<link>http://purplestarconsulting.com/info</link> <description /> <lastBuildDate>Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:30:40 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0</generator> <xhtml:meta xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" name="robots" content="noindex" /> <atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/purplestarconsulting/EdXf" /><feedburner:info uri="purplestarconsulting/edxf" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><item> <title>Create Signature Image Files for your e-mails and blog posts http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/ffa29l_GFMM/create-signature-image-files-for-your-e-mails-and-blog-posts http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/create-signature-image-files-for-your-e-mails-and-blog-posts#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:30:40 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=901 The other day I was looking online for something and stumbled across a great little website called MyLiveSignature. You can use the site to create an image file of your name or signature. Why might you want to do this? Well, if you want to show your name at the end of your blog posts (see mine if you are looking at the main page of this blog post) or in your e-mail signature, you can use regular text, BUT, it will only look the same way if the viewer or recipient has the same font installed on their machine.

You can create animated signatures if your heart desires it, but I just used it to create an image of my name. It is so simple to use, I am not going to walk through each step, but here is the basic premise. First you enter in the name you want to use. Then, the next screen shows you how your name will look in over 100 different fonts. Click through to view and then select the font that you want.

Next pick the size of the font. Then the color. If you want to use the image on a website or anywhere with a colored background, set the background to be transparent. For my purpose, I went with purple text. You can also set the gradient of the text so it looks more like a signature.

Finally, your signature will be displayed to you. You can right click on the image and save it to your computer.

You can then use this image file in your e-mail signature or add it to your blog posts! Quick, simple and easy to use. Have fun!


]]> http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/create-signature-image-files-for-your-e-mails-and-blog-posts/feed 2 http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/create-signature-image-files-for-your-e-mails-and-blog-posts How to Make a Favorites Icon for website http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/_oeJh_bIWD4/how-to-make-a-fav-icon http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/how-to-make-a-fav-icon#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:35:40 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=710 Have you ever wondered how websites get that image next to the website address (url)? It’s known as a fav or favorites icon and is pretty easy to create. This article will teach you how to create it and then add it to your website. Having a fav icon will help set you apart from other sites and make it instantly recognizable when in their bookmarked favorites. Think of the red Y of Yahoo, or the G of Google.

First select an image that you wish to use for your favorites icon. Many people use their own logo and produce a smaller version of it. Or, you could use a single letter to represent the name of your company. Pick something that will still be recognizable even when reduced in size. For our fav icon, we have the Purple Star from our logo:

The favorites icon is a file type called .ico. You don’t need any fancy software or a tool to generate the icon file. There are many sites out there that will do the work for you. One good one is by Dynamic Drive. Their FavIcon Generator can be found here: http://tools.dynamicdrive.com

Simply click the Browse button to find the image on your machine. The file should be in one of the following formats: .gif, .jpg, .bmp or .png. Once you have the file, click the Create Icon button.

You will be shown a preview of how your favicon would look once added to your site. If you are happy with this, click the Download FavIcon button. This will download it to your computer.

Once you have the file on your machine, you will need to transfer it to your web server to the route directory, or top level of your site. If you do not have access to the web server, or don’t know how to do this, be sure to contact your web designer, or find one to help you out with this. Finally, you will need to add the following code to the <head> section of your index.html or main.html page. (again, if you are not sure, check with your web designer).

<link rel=”shortcut icon” type=”image/x-icon” href=”favicon.ico”>

The href will need to be the path to where you uploaded your favicon file. You should be able to get away with just adding this to the home page of your website. However, if you are not sure, you can add it to all of the pages. Some browsers will need to have their cache refreshed in order to see the new icon next to the url in the browser. Good luck! You can always post your questions below if you are not sure.


]]> http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/how-to-make-a-fav-icon/feed 0 http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/how-to-make-a-fav-icon Help Others Online Easily with GoToMeeting http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/4_fN5gMKsfw/help-others-online-easily-with-gotomeeting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/help-others-online-easily-with-gotomeeting#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:55:42 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=877 GoToMeeting is a tool I have used for a number of years now and is something I couldn’t do without. Sometimes it’s a training session I am giving that has multiple attendees who need to call in from different locations, or sometimes it is a client who needs a little help with their WordPress Blog, either way, GoToMeeting is what I use in these scenarios.

