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WordPress Website Set Up Webinar | Author Learning Center | Linda Lee

August 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Author Learning Center Webinar Linda Lee, WordPress

Domain Names, Hosting and WordPress, Learn the basics in this webinar.

These days we know authors, (and most people ), need websites. But how exactly do you go about creating one? In this webinar Linda Lee will walk you through three steps to building a website based on the popular content management system, WordPress. This includes buying the domain name you want (the online address for your website), setting up hosting for the site and building it out, which can be done by installing the ever popular WordPress templates.

Watch the webinar and you can see how to get started online step by step. These are the basics everyone needs to know!

Learn how to set up a WordPress Website, from domain name, hosting to installing wordpress. Sign up now for the Webinar on Author Learning CenterAbout the Presenter

Linda Lee is online expert like no other. She is a writer, speaker, educator, and website designer who demystifies the online experience. Whether you are a novice or veteran Internet user, Linda can help you optimize and monetize your website. Linda specializes in WordPress design, WordPress Websites, instruction, and problem shooting. She has built over 100 websites for clients on the WordPress platform.

Linda is the founder of Smart Women Stupid Computers and Askmepc-Webdesign and WordPress Central a website that offers free WordPress help and videos. She offers remote training domestically and internationally, helping hundreds of people in China, Australia, England, Scotland, Sweden and Canada. Linda also runs WordPress Bootcamps at schools around the Bay Area. You can sign up for live training here.

Linda is the current Co- President of the Women’s National Book Association, San Francisco Chapter, and is the current the Volunteer Coordinator of the San Francisco Writer’s Conference, and the current Volunteer Director for the Midsummer Mozart Festival.

Register Now

August 14, 2012 at 01:30PM
August 21, 2012 at 07:30PM

 

https://www.authorlearningcenter.com/live_events/3-steps-to-building-a-wordpress-website

Filed Under: Author Solution Webinars, Learning Center, Training, Web Design, WordPress Help Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Did your web design company or person leave you hanging?

July 24, 2012 By 1 Comment


I often get new business from very frustrated website owners who have basically been abandoned by the person or company they hired to help then with their website. Sometimes their websites are half finished on a test site and the person seems to have mysteriously disappeared or stopped answering their phone.

 

Other larger companies who offer website design, farm out the work, and slap the site up, but give no help or direction to the poor website owner.
Often the reason for this is they are not actually doing the work themselves.
I recently had a client who came to me with that  very situation. Their website was up, but it had no keywords, tags, or any kind of the most basic SEO done. The client was more than willing to do it themselves, but the company insisted she needed to pay their “SEO dept”, once again most likely contracted out, or farmed out for the help. I have always cautioned clients about paying for SEO services. It is an area full of people who failed at other get rich quick schemes.  Remember a few years ago when you would get all those invites in the mail for “free dinners” at a hotel, and it was about getting rich quick in some kind of real estate venure? Well those are often the types I run into that decided to become “SEO Experts”.

The problem with many of these type of website related services and web designers and website companies themselves, is there is nothing required to stick up a website and call yourself an expert.
This is why I tell you, check references, check the work they have done before and beware!

People that are good at what I do,( build Websites and use and teach WordPress),  and other things like SEO, are very transparent. They use their real names, they have real clients whose websites you can look at and check their traffic and website rankings and the best ones have a great blog that offer tons of free help and information so you can help yourself.
Here are a few quick tools that can help you check on other sites and see how they are doing, or check your own website out.

Google Page Rank Tool:

Check Page Rank of your Web site pages instantly:


This page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever wonder how many of your website pages are actually indexed on Google and in the search engines?

To check this out all your have to do it enter:
site:yourwebsiteurl.com
So for instance for me to check out this site I would go to google search and enter
site:askmepc-webdesign.com
This shows me all the pages on google that I have indexed, which is around 230 pages.
Another fun tool you can only use on Firefox is the SEObook tool for the toolbar.
This is real SEO website, with training and a proven track record.
With one click you can see what I have below in the image for any website.
This will help you know your competition and also check out fraudulant companies and so called SEO and Web Designers/WordPress designers.

