To simplify the process of organising a school reunion we decided to:

a)  create a website and
b) promote it on Facebook with an Event page.

Facebook Event Pages are pretty limited in that they can’t handle ticket bookings and payments, however, they are a fabulous tool for inviting people and spreading the word.  In the space of 2 hours, over 200 invites went out across Facebook originating from four people.

Also with Facebook Event pages you have three options:

Option 1 – Invite only

This is where only the Event Hosts can invite people and is probably more suited to private gatherings.

Option 2 – Friends can invite friends

This is the option we used.  As we invited people, those people could then send out invites to their friends.

Option 3 – Public

If you make it a public Event it’s like anyone can come and I imagine the event would be searchable on Facebook as well.

Anyone with a Facebook Account can create an Event Page.  You can also put up a photo or image banner on your Facebook Event Page.

With the website, it was easy enough to setup WordPress so I bought a domain name and put up a WordPress site.  Then I found some old images of our school from photos people had posted on Facebook and cropping out bits and pieces made three different banners to represent the different eras of the Reunion.  The Reunion covers 1960 – 1988.

We want to obtain people’s details for the tickets so I used Gravity Forms, a WordPress Plugin, to collect the data on a Registration Form.  This data then gets sent to one of the Committee Members who is maintaining a database of attendees.

After people hit submit on the Ticket Registration page they are re-directed to a page that has all the payment details.

Online Payment Methods – Tricky for School Reunions

One problem we stumbled across was taxation issues.  We were able to open a bank account fine, but if I wanted to setup a PayPal business account to take payments where people could pay by credit card we would have had to go through quite a few hoops to get an ABN for non profits here in Australia.   You can’t get a PayPal business account here in Australia without an ABN.  And you can’t take credit card payments through PayPal without a PayPal Business Account!

So I went looking into how to get an ABN for non profits and the lovely lady at the Tax Office said we could do it all without it, provided the bank account was being used for the real purpose of holding a school reunion, providing no other benefit to anyone else.  So in the end, for the sake of simplicity and sanity, we decided not to use PayPal at all as a Payment Method and just give out the bank account details so people can pay by Direct Deposit through their internet banking or by going into a branch and doing an over the counter transaction.

This way we also don’t incur any PayPal fees or credit card fees as would be the case if we used EventBrite.

I also looked into EventBrite and while their fees aren’t bad, in the end we decided to just use Direct Deposit as the payment method as it was simple for most internet and non internet users.

If you don’t have the skills to setup a WordPress website I highly recommend EventBrite though.  It’s an excellent platform for promoting free and paid Events and you can easily post links to it from your Facebook Event page.

Creating Change With Feng Shui

One of my best friends, Debra Edgell, insisted I attend a school reunion in Melbourne last year.  When I was down there we discussed Deb’s website for when she had finished her studies.

The great news is Deb launched her new Feng Shui business last night, and I think it’s quite ingenious the way she plans to do it.

Deb is offering a Party Plan arrangement in Melbourne, where people invite friends over to listen to Deb give a talk.  From there anyone who books a party qualifies for  a significant discount on Deb’s services.  I think this is really clever marketing.

Deb loves to talk so it suits her personality.  At the same time she’s educating people about something we are all interested in.  Parties where women gather are always fun (read wine and cheese and dips) and a great opportunity for her to meet new people.  Deb is really full of bubble and excitement so again this style fits in very much with her nature.

In my job as a web developer I often come across people coming out of jobs and going into business who want a website.  One of my first questions is ‘How are you going to get business’?

Having a clever Marketing Plan is crucial to any business’s success.  We can’t rely on our websites to do all the heavy lifting.  I love it when people are willing to do the ‘face to face’ work and just not expect that they can put up a website and the cash register is going to start ringing.  Ka-ching Ka-ching!  Nothing succeeds better than meeting people so they can get a feel for who you are and what you are about.

