If you are looking for some tips on how to get started with video on your blog you might want to check out the guest post I did yesterday over at Blog for Profit.

Grant Griffiths is someone I consider a friend, even if he is a lawyer by training. He’s the owner of the fabulous Headway WordPress theme which powers SuccessCREEations. (Check out this Headway review to see why I made the switch.)

Anyway, it you want to see what I had to say, go check out Using Video to Kick Your Blog in the Butt.

Weaving social media into your business marketing plan doesn’t have to be a complicated affair. The basic principles are simple and straight forward. In fact I’ll lay out the whole explanation for you right here. It’s yours for free to get you started with social media today.

Are you ready? Here you go!

Basic Truth

Before we get to the plan we need to understand this basic foundational principle.

People do business with you because they know you, like you, and trust you.

Unless all three things are in place you will have a tough time having a sustainable business. Miss any one element to that and, unless you are selling a commodity that people are buying purely on price, people will nearly always choose to buy from someone else.

Get In Front of People

In order for people to know who you are you have to get in front of them. Most all business people understand this, that’s the whole point of advertising. The more eyeballs that see an ad, the more valuable, and expensive it is.

Right now there are hundreds of millions of people on social media sites every day. This year social media sites passed pornography sites as the number 1 web traffic sites. As far as the web is concerned now, social media is the biggest traffic driver out there.

And the best part? We can get in front of those people without spending any money! All we have to do is join those communities, and engage them by becoming a valuable member.

Then people with know us and we’re 1/3 the way there.

Build an Audience

The second part of the equation is having people like us. That means we have to build an audience. We do that by being interesting.

For example, a quick scan through the top 50 most followed Twitter accounts on Twitterholic shows the most popular accounts are overwhelmingly celebrities, media companies, and big name brands, all with over a million followers.

Think about why celebrities command such big audiences. People find them interesting.

Now we may not be able to command nearly 4 million followers on Twitter like Ashton Kutcher does, but the more interesting we are, the larger an audience we’ll attract.

That means just droning on about our business, or “automating” the process won’t really help us in the long run. We may see some short term gain. But people see through that kind of thing fairly quickly. Instead be your interesting authentic self.

Interesting Builds an Audience.

That gets us two-thirds the way there. But there’s still one more piece…

Be Helpful

One the best ways to build trust is to be helpful. When you see people asking questions in your area of expertise give them the answer. Point them in the right direction. Volunteer info.

And you don’t have to point them back to your own website all the time either. Only point to your own site if it is the best resource you can think of to solve the problem. People generally remember folks who do nice things for them.

Over time people will begin to respect your expertise and see the value in what you have to offer. With consistency you build trust.

Eventually you’ll find that people start referring their friends to you as the one to talk to when they run into a problem you can solve. Those referrals will translate into increased business.

It all starts with being helpful to build trust.

In Video Form

If you’d rather see this in video form check out this one. It’s less than 3 minutes and is just an example of the great stuff you can get, for free, over on ChrisCree.TV. Did I mention they’re yours to watch for free?

Yesterday someone asked me what’s the best way to get started with WordPress. Good question.

With its free code and famous 5 minute installation, WordPress is a great platform for the do-it-yourself website and folks looking to have a top notch website on a very tight budget. Since WordPress installation is so straight forward should you go ahead, dive in and start using WordPress on your own?

In my opinion it depends.

That’s the way I started years ago. But one thing you should consider is how much time you want to spend figuring things out and searching through the WordPress forums for answers. I’ve spent many hours in that maze finding answers to all sorts of problems.

It really depends on how much time you have available, what your budget is and most importantly what your goals are. The good news is you have options.

Doing It Yourself

The least expensive, most time consuming way is to do everything yourself. It can be a great way to go if you have a very tight budget and lots of time. I see this as the right answer for the hobbyist and people who really want to learn how the back end of WordPress works.

