WordPress | Web Designer.

A journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click.  ~Author Unknown

Hello to my followers, just found a great site I wanted to share with you all which I hope in turn will have some good content if you are looking for ideas, hint and tips for building your own website, or you are interested in learning what more you can do if you have already started.

I bought ‘Web Design’ magazine in my local newsagent recently, as I wanted to continue my own learning and research for updating and  making my WordPress website even better.  And I am also looking to get the best up to date thoughts for plugins and the like for other websites I am working on and hope to start in the near future.  I have already used one of the recommended WordPress plugins from the magazine.  My last post ‘My Website More Mobile’, using a plugin to make my website more mobile device friendly.  And I am sure as I filter through Web Designer internet site I will find more interesting facts, hints and tips to help grow my website and of course make mslilpetamattschoss.com, an even better website for all of you.  I have not fully dived into the website or the magazine, at times MslilPeta a little time poor   unfortunately, but it doesn’t stop me from passing on a good find to help syndicate a good source of information from other ‘Web’ and ‘Internet’ peeps out there.

So check these guys out, and also stayed tuned for any cool little widgets, tip or hints I can also say that I have tried and am using for any and all websites I am working on.  Always looking to help out and keep you up to date with what does or doesn’t work for me.

WordPress Sites configured for Mobile Devices

‘The Mobile Web Initiative is important – information must be made seamlessly available on any device.’
Tim Berners-Lee

Hi there folks… MsLil Peta catching up with you all after a bit of a lull.  I have been busy getting a local jewellery shop online and setting up their online sales/blog site, so I have been a little behind the times with my own posts, but here is another quick installment for you all to have read and maybe implement into your own sites.

Even though have been quite busy working and setting up another website, I have also been doing more reading, and learning about the web and getting my site (and of course yours with my tips) out there and providing a site that suits all users that will visit your or my site on their internet ‘surf’.  As you know I love my iPhone and use this device a lot, and of course you can view the internet quite seamlessly and at any time with such a mobile device.  And of course there is now the evolution of Android phones and the iPad which is also getting more and more people connecting to the net and searching and finding the information they are after at anytime and anywhere.  Using Safari on Apple devices, or your mobile devices browser, you can connect to websites as you please, but it is getting more and more important and possibly better that all websites, maybe more so for blogs, can also have a mobile device option within the site so that mobile device users can view their favourite website, like mslilpetamattschoss.com, in a mobile friendly format.

I have since found such a plug-in for WordPress which I am quite happy with, and does, make my site mobile friendly without losing to much integrity.  Of course on an iPhone/iPod or iPad you can view my and many other sites in normal view, but having found WPTouch, I now have a mobile device friendly website.  WPTouch is a plug-in accessed through your WordPress dash, in the plug-ins section.  Do a specific search for WPTouch and install immediately to your dash and of course your site.  For those who like to you can download the plug-in and upload to WordPress as you need.  The WPTouch plug-in comes with a large amount of options and tweaking if you prefer and of course comes with a Pro version which adds even more features.  I am using the standard program and as shown below, which looks fine and allows a better mobile view of my site.

Of course I do like to view my site in full as on the web, I am the type of person who likes the BIG picture so to speak.  But we are all at a time when building our websites for blogging, selling or whatever the reason, that we need to think of the more mobile society we are part of, and connecting with readers in a mobile friendly way.

‘Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.”
Mitchell Kapor

“In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire. ” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Well readers it has been a little too long between posts, but let’s rectify that today. As I blog I am sitting on the Cairns esplanade. Although about to be rained on, blogging is something you can enjoy doing from anywhere, any time. In an earlier post, I let you all know about the ‘Blogpress’ app available for iPhone, which allows blogging from anywhere to your favorite blog, or blogs. Since then I have found Blogpress, there have been continued updates to make it even better and also being available for iPad. More ways to get your ideas and thoughts out there.

Although, I have taken a step back and to the side, working on a different angle for business, it is good to know that I can still access and post content to my site anywhere! Home business and creating the freedom you need is still very popular, and I think will maintain popularity. A large part of a home business is keeping up to date and finding ways to communicate to your team, or spark the interest of new prospects and again being able to blog and share from anywhere is a great tool.

“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.” Ernest Hemingway

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Esplanade,Cairns North,Australia

Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog.

~Doug Larson

Hello to my followers, readers and well ALL of you out there.  I have just gone through some of the comments and thoughts from some of you, and have found this question quite often…. ‘what web hosting do you use?’.