Granted, this product will only be useful for certain business owners but one should never assume, so wanted to share it with you! Here is how it works, straight from the horses mouth so to speak:


Pretty simple right? Some of the features are as follows:

  • Show attendees your desktop, or switch to an individual person’s desktop. Great when you are trying to help them solve issues with their machine or a specific program they are using
  • You can also share a keyboard and mouse. This allows you to move around their machine, or vice versa.
  • You can use their phone service which allows you to have up to 15 people conferenced in on the call at one time.
  • Online sessions can be recorded. Great for training sessions that can be used in the future for others to view.

So, as you can see, a lot of great benefits to using GoToMeeting. It’s perfect for the small business owner, just $49 a month for the service. If you want to get bigger and have the need, you can use their GoToWebinar product which allows you to have a maximum of 1,000 attendees at one time!

To get started with GoToMeeting click this link to get a Free Trial + $10 Off or click the ad below. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!


GoToMeeting - Online Meetings Made Easy


]]> http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/help-others-online-easily-with-gotomeeting/feed 0 http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/help-others-online-easily-with-gotomeeting eFax – Getting Faxes the simplest way! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/lwvK2A0er7Q/efax-getting-faxes-the-simplest-way http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/efax-getting-faxes-the-simplest-way#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:30:33 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=870 When I started out with Purple Star Consulting, I knew I wanted (or needed really) to have a fax number. I looked at some fax machines, all pretty expensive and not within the budget of a new company getting started. Also, I didn’t want to be tied down to having a physical fax machine that I have to use to send and receive faxes. As a consultant working on my laptop, I love that I can do my job from any coffee shop, beach or vacation home in the world! So, I wanted to keep my faxes the same way.

I did some searching online and found e-Fax. I found out that I could get a fax number that sends and receives faxes using my current email address. Click here to check out their site (they have a 30 day FREE trial too!). I need to be able to receive signed service agreements and this service is great. Using a fax number assigned to me, the sender can use their own fax machine and send the sheets of paper through in the usual way. When receiving the fax, it comes through as a PDF attachment to my e-mail address.

The cost for the service is a monthly fee. You get a certain number of free sends and receives, then after that you pay per page. Below is their current costs for their eFax Plus service.


No more buying expensive toner, no more faxes that are difficult to read due to black smudges all over the paper, and no more missing important faxes because you aren’t right by your fax machine! You don’t really have much to lose with trying out the FREE 30 Day trial. If you don’t like it after that, just cancel. Pretty simple!

Get eFax. Fax by Email


]]> http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/efax-getting-faxes-the-simplest-way/feed 0 http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/efax-getting-faxes-the-simplest-way Constant Contact Desktop Widget – Adding Contacts Easily! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/iXK6wSoOIj4/constant-contact-desktop-widget-adding-contacts-easily http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/constant-contact-desktop-widget-adding-contacts-easily#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:15:23 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=854 If you use Constant Contact, you may already know this, but I just found out the other day and thought it was pretty cool! (If you don’t use it, click here for more information and a free 60 trial
). There are many different ways you can add contacts to your database. Sometimes they sign themselves up through your website which means you don’t need to do anything. Other times, your new contacts come from networking or business meetings and the e-mail addresses are on business cards. This means you have to log in to your account and add the information, or so I thought!

Although there are different ways to add, and sometimes you might just upload a spreadsheet of new contacts, if you just have one or two to add, you can do it simply, direct from your desktop. Log into your Constant Contact account. From the home page, click the Import your contact list link on the right side, or alternatively, click the Contacts link from the top to add new contacts.

Next, you will be asked how you would like to add contacts to your list. Click on the link right at the bottom for import tools:

You will see a list of many different ways to import in contacts directly (you may find some of these useful also). Click on the one right at the bottom, the Contact Capture Tool.