That was me when I installed my first WordPress blog. I had outgrown Blogger so I moved over to WordPress 1.5 and loved the freedom. That was back when WordPress was considered to be just a blogging platform.

I spent hours and days figuring out the best ways to set things up and get things done with WordPress. While WordPress does a pretty good job “out of the box” with things like SEO, it turns out there are a whole bunch of things – settings and plugins, etc. – that can be adjusted behind the scenes which make a big difference in how effective your site is at attracting traffic.

It was my hobby and I loved it. Unfortunately most people don’t have that kind of time available to get their website up and running as effectively as possible.

Middle Ground

The next step up I recommend is to hire a reputable service to do the basic installation and setup for you so you know it’s done right. They take care of the stuff that’s left out of the “5 minute install” and make sure those important back end settings are optimized.

Then you are free to focus on creating content for your site because that should be one of your top priorities. The content on your website is the biggest attractor to bring people into your site. Too many website owners starting out get caught up in the aesthetics of their sites and don’t leave themselves enough time to create quality content. And then they wonder why they have so little traffic!

Hint: Pretty does not attract the audience. It’s nice sure. But mostly it’s, um, pretty.

If you are looking for a good cost effective way to get your WordPress site up and running quickly one service I recommend without reservation is The Website Habitat by Dawud Miracle. I’ve know Dawud and his work for years and he really knows his way around WordPress. I know he sets his client’s sites up the right way.

The only down side to a middle ground solution like this is that in order to keep the cost down you typically have a limited selection of choices on how your site design. It’s not a big deal for many, especially if you are looking to get your site up, running, and optimized as quickly as possible.

The Full Monte

The other alternative is to hire a firm like SuccessCREEations to create a custom solution for you. Our New Media Hub is a the answer for people who need a completely custom website that showcases their business and draws in traffic from all their social media outposts.

Of course the most valuable part of that package is access to my years of knowledge and experience with the things it takes to make your website a success. It may not mean much coming from me, but the truth is I’m really good at this WordPress stuff & I can equip you to make your site much more effective so it brings in more business and you make more money.

What’s the best way to get started with WordPress? Depends on how important earning money from your site is to you.

Most people agree that much of our everyday communication is non-verbal. The common number thrown around is 93% because of some study in California back in the 70’s. Seems high to me because words are important. But hey, I’m not in California. Or in the 70’s.

Regardless a whole bunch gets left out when just looking at words on a page. Or a screen.

If you’ve ever had an email exchange spin out of control because someone read something into your words that you completely didn’t intend to be there you’ve seen this in action. They attached different non-verbal cues to your email than you did. That can get messy.

One of my favorite exercises in acting class involves taking a line or little snippet of dialog and coming up with as may different ways, moods, and emotions to say it. Depending on how you use your face, voice and body when you say something can completely change what you mean.

Consider the phrase, “Yeah. Right.”

Depending on how you say it it could mean you completely agree, completely disagree, or some shade in between.

Enter Video

It turns out that the overwhelming majority of people on the web prefer to consume their content via video versus text, to the tune of nearly 90%! Combine that with the technology improvements going on and we begin to understand the huge increase in video sharing on the web these days.

That being the case, one great way to spice up your business blog is by adding video. It’s easier than you think.

For one thing you don’t even have to make your own videos. YouTube has tons of great business related  videos that you can embed right in your blog. When you find one that relates to your audience you can embed it as easy as copy/paste.

Even so I would encourage you to make you own videos. That’s far less complicated than you probably think too. And you don’t need a whole bunch of expensive equipment either.

One of the top selling electronic gadgets on Amazon.com right now is a Flip HD video camera. You can get it for less than $175 and be recording high definition video for your business right away.

But you don’t even need to get that “fancy.”

So far I’ve recorded all my videos on Chris Cree.TV using just the webcam on my laptop and a screen capture program. Since I’m on a Mac I use ScreenFlow. For Windows users I’ve heard good things about Camtasia.

