First, you need to be sure you have a domain name (what will show up in the address bar of your website). For example, this blog is myfrontporchswing.com. Next, be sure to have a hosting account. While several offer great options, I have had great experience with Bluehost (affilate link). (Read more about understanding a self-hosted blog/

Once you have set up your hosting account, you will want to log in to your control panel. Many hosting companies use cpanel, which makes it easy to follow. Most hosting companies also have a 1-click install of WordPress, making the setup process simple. *Note- your host may not offer this feature. You can still install WordPress, just in a different way. We’ll cover that another time.

In most cases, you are dealing with cpanel and a simple script install. After you click on the WordPress icon, you will see this screen:

Click Install and follow the directions on your screen. When it is finished, you will get a message that tells you where WordPress was installed and your username and password. IMPORTANT: Write this down! You will need it to get into your blog.

Go to your login page (http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin).

Enter your username and password and you will now see your WordPress Dashboard!

WordPress is now installed.

One important detail after you get started is to customize your profile’s url. Just as it’s important to set a custom Facebook name and Twitter Profile name to reflect you and your brand, the same can be applied to LinkedIn. Make it easy for people to identify and connect with you in just a few simple steps.

1. Log in to your LinkedIn profile.

2. On the upper right corner, click on the arrow that displays your name and select settings.

3. Scroll to the bottom where it says “helpful links” and click on “edit public profile settings”.

4. At the bottom of this page, there is an option that says “Customize your public profile URL”. Click this box and make your change.

That’s it! Now you’re all set with your custom URL for LinkedIn and ready to network. Bonus tip: head to this link for your own profile buttons: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/profile-badges. 

To do

@ people. I know this sounds obvious, but talk to people. Even if they don’t you. Twitter is all about meeting new people and networking, so go ahead and talk to someone. Even if they ignore you, there are millions of other people who won’t.

Share interesting content. While updating your Twitter stream with random thoughts throughout your day is definitely allowed (such as daily pictures of #coffee), be sure you are tweeting out links that are valuable in some way to people. Whether you are sharing tips and suggestions or even a humorous break, people will follow you if you share interesting content.

Interact with your followers. If you only share your links and do not really engage with people, then others won’t find you appealing to follow. People want to have a conversation, so they follow those who will talk back.

Not to Do

Follow someone and unfollow after they return your follow. Trying to ramp up your numbers this way is just plain rude, and eventually, people will catch on.

@ your links to people. When you have something valuable to share with someone, by all means, share away. But spamming links at people will just get you blocked from their streams- and probably reported to Twitter.

#FF people you don’t follow. #FF is the Twitter hashtag for Friday Follow . You send out suggestions of who your followers should follow and you find new people to follow. Great concept, right? Except, every so often, I will get random #FF mentions by people who don’t follow me. Um, if you’re not following me, why tell others to? I am not going to follow you just because you mention me- Twitter is about interaction.

What are some of your Twitter rules?

• First, login to your gmail account. On the right hand side, select the gear for your settings.

• Next, scroll down under the general questions until you see Signature.

• In the signature box, you can enter a text signature, such as your name, your blog url, Twitter handle, or even a confidentiality notice.

• Alternatively, you can crate a graphic signature as well, or insert a graphic to accompany your text signature. Simply upload your image to your blog or a photo-hosting site (such as photobucket) so you can get the image link. Insert the image link into the url prompt in your signature.

That’s it! That’s all it takes to add a custom signature to your email messages. Again, a great way to further your branding when communicating with your community, potential clients, and readers!

]]> http://business2blogger.com/how-to-set-a-custom-gmail-signature/feed/ 0 http://business2blogger.com/how-to-set-a-custom-gmail-signature/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Business2bloggercom/~3/JC8l0bwWnLw/ http://business2blogger.com/three-things-to-put-in-your-blogs-footer/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:38:34 +0000 Ashley http://business2blogger.com/?p=5107

The footer space in your blog is often an underutilized and overlooked opportunity to share more content with your readers. While trying to ensure all of your important information is shared throughout your site, many details are often put in the sidebar. Although your sidebar is a crucial element of your blog, some items are better left for the footer as to keep from cluttering too much of the blog. Three things you can quickly and easily relocate include:

Community badges/buttons

Showing support is one of the best things you can do in the blogging community, and sharing buttons and badges from your site can be a great way to do just that. However, it can become messy in your sidebar quickly if you try to show too many of these. While putting a larger number of these badges on a separate page to take them off of your home page can be a great solution, you can use your footer to highlight a few of the main ones you want to showcase.

Social Icons

One of the easiest way to foster communication is by making it as easy as possible for your readers to connect with you through social icons on your blog. Give them multiple options to follow you on Twitter, Like your fan page on Facebook, or subscribe to your RSS feed. These are items that should also be in your sidebar, but repeating them in the footer gives them a bit more of a feature.

Favorite Posts

Depending on how much information you feature on your blog, your footer can be a long way down. Even if it’s not, you have managed to keep a reader’s interest enough to investigate your blog further. If they have made it to the bottom of your blog, you want to give them somewhere else to go. Make a list of your favorite posts or use a plugin that displays readers’ favorites. Make it easy for readers to browse more of your content.

These are just some of the items that can find a home in your footer, helping you to keep your blog neat, uncluttered and more organized. Always make sure that ways to contact you are easily found throughout your blog, even if you include it in your footer as well. This is a perfect opportunity to take a look at your blog and see what you can reorganize.

