marketing… Choose this offering, its affordable telephone web marketing and seo consulting services priced in 1/2 hour intervals.

I provide Onsite Consulting when you need help, information or advice that simply is too involved to discuss via email, or telephone and you want someone onsite to discuss your project or work on your website and web marketing, choose this offering. Affordable onsite consulting services priced in 4 hour intervals. * Travel expenses will be required in addition to the consulting fees when providing local onsite consulting within the general Chicago vicinity. * Transportation, lodging and meal expenses will be required in addition to consulting fees for onsite service which is outside my typical local travel area.

My Market Research service provides you with the information you need. What’s the main reason YOUR business is slow, or why are you not as busy as you once were? How do your prices stack up against the competition? What marketing advantages do your competitors have? Should you offer more or less products and services? Is your website easy enough to use, yet convincing enough for customers to purchase online or call you? Are your current Internet marketing tactics sufficient? These questions and others can be researched and compiled into a high level report which outlines your strengths, weaknesses and recommends ways that you can improve your bottom line.

You probably need my Website Conversion Makeover if you already have a site that you are fairly pleased with and it even shows up on searches and gets visitors, but you want it to do a better job of turning those site visitors into potential customers who either contact you or buy something online. I’ll take a good long look at your site and let you know how it can be improved and I will make suggestions for improvement and employ proven conversion techniques, making changes to your existing site.

The start of a beautiful relationship… The big daddy of all my offerings, my Total Web Marketing Solution, combining all of my talents to help your business or non-profit launch a successful website and ongoing marketing plan. Whether you’ve been around a while or you’re a start-up, this solution provides you with a war-chest of marketing tools. This package is primarily designed with the onsite client in mind… In other words, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other and spending a great deal of time working on this together. Typical project duration is 2 – 4 weeks, roughly 80 hours of consulting.

Website Updates for misc labor on your existing website. This is the perfect choice for existing website clients who need alterations and modifications, or extra pages built, images changed or added, hosting company transfers, or other technical / creative needs. I can provide website updates to most websites, whether I have built them or they were built by another designer using Dreamweaver, WordPress, Intuit’s Homestead Sitebuilder, GoDaddy’s Website Tonight, Pro DJ Publishing’s EZ DJ Website Builder and others. I also provide 3rd party software tool integrations like calendars and scheduling software.

The Annual Maintenance Agreement provides the convenience of having a web designer on call and knowing that your request will be placed into priority status and as a preferred customer, in many cases you won’t need to reach for your credit card when you need a simple change made or question answered. Ever have your website go offline? Yup its terrible and usually needs to be looked at right away to get it back online. With the maintenance agreement, you’ll sleep easier knowing that you have priority status including emergency expedited service on weekends, holidays, etc.

I offer Blog Articles and Creative Writing services! You know that sites with fresh content rule right? Continually adding new pages and refreshing current content makes a site more current, so site visitors recognize that and search engines devour it. Maybe you don’t necessarily have the time to update your website or blog, or perhaps you have a general idea of what you want to write about, but you’re not really the type of person who is into creative writing. I can assist by authoring blog posts, articles and creative textual ad copy that search engines will index and site visitors will read. I enjoy writing, so you’ll get a special deal on this offering, so you can afford to regularly keep your site fresh and your visitors interested in your business.

Direct Email Marketing provides you with the enormous potential of reaching out to your website visitors regularly via emailed newsletters and RSS feeds. If you’re not the creative writing type, or simply don’t have the time to conduct this aspect of your overall marketing strategy yourself, outsource it to me. Using Email Newsletters or RSS Feeds you can promote your business, announce special offers, earn revenue from affiliate programs, or simply keep in touch with your clients.

What’s all this Social Networking stuff about? Does it really matter to your business? See if social networking is right for your business. I offer initial social networking account setup on popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Classmates, and photo and video sharing accounts like Flickr and YouTube. I will integrate these social networking elements into your website and teach you how to utilize all of this new reach to your advantage. Social networking is NOT a set it and forget it form of web marketing, so be prepared to roll up your sleeves and start socializing. If you already have one or several social networking accounts that are already established but under utilized, I can help you use them to increase revenue, business and sales.