Here’s an example of what you can put together that way. Remember, it doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective!

By this point Google Chrome is old news since it’s been out for months. At least for Windows users it has anyway. For Google, releasing Chrome in a Mac compatible version hasn’t been much of a priority.

With a few glaring exceptions, these days most companies have moved away from treating Mac users like inconvenient step children. (Can you hear me Intuit? Your Quickbooks & Quicken support for Mac is horrid!)

And since Mac users make up a disproportionate number of the technology early adapters I’m surprised that Google Chrome’s Mac version is so far behind Chrome for Windows.

Even now when you go to the Google Chrome for Mac web page they say it is still in development. But if you’ll give Google your email address they’ll shout at you when it’s released. I did that. Months ago.

This past week I finally got tired enough of waiting to check it out for myself that I went to the Chrome for Mac developer download page and got a copy for myself to take it for a spin.

Here’s the thing: It’s a fantastic browser.

Strengths of Google Chrome

Speed. The first thing I noticed is how incredibly fast Google Chrome is. I mean it’s crazy fast. With everything. When you launch it, it barely bounces in the dock twice before it opens. Most web pages load way faster than with Firefox or Safari. And it shuts down quickly too!

When you’re on the web all day long like I am, saving a couple seconds on every single page load adds up to a big increase in productivity by the end of the day.

Accurate rendering. I ran Chrome through the Acid3 Test & it passes. Unlike Firefox. That means you see what you’re supposed to on the web with Chrome.

Easy to Set Up. When I first installed Chrome on my Mac it gave me a choice to import my bookmarks and settings from either Firefox or Safari (or neither). It brought all my bookmarks and saved passwords over seamlessly. They’re are a bunch of Themes you can choose from to customize the look of your browser. I chose one that looks like brushed metal. Seemed chrome-like to me.

Weaknesses

Still in “development.” Since Chrome for Mac is still in development you shouldn’t be surprised if you find some bugs now and then. I’ve only seen a couple problems since I started using it. For example one time a text box on a form wouldn’t let me enter anything. But I am writing this post using Chrome.

No bookmark management yet. I have way too many bookmarks in my browsers so I organized them into folders. With Chrome for Mac all bookmark folders are at the bottom of the rest of the bookmarks under “other bookmarks.” So to get to a bookmark in a folder I have to scroll down the bottom of my list, go across to a fly out list of folders, then up to the appropriate folder, and finally across to the bookmark I want.

I’m looking forward to the manage bookmarks feature being turned on so I can rearrange them for an easier workflow.

No 1Password Integration. Yet. This is a big one for me, and the primary reason why Chrome won’t be my default browser on my Macs anytime soon. 1Password is a fantastic tool for managing website login credentials for your Mac. It syncs your logins across browsers and even syncs between my desktop & my laptop.

1Password was one of the first programs I bought when I made the switch to Macs, and with the number of websites I got to every day between social media sites & client sites it is a huge productivity saver for me. Until Chrome for Mac actually comes out of development I don’t expect the good folks at 1Password will invest too much time integrating with it.

Bottom Line

At the end of the day Google Chrome for Mac is an excellent browser. It’s even tempting to make it my default browser. Google seems bent on raising the bar for web browsers and the winners will be all of us consumers who will have better tools to access the web.

But for now I’ll stick to Firefox, even though it is slower. With all the extensions I’m using on Firefox (especially 1Password) it is still a more versatile tool over all for my work needs.

One thing every entrepreneur and most small business people struggle with is too much to do and too little time to do it in. Our (yes I fit into both of those categories myself) plates are full already so the thought of having to add time to write content for a business blog can be enough to keep many businesses who could benefit from a blog from even getting started.

Business blog posts can be short and sweet!

I know exactly how that goes. My posting frequency here on SuccessCREEations has been erratic to say the least. I’ve gotten so “busy” with client work that I don’t post much at all. I would joke that “the cobbler’s kids have no shoes” and explain that’s why I neglect my own blogging.