Seo tool for toolbar seobook

If you have been left hanging, or just need some help with your WordPress Website, or to convert and HTML website to WordPress, or WordPress training, please feel free to contact me for a free consult to discuss your needs.
You can see my testimonials here, with real people, first and last names and websites that are still up and running!
If you need a website, please fill out my pre-planning sheet here. 

I will never leave you hanging out there alone in cyberspace.
When you need help, I am a phone call or email away!

 

Filed Under: Askmepc, Author Websites, General, Marketing and Promotion, Resources, Tips, Free Tools, Online Success, Scams |Email Scams | Online Scams, Web Design, WordPress Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Big and Glossy Website Design Trend

April 7, 2011 By 2 Comments

I have been designing websites now for 5 years. I still get many compliments on my primary website.

I find this interesting because that site is not a WordPress website. I created it using Xsite Pro, a website building program that I really love but do not use nearly as  much. 80% of my business is now building WordPress websites. On my Askmepc-Webdesign site,  people tell me they like how easy it is to find what they are looking for. I am sure they find the traditional layout familiar. (Read my article on how people read a website here). I also always have build very “clean” and clear websites.
I hate clutter online.  We have enough coming at us already to be overwhelmed by a website.

There is trend now for oversized big glossy looking websites. Some of the things I like about the trend is most of the time they are easy to navigate.
The big buttons are helpful and there are usually clear and oversized directions given, (such as “click here to purchase”)  which I think is helpful for many people.

Some of the things I do not like:

  • They can feel impersonal
  • They are too “internet marketing” and “salesy” and yes that is not a real word but I think you know what I mean.
  • They all tend to have those pop ups asking me to sign up or buy something.
  • They start to all look the same after awhile. Internet marketers are like sheep.

But let’s look at far we have come, a walk down memory lane cira 1998.

Click here to see old school website design… very old.
This is the website of author George R. R. Martin, A Song of Fire and Ice.
Now this guy is a best selling author, he could afford a really amazing website, especially since he writes fantasy fiction and is hugely popular.
Fantasy fiction websites tend to be quite interesting.
Maybe he does not want his website to turn out like this however. Click for sample of oversized glossy website.
Be warned it takes awhile to open and actually work.
HBO made a mini series out of his book and this site is glossy, big and oversized and does not work very well.
If you are using Safari, it warns  you your browser is not compatible. Then in other browsers it takes a long time to open.
Nice job HBO. You bought into the big and glossy look but lost functionality. When I was trying to take a screenshot of HBO’s website
I accidentally got out of the site and hit the back button to get back, and it did the whole process of reloading again. Very annoying.

Your average reader will bounce off your website in 3-5 seconds if things are not working right.
Bounce rate is very important, this is the term for when readers stop in and leave.
If you are check your website statistics and see your readers are coming in and leaving quickly, you need to analyze that.
Is the page slow loading?
Is something wrong with that page?
Are they going there to find something and you do not have it on the page?
Sometimes you may of named a page and then changed the content or renamed it later and people are seeking information you no longer have available on that page.
These are concerns you need to have, especially now since Google has started counting website loading speed as part of their page ranking process.
Quote from Google:

“Google is now taking into account how fast a page loads in calculating its PageRank. In their own words: ‘[W]e’re including a new signal in our search ranking algorithms: site speed. Site speed reflects how quickly a website responds to web requests. … our users place a lot of value in speed — that’s why we’ve decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings. … While site speed is a new signal, it doesn’t carry as much weight as the relevance of a page. Currently, fewer than 1% of search queries are affected by the site speed signal in our implementation and the signal for site speed only applies for visitors searching in English on Google.com at this point.

Wondering what your website page ranking is?

Check Page Rank of your Web site pages instantly:

This page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

What kind of site design trends do you like?
Fill out my poll and leave a comment to give me more detail.
I really want to know what normal user think.
Please leave a comment!

Do you like big glossy oversized designed websites?

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Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,