By providing Training and Seminars, I can help you and your staff better understand the power of the web and how to help your business grow. Whether you have a traditional brick and mortar store, a manufacturing firm, a professional service or a non-profit, I can help your company or organization become better acquainted with emerging trends and technologies as well as build a strong foundation for successful web marketing. I tailor my training seminars to your specific needs and provide a firm grip on the elementary nuts and bolts of establishing or maintaining a strong online presence. Training seminars can be conducted onsite, or offsite for your convenience.

Gaze at the slowly spiraling image above, relaxing your mind and imagine yourself calm, at ease. While you are gazing at the spiraling image above, picture yourself in a pleasant place, perhaps taking a walk in your favorite place, feeling at ease and at peace and then read on:

For my whole life, I never believed hypnosis was real. As a matter of fact, it was not until recently that I knew that hypnosis works on some people… Lots of people. I’m a critical thinker, logical and pragmatic by nature. Even though I knew of hypnosis and had seen various television programs with snippets of hypnotic stage shows, etc. I honestly did not think that it was really possible for someone to be hypnotized.

Fast forward to this past month, October 2010 and I found myself and a group of 10 tired, over-heated relatives sauntering into a 2:00 pm show at the well known theater “Pictorium” at Six Flags Great America. We simply wanted to find a nice shady and cool place where we could sit for a while and rest before tackling all the fun stuff at the park. We woke up way too early that day, not having enough rest the night before of course and had arrived at the park before it opened. By this time, we were exhausted after walking about the park in the extra warm Indian Summer weather. We had stopped for a while and had a big lunch. No matter what the show was about we were going to go in the dark, cool theater and just relax for a while. The show that day was Susan Rosen Mistress of Mesmerism.

Astounded by what I had witnessed, I starting researching hypnotism and the power of hypnotic suggestion. There are vast amounts of information on the topic online. I even downloaded some audio files and listened to them. The overwhelming majority of information supports hypnosis. There are literally 1,000′s of years of evidence to support the claim, countless books written as well as a seemingly limitless number of videos you can watch on YouTube, providing the visual evidence of hypnosis is action, including hypnotic stage shows like the one we were a part of. For your viewing enjoyment, I have included one such video depicting Susan Rosen performing hypnosis at a similar stage show to the one we attended:

Okay, so Hypnosis is Real… But how can YOU use hypnotic suggestion to market your small business?

I can guarantee that you would not use a gaudy image of a spiral like I did. You would not directly ask people to fall into a hypnotic trance, rather you would suggest it more covertly. I personally am not a hypnotic ad copy writer… At least not yet, or not that I know of – but I would like to learn how to write hypnotic ad copy. There are an abundance of sources online to learn how to write effective ad copy, how to write hypnotic ad copy, how to use hypnotic suggestion in marketing, etc. Without a doubt in my mind, I would venture to say that it is most surely the most influential marketing technique that is employed and no doubt that we all are bombarded with hypnotic suggestions via mass media every single day.

Studies show that it takes approximately 30 seconds for someone to fall into a hypnotic trance from a television. WOW… Maybe that is why for years television marketing is broken up into 30 second and 60 second spots.

When the word hypnosis and trance are used, it is likely that you envision the classic zombie-like hypnotic subject completely under the mesmerizing trance of a mystical hypnotist. Not so… Scientifically – Or at least the scientific theory is that hypnosis is really a form of hyper-focus. Its induced via a trance. So – Being in a trance opens your mind to suggestion. Those suggestions reside temporarily in your subconscious mind, the part of the brain which controls involuntary motor functions, imagination, sleep, etc. The more deeply a person is in a trance, the more apt they are to be open to suggestion. The more often a person is subjected to the hypnotic message, the more firmly it is stored in the subconscious.  When Doctors and counselors use hypnosis for therapy, (appropriately called hypnotherapy), they conduct the hypnotherapy not once, but several times to make sure that it works well to cure the patient of their ills. It stands to reason that marketers will show the exact same commercial over and over again during the course of a television show, a televised football game, or even an entire television or sports series, regardless of the enormous expense. They don’t do it because they think the viewers are knuckle heads, or because they want to make sure that if someone turned the show on late they will still catch the commercial… No – They are counting on repetition to pound their suggestion into your subconscious mind.

Books, Magazines, Movies, TV Shows, Cartoons, Children’s Shows and even Educational Materials are entrenched with hypnotic suggestions to promote all sorts of things from theories and special interest agendas, to lifestyles, fashions, political messages and more.