Yet I tell my busy clients that blogging for their business is easy and there is time to do it because it’s an important part of their overall online marketing strategy. This weekend it occurred to me that I was being a bit, um, hypocritical telling business owners that they have time to blog if I’m not going to make it a priority myself!

The good news is, writing blog posts for your business blog doesn’t have to be some long, drawn out affair. They can be short and sweet.

I tell my clients that a business blog post only needs to be between 180 and 300 words to be effective. That means they only need to be a few short paragraphs, about the length of a typical email.

That means most business blog posts can be written in a few short minutes.

In fact, this post took me right at 10 minutes to write, including time to find the image and resize it, and is 329 words long, which puts it at the “long” end of a typical business blog post.

When posting to your business blog is made that easy, there really is time for it!

It doesn’t matter whether you develop lots of WordPress sites for clients like I do,  are just getting started with WordPress, or are somewhere in between you are going to fall in love with the power, flexibility, ease and control that the Headway premium theme puts at your fingertips. Headway makes complex design changes – things that until now have required messing with html, css, php and all that complicated stuff  – as easy as clicking and dragging with your mouse.

Combine that with its power Search Engine Optimization (SEO) control and I’m confident your competition will soon be using Headway even if you’re not.

Why Listen to Me?

First here’s a little background about me before I get into this review so that you can decide if I know what I’m talking about or not.

I’ve been working with WordPress for going on 4 years and it’s been a significant part of my full-time income for over a year and a half. In addition to consulting on new media strategy and training I have built dozens of websites for clients with WordPress, WordPress MU, and BuddyPress.

If you Google the term “WordPress support” (as of this writing at least) you will find our WordPress Support page on the first page of results. Pretty much the only pages that rank higher are for the various WordPress help forums and the like, which means that SuccessCREEations is about the first place listed where someone can pick up the phone and get personalized help to with their specific WordPress problem. And trust me, we do get calls!

My recently launched all-video site ChrisCree.TV is gaining attention as a go-to source for folks to learn about how new media can help them grow their businesses. I speak at national conferences and have contributed to books and periodicals as an author on new media and blogging topics.

I have worked extensively with, and am an affiliate for, several of the most prominent premium WordPress themes and regularly recommend the most appropriate one directly to my clients depending on their specific needs. I know several of their developer/owners and consider them friends. And of course I am using an affiliate link to Headway in this review.

For those of you who don’t know me, reviewing a premium WordPress theme is not something I usually do. Look through the three years of archives here at SuccessCREEations and you will not find blog post reviewing any other premium WordPress theme. Not even the ones with higher affiliate payouts. That’s how impressive I think Headway is.

But enough of my credentials. Feels too much like bragging anyway. On to the review.

A Theme Framework

The first thing that struck me when I saw Headway is that it is much more than just a WordPress theme. Headway is an entire theme framework that makes it easy to quickly build vastly different looking sites.

Usually it is pretty obvious when sites have the same theme. With the exception of different colors, headers, and a few other relatively minor changes they often look a lot alike.

But Headway makes modifying page layouts so simple that it is really easy to quickly create a very unique design for your site. For example, compare the front page here at SuccessCREEations with the Headway site, Legal Practice Pro, and John Haydon’s site and you’ll find 4 very different looking web sites.

Yet all of them are Headway sites.

Now I routinely take premium WordPress themes, modify the CSS style sheets and images for a custom look and feel. But Headway makes it easy to change nearly everything right from the WordPress dashboard without needing CSS skils.

