Lisa Marie Designs

DIY WordPress Website Guides – coming soon

Lisa — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:15:19 +0000

DIY WordPress Website Guides on the way!!

I’m currently putting the finishing touches on my first round of WordPress DIY Guides! If you’ve been looking for help with your WordPress website but don’t want to hire a web designer to do it for you, this is the place for you.

To start with, I’ll have a guide for the initial WordPress installation and basic back-end setup. This will include recommendations for security plugins and SEO ramp-up.

I’m also working on a guide to help you once you’ve got your WordPress website up and running but could use a step-by-step guide to updating and maintaining your website.

That’s all for now folks, if you’re hanging around waiting, go ahead and join the mailing list and I’ll send you the occasional update and guide launch notices.

Rock on, fellow WordPress fanatics!!!

[Legal-ese: Lisa Marie Designs and LisaRoberts.com are not affiliated with WordPress or any other WordPress business entity.]

Custom Logo Design Client – Harmony Within

Tarja — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:31:59 +0000

I recently had the pleasure of working with client and friend, Karen McLaren of Harmony Within aromatherapy.

She wanted a new logo that expressed more of the vibrance and organic nature of her products and creative process. After some great conversations and some fine tuning, here is the final logo design, with which Karen is very, very happy!

Client Website Launch – Congrats to Bennett & Gail of IAWR!

Tarja — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:48:36 +0000

International Association of Women Runners

After many phone meetings, lots of hard work from all involved and a good number of belly laughs (one of the many reasons Bennett is a great client is his sense of humor), I am pleased to announce the launch of the “International Association of Women Runners” brand new WordPress website!! www.IAWR-connect.com

Congratulations and best wishes to Bennett and Gail!

New pyrographic artwork!

Tarja — Fri, 14 May 2010 00:25:14 +0000

Ja, it’s been a long while since I posted.

I’ve had my nose to the grindstone and been busting at the seams a bit. Enough so that I finally said, *enough* and took some time to finish up a pair of twin art pieces that had been hanging around, waiting patiently. So, here they are, long suffering but lovely (if I do say so myself)!

♥ Lisa

Protected: Stock Photography Resources

Lisa — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:24:21 +0000

Nervous About Social Networking?

Lisa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:00:28 +0000

One of the questions I am asked most frequently these days by clients is about how to get started using social networking as a business tool.

More specifically, they can see the appeal and are feeling pulled towards it, but are also quite nervous about the prospect of getting sucked into the social networking time-suck wormhole. Which is a really reasonable concern. I won’t deny having fallen into that wormhole a time or two before finding my bearings. Also, quite frankly, they are concerned about doing it “wrong” or looking like newbies or even worse, being perceived as inept in their initial fumblings. Again, not an unreasonable concern. Who wants to put their professional reputation on the line and end up looking like a wonk? No, me either.

Here’s what has worked well for me and what I have been telling my clients: ease into it.

One of the ways I get comfortable in a new scenario in life is to ease myself into it. I look around a bit, observe…see what folks are doing. This helps allay my fear that I am going to be way off base and gives me some clues as to things like etiquette and social cues. The same is true with social networking online.

Social Media Plan of Action!
Just because you sign up for a Twitter account doesn’t mean you have to start Tweeting right away. Sign up for an account, mark it private, and find some folks you think are interesting and follow them. Then just sit back and pay attention. How often do they post? Too often? At what point do you find yourself dismissing them? At what point do you find you’ve become engaged? What mix of personal vs. business posts do you respond to? All of these cues can inform how you want to form your own online presence.

Start Slowly
Once you’ve spent some time observing and figuring out the do’s and don’ts, dip your toe in. Spend 10 minutes a day on it. Send your first Tweet or Facebook status update and see how it goes. If the world doesn’t stop spinning, if you didn’t break the internet, if you get no discernible reaction, try it again. Start to get into a comfortable (and time limited) rhythm. I find myself realizing a few times a day that I’ve just had a conversation or a thought that would be helpful or fun to share.

Share the Love
Also, I find it really helpful when people retweet (yes, it’s a word) resources and posts. Doing so is a great way to get in the habit of posting without having to generate 100% original content. And people will certainly be happy (and, for the most part, thankful in a demonstrative way) that you’ve passed on what they had to share.

Off you go, set up your social media account, start lurking and then share the love!!

WordPress as an Intranet?

Lisa — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:17:18 +0000

Annie over at Community Public Relations (a FANTASTIC Phoenix PR firm) asked me yesterday whether WordPress has a plugin and/or back-end function that creates an intranet, in addition to a CMS website.

We’re working on some projects together and it’s one of the pitch points that clients are looking for in a custom WordPress website package. I’ve been doing some research and found that a few people are using WP as an intranet, but it seems like they’re just cobbling together a bunch of existing plugins for calendaring, inter-office communications, etc. If anybody has wisdom or experience to share re: specifics on setting up a WP site as both CMS and an efficient intranet? I’d love to hear from you!!!

wpNamedUsers

Ask Lisa: WordPress blog posts? Categories? Tags? Whuuut??

Lisa — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:09:25 +0000

I get a lot of questions from clients about blog posts and how categories and keywords relate when I am designing their WordPress website / blog. What are categories? Which should I use?? Do I have to use them at all??? Here is a handy-dandy article from Michael Martine @ Remarkablogger that nicely spells it out:

http://remarkablogger.com/2008/10/27/blog-pages-posts-categories-and-tags-help/

Are You an Intuitive Entrepreneur?

Lisa — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:21:59 +0000

Or do you suspect you are? Or wish you were?? I just launched a new WordPress website for my longtime, fantastic and flat-out AWESOME teacher, healer and client, Karen Lamark Wilson and the International Association of Intuitive Entrepreneurs! Take a look and see if it’s the place for you > www.IAIE-connect.com. If so, let me know what you think, it’s definitely the place for me, I already joined!!!

Lisa Marie Designs Launches a New Client WordPress Website

Lisa — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:56:00 +0000

Lisa Marie Designs just launched a brand new WordPress website for Laurie Edwards-Tate of At Your Home Familycare!

Laurie is one of my long-time, much-loved clients with whom I have worked on everything from her very first website to creating an industry-leading online learning center. She recently told me that although she was an admitted technophobe (her words, not mine!), she knew that she wanted to move forward with her website as well as her social media strategy. We came up with a plan, sorted out the details and moved ahead. In 2 (very busy) weeks, we carried over all of her previous website content, built a new WordPress site, added some blog posts and got her off and running into the wonderful world of Web 2.0!! Welcome Laurie, I hope you find it a hospitable, growth-promoting and life-affirming place to be!

View the new At Your Home Familycare website »