Hypnotic marketing methods trickle into advertisements as well and unlike many years ago when marketing was driven by facts and logic, features, functions and benefits, today’s marketing is focused on feelings and emotions from sex, to feeling healthier. Clear benefits might be introduced when appropriate, but even a product or service which has a purpose that is difficult for consumers to distinguish, will occasionally forgo any clear explanation of what the product does, in lieu of stunning imagery, a snappy logo, music and some goofy tagline. Amazingly companies pay huge money for what we perceive as the dumbest, most worthless television spots, but maybe… Just maybe they are not so dumb, but instead are using hypnotic marketing techniques. From being sexy and alluring to having a sense of calm and well being… From being adventurous to feeling safety and security… Hypnotic marketing suggests emotions they want you to associate with whether real or false, yet somehow many consumers believe the message in whole or in part. They will recall the product or service, or one like it and spend their money. How is that possible? Hypnotic suggestion. Sometimes its clear and other times its covert.

So how can YOU take advantage of hypnotic marketing? Using hypnotic marketing in print ads, or in web marketing is a different case entirely. Obviously a print or web advertiser does not have a captive audience in a trance like when someone is watching television, a movie, a demonstration, etc. With any form of static advertising, especially that which is passive, (meaning a potential customer actually has to seek it out and physically interact with it), different, more subtle hypnotic suggestions are employed.

Here are three tips on combining search engine optimization and hypnotic marketing into your small business advertising and sales tactics.

1. Your website has to be found easily on search engines. First we need to establish this baseline, because unless you are planning some serious external marketing to drive people to your website, you’ll want to be noticed online in organic search engine results, and that means you NEED TO provide the facts and functional logic about your product or service in layman’s terms. This has to be done in the textual content of course so that search engines can “see it” and therefore it is possible that they will index that information and provide links to it during organic searches for products or services like yours. When done correctly, this information will have a density that indicates it is the focus of your web page and it should also be included in the source code of the page in the form of META TAGS. To write very basic ad copy for your website I recommend doing it in your own voice and speech pattern, explaining it as if you were explaining it to a young child who might ask what you do when you go to work. Apply the K.I.S.S. principle here.
2. Once someone makes it to your web page, you will want them to take action. For web page visitors to actually be converted from someone looking at your web page to someone who does something, like calling you, purchasing something, signing up for your newsletter, etc. You MUST INSTRUCT them on what you want them to do. Even if you have the most gorgeous website on the planet, it means nothing unless you make it clear what you want your website visitor to do. ASK, or better yet TELL them what you want them to do… Click here to contact us? Or Click here to purchase the thing that will make your life heaven on earth. Give them clear direction on what to do and why they should do it.
3. Make your customers feel comfortable. Throughout the selling process, whether its on your web page, in your email, over the telephone or in person, you want to win over the customer’s trust and make them feel relaxed so that they are receptive to your offer. To take advantage of hypnotic suggestion, you will need to think about things from your customer’s perspective and then formulate your ad copy, or sales pitch so that it eases any doubts, turns off their mental defensive logic barrier and engages the visitor’s subconscious in ways that will make it more likely they take action. I recommend speaking calmly and genuinely in your own voice. Address the needs of your customer. What will the product or service do for them? What problems in their life will go away? It makes no sense to talk-up your product or service blah, blah, blah if you don’t get the customer’s interest first.

You can wake up now, feeling relaxed refreshed and better than you have in years. You will not walk around the office clucking like a chicken, nor will you roll about the floor in a fetal position sucking your thumb… You’ll be wide awake, feeling alert and confident ready to sell, sell, sell.

Make YOUR Ad Copy Hypnotic With Joe Vitale’s Hypnotic Writing Wizard Software!

Suggested Reading and Links:

• Hypnotic Writing The Course
• Using Hypnosis as a Marketing Technique
• Increase Sales With Hypnotic Marketing
• Joe Vitale / Advanced Hypnotic Writing
• You Will Read This Article On Hypnotic Writing
• Hypnotic Writing – 10 Laws For Writing Hypnotic Letters
• The Hypnotic Induction – Three Ways Of Creating The Trance State

So, like this post implies – I’d like to pose the question: “Is Multimedia Marketing Text Ads SMS Text Marketing Right For YOUR Small Business?”…

Lets look at this in its fundamental perspective: A person, (lets say a potential consumer or an existing customer), sees a message on a print ad, billboard, sign, vehicle wrap, or whatever that reads something like this:

Text “I love Spam” to 90210, (or some other 5 digit or 6 digit short code).

