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I am especially impressed with the SEO functionality and responsiveness of the slider. You can also insert a different slider on any post or page.G+

I am so thrilled to announce the new course on how to create your own website using the extremely popular, open source blogging/website tool and content management system  known as WordPress. It will be available offline to those of you located in the Southwest Florida community. This includes Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Naples, Sanibel and all surrounding areas.

Learn the fundamentals of building a website that can be used to create anything from a family blog to an Internet store front. WordPress is so robust that the New York Times uses it for their online edition. Now you can have the opportunity to gain the knowledge to create anything on WordPress from your own personal blog to a corporate web site! WordPress is the web’s fastest growing platform.

Some interesting facts about WordPress:

• 15%of all websites on the Internet use WordPress.
• Google “loves” WordPress – this platform provides excellent SEO as content is easily added and SEO plugins are easy to install and maintain.
• By the end of 2011, it was estimated that 20-25% of all new websites were created using WordPress
• WordPress has the biggest market share for content management systems at 53.8% over Joomla (9.2%), Drupal (6.7%) & others (30.3%).

Information About the WordPress Course:

The course will be presented in Fort Myers at KISSyourWeb.com’s design studio and conference center. You will need to sign up for this course by filling out the contact form and requesting a date for the course in the “how can we help you” section (Wednesdays and some Saturdays). I will contact you to set up the date. Look for a dedicated website for this course coming soon. I didn’t want to wait to create the website before bringing this opportunity to you first!

Looking forward to helping you build your new website.G+

If you want to create a short quiz, survey, or even a full online course on your WordPress website, Calendarscripts’ WatuPRO is a great solution. There are some great online course plugins and themes available (though, a lot fewer than expected), many of them are complicated and have a steep learning curve for non-developers and those unfamiliar with WordPress. Because many clients want to edit their own sites, simplicity of use on both the backend and frontend are a MUST!

I have a client that did not wish to invest a lot of time or money for a large Learning Management System (LMS) like BuddyPress Courseware. This is also a great plugin, it just did not suit the client’s needs.

Some of the features as listed on the WatuPRO website include the ability to:

• Create as many exams/quizzes/surveys as you would like.
• Create single answer, multiple choice and open-ended questions.
• Randomize questions.
• Leave an exam then return to it where you left off.
• Group questions by category.
• Set timers to complete an exam (not necessary).
• Print certificates of completion at the end of a successful exam.
• Have students log in.
• Do much, much more!

If you add the “Intelligence Module”, you can charge users for taking the exam, quiz, survey as well as other features. The cost for both plugins (WatuPRO + Intelligence Module) is well worth the price at $87.

Ideas to use this plugin to monetize your site:

• Create an exam for professions that require certification (check with your industry’s state board to see what requirements are needed for your particular profession).
• Create a paid practice exam for professions requiring certification.
• Create an eBook that is a study guide for professions requiring certification that also has a practice exam.
• Teach others how to use this plugin for a fee!

If you do get this plugin, please let the developer know how you used it!G+

According to Social Networking “Guru-ess”, Jo Barnes of TheSocialNetworkingAcademy.com, inclusivity, in social media marketing terms, means including and promoting other people’s content from their websites, blogs, social media channels, etc.

Why would you want to promote another person’s content? As Jo reports, this is a great way to introduce yourself to some of those important influencers you’ve always wanted to meet. Have you ever wanted to chat with master motivator Tony Robbins? Or meet your favorite celebrity? Maybe you just want to reach one of your industry’s leaders and see if they would be willing to help you with a business challenge. By helping to promote others, you are able to engage with them and possibly have an opportunity to meet them.

As a social media marketer and WordPress website designer, I have my own list of people I would love to meet online or in person. Imagine my excitement when, after promoting an iPhone APP that I use on a regular basis by Terry White, an Adobe® evangelist, he added me to his website in the form of a blog post. Then I had the memorable opportunity of meeting him in person at Photoshop World in Orlando. Thanks, Terry!

Another great influencer is Jo Barnes as mentioned above. She has become a true expert in the field of Social Network marketing over the past couple of years, teaching business owners how to use social media to market their businesses. I am a true believer in helping others that provide tremendous value to their followers. After providing Jo with a testimonial for her membership site, she posted it on her website’s introductory page. That’s what I call Inclusivity! Thanks to you, too, Jo!

How Can Inclusivity Help Your Business & How Do You Do It?

Here are just a few ways inclusivity can help your business:

• By providing valuable comments on other people’s social media sites and/or blogs, you may become known as an expert in your own niche. This can easily increase your own fan base.
• When you write about others in your blogs (as I am doing here!), you are giving credibility to them as well as to your own site. Don’t forget to add a link to your blog post on all of your social media sites.
• You may get noticed by the person you are promoting and they may, in turn, help promote your company.
• Not only can you promote each other’s companies, but you may find projects you can work on together as a team and double your fan base.