People will always do business with people they know or have met (and like) rather than those they do not know.  The second best marketing method is word of mouth.  Can you imagine all those women at work talking about it the following day?  Someone is bound to ask for more information.  And on and on it goes….the network begins to build.  In her case, her website will stand as a focal point – something to share when all those conversations take place.  Here is her card, her web address, and contact details.

I can’t wait to see how she’s going in 12 months time!

I recently converted a large HTML website into a WordPress website for one of my clients.  Doing this involved changing the name servers on the clients domain name to point to his new hosting.  Within an hour of changing the name servers the site hosting was resolving at my end.  After I finished moving the site I emailed the client to say it was up, but he couldn’t see the site.  All he could see was his old site.

Why does this happen?

There is a simple but slightly complex explanation and it has to do with how the internet works.  Firstly have you ever wondered how our computers know where websites are?  When you type in www.google.com into your web address bar Google’s website downloads into your browser.

This happens because of DNS  which stands for Domain Name System and Domain Name Servers.

Believe it or not every computer connected to the Internet has a Domain Name Server.  This server keeps a table of records of where sites are hosted.  So when you type in a web address that you haven’t been to before your Internet Service Provider will ‘look up’ their Domain Name Server to see where that site is hosted and route your request there.

Sometimes DNS records take a while to update to every Domain Name Server in the world, and typically, here in Australia some ISP’s Name Servers can take too long to update.  One Australian ISP in particular is often written about on tech forums as having quite a slow update rate .  Name Server databases need to be updated regularly so that when a site moves from A hosting to B hosting it should only be a matter of a few hours before ISP’s have the new record. When they still have the old record on their database they route the request to the old site.  This is really annoying and if you rely on your website to generate income then you have every right to grieve.  It’s not good enough.

If one company can update their DNS records on the hour, why can’t others?  It’s just the way it is but some ISPs need to do better.  Mind you I’d hate to be the person responsible for managing this – talk about complex!  Really we should pause and just think about the miracle of DNS.  When it works it really is a wonderful thing.

Although there is probably not much we can do to insist that ISP’s update their name servers more regularly, we can easily over come the situation where the client can’t see his or her new website.

The Solution

When I went to visit my client the day following the new site going live he still couldn’t see his new website so I changed some settings on his computer’s internet connection to use different name servers.  There is a company called Open DNS and they make their name servers available to anyone who wants to have a better experience than what their ISP is providing.  And it’s rather easy to set it up.  After configuring his computer to use  Open DNS he could see his new site, and we were able to log in  and do the necessary ‘after the site goes live’ stuff.

All I can say is thank god for Open DNS.  I discovered them many years ago when I had this issue the first time.

It’s not even necessary to create an Open DNS account for home use – you can just enter their IP Addresses on your computer’s  TCP/IP settings and you’re good to go.  They also have a comprehensive list of computer operating systems and how to guides on their website which makes it easy for non techie users to change their own configuration settings.

Open DNS also offer many other services so check out all their services on their site.  I have only mentioned one small feature of what they do.

A few months ago I was approached by Carolyn Wilkinson to help her create a website for her new book Blood On The Wire which is going to be ready for softcover distribution in early to mid January 2013.  http://bloodonthewire.com

I had never heard of Daniel Heiss and therefore did not know anything about his story or his history.  Carolyn sent me an extract of the Book.  When I got to the last word I found myself wanting to keep reading.

I strongly felt that here was a compelling story that needed to be told.  What also excited me somewhat is that this book was really about two people’s lives.  One behind bars and the other on the outside.  It’s not going to be anything stereo typical I thought to myself.  Here we have a real story!  A book based on a true story.  A story where life is stranger than fiction.

I’d love to spend my time here today going through all the aspects of putting this website together but I am not going to do that.  Here I’d rather reflect on the importance of story telling.  In all cultures these stories form part of the fabric of our times.  When someone like Carolyn goes to tremendous effort to put this all down in writing, and to create a website, and many different versions of the book for delivery, we can reflect upon the importance of what this means for history and those that are yet to come.  In the present day, we can ask ourselves, what can we learn from their experience?