The person that uses their cell phone to text that message to that short code automatically “opts in” to receive text messages from the business who subscribes to an SMS Multimedia Marketing service. From that point on, the cell phone user who originally texted, will potentially receive future text messages from that business. From a marketing perspective this is pretty cool and the statistics of how effective these text ads can be is staggering. From a client’s perspective, (like someone who has a cell phone), I’m not convinced they would appreciate having SPAM come to their cell phone message InBox, especially considering  that unless someone pays a premium for unlimited text messaging, they may be careful about inbound text messages that cost them about 10 cents or more each.

Aside from my opinion that I think in general consumer’s appreciate LESS SPAM, not MORE SPAM, the fact that your cell phone number is stored in a marketing list owned by a 3rd party is frightening… Who in the World would OPT-IN their private cell phone number for marketing purposes, so they can potentially be bombarded by text messages from people they don’t know at any hour of the night or day?

I would venture to say that MOST people who would pick up their cell phone and TEXT some silly key phrase, (technically that’s what they are referred as), to a strange 5 digit or 6 digit number, (SHORT CODE), really don’t know they are opting in for future marketing messages. As a matter of fact, I have personally seen during a recent visit to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL that Multimedia Marketing Text Ads / SMS Text Marketing can be extremely deceptive and alluring. At that theme park, I saw dozens of such campaigns posted on small sign-boards and via flat screen monitors throughout the park, sponsored by Ask.com which would ask some stupid question like “What are a bunch of snails called? A) herd, or B) walk.” — Text “herd” or “walk” to _ _ _ _ _ < insert short code here.

I would assume that throughout the day Ask.com collected 1,000′s of cell numbers from unsuspecting teens and adults waiting in roller coaster lines who were just having fun, or wanted to try and “win a chance” to jump to the front of the line. (Advancing to the front of the ride’s line or some savings percentage was typically the hook).

Speaking of “hooks”, that is what gets people to text a message to a short code in the first place. At Great America you could “WIN A CHANCE” to jump to the front of the roller coaster ride… A pizza parlor may employ a tactic like “WIN A FREE SLICE OF PIZZA when you text _ _ _ _ _ to _ _ _ _  _”.

Ah ha – I’ll bet if you own a small business, you could think of some great hooks huh? Lets look at the possibilities:

• An oil change place might promote “$10 off your next oil change by texting _ _ _ _ _ to _ _ _ _ _”.
• A barber shop might promote “free hair cut when you text _ _ _ _ _ to _ _ _ _ _ “.
• A golf course might promote “18 rounds free when you text _ _ _ _ _ to _ _ _ _ _ “.

I’m sure the wheels are spinning now… I’ll bet you have something you could give away or take a percentage off of that might be appealing enough to advertise and get some people to text you so you have their cell numbers right? In marketing terms this is called a “loss leader”… It might cost you as a business owner a little now, in exchange for future business.

Loss leaders are FANTASTIC and have been employed for years. For example, “buy three get one free” tire specials, or a really popular one recently from our friends at McDonald’s was the “two for $3 Mcmuffins or Biscuits”. Experts have estimated that it costs a business roughly $300 to attract a new customer via traditional advertising methods, so obviously a loss leader that costs a business only $3 or $15 is a huge bargain.

In addition to, (or instead of), loss leaders a small business could also utilize Multimedia Marketing Text Ads / SMS Text Marketing for creative contests, raffles, sweepstakes and more. The concept of this new marketing platform is virtually as limitless as your imagination and I admit the rewards could be exponential.

SAY WHAT??? Did I concede that Multimedia Marketing Text Ads are a good idea or that SMS Text Marketing is right for small business marketing? Well – Yes and no. This is where I get on the fence with this new technology. I think that if a business uses this ethically and periodically, its probably not a bad deal for the texter or the textee. Case in point, I love Pizza. A local pizza place near me offered special deals if I agreed to have them send automated voice mail marketing messages to my phone. Well, like I said I love pizza and since I ordered from this place anyway and they already had my number stored, I agreed. Over the course of a few months I received a few voicemail messages, recorded in the pizza parlor owner’s voice, which reminded me of the Monday / Tuesday dinner buffet. No big deal. The messages came through during the day, (they did not wake me up by sending it in the middle of the night). I would venture to say I am okay with that as a consumer. But what about the text ads? AS A CONSUMER I HAVE NEVER TEXTED BOP_BOP_BOP_DIDDLY_SQUAT to ANY SHORT CODE! I mean honestly… No way. Why would I want some 3rd party mystery short code organization having MY cell phone number?

