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After the last World Internet Summit in London 2007, however, I took on board that all the “big dogs” are using it and when my buddy Mike Stewart said “I don’t know why I’m using it but Armand told me too!” I came home, downloaded the software for free from www.Wordpress.org, tried some plugins and after a long frustrating weekend trying to get it to work, I gave up on that one.
Then I turned to ex-internet coaching client Lea Woodward for help, as she was much more techie than me and had an army of geeks to outsource the tricky bits to.
Turns out my server 1and1.co.uk needed some serious tweaking before it would let me hook up my new MySql database with the blog software. Most hosting like my preferred one FunkyDomainNames will let you do a very sexy one click install from the CPanel - takes nanoseconds.
Of course installing it is one thing, making Wordpress look nice and do what you want it to do is another. I struggled for weeks to get images in my posts! For this you will need to choose a “widget ready” theme AND install about 20 different plugins.
Here is my list of the Top Essential & Most Sexy Plugins For Wordpress
** Please feel free to comment below and let me know which plugins I am missing **
1. Akismet - stops comment spam and comes pre-installed, you just need to activitate it (in Plugins) and then add your API key, which you get from setting up an account at www.Wordpress.com
2. OneClick - install this first, by downloading the zip file to your computer, extracting the files and uploading via FTP the main OneClick folder to your wp_content > plugins folder on your server. Go activate it in your Wordpress control panel, then thereafter, after you have downloaded the zip file for any plugin to your computer, you can do everything else from within Wordpress. Remember to use the pull down menu to choose plugin rather than theme, as it defaults to theme.
3. Sign-out-reminder - does what it says on the tin!
4. Wordpress-automatic-upgrade.1.1 - this makes the business of upgrading your software effortless, if you choose the “automatic” option. Amazing to watch!
5. Feedburner_feedsmith_plugin_2.3 - you need to open a free Feedburner account and “burn” a feed for your blog. Not only will Feedburner give you better statistics, but you can monetize your blog posts and feed page with Google Adsense.
6. adsense-manager.2.5 - put your Adsense publisher CA in here and monetize your blog
7. better-comments-manager1.5 - helps you manage comments more easily and picks up inbound links to your blog
8. google-sitemap-generator.3.0.2 - automatically generates and updates your site map for Google
9. Maxblogpress-ping-optimizer.zip - if, like me, you save each post about five times, before you are happy with it, this plugin stops your blog spamming the ping sites, particularly ping-o-matic, who can block your blog for over-pinging! MaxBlogPress has some nice plugins generally.
10. ImageManager2.41 - never again struggle to put pics in your posts, or have to upload your pic to your server before you can use it, or worse still, LOSE a pic that you just KNOW you uploaded/used before on your blog. This plugin did disappear last time I upgraded my Wordpress software but I just reuploaded it using oneclick and it worked fine again.
11. All-in-one-bookmarking-button - puts that sexy little bar at the bottom of all your posts that enables your visitor to digg you, stumble you, delicious you or technorati you (and many, many others)
12. TwitThis_for_WordPress_1.1 - if you twitter - and you should as it updates your blog with your twits, you can twit on the move, it updates your Facebook and MySpace Profile and it twits to your followers when you post on your blog (AMAZING!!) - then you need this on your blog! not sure which of the Twit tools listed here does what, but you need both (take it from me!)
13. Twitter-tools.1.1b1 - as above!
14. Viddlercomments - enables people to post a comment using video via their webcam on your blog - watch this one grow and grow!
15. Max-banner-ads - just getting into this one but man, it’s really, really good. Enables you to put your own banners or OTHER PEOPLE’s in various locations on your blog, and gives great stats. You can start to charge for banner ads on your blog!
Hope this was helpful. and if you hit the comments link (or the little camera) you can leave your favourite plugins for us! Cheers, Nicola
“I did a search for “twitter manifesto” and I am sad to say that I was not the first to coin this phrase. Darn, there goes my legacy.
For the last couple of months, my participation on Twitter has grown significantly and yes, I have become somewhat addicted. I tend to follow certain peeps who I think I can learn from as well as personal friends and colleagues. Recently I had an ego “reality check” when I realized that a few of those peeps don’t follow me back, even though I attempted to interact with them on several occasions. I then asked myself, “do I provide value to those who follow me?, can people learn from me?, am I not liked?” I always thought I was a pretty likable guy.
I realize that I was taking this way too personal and that the world does not revolve around me; a sad truth of course (jk). David Berkowitz actually sums this situation up quite eloquently. He gives some examples of why one might not reciprocate by following their followers:
They post too often
They post too infrequently
They only post about themselves
They only post links with no commentary
They’re boring
You’re overwhelmed by your current volume from who you’re following and you’re cutting back
You only follow people you really know
I would hope that the last two bullet points exemplify my personal experience.
Nonetheless, I decided to craft my own “Twitter Manifesto” just for Michael Brito. So, here goes.