Total Control

Headway gives you total control over the look and layout of your site from the WordPress Dashboard. Here are just some of the things you can change on the fly:

• Website width
• Header
  • image or text
  • and placement
• Main Navigation Position
• Breadcrumbs
  • turn them on or off
  • adjust display position
• Post Meta Data is fully customizable
• Featured Posts
• Excerpts
• Comment Avatars
• Font Types and Sizes – for 13 different site elements
• Colors
  • for 37 site elements
  • by hex, RGB, or slider
• Navigation Customization
  • Link Order
  • Which Pages Included
• SEO
  • Page & Post Title Tags
  • Keywords
  • Descriptions
  • NoFollow options
  • NoIndex options
• Native Post to Twitter

The list goes on.  Headway has a section to add custom scrips to the header or footer, assign an rss feed url (great for Feedburner), designate a favicon, and add an affiliate link back to Headway if you happen to have one.

And that doesn’t even get to the best part of all…

Of Leafs and Tables

Headway introduces truly simple-to-modify modular content areas between the header and footer.

The analogy they use to describe what they do is a dining room table. Most of our dining room tables have the ability to make them bigger when you have guests. All you have to do is add a leaf or two and your table gets bigger so you can seat more people.

In the same way, Headway has a Layout Editor where you can add more page elements by adding more “leafs”. Just click the “Add a Leaf” link in the Headway Layout Editor and a menu pops up with the option to add any of 8 different kinds of leafs to you page layout.

Simply choose the one you want based on the type of content you want displayed in that page element and click the “Add” link. Headway adds that element to the page for you.

Then you can click the “edit” link on the leaf to customize the exact content within that leaf.

On each leaf you can also use your mouse to set

• Width
• Height – exact height or fluid
• Alignment – left or right

Either with a click, or simply by dragging an edge of the leaf in the layout editor.

You really need to watch the page layout demo video on the Headway site to appreciate how much they have just simplified layout design for WordPress users with this feature.

The first time I saw it my jaw dropped.

Because Headway allows you to have a completely different layout for each page of your WordPress web site if you want. All managed right in your dashboard. No more messing with php files, css and html.

Just click and drag your mouse and you’ve got a brand new layout – in seconds!

Sidebars Made Simple

Did you notice in the image above that one of the leaf options is for a widget ready sidebar? With Headway you can now add sidebars on the fly. No more need to go edit your functions.php file to get a new sidebar.

So now you can add a widgetized area to your website pretty much any size wherever you want. And you don’t need any programming skills to make it happen.

Skin Your Headway

They’ve built in the ability to add skins to customize your Headway theme. I haven’t had a chance to play with the skins yet, but the theme is set up so that you can download and install a skin for your Headway theme and have your own customized look in no time.

That’s going to be really attractive to users who want a little more customization but lack the time or ability to do the little bit of css work involved. Plus I can see a secondary Headway skin market for designers to create custom Headway skins.

Who is Headway For?

Obviously Headway makes creating custom layouts easy for people of modest technical means. WordPress beginners will love the ability to make their site look exactly the way they want without having to pay a designer to make the customized changes they want.

But I completely see how Headway will be perfect for someone like me too. Sure I can do everything that Headway does manually. But I can’t customize layouts anywhere near as quickly manually as I can with Headway.

Headway is perfect for smaller design and WordPress customizing shops, single designers, etc. because it speeds up the design and layout process so we can be more productive and more profitable. Just create a skin for your client and you are ready for delivery.

And here’s another juicy tidbit. The good folks tell me they are already working on a WordPress MU compatible version of Headway. That’s got me really excited. To be able to truly manage all my client sites in one place and give them completely completely different custom websites from within the same theme framework will make my life so much easier!

Bottom Line

Headway is a fantastic new theme. I’ve said before that it’s a game changer & I completely believe the bar for all WordPress premium theme developers has been raised a little higher with it’s release. Their price point is competitive with other premium WordPress themes out there now. Bottom line, Headway is a bargain that is sure to give the other custom themes a run for their money.

Most people prefer video over text. The ratio is something like 90%. And that makes me a bit unusual since I’m in that other 10%.

Even though I prefer text, I get that most of you probably prefer video. So I thought, why not start making videos to help people get the info better?