What I do know is that the whole landscape of book publishing has been changing for a while.  In times before books, stories were distributed by the campfire.  Stories were passed down the generations as eager wide eyed children listened intently while the flame of the fire crackled under a starry sky.  Women sat under shady trees to escape the burning hot sun and shared their stories with each other.

Stories have also been distributed in the form of dance.  Ancient cultures celebrate and ritualise the story via the art of movement and rhythm and costume.

And lastly stories were also communicated in art form.  An ancient wall in a cave somewhere in the world tells a magnificent story of the time before now.  All of these ‘delivery methods’ let us experience history.

Fast forward to 2012 and story delivery is a totally different story!  The internet, ePublishing, eBook Readers, websites, Blogs, Amazon and the Kindle, iTunes, your computer, your laptop, your tablet, your phone, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus are all platforms where stories can be told and shared.  And we still also have the modern wonder of book printing on paper too.

The 2012 Enigma of Story Telling

The story tellers of 2012 certainly have their work cut out for them.  No longer do they have three simple choices – to tell the story, or paint the story or dance the story – no!  Instead our modern authors are faced with a technological mine field to get through in order to get their stories out there.

Thankfully there is a wonderful network of businesses out there that all work together to collaborate to help our modern day Authors.

Whilst the traditional publishing industry may lament over the eLectronic era, those of us that get the whole technological thing are well setup to help authors.  I’d love to say I can tell an author everything they need to know, but I can’t do this.  The complexities are too great.  I can handle several aspects – the website, the PayPal and payment processing side, the SEO, but a whole lot of other people and businesses are involved.  Even though we are separate businesses, there is collaboration between us – the ball is passed from one to another – and eventually our Author becomes well versed in the art of modern book publishing.

Have a think about all these small independent businesses that can help authors:

(a)  The book coach – a book coach is usually an experienced writer in their own right and love to coach new authors through to final completion of the story.  Once the story is written, it then goes to:

(b)  The editor – the editor goes through the manuscript, cleaning out words, suggesting changes, and pimping the written word out to make it just that little bit more professional and highly readable.

(c)  The book cover designer – once the book is ready for delivery, it needs to have a cover designed.  Book cover designers are experts at Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.  Here they can take your book cover concept and produce that cover that’s going to jump off the shelf at someone, or catch a person’s eye as they are trawling the internet.

(d)  The book illustrator – if a book has lots of art or images in it (as is the case with Blood On The Wire) the book cover designer or a separate professional may also turn the work into a well designed, visually effective layout that is easy on the eyes, to make the read even sleeker.  These people also use very expensive programs like Adobe Illustrator to lay out the book, page by page, and get the ‘file’ ready for printing.

(e)  The Book Printer – there are so many businesses now that offer Print On Demand Services.  You can get anything from one book printed to thousands and self publish.  Some of them can also help with producing different electronic versions.

(f)  The web designer – the web designer works with the author to get a domain name for the book, create a website, and handle all the sales delivery methods that are possible through the website.  In addition a good web designer will come up with a website platform that also looks good on phones and tablets.

If an author gets this far, and hasn’t become bankrupted or mentally wiped out by the process, we’ve still got more:

eLectronic Delivery

This is where it can get messy and crazy, not to mention expensive.

The problem with electronic delivery of books are many.

What format?  eBooks can be produced in so many formats.  It might work out that an author has to have the book produced in several different formats to deliver to many different platforms and devices.

What platform?  Is the book going to be read on a Windows PC or Laptop, or an eReader, or an Amazon Kindle, or a iPad, or an Andriod tablet?  Is there any one format that the book can be read on all of these devices?  Yes and no.  It depends on the level of security you want to apply to your book and the operating system that the book is going to be read on.