Don’t expect the people you are following to follow you. It would be virtually impossible for someone like Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) to follow all of his 8,000 followers. He is already following over 5,000 and I give him tons of credit for that. If and when someone wants to follow you, it’ll happen organically. If they don’t, DON’T TAKE IT PERSONAL (I am talking to myself right now). If you don’t want to wait, you can always respond to and/or blog about one of their tweets.
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The last two weeks have been SO hectic with my speaking gigs (two in one week) and two Money Gym workshops back to back, that we missed an ezine - quelle horror! My business partner, fellow blogger and now twitterer extraordinaire, Judith Morgan, sums it all up brilliantly here (makes me feel quite exhausted reading it) - she is so funny! |
| We are hosting the first fr*ee webinar to kick off the marketing for our next Money Gym workshop (all about the internet) this Friday at 2pm so if you want to find out more about using blogging to enhance your business check out the info here, you can listen later if you can’t make it live. |  |
I have made time (while travelling and before nodding off) to read two AMAZING books this week - the first is called “The Money Making Magic of A Funfair Goldfish (& Other Get Rich Quick Secrets Of A Mattress Bound Millionaire)” by John Harrison, owner of Streetwise Publications. Awesome, practical and funny, you need to treat yourself to this one. His take on the people who hang out in kiddies ball parks nearly made me laugh out loud on the train to London.
The other has had a most profound effect on me, and it’s called “The Love Trap” by Annie Bennett. Recommended by my first ever coach, Rachel Turner, who also banged on about “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” for ages before I bought it…..duh!
It’s a true story of the author’s repeating patterns of falling in love too quickly and choosing the recipients unwisely, culminating in a certain situation that has to be read, to be believed!. She then goes onto explain how her childhood had influenced her choices and why, and as a trained psychotherapist and counsellor, she knows what she is talking about!
It’s all about how certain childhood traumas such as “abandonment” and “enmeshment” can have such a dramatic effect on your adult relationships - leading to your becoming either a “love addict” or “love avoider” - the two being remarkably similar in lots of ways, and often drawn to each other. These two personality types are quite liable to become addicts in other ways, and again, I found it very interesting as I’m on my diet again and doing really well except when I get into certain lonely/abandoned type situations - hotel rooms for example!
I found the book gripping, moving, fascinating and enlightening, having grown up with a mentally ill mum, who simultaneously used to disappear for periods of time with no warning or explanation, then come back, turn my world upside down and then lean on me totally for everything from looking after the babies, to supporting her through relationship turmoil.
I felt quite set free, by reading this book, because it’s great to know that the way you are and feel is not unusual, and I feel the benefits are only just starting.
What else is happening?
Oh, on a much lighter note LOL the sales of the cabins on our Money Gym Holidays cruise are going well - I think there are about 6-7 cabins left. So if you fancy coming away with us, and some top line internet marketers, bringing the family (kids are really well looked after on cruises) and having a great time in grey old January, visit http://www.themoneygym.com/holidays and secure your place. Loads of great Money Gym bonuses including the chance to learn how to play Texas Hold’em with me!
Off shopping in Brighton now, a 13 year old’s birthday is looming!
Have fun, we ALWAYS are!
Nicola
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Nicola Cairncross Wealth Coach, Author Internet Strategist Professional Speaker Founder, The Money Gym Ltd Email us to have Nicola speaking at YOUR event >>> |
What do anoraks, leading entrepreneurs and wannabe writers have in common? They blog. You probably know what a blog is - but do you know about its hidden talents?
Or how important it is for your business? People buy from people they know, like and trust and a good blog goes a long way towards creating that trust.
Would you like to know just how easily you can combine 3 simple social media tools to maximise its impact?
Social Media Marketing specialist, Claire “Business Blog Angel” Raikes, does and she’s in the mood to share!
Join us on this fr*ee one-hour webinar at 2pm British Summer Time / 1pm GMT on Friday afternoon (or listen to the recording later) where Nicola (no mean blogger herself) will grill Claire about the best and latest ways to use blogging and social media to explode your profits!
Do feel free to put in your questions about blogging for business before the call and we will cover as many of them as possible.
http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/MGPresents/BlogAngel
See you there!
Cheers
The Money Gym Team
p.s. And on that page you can also secure your early bird place at our “Money Gym Presents….” workshop on 17th May where Claire and Tim “Viral Spiral” Brocklehurst will be sharing their secrets to our lucky Money Gym delegates.
Sitting at home in our jim-jams eating bagels and left-over Easter eggs, watching Jeremy Kyle on the telly and stopping only briefly to see how many more sales have pinged into our Paypal account. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Just one ebook sale per day @ £20, from one one-page website, would make us an extra £7300 a year - enough for a new car or a couple of nice holidays. Two or three ebooks doing the same would make £21,900 - nearly a full time wage. The beauty of the internet is that you do the work once, and the money keeps coming. Imagine if you could spend a month putting up one ebook for sale - by the end of the year, you would be making £87,600 per annum.