Launching ChrisCree.TV

It seemed a better move to create a new “video only” site rather than confusing things here by mixing video & text posts. I’ve been working on it for the past several weeks to get everything ready. And today is the day the veil gets pulled back.

ChrisCree.TV is now live!

The site already has several videos and we’ll be focusing on New Media topics. We’ll be covering a range of topics from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, blogging and the search engines to the latest tools, as well as strategies and techniques for more effective business and marketing communication online.

Hopefully “New Media” will strike the right balance and allow enough variety to keep things interesting. For all of us.

There’s More!

As the late Billy Mays used to say, “But wait, there’s more!” (OK, so he probably said it in all caps.)

There is more juicy goodness to sink your teeth into over at ChrisCree.TV.

One of the cool things were doing over there is offering a free Weekly Digest email. Yes I said free. I’m a big fan of free so just had to give something of value away.

The Weekly Digest is a newsletter, but with a twist.

You see with just about every video I produce I am also creating a downloadable PDF document with extra info. Some of the things that the PDF’s have include:

• Summary of the video content (for you 10 percenters who prefer text)
• Links to sites and tools mentioned in the videos
• Extra info that couldn’t fit into the video
• Insider info

Once a week, usually on Sunday afternoon, I send out a the Weekly Digest email that will recap each video, provide links to the videos and the PDF downloads, AND recap posts from over here on SuccessCREEations too!

Not only that but I occasionally make special offers and discounts available only to subscribers.

Here’s the thing. The only way to access all that extra content is to subscribe via email. The PDF’s are a subscriber only benefit.

You can subscribe right here at SuccessCREEations. Simply fill out the form at the top of the page with your name and email.

Or better yet, head on over to ChrisCree.TV, check out a few videos, and sign up over there.

Enjoy!

WordPress is an amazing web publishing platform with tremendous capabilities right out of the box. But what truly makes WordPress my platform of choice is the dizzying array of plugins that you can download (for free, mind you) to customize things exactly the way you want.

Plugins are simply bits of code that you can add on (or “plug in”) that can do all sorts of things beyond the basic program.

As of this morning, WordPress had 5,546 plugins listed in their Plugin Directory that had been downloaded a total of well over 35 million times. That’s a whole lotta code!

Yesterday Rober Hruzek asked me which plugins I recommended. Well the short answer is, “It depends on what you want it to do.” But then he came back and asked if there were any “must haves” in my book.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that for me I’m a fan of things that make my life easier. So, with that in mind, here are 21 WordPress plugins that I have found make my life easier. I’m guessing they’ll do the same for you.

I don’t mean this to be an exhaustive list by any means. Heck, I’ve got more than twice that many installed here on SuccessCREEations alone. And not every one of these will work on every blog. Some of these are very popular plugins and some are more obscure.

Here’s my list:

Spam Protection

1. Akismet – [download]

Pretty much the gold standard of WordPress spam protection. Akismet comes from the creators of WordPress and is one of 2 plugins bundled with WordPress when you download it.

2. Defensio – [download]

Defensio is the spam protection plugin I prefer to use on all my own sites. The way Defensio displays spam in the spam folder makes it easier for me to review more quickly.

Actually I keep both plugins installed and updated (though only activate one at a time). The reality is tech stuff breaks and both systems have occasional outages where spam gets through. That way, if I see a problem with the one I’m using I can deactivate it, activate the other one, and never miss a beat. It’s all about making it easy in my book.

Utilities

3. Google XML Sitemaps – [download]

Having your site rank well in the search engines is paramount. Once it’s set up the sitemap plugin will take care of keeping the major search engines abreast of what your site is up to.

4. WordPress Database Backup – [download]

Servers crash from time to time. (Did I mention tech stuff breaks?) Having a recent backup of your database will prevent that sickening feeling of loss should you experience one. This plugin can automate that process for you. Oh, and don’t forget to back up your theme and upload files too!