What operating system?  With the above mentioned devices it’s important to understand that all of these devices use different operating systems.  For example a Windows PC or Laptop will have a Microsoft operating system such as Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or 8.  An Apple PC or Laptop, depending upon it’s genre will run one of the many different operating systems that Apple produces.  A tablet might be running Google’s Android operating system.  What is important to know is that all of these different operating systems handle file formats differently.  It’s quite possible that many versions of your book are going to need to be created to be run on all of these devices.

As a self publisher you’re probably not going to be able to come up with one file that works on everything.

What level of security?  Most importantly, you’ve just spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to get your story produced.  You probably don’t want the eVersion of your file produced in format that can be easily copied or shared for no return.

In this instance, this is why so many publishers look to companies like Amazon Kindle to distribute their books.  The way distribution works is that after the client pays for the book, the electronic version is delivered to the purchasers Kindle device, and it can’t be easily copied.  It can’t be emailed to a friend for example, and read on a Windows PC.  The formats are incompatible.

Most importantly, this type of security locks the book to the device it’s being delivered to.  If you want your book to be compatible everywhere, be prepared to learn about all the different file formats, platforms, security and ePublishing delivery methods.

The Campfire Method

Right now, I wouldn’t mind jumping on a plane and heading out to the Northern Territory.  I could happily sit by the fire on a moon lit night and listen to Carolyn and Dan tell their story.  The reality is I probably won’t get to do that anytime soon.

So when you are reading Blood On The Wire, take a moment to reflect upon the fact that somewhere in the Northern Territory tonight a fire will be crackling away, a large moon will shining down on a bunch of people and someone somewhere will be telling a story.  It’s a lovely thought isn’t it?

Belinda Hodge

Recently I’ve helped two clients build their own WordPress sites.  I thought I’d share my most recent experience here, as I’ve learned something valuable about helping these types of clients.

WearItAustralia.com.au

Peter J. Hackett has built his own websites in the past and has done a fine job at it.  Like so many DIY clients his radar went bing when he heard about WordPress.

Peter J. Hackett, WearIt Australia

He came to a WordPress Meetup where I was speaking to find out more.

After thinking how I could best help Peter, I realised something.  He wanted to have total control of his WordPress site, so he didn’t need me to play the traditional WordPress designer/developer role.  What he needed was my experience to advise him and show him how to go about doing it.  We met and he showed me his internet plans, all drawn out on a story board.  I instantly got where he wants to go.

We made lists of all the things that needed doing to launch WearItAustralia.com.au and allocated tasks.  As this was Peter’s first time with self hosted WordPress, I did the installation and enabled Maintenance Mode for him.  From there, Peter went about adding his Page and Post content, as well as creating a series of Headers for the site – all pitched at bringing home the message for people to wear their life jackets while out fishing and boating.

WordPress Videos

When I was performing my list of tasks, I hit on the idea of recording the screen and explaining to Peter what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it.  It also enabled me to give him tips and teach him why certain things are important, like structuring Page and Post URL’s for example.  This is important for SEO.

I broke these videos down into subjects so instead of making one long drawn out video, I made a series.  For example, if I installed a Plugin, I’d record that, all the time speaking to him and pointing out why we are using it.  I could also explain things like configuration options.

Once I performed and recorded each allocated task, I’d convert the screen recording to a video format compatible with his computer and emailed it to him, using a large file sending service.

Peter says he loves the videos and that I’ve hit on a revolutionary new way to help clients that want to DIY.

Saving Time

This saved him time.  Most WordPress first timers will spend hours trawling the internet for tutorials and blog posts on how best to achieve their desired goals.  When you don’t have that time, it can be frustrating going about it that way.

As such, WearItAustralia.com.au was launched within a few weeks of our first meeting and Peter was able to hit the ground running.

Certainty for clients

I know that many clients are fearful of running up huge costs when they employ someone to help them with a website.  I like to be open and transparent, and so I think the videos help with that a great deal.  It enables clients to see exactly what work was done, and how long it took.  Its also a way that web designers can prove their worth.  If the client can literally watch the work that was done,  they know exactly what they are getting for their investment, as well as learning new skills.  It’s a win/win for everyone.