There’s a problem though. The reality, for many of us is that we make a tenner here, twenty quid there, but most people never get much further than that in our pursuit of passive income.
Founder of The Money Gym Nicola Cairncross, who has built a six-figure business marketed entirely online, and who once made £14,000 in one weekend from one email, tells us she knows exactly why that is:
* We aren’t prepared to focus our attention in one place, on one thing, for long enough to make it work.
Nicola says if we just focus on one thing – one information product, one niche or one passionate interest – and take consistent regular action we can make ourselves some passive income online, and having done it once, can replicate those results over and over. This action would include
* Creating a web presence – a sales page, a brochure site, a blog. All of them preferably
* Capturing visitors’ details, encouraging them to subscribe to ezines (online newsletters)
* Turning them into raving fans by providing regular, maybe even daily, valuable content
* Having a system to automate the selling of our product till we make a profit
* Replicating the process.
As Nicola says, “like creating wealth, making money online is simple but it’s not easy, you have to get off your “assets”, learn new skills and take some action”.
To encourage - or even bully! their Money Gym members, to success, Nicola and Judith, her partner, have decided to set up an Internet Challenge for any of us who are sick of diddling about in this “Wealth Highway Lane” on a rusty old bike with a punctured tyre and broken bell and would like to trade up to a moped, a Harley or a Porsche. Something that will always need a bit of maintenance and some petrol but then just watch it go…
The Money Gym are incentivising their new Silver members and supporting them in the Challenge by giving them free lifetime access to Nicola’s 12-Step Internet Marketing Home Study Course - which retails for £1450 - and membership of a private email support group. This will provide encouragement, resources and a kick up the backside!
Your investment £27.50 a month (minimum one year), your return will be the support and knowledge to create a passive income online for life.
So if you’d like to join us for a three-month personal challenge to up the stakes on our internet passive income game then you should visit http://www.TheMoneyGymClub.com and join the club at Silver Level using the promotional code InternetChallenge.
Then, join the private Google group and do a search for “internet challenge” and you can read all the back discussions and get involved right now!
Here, Gary demonstrates how powerful video blogging can be, and makes me determined to do more of it, using my FlipVideo. I’m off to speak on Wealth Creation and Business Success in Yorkshire, for the Institute of Directors, leaving tomorrow, so I’ll dig it out, and do my best!
In the meantime, here’s that video blog from Gary. Check out the location!
Thank gawd for Linda or I would have been on my own and it was also Linda that supplied the answer to what was going on. Somehow, the Webinar ID for the Free call tonight had become transposed with the ID for tomorrow’s Gold & Silver call.
Bummer.
The worst thing about it, apart from the disappointed callers (who at least can listen to the recording - and let me tell you! Linda was great!) was that I had spent 2 hours working out the optimal combination of camcorder and microphone to be able to record and speak to camera, while hosting a telephone webinar.
So much for recuperating from my operation slowly - what was I thinking? Apparently Marion, one of our coaches has already sent an email to Steve saying “What is she doing!!??”
Anyway, the edited version of the recording (minus my tuts and gasps of exasperation) will be available.
The other thing I realised halfway through was that while the people on the video could see my screen, and me, chatting in
an animated fashion “to camera” they would not be able to hear what was happening on the phone. My end yes, the other end no.
LOLOLOL
Right, back to basics for tomorrow.
Recording up on the blog tomorrow - just click this link http://www.MoneyGymRadio.com
Cheers
Nicola (& Linda obviously)
1. Rest your laptop on a small tray - avoids overheating laptop and burnt knees
2. Download Skype - v. useful for communicating with rest of household when cups of tea required
3. Gather the essentials around you; bottle of water, house phone, tv remote, mobile phone, calculator, book, painkillers.
4. Arrange your pillows (and those stolen from others) in a V-shape, which gives support while enabling you to doze.
5. Move location about 4pm, after having a shower (ignore hospital advice about keeping dressings dry, better to feel clean) and putting on most unattractive but comfy leggings & t-shirt.
6. When downstairs on sofa, make sure a side table is handy, for drinks, book, calculator, tv remote (see above for rest) or spillages will result
7. Fluffy blankets work well as do lots of cushions
8. Daytime TV; avoid Jeremy Kyle as it’s depressing, but any property programme or re-runs of Rick Stein & Jamie At Home have great soporific effect!
9. Children can be useful for fetching things, but be firm about endless Simpsons watching when you arrive in new downstairs location
10. Enjoy the break wholeheartedly as it’s guilt free lounging about. Every day you will feel better and better!
BONUS TIPS:
11. Yanik Silver’s “Underground Secret Service” t-shirts are excellent lounging wear, comfortable but funky too!
12. This is a great time to work through all those DVD’s and audio you have bought / downloaded but not listened to
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"The Money Gym"
book
includes a Foreword
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"This book is a template for anyone who wants to create wealth... it will tell you the path to take and what to do...There is no better teacher and mentor than Nicola" |
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