Okay, okay… So MAYBE if a local vendor offered me some loss leaders just for letting them text me once in a while, I might go for that. I’m a sucker for a good loss leader and I like to help my local vendors. If its a place I already do business with I would be more inclined to get on board. The messages would have to be worthwhile however, otherwise it would be a nuisance and I would do LESS business with them not more. But ~ That’s just me.

In summary, I totally see the value in Multimedia Marketing Text Ads / SMS Text Marketing for small business. I am a firm believer in trying damn near anything at least once, just to see if it works. I would recommend a really generous loss leader and tread with caution in terms of how often you text message your customers.

The basic functions of all the Is Multimedia Marketing / Text Ads / SMS Text Marketing services I found online work something like this:

1. You create an account online.
2. You pay using a credit card, (typically a recurring monthly charge), for a package containing a certain number of “key phrases” and text messages that you can take advantage of. For example, 2 key phrases and 2000 text messages for around $100 per month seems like the going rate.
3. You login to monitor and manage your “opt-in” subscribers, (people’s cell numbers), track messages, create messages, auto-replies, etc.

Just for reference, I will provide at least a couple of links to follow if you’re interested in SMS Text Marketing…

• SHORT CODES http://www.usshortcodes.com/ This site I believe is where the companies go to register short codes. Think of it like a domain registry.
• SMS TEXT ADS http://www.eztexting.com/ This is a service you can use to try SMS text ads to see if they are right for your small business.

There are gobs of SMS text marketing services on the web you can find by Googling Multimedia Marketing SMS Text Marketing. The least expensive and easiest to get started is EZTEXTING (click the logo below).

There is also a multilevel marketing company named iZigg that is pushing their products via independent agents, perhaps in your area. They have a cool website that really does a good job of using videos to pitch the power of SMS Text Marketing… See http://izigg.com. If you have been approached by an iZigg agent, (touting their “90210″ short code), try checking out some other companies also, so you can make sure you choose a plan that suits your needs and budget.

That’s it then – My less than expert view on Multimedia Marketing via SMS Text Messaging.

The following is a repost of some valuable small business resources from an article at SiteProNews

With the large amount of information and resources available on the internet it can be quite a challenge for entrepreneurs and small business owners to find the small business help they need. From deciding whether to start a business, setting up or acquiring a business, raising capital, acquiring credit, marketing, social media marketing, working with customers, growing your business, working online, selling online, and much more it’s vital to have access to resources you can depend on.

Below are 25 small business information websites that provide small business owners support, news, information, resources, and tools to succeed in business:

1. AllBusiness.com has a variety of small business resources, advice, and business ideas for entrepreneurs and small businesses to start, manage, finance, and build a business.
2. Bplans.com offers free sample business plans, business plan software, business calculators, and articles on writing a business plan, starting a business, and other small business topics.
3. Business.com provides an extensive and helpful business search engine and business directory designed to help its users find the companies, products, services, and information they need to make the right business decisions.
4. Business.gov helps small businesses understand their legal requirements and locate government services from federal, state, and local agencies.
5. Businesscreditblogger.com has been the go-to source for business credit information, providing expert information about building business credit, business credit scoring, business credit reporting and business credit cards.
6. Copyblogger.com is an invaluable source for business owners wanting to learn more about how to attract more traffic, links, and subscribers for their company website.
7. Credit.com covers all aspects of personal credit and includes free interactive tools and unbiased product comparisons.
8. Entrepreneur.com offers a comprehensive range of practical information for small business owners including articles, videos, tools, newsletters, and message boards.
9. Entreworld.org is a collection of resources for entrepreneurs designed to support and help build entrepreneurial economies. The content on the site focuses on starting, growing, and locating support for your business.
10. Franchise.com serves the franchise community by serving both as a unique search tool for locating the right business for sale and a franchise industry resource that offers franchise information, franchise industry news, and resources.
11. Frannet.com provides an overview of franchising and provides helpful advice and guidance to determine if you are suited to being a franchise owner.
12. Inc.com is the online version of the magazine Inc. It provides information, products, services, and online tools for entrepreneurs.
13. The IRS Small Business Resource site covers a broad range of tax resources for entrepreneurs and small business owners including workshops, forms, and publications.
14. Knowthis.com is a leading information and resource website in marketing, market research, advertising, selling, promotion, and other marketing-related areas.
15. MoreBusiness.com is filled with sample business plans, marketing plans, templates, sample contracts and business agreements to help entrepreneurs start and grow a small business.
16. Mashable.com is the top source for news in social and digital media, technology, and web culture. The business section offers tips, tools, social media resources, and guides you will find extremely helpful.
17. SBA.gov is run by the U.S. government and it is dedicated to helping small business owners by giving a wide range of sources for technical, managerial, and financial help and assistance.
18. Score.org The SCORE Association is a nonprofit and resource partner with the SBA. It offers a wealth of free online and face-to-face business counseling, mentoring, and training for startups or for existing businesses hoping to grow.
19. Smallbiztrends.com is an award-winning online publication for small business owners and entrepreneurs. A great source to track, explore, and learn from trends affecting the small business market.
20. Socialmediatoday.com helps teach business owners how to leverage the power of social media with insightful information, tools, tips, and strategies.
21. Startupnation.com is a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs with easy-to-follow, practical information to start and grow a successful business.
22. Toolkit.com offers more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small business owners and entrepreneurs.
23. Vfinance.com is a great site for business owners searching for sources of venture capital. It provides a directory of venture capital firms and angel investor networks as well as sample business plan templates.
24. WelcomeBusinessUSA.com has an alliance with SCORE and is created exclusively for small businesses that are in their initial stages of development. A great resource if you’re thinking about starting a business.
25. Youngentrepreneur.com is one of the largest online forum communities for entrepreneurs worldwide. Learn and network with business professionals including venture capitalists, private investors, industry experts, inventors, and successful entrepreneurs.

One of the things that makes WordPress so darn powerful and cool is that it is “open source”, meaning that programmers from around the world tinker with it and create nifty applications called Plugins and Widgets. The same open source that makes it so neat is also it’s Achilles Heal however because the Plugins and Widgets are often created by freelancers and hobbyists who release their work for all the www to enjoy and implement.

The problem is that even if you find a WordPress Plugin or Widget that works well, it most likely won’t work for long. That is because the operating versions of WordPress itself, (the actual PHP script that is the backbone of the WordPress site and resides on your server), changes so frequently that open source developers simply don’t keep up with all the changes.

Case in point, several months ago I had searched for and found a nifty little Plugin named “Support Tickets”. This wonderful little Plugin replaced my contact form and integrated a powerful, yet easy to use Support Ticket system in my back-end “Dashboard”. The feature was so cool and revolutionized the way I could personally handle support inquiries and new contacts. I made sure to let all my existing clients know to use this form for quickest service instead of calling me, texting me or emailing me at any one of half a dozen email addresses. This wonderful Plugin made my life easier and helped my clients by ensuring they had a efficient and thorough way to ask for support.

Along comes a new WordPress Version, (upgrading from version 2.9.2 to 3.0.1)… The new version is installed flawlessly, but now my Plugin Support Tickets does not work correctly. Oh brother!!! So I visit the Plugin support pages, the forum at WordPress.org and try various things that might help get the plugin working again… Nope, it simply is incompatible with WordPress version 3.0.1 as are a slew of other older Plugins, (luckily I am not using).

Just today I finally deactivated the Support Tickets Plugin and replaced it with a simple contact form, (one of the few contact form plugins that still work with WP V3.0.1), named “Clean Contact”. If you need to get a hold of me, use the contact form. Its not as slick as the Support Tickets, but it works at least. Also, if YOU have a WordPress site that uses the Plugin “Support Tickets”, don’t upgrade your WordPress to V 3.0.1.

With regards to WordPress websites the lesson learned is this… Adhere to the old rule of thumb “If its not broke don’t fix it”. Just like we all have learned over and over that newer versions of anything are not always better, (thanks to Microsoft Windows, etc)… My advice is that if you have a WordPress site that you click the “Update” buttons on your dashboard with extreme caution. Not all updates are good…