This will start a download. Pretty simple, just walk through the steps to complete the download. Once complete, you will need to enter in your user name and password for Constant Contact. You also determine which of your mailing lists you wish to sign people up to by clicking on Add or Remove Contact Lists from the middle of the pop up. Enter in the new contact e-mail address. At the bottom, you can determine up to 4 fields of information that you wish to contact. First Name is always a good one, as is Company Name. With fields, you can add these to your e-mails for a personal touch. Enter everything in and click Add.

If the contact is already in Constant Contact, it will let you know and ask how you want to handle this contact. If its a new contact, it will be saved exactly as you enter it. Click OK.

Once the contact is saved, you will be notified at the top of the screen. You can close out of the capture tool, but can either get back to it from your icons on the bottom toolbar of your computer, or from your desktop if you created a shortcut icon during the install. Quick and easy!


]]> http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/constant-contact-desktop-widget-adding-contacts-easily/feed 2 http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/constant-contact-desktop-widget-adding-contacts-easily Connect with others – Facebook Page Favorites http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/4qN5y9pFak8/connect-with-others-facebook-page-favorites http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/connect-with-others-facebook-page-favorites#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:15:09 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=847 You already have a Facebook Page right? If not, click here to learn how to create one, then come back here!

Once you have your page, it’s great to start building your list of fans, connecting and communicating with your current and future clients. However, it’s also good to make connections with other business owners and to help promote each other. Did you know you can link from your Facebook Page to another Facebook Page? It’s pretty quick and simple.

Log into Facebook with the account you use to moderate your page. Next, navigate to the page you want to link to. Here, we want to link to a local real estate agent, Rodney Camren of Star Team Atlanta Realty.  He is a great business contact of mine, a fantastic networker and has been a great advocate for Purple Star Consulting, so I want to share the love!

From the top left of the page, underneath the logo, you will see a link for “Add to my page’s favorites”. Click this link.

If you are an Administrator for more than one page, you will be asked which one you want to add the favorite to.  Select and then click Save.

Once you have completed these simple steps, you will see the page listed at the bottom left of your own page. You can promote and endorse other businesses by completing these steps.

That’s it! Pretty simple right?


]]> http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/connect-with-others-facebook-page-favorites/feed 2 http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/connect-with-others-facebook-page-favorites Simply Linked – Allow Links to be shared http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/n5_hy-rcFeg/simply-linked-allow-links-to-be-shared http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/simply-linked-allow-links-to-be-shared#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:45:51 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=834 Found a new site today which I wanted to share. When posting an article to your blog it’s great if you get some reader participation with comments at the bottom. However, there may be times when you wish to encourage readers to share links of a specific type. For example, I may be interested in knowing the blogs of my readers (which I am!). In this case, it would be better to have all links compiled together in one place for me, and other readers to see, rather than scrolling all the way to the end of the post. This is where Simply Linked can help! Really really easy, and free to set up.

Go to their site and sign up for a free account. It’s a Beta site (still in testing) so there could be a cost introduced in the future, but hopefully that would come along with additional features. Once you are signed in, click the link to create a new list:

Enter in the name of your list. There is the option to select from either a standard type, or from a recurring theme. There are no instructions so I take the theme to be a way to group lists together and categorize them. You can either select from one you have already created, or create a new one easily.

Once your list is created, you will see the code displayed for your list. Copy it and then you can paste that into a web page or blog post:

When someone visits your site or blog post, they can easily add a link to the list. See the example below in this post. Once links are added, you will be able to review them from your Simply Linked account. Could be useful for follow up and review on your topic.

So, feel free! Give me the link to your blog, I would love to pay you a visit, and maybe others will too! I started the list going, so join in.