Belinda Hodge

This is a short but useful Tutorial about removing the search bar from the Twenty Eleven Theme.

I didn’t bother going to the trouble of creating a child theme but you might like to copy and paste the header.php file to a notepad file in case you accidentally remove the wrong code.  You can always paste the entire code back in if you make a mistake.

http://anewtab.com/how-to-remove-search-bar-from-twenty-eleven

The reason I didn’t create a child theme is that I’m interested to see how the evolution of these Default themes go each year.  We’ve had Twenty Ten and now Twenty Eleven after years of Kubrick, so it’s likely many clients and myself might upgrade as new default themes are released.  I have to say I am enjoying not having to make Themes at present.  It’s a nice change.

Belinda Hodge

My uncle, Allan Handsley, recently self published his first Novel, The Nuclear Sting.

It only occurred to me last night how easy it would be to create a website for it.

I logged into my web hosting account, purchased a domain name, and a few hours later, this website was live.

Once again, I chose to use the Twenty Eleven WordPress theme.  When you remove ‘design’ from a website, you can create and launch a website within a few hours.  Essentially you cut out 90% of the work.  Adding content is so easy with WordPress.

Later in the week I’ll add a Paypal button so the purchases can be done online as well.  For now I’ve created a simple order form.

Today’s book launch up at Woodford may create some web sales as people who read the book buy another copy for a friend or family member.

Here is a snapshot of the book cover which was designed by my friend Michael Collins:

The Nuclear Sting book cover

Belinda Hodge

As someone who has created more than a few WordPress themes, I recently had reason to re-think the whole WordPress Theme design issue when I was considering ways to make my own business more productive.

When I analysed everything I do from start to finish, regarding WordPress, there was one big thorn in my paw and that is Themes.

To summarise this, I will tell you that:

(a)  You can waste hours and hours looking for WordPress themes, trying to find the right one.  Even if you do find one that’s just right or almost right, I can guarantee that nine times out of ten you will want to change something, and then you need to figure out how to do that.

(b)  If you are a web designer, you can waste mega hours trying to get a theme just right for a client.  You may even end up gritting your teeth by the end of the project and loosing yourself in frustration – because whilst some clients are easily pleased, others can be downright pedantic.  You know it, I know it.

(c)  If you are building your own theme, you can kill just as many hours to get that design looking just right, not to mention all the time you will spend on making images, searching for images, choosing color schemes and so on.

I’m telling you this because I like to be productive.  I am never comfortable when I loose too many hours on a project or website building exercise.

Personally, what I have realised is that if I add up all the hours I’ve spent on Theme searching and design, (not to mention learning new theme frameworks) it would have been more productive to spend that time creating content and working on an SEO plan for my websites.  The latter are far more important than design, at least, initially.

I said to a group recently that if you loose too many hours on Theme design, you can easily loose your focus and energy for your website.  And that’s not a good way to start or launch a site.  You want to hit the ground running and bring a heap of positive energy into it at the beginning.

For me personally, I’ve now set myself a new rule.  I am using the Twenty Eleven theme with all my new sites, and I’m even suggesting to some clients that it may be wise to do the same.

My thinking is, get the website up, add some content, get the SEO work underway, and when the site or Blog proves to be a massive success or meets certain benchmarks, then invest the time and money on creating that all inviting, all mind blowing Theme.  After all, this is why we are using WordPress.  It’s dead easy to change the look of a website or blog site later by just installing another theme.

The design phase of a Theme is very exciting and creative though, and here’s the hook.  It’s the part we all love because it’s something we can see and in this world of fashion and looks being important we naturally tend to want to make the best impression.  “Everyone is developing a unique theme for their Blog so I should too” is the thinking of today.

But seriously, this doesn’t make much sense!  The truth is, when Google’s search bots and spiders crawl your site, they don’t take much notice of the Theme in terms of how good or bad it looks.  It takes much more notice of your content.  Your content is your site information.  How unique is it?  How relevant is it?