5. All in One SEO Pack – [download]

WordPress is inherently SEO friendly, especially when it is set up correctly. That said, the All in One SEO Pack can supercharge your performance in the search engines and help you bring in more of that search traffic.

6. Page Link Manager – [download]

Do you have pages on your site that you don’t want cluttering up your main navigation? Page Link Manager creates a list where you can check which pages you want included and leave the others out.

7. Exclude Pages From Navigation – [download]

A twist on the plugin above. Instead of creating a master list, this plugin puts a check box on the edit screen when editing pages where you can select whether or not you want the page you are writing to be included in the site navigation. You probably only need one or the other of these two.

8. Executable PHP widget – [download]

Have you ever downloaded a WordPress theme because it had some cool functionality in the sidebar only to realize that if you added any widgets to that sidebar it disappeared? You can’t add PHP to the standard Text widget. Good thing you can add it back in with the Executable PHP widget. Very handy for making managing sidebars easy.

9. FD Feedburner – [download]

One of the great things about using Feedburner is that you can track how many people are reading your blog. It also gives you a ton of different ways to customize your feed. The trouble is, when you set up a Feedburner account and point all the links on your page to that feed your plain old WordPress feed is still discoverable. And you will have some folks subscribed to that feed that you won’t know about. FD Beedburner will redirect your WP feed so everyone gets subscribed to Feedburner.

10. WordPress Mobile Edition – [download]

More and more people are accessing the web via mobile devices. WordPress Mobile Edition makes it easy to accommodate viewing your WordPress installation on mobile devices.

Stats

11. WordPress.com Stats – [download]

WordPress.com Stats is probably the easiest basic stats package to implement on a WordPress blog. Like the Akismet anti-spam plugin above, you will need an account at WordPress.com for WordPress.com Stats to work.

12. Google Analyticator – [download]

Google Analytics is considered by many to be the gold standard of stats tracking packages. It gives you a ton more info than WordPress.com Stats does. There are several plugins for integrating Google Analytics into your WordPress site. Google Analyticator is my choice because it combines some good features and is easy to use. Keep in mind that Google Analytics only updates once a day.

13. Woopra – [download]

If you are looking for more extensive real time stats then you should consider Woopra. Their WordPress plugin integrates their stats into your WordPress Dashboard. And they have a desktop application (for both PC & Mac. Yay!) where you can see what people are looking at on your site right now.

Fun Stuff

14. Wp-Cumulus – [download]

I’m sorry, but WP-Cumulus is just about the coolest plugin I’ve seen. It’s what powers my tag cloud. And it even comes with a sidebar widget that you can see over on the bottom of my sidebar there.

15. What Would Seth Godin Do – [download]

A little bit of marketing here. This plugin shows a customizable message to anyone visiting for the first time that doesn’t get seen by returning visitors. You can get creative how you use it.

16. TweetMeme Button – [download]

There are a whole lot of Twitter plugins for WordPress. In my desire to keep life easy, I like the TweetMeme Button. It simply adds a button at the bottom of the post. Makes it easy for people who like your post to tweet it.

17. Subscribe to Comments – [download]

The rumors of the death of email have been grossly exaggerated. There are still a good many people out there who like to get updates and notifications via email. If you allow your readers to subscribe to your comments some of them will. And it might just bring them back to your site more.

18. TD Word Count – [download]

There was a time, back in the day, when WordPress didn’t have the little “Word count:” number at the bottom of the edit window. And if you’re a little, um, focused (a polite way of saying anal) like me you might want to know how many words you were typing. (This post is well over 1200 so far. Did I mention I’m a tad on the wordy side?)

Anyway… The TD Word Count plugin gives you all kinds of word related stats. Like, for instance, I’ve got over a quarter million words here on this blog. Yeah. Wordy. And focused.

And… I just noticed that this plugin hasn’t been supported since, well a long time. Since WordPress version 2.1 in fact. That being the case you might want to skip this one. Did I mention I’m focused?