]]> http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/simply-linked-allow-links-to-be-shared/feed 0 http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/simply-linked-allow-links-to-be-shared New Lawrenceville Networking Events http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/8XVibQS-bNY/new-lawrenceville-networking-events http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/new-lawrenceville-networking-events#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:30:36 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=827 I am proud to be one of the organizers of a local networking group here in Lawrenceville, GA. We have events a couple of times each month. This past event we were lucky to have George Robbins there from Your 1 Minute. He creates videos for business owners to help promote themselves and their company. Here is one he did as a gift for our networking group. Thanks again George, it looks fantastic!


Find more videos like this on YOUR1MINUTE – GLOBAL BUSINESS NETWORKING -VIRAL MARKETING -


]]> http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/new-lawrenceville-networking-events/feed 2 http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/new-lawrenceville-networking-events Cool Widgets and Plugins for WordPress http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/oJa52Uzv8pM/cool-widgets-and-plugins-for-wordpress http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/cool-widgets-and-plugins-for-wordpress#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:06:19 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=819 For a while I have wanted to do a post to highlight some of the coolest plugins and widgets out there for WordPress. Time in short supply, I still haven’t gotten round to it, so call it cheating, but I did search for some blog posts that already have done this! So, credit to all of these blog writers, and here are some links to some good information!

This post is all about plugins to help with your different social media profiles:

http://mashable.com/2009/06/16/wordpress-social-media-profile/

This article shows 50 great widgets for your blog:

http://mashable.com/2007/09/06/widgets-2/

30 cool plugins:

http://www.masternewmedia.org/30-cool-wordpress-plugins-for-web-publishers/

10 Cool WordPress plugins to show your ratings:

http://www.geeksucks.com/showcases/10-cool-wordpress-plugins-for-ratings.htm

Plugins designed to get your readers to your blog:

http://mashable.com/2007/08/02/wordpress-readers/

Be sure to check out all of these great blogs, get some new ideas and have fun! Not sure how to install a plugin or figure out the widgets? Post your questions below and I will help where I can!


]]> http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/cool-widgets-and-plugins-for-wordpress/feed 0 http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/cool-widgets-and-plugins-for-wordpress Some Of Our Recent Clients http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/purplestarconsulting/EdXf/~3/OxjO3Y0Ew0k/recent-clients http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/recent-clients#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 05:00:41 +0000 Megan - Purple Star Consulting http://purplestarconsulting.com/info/?p=799 I recently worked with some wonderful new clients, so wanted to share with you and get them some visitors!

The first one is a business that already had a great sit. Sarah Johnson, the owner of Pampered Pet Care of Atlanta, realized the value of having a blog on her site. Having a blog gives you access to publish articles, educate people and  inform clients of upcoming holiday news  or services. She also knew that a blog is one of the key elements in having great search engine results.

I was able to use her current site as the template, and incorporate the blog right into it, using the same images, fonts and color scheme. She has some great things to say, so check out her blog here: http://www.pamperedpetcare.com/blog

Next is another pet sitting company, but this time they are in North Carolina. Pet Sitters of Charlotte are a relatively new company. Phil & Lisa Koch were great to work with. Phil knew that to have a site that would work “for” them, Twitter, Facebook and a blog were the way to go. I created a website using WordPress, giving them control of their own pages using the Content Management System that this blogging platform provides.

I added all of the standard features to their package including a favicon for their site, submitting their site to all of the major search engines, adding keywords, descriptions and titles, and providing them with Google Analytics to see who is visiting their site. Their site is still so new, a couple of extra visits won’t hurt, check them out! http://petsittersofcharlotte.com

The last site I want to highlight is one I worked on for a wonderful lady named Tracy Knight. Tracy and I must have had about 3 or 4 calls before I started doing work for her. She already had a blog, but was using WordPress.com which has certain limitations.  Having reached the limit of what she could do with this, she began to realize that having a WordPress blog set up under her own domain would allow her to have a custom theme, put banner ads on the site, and get access to code if she needed to.

Tracy had a beautiful header image that I used as a starting point for her custom theme. Tracy’s blog provides inspiration, thought provoking questions and most of her blog posts get some great comments posted to theme. No matter your belief, religion or opinions, I think everyone can gain by taking a look at her blog. Keep up the great work Tracy! http://womenencouraged.com


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