What Next?

Start commenting on others’ Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIN, Pinterest and Blog posts – make sure you have created a Gravatar for yourself before commenting on someone else’s blog posts. This can connect to your Google+ account and add to your search engine optimization for your site. You will also want to make sure you optimize your social media accounts (add your website(s), add content to your description, etc.).

The bottom line is this: help others that add value to your life and your business or just because you truly believe in what they do. This is not a new idea, but has gotten a lot easier with social media. Personally, there is no way I could have ever met some of my “heroes” from around the world without social media.G+

I cannot tell you how many times I am asked this question when presenting on how to set-up your social media accounts and utilize these sites to market your business no matter how big or small the company is. The analogy that I use to explain all the different Internet web presences that a company has or should have is the following:

• Your Website = Your Virtual Company
• Your Blog = Your Online Newsletter
• Your Social Media Sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc) = Your Virtual Networking
• Your Video Site (YouTube, Vimeo, etc) = Your TV Commercial, your “how-to” videos, etc.

I will go into more detail about the other three topics in other blog posts, as well as give you specific tips on how to get more fans and followers on the major social media sites. As for now, let’s discuss the basics of social media and why even small businesses need to get involved in using this avenue for marketing their businesses. Here are some potential benefits for posting to social media for your company, even if you are posting for just 30 minutes per day:

Get New Business

Yes, it’s true! Once you’ve developed even a small following of “fans” to your Facebook page, you will generate new business or even spark renewed interest by previous customers. The next big question is, “how do I do that?”. It really is all about building relationships with your current and potential customers online. I will be covering many tips and tricks on how to do this in subsequent blogs. Stay tuned!

However, this doesn’t happen overnight. There is no magic formula for getting someone to walk into your business (or click on your virtual business’ website) just by posting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, etc. It is about commenting on your fans’ posts, sharing their posts, sharing information that benefits your fans and not just broadcasting all about your business – you must always think about your fans first. Always think in terms of “how would this information I am posting make my fan’s life better, more successful, etc.” and not think about writing things that may sound to your readers more like “look at me, look at me”! Yes this sounds obvious, but companies do it all the time.

Create Good Backlinks for your Company Website

Backlinks (also known as inbound links and incoming links, among others) are links from websites other than your own that point to your company website. They are becoming extremely important for search engine optimization (SEO – optimizing your site to rank how on the search engines so that your website shows up high on the first page of the search engines) for many reasons, including indicating to Google that the more, high quality backlinks you have for a site, the higher the ranking of the site may have. Many of the social media and video sites (including Google’s own YouTube.com) are high quality, high-ranking sites that, when you post on them and have your website listed somewhere on those sites, gain you valuable backlinks.

Build Lasting, Meaningful Business Relationships

As mentioned above, the more you learn how to use social media to post valuable information that benefits your current and potential customers, the better your relationships with your customers will be. Other ways to build good customer relationships is by providing excellent customer service. If a customer has a problem with your company for some reason, if they have a negative post on your social media site(s), it’s a good idea to address that post professionally and without judgment and simply find out how you can improve the customer’s experience (this is also called Reputation Management). Just by taking the time to address negative issues compassionately and honestly, you may not only regain an unhappy customer, you may gain new customers simply by what you wrote.

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Many people have asked why I started a second career as a local, Fort Myers web designer when I already have a fulfilling career as an eye doctor! The big surprise is how supportive people have been when I told them I did it “because I am following my Passion”. What started the excitement was in creating my first web site for my “other career” of Optometry and a lifelong love of computer technology. Here is an example of a page of that site:

Fort Myers Eye Associates, PA

After learning HTML and Adobe Flash, I realized there was a great need for business owners to be able to edit their own sites. They no longer wanted to be at the mercy of their website designers who could actually take months before they would make requested changes to the owners’ sites. This is when I realized WordPress is the perfect answer. WordPress is a platform that allows anyone to easily learn and edit their own sites. With this in mind, I started custom designing and/or customizing templates for the business owners’ company sites.

And here is an example of the WordPress Blog for the same business:

Fort Myers Eye Associates Blog

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Thanks to a friend of mine, Kent McKenzie, of Inflatable Cinemas, I have discovered this great website called Thumbtack.com. With just a few minutes of your time, you can post your company’s service and become part of a large community of service providers that will help both your website’s Google rankings as well as provide another way for clients to find you in the local marketplace. Per the site’s instructions, I am posting a link to my new listing using their user-friendly copy and paste posting below:

Check out my Website Design and Social Media Network Marketing for a glimpse at what they have to offer.

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This is a very quick blog post but I wanted to give you a great link to Robin Williams’ tips & tricks for Bad web design and Good web design. Here it is:

http://www.ratz.com/features.html

Also, here are some of her great design books:

the Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams

the Non-Designer’s Web Book by Robin Williams

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For example, here is an interview Betty Walker from the Web Wise Lady did for me:

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