Niche

19. NextGen Gallery – [download]

NextGen Gallery is the preeminent photo gallery management plugin. I’ve seen sites that have thousands of photo galleries all running along seamlessly with NextGen gallery. Here at SuccessCREEations I’ve got one.

20. WP Super Cache – [download]

For high traffic sites, WP Super Cache will dramatically reduce the server load. This is a very powerful plugin and installing it is not for the feint of heart. Nevertheless it is phenomenal plugin that can probably reduce your server costs if you are bumping into bandwidth issues.

21. Podcasting – [download]

If you are into podcasting then you’ll probably want to take a look at, well, the Podcasting plugin. It makes managing your attachments and integrating with iTunes easy.

Well there you have it. 21 plugins that will make your life easier. And it only took me 1,427 words to tell you about ‘em!

Twitter is being talked about by everyone. You know when Oprah talks about something it’s gone mainstream. With over 19 million unique visits a month, up from only 4 million in December, Twitter is by far the fastest growing social media website right now.

If you’re struggling to see how to tap into all those people and all that growth to help grow your own business, here is something you need to check out.

Twitter Masters TeleSummit 2009

The Twitter Masters TeleSummit 2009 brings together 15 of the best social media marketing experts to share exactly how to tap into that market for your business.

We’re talking 15 hours of interviews with some incredibly sharp people who know their stuff when it comes to Twitter. People like Joel Comm, Dan Hollings, Carrie Wilkerson, Scott Stratten, Deborah Micek, Scott Tousignant, and the marketing team of Travis Miller & Jimmy Vee just to name a few.

There’s a broad spectrum of backgrounds and approaches to Twitter in this group. Follower counts for these folks range from just over 2,000 to in excess of 58,000 followers!

Did I mention they’ve invited Yours Truly to be one of the speakers too?

Sneak Peek at What You’ll Learn

Here is just a tiny taste of some of the topics the speakers will be covering in this landmark event.

• Connecting online and offline strategies quickly
• Simple techniques that increase your followers by being yourself
• Successfully creating buzz for your business and product promotions
• Create fanatical fans on Twitter through offline leads
• How Twitter can build strong relationships one tweet at a time
• Big mistakes social networkers make that cost you fans, followers, leads, and sales
• 4 Hands-Off Twitter tools to manage your time and get business done efficiently
• Building a word-of-mouth army for you on social media sites
• Attracting interested followers through retweetable (RT) material every day
• 12 Must-Have Tools when Using Twitter For Your Business
• Create a growing and active fan base in just a few weeks
• 2 simple ways to streamline your social media strategy
• Build an intentional Twitter space that gets you heard and respected by your followers

And here is what you’ll hear from me.

Becoming a Master Media Marketer
by Blogging and Micro-blogging (Twitter)

• 4 Top Reasons Bloggers NEED Twitter
• 9 simple trade secrets that get you noticed and attracting more subscribers
• Effective and proven Twitter techniques that gain influence without automation
• Why Twitter is the “Secret Weapon for Non-Profits”
• How to build presence on a shoestring budget

It is an amazing amount of content.

And here is the best part…

They’re Giving it away for FREE!!

That’s right. If you register for the event prior to the kick off on Monday you can listen to all 15 interviews absolutely FREE!

UPDATE: You can still listen to the remaining interviews for Free until the end of the week!

It doesn’t get much get much more affordable than free, I know.

But I’m sure you’ll want to get the mp3 recordings of the entire series. The folks running the Twitter TeleSummit are offering downloadable recordings of the entire series that you can listen to as many times as you want along with PDF transcripts of each interview to study at your leisure.

Be sure to order them when you register now so you can save 30% off the price. If you place your order before the end of the TeleSummit you can get all the recordings and all the PDF files for only $67.

After that the whole enchelada will still be available for the incredibly low price of $97.

Go Register Now and get your complete set of this incredibly valuable information so you can harness the power of Twitter to help your own business grow.