What also counts is how many other sites link to yours.

When visitors come to your site they want to buy something, book a service, or find out some information so they can solve a problem.  As long as you lay out your content in a way that they can easily find the product or service they want, or the solution to that overwhelming problem – you’re good.  You’ve done the job right.  That is what they want.

They may not even want to be “awestruck” by your Theme Design – they might get so lost in it’s coolness, they could forget why they arrived on your site in the first place.

So it just makes sense to think about what’s important and allocate priorities when creating a website.  Work on getting your site recongnised by other websites in the form of links.  Build that social media following.  Add that unique and interesting content.  Get the comments flowing on your Blog. Put great pictures on your site.

A WordPress theme like Twenty Eleven is beautiful and it’s an excellent Theme to start with.  You can make changes from the WordPress dashboard to individualise it.  For example, you can change the banner image (the one that goes across the top) and that might be enough to kick off with.

Something to think about is to set a goal for Theme Design when you have:

(a)  “X” number of visitors per month, or

(b)  when you are generating “X” number of dollars in income, or

(c)  when your site hits page one for local search.

My thinking is, when the goal is reached, then it’s time to be creative.  You could even treat it like a reward.  “If I do this, then I get to do that”.  Psychology.

Do the not-so-much-fun stuff first – write content and work on your SEO.  This makes so much more sense to me, and will probably create so much more Cents in the long run!

Belinda Hodge

Now that G+ has been out for a while, I thought I’d have a look for some social sharing plugins that include G +, Facebook and Twitter as an “all in one” plugin, and I found one that’s really nice.

It’s called AddToAny and you can choose from a heap of social networks to display on your posts.

What I like about this particular Plugin is that it’s very easy to configure.  Here’s a shot of the configuration page.  Once you’ve installed it, click on Settings and then choose the options you prefer.

Add To Any Settings Page

Choosing Social Networks

Click on the link that says “Add Remove Services” and you’ll get a big list of social networking choices:

Download it

Here is the download link for this Plugin.

AddToAny WordPress Plugin

Belinda Hodge

Yesterday I was logged into Google Buzz and I read a post from Will Marlow that made me sit up and take notice.

Will’s post, titled The Eight Things You Need To Know About Google Plus was very informative, and to give you the gist of what he is saying here, if Search Engine Results are important to your Blog or WordPress website, then you need to know about Google Plus and install a Plugin that will let visitors Plus your content.

The bigger story is that Google are creating their own social network.

You can find out more about the Google Plus Project here.

More importantly though, information that receives a G+ in search engine results, in social media (such as the new network that is coming) and from users visiting your Blogs may just have a very high influence over your website’s ranking in the search engines, according to Will’s article.

If this is true, it’s probably  a great idea to gear up for this now and add this feature to your WordPress site when you can.  I cover how to do this below.

WordPress Plugins for Google Plus +1

To ensure your Blog or WordPress website site is ready for the new Google Plus, you can download and install a WordPress plugin that will add the Plus button to your site.

There was quite a few to choose from on WordPress.org but two I tried were okay so I’ll list them here.

WordPress Google+1 Button – Advanced Plugin

This is the one I’m using on this site.  It comes from Jacob Gillespie and it’s called WordPress Google +1 Button – Advanced Plugin, Includes Redirection.

It worked for me straight off the bat on this Theme.

After you install it and activate it, you can configure it’s settings from the settings link on your Plugin page.  Here’s a screenshot of available options.  Test it out and see how it goes.

Plus One Plugin

We all know that sometimes social/sharing type Plugins don’t work well with some Themes.  This one worked on a particular theme I have installed on another site, while the one above, only worked if a user clicked on the Post Title.

The Plus One Plugin will create a menu item under your Settings Menu in WordPress.  You can then configure it from there.  Here’s a screen shot:

Configuration Settings for Plus One:

If you found this article helpful, please don’t forget to Plus it!