What are some of your favorite uses of the blog footer? Leave a link to an example if you have one! 

Hi there! I’m back to continue on the topic of creating your own header!

Last time we talked about the ways to find commercial use graphics & fonts. This time I made a quick video to show you how to use a free image manipulation software to create your header.

I used the free downloadable image manipulation software Gimp to create this header.

Storefront image is from the Boutique Storefront kit from Babystar Designs on MyGrafico.com

Fonts used: RNS Camelia & Riddle

Colors: Black ( #000000) & pink (#f42467)

If you like what you just read please consider Subscribing to Creative Kristi for more tips & tricks!

Pinterest has been taking the social media world by storm lately. Pinning this recipe, sharing that board, sharing your pins on Facebook and Twitter. As a premier content curation and sharing site, Pinterest has taken social media to the next level with a buzz of excitement not seen since Twitter erupted onto the scene. So, with all the buzz about it.. how exactly do you use it and what are some tips?

Here, we share some great references for Pinterest.

Getting Started:

• Beth from Home Stories A to Z has a great video tutorial on using pinterest on her blog- check it out for a video how-to.
• BlogHer has a great tutorial on Getting Started
• Not quite sure what it is? Check out 2Wired 2Tired’s What is Pinterest Tutorial.

Usage & Tips:

• Why should you use Pinterest? Everything Etsy shares 5 reasons to use Pinterest here.
• Still getting started and looking for tips? Check out these great Pinterest Tips from Type A Parent.
• Jessica Watson shared how to leverage pinterest for awesome traffic right here on the B2B Blog.

•  Looking for something fun to share your Pinterest adventures? behbehblog.com offers a tutorial on how to make a stuff pinned from your blog on pinterest button.
• Make sure you mind your manners with this post from Crafter Minds – Miss Manners, Pinterest Style.

It is important to note that you can change both your username and your actual name. So, when you see someone’s profile, you will see their name and their handle. In my case, my name is Ashley and username is @PorchSwingMom:

To change your details:

1. Log in to your Twitter account at https://twitter.com.

2. Navigate to the “Settings” Option underneath your username and image on the upper right corner.

3. On the main page of your settings is your username. This is also what displays as your profile link, ie twitter.com/usernamehere. This is what you want to change to reflect your branding change.

4. Click on profile settings if you want to change your actual name:

You’re all set! You now changed your Twitter username and/or display name.

If you’re thinking making this switch, make sure to review MomComm’s Twitter Name Change Checklist so you don’t miss a thing!

Have you ever changed your Twitter name?

1. Set a schedule

While this may seem an obvious detail, it can actually be one of the most often overlooked things as well. Set aside the times you will spend on your blogging and social media activities. Try breaking it down into several sub-categories, such as time to spend blogging, time to spend commenting and visiting other blogs, and time you will spend on various social media platforms. Keep in mind that this can be used as a guide and does not have to be followed to the second- but, having a written-out schedule can help increase your efficiency.

2. Turn off distractions

What? Twitter can be counter-productive?! While it can be hard to turn away from the latest tweets whizzing by or the most current Facebook updates, turning off any distractions is crucial to efficiency success. Set a timer and write for a designated amount of time- you’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish when you are focusing solely on blogging.

3. Keep posts in draft.

Do you ever have a great idea pop into your head when you are way too busy to stop and write? Or have you ever sat down with time and focus to write, but stumbled into writer’s block? Keep a running list of topics as you think of them, and develop the posts when you have dedicated writing time. Maintaining backup posts is great for times you are unable to blog or are just plain stuck.

What are some of your suggestions for improving blogging efficiency? 

If you have spent any time on the internet (or watching the news… listening to the radio… etc) lately, you have probably heard about SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act. Okay, stopping online piracy- sounds good right?

Except it’s not.

What exactly is SOPA?

From Wikipedia, “ The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites.”

What does that mean?

That means that if you- and yes, I mean any one of you with content on the web- is found to have infringed on some copyright,  you can be prosecuted criminally, have sites like paypal refuse to work with you, google refuse to list you in search engines, and more.  While touted as a means to protect people and businesses from copyright infringement, it instead worries many as a frightening piece of legislation that has the coloring of future censorship.

Mashable provides great insights into the entire legislation. Pertaining to many web sites is this section:

Furthermore, you may be painted as infringing if you, the site owner, “take deliberate actions to avoid confirming a high probability of the use of…the site to carry out acts [of copyright infringement or circumvention].” This means if you deliberately decide that it’s not cost-effective to screen every piece of content and determine whether or not it is copyright-free before it is posted to your site (whether there is infringing content on your site or not), then you are labeled as an “Internet site…dedicated to theft of U.S. property.” Simply the act of not actively screening every piece of content makes you a criminal under SOPA.

Read the full analysis of the bill from Mashable here: http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/

What’s the deal with the blackout?

From Wikipedia: “This is a project page to determine what action is required on the part of the Wikipedia community regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act(SOPA) and our response to it (if any). Jimmy Wales asked for community input on a possible database lock, similar to what the Italian Wikipedia did in October 2011 in response to a proposed bill in the Parliament of Italy”

Read more and follow updates here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative

Government issues are always tough. It’s important to manage copyright infringement– but it’s more important not to be censored.

Be sure to read more about SOPA:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3261:

http://sopastrike.com/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57360665-503544/sopa-pipa-what-you-need-to-know/

http://mashable.com/2012/01/18/sopa-dark-ages/

http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/