Before I answer quite definitively and therefore ending the post quite quickly, you as a new or old blogger, site builder, or internet dabbler need to make sure you do your own due diligence and research all possibilities.  You also have to make sure what your are choosing will cater to the needs of you, the customer and user of the hosting.  There are a few hosting rating sites out there, from independent sources, which rate hosting companies and, truth be told, is where I started my search.  I also researched some of the options used by my mentors in home business and blogging and took my time in finally deciding.

As an avid reader of my site you may have noted to the right of my blogs a ‘sponsors’ area where you will find a link to the hosting company I use and also have recommended to new friends and customers of mine – Just Host.  I can hear all your questions already – WHY Just Host?  Well it boiled down to a few key items of particular interest to me.  Probably the most important was the support available, which includes live chat, anytime, for smaller issues, and the fact that there is customer support in 3 different time zones including Australia which is home for me.  Tech and Customer support are excellent, relatively quick response to any and all issues.  And you can upgrade your account to have ‘priority’ support, but you don’t really even need to.  I do have ‘priority’, but for a friends website I am currently working on they do not and the support and follow-up times are just as good.

Of course another key reason for choosing Just host is pricing and the options available to get you up and blogging or what ever you are using you websites for.  Keeping this in mind there are so many other options and extras you can upgrade to or have as part of your account.  Too many to list here, but I do have the ‘Green Hosting’ option, and as I quoted above, ‘Priority support’ – always handing for those not always confident to work out issues with websites, a good safety net.  But of course it is all up to you, your budget and what you will need from a hosting company.  I have used other hosting companies and all fine, some more expensive, but for the expense they do most of the work for you, and others like Just Host where it is up to you and your creativity.

I have added this link for you all to follow for a simple comparison of web hosting companies – http://www.webhostingsearch.com/

Just Host Link – (get started now!!) -  Just to the right, and down the page a bit     - – - – >

Blog Posts, Article Writing – What I do, which suits me…

A word is not the same with one writer as with another.  One tears it from his guts.  The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.  ~Charles Peguy

In recent weeks I have had some readers and subscribers ask me if I have a copywriter for the articles I post on this blog.  Short answer… No! But that doesn’t mean it is a bad thing to use a copywriter or that you shouldn’t look into using a copywriter if you wish.  During some of my social media research and reading over the past year I have noted that it is a common occurrence that people all over the net, who post on blogs or other article submission sites do use copywriters.  I say go for it… why not, but at this point in time, and I never may, use a copywriter.  For me it is just another cost for an online home business still making its mark and becoming established.  I also feel that everyone has a certain amount of writing skill, and you never know how much if you never try I say.  Some of your best achievements can be from having a go!  Of course you may start out slowly, or even shyly only concentrating on one subject that you know everything about, but time and effort are our friends people so give writing for your own blog a go.

My only tips for writing articles that seem to reach those interested and even those who didin’t know they were interested are as follows.

Write about what you know, have done some research about, and definitely what you are passionate about.  Everyone has a subject that they are passionate about…. I guess unfortunately for me I have many subjects, but they all inter-connect with each other in some way.

Write from the heart AND mind, people will know that you have something to offer if you, yourself believe in what you are sharing.  Personal experience is a great way to bring a message home.  People, readers, certainly like being able to relate to a subject or a thought… Stir up the – ‘hang on, that happened to me, I understand’ thoughts in your blog readers.

Funny but true, seriously, I write like I talk.  Hmm that is a bit funny isn’t it?  Well I do.  I don’t stand on street corners on a soap box trying to speak to the masses, but my glimpses of wit and general sense of fun whilst delivering a message is in my personality and I certainly don’t change how I write or get the message across just because I am writing it.  If you want an academic approach or a thesis, well you won’t really find it here.  I certainly include the facts as I know them and use quoted material to back up my thoughts, always noted to the original writer, but I write to my readers like I was having a conversation over coffee.  It is relaxed and informal, but still factual and information and experience that I have found helpful in my journey.

I think with writing like anything, if you like something you will read it or understand it and be glad you found the article.  If you don’t like what you are reading or you can’t seem to get into what you are reading, maybe there is better information out there for you or someone with a different way of presenting the information for you.  Again you can use a copywriter if you want to, but research and find the person who fits you and your style of presenting information.  There are many many copywriters available online and I am sure you will find one if that is what you are looking for.  Otherwise, I am also sure that you can also write blog posts or articles and publish yourself.  Have a go … I did! 

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise.  The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.  ~Sylvia Plath

Blog From Anywhere…..

“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.” – B Clark

Need a mobile option to Blog ALL THE TIME…. I hope I have given you some options, so you can Blog until your hearts content, and then some…. Go Forth and Blog.

Blogpress Screen Shot - iPhone

‘A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list.’ – Anon

Offline Marketing

‘If you want success, then do not rely on other people to do what YOU can do’

- Sasha Azevedo

Working a home business or 2, especially online with all the different formats available certainly helps us as entrepreneurs.  But, maybe we could get our ideas, business or message to more people.  Those who don’t know yet that they need a change in their lives or want to subsidize their income or even challenge themselves doing something different like an online home business and attraction/network marketing.  In a previous post, I talked about attraction marketing and using the great exposure that social media and articles can and do give to everyone involved with getting their message out there and branding themselves as some one of high value and even trust.  But what else can you do to add to exposure and bring more people into your circle of online friends and/or business downline.

No matter what type of business or product/ service anyone has… even something like a garage sale, some form of marketing is the key to gaining the biggest success.  So what other types of marketing can we aas home business people do to spread the word and advertise our great product and/or finacial gain.  I have recently taken to offline marketing to co-inside with my online presence as I want to reach out to a local audience, and also am looking at lower costs in marketing while my businesses continue in their growth stage.  Most people have done some sort of offline marketing to some extent before.  And in some some sense I am not going to give you a heap of new ideas, but as an entrepreneur, one must compete on the same playing field, find new ways and stand out from the crowd.  I have started my offline marketing simply with the use of flyers.  Both for letter box dropping (which doubles as a workout for the day ), and ‘tear off’ flyers which can be posted at most shops and community

Letterbox Flyer

notice boards.  This is a great place to start, and has seen interest generated for my main marketing promotion for my second business.  In fact within 1 day I had an enquirery from a ‘tear off’ flyer.  So rest assured people DO read and seek information off line.  Below is an example of my letterbox flyer I use.  I try to make sure that the person reading it is made to think about their current situation and if they have thought to change this situation, and where they can go or contact me to find more information or DO something to make the changes in their life that they may be seeking.

Of course you will have your own ideas on what you want to say or how you want to market your opportunity, but I guess what I am looking for are the people who have asked themselves before ‘is there a better way?’, ‘I want to live life… how can I do that?’.  Even with offline marketing for my home business, I still have online web addresses as people today like to see what you are talking about, and find out information for themselves.  They feel less pressure.  Of course some people prefer to hear from the ‘horses mouth’ so to speak and will ring you straight up, so of course be prepared for this, know your product/service, but also have you questioning ready for the person who has contacted you.

I also use, adding to my offline marketing arsenal, advertising on the back of supermarket register receipts.  This of course is a paid service through a specialty marketing and advertising company, but is certainly a great offline option and reaches many people.  ‘Shop-O-Docket’ marketing has been around for awhile now, and most of the population would have used the vouchers or promos etc at some point.  Of course this is not targeted marketing reaching only those interested in a home business, but again people need prompting at times.  Most of us think to ourselves ‘is there something better out there … something to better my life’ and so on, and having this form of advertising like the flyers, can call those people seeking change to action or at least get the ball rolling for them, and you have a new contact to keep in touch with.  I have also had inquiries from my ‘Shop-O-Docket’ campaign, and even though it is mainly an offline marketing concept, I have a place online with the marketing companies website for online marketing as well… best of both worlds.

Word of mouth is also a great vehicle for marketing and is the cheapest – FREE – and easiest for of marketing you can do for yourself and indeed for you home buisness.  When you have a conversation with someone, especially someone you have just met or haven’t seen for a long while some of the questions you are asked include what are you doing with yourself these days? … and what work are you doing?  How do you answer… what do you say?  Well firstly with the truth, but also in a way that you are not selling what you are doing.  This can put off even the ‘bestest’ of friends and new associates.  Why not put a new spin on it, alot of people out there are pretty set in their thinking about working from home.  Lets be real, alot of people do at times look at you as if you have 2 heads, and begin to get nervous that you are going to hound them until they buy something or sign up.  I had this experience the other day.  You will not and can not sell or talk to anyone, especially those who build brick walls infront of you straight after you asnwer their question.  But on the other hand how can you pass on the message about something that could change someones life.  A great opportunity kept a secrect isn’t so great if people do not know about it! “If people do not know about a product, service or opportunity, they will not ‘buy’ it”.  A bit of a catch 22, but you can tell people about your opportunity without alienating them and losing friends.

So what is the new spin?  When someone asked what you are doing or where you are working why not have an answer that you have thought about.  Why did YOU start a home business, what was the reaseoning for you choice or did you have a problem you wanted fixing?  Work on an answer for this pivitol question.  Have 2 or 3 different responses for differing situations.  And get the person asking the question thinking…  You should not even have to state what products or oppotunties you have in your answer and if the person wants to know more GREAT!  An example might be – “You know how everyone seems to be talking about the global financial crisis lately… well I help people to find a way to become more financially and personally secure, and in time help change their financial or personal situation from crisis to comfortable, all from home online…” This is a simple example, but I think you will get the idea.  You haven’t pushed anything onto the person you are talking to and they want to know more that is up to them.  And if they are asking the questions THEY want to know more, and are therefore more willing to listen to more information about what you do.

So what other ideas are out there other than just talking to people or letterbox dropping etc.  Well I guess in some instances the ‘sky’s the limit’, what do you think will

Offline Marketing Ideas

work for you.  Some ideas can be web addresses painted/sticker-ed on your car, business cards, ‘sky writing’  (te he he… but it is used), t-shirts or other apparel, sponsoring events or local functions, newspaper ads, bumper stickers, fridge magnets and so on… I guess it is up to the imagination to how far and what type of offline marketing you can do for your business in particular your home business.  I have touched on what I do, and which is cost effective for me and my home businesses.  Have a go and market your home business offline as well.

‘Make it simple, make it memorable, make it inviting to look at, make it fun’

- Leo Burnett

‘Sharing is caring’

Content Syndication…. Hmmm… What is it?  Content syndication is finding great content, which can be blogs, videos, websites, books, ebooks, articles and the like anywhere and everywhere on the net and paying that information forward.

Web syndication is a form of syndication in which website material is made available to multiple other sites. Most commonly, web syndication refers to making web feeds available from a site in order to provide other people with a summary of the website’s recently added content (for example, the latest news or forum posts). The term can also be used to describe other kinds of licensing website content so that other websites can use it. – Wikipedia

Content Syndication

Everyone on the net, however they interact on the world wide web, always have some way of getting their message new or old to the people who need to know.  These people who need to know also help with this.  Obviously if you like an article or blog post you can syndicate it or pass the message on through social media and the like, but of course you do not want to be re-publishing someone else’s work unless you have the permission to do so.  Some oft he ways I syndicate information I find useful, or informative is using social media as the vehicle.  Most blogs and articles have ‘share me’ buttons, and the like so that you the reader can pass on the links to the information you found helpful or informative.  At the bottom of this post you will find a string of social media buttons for which, if you find this information helpful and know someone or many people who would also need to know or would like to know this information, you can pass the information link on or syndicate it.  Other ways of syndicating or creating excitement for a blog, or article and the like is becoming a follower of that site or person or both, and even commenting or ranking the content that you find on different blogs or sites that you like, or know some extra information to share and so on.  It is like the movie ‘Pay it Forward’… pay the information forward.  Help those who help you!

Now I haven’t written this post just because I want more syndication, although I will not stop anyone who ‘Pays it Forward’, but in home business and becoming a quality presence on the web, syndication of anyone and every-one’s content helps the people find the right people and information that they are looking for.

“It is proven that the celebration of birthdays is healthy. Statistics show that those people who celebrate the most birthdays become the oldest.”

Hi there all!  I have been busy with my home business and haven’t posted for a day or 2 or 3, but that is changing right now….    If you visit my site now and again, and thankyou if you do and even if you don’t, you may have noticed that I have a little stats box now on my pages.  If you didn’t notice that is ok too…  it is not a huge widget!

I am always intregued, and of course want to know, how many and when and where people visit my home home business blog.  Kind of so I don’t feel left out… no not really, mainly because I like to know that I could be helping someone out there.  This little stats box has confirmed that I do have a visit to my site and not always by ME…. LOL…   You may notice that the widget has a G logo and that is because I am using the F.R.E.E service from ‘Go Stats’.  You can click on the widget to go to their site and check it out… and if you like it sign up for the free option.  This little gadget, and remember it is the free option, gives me stats on number of hits and visits, times, countries and even browser types…. heaps of information from my back office at ‘Go Stats’.  You even get a weekly email with weekly month and all time results… what more could you want.  Especially when I am very much driven by increasing numbers of visits or hits… Love IT!

So if you are like me, or even if you are not…. and like to have some statistics for your site, and is easy to set up cut and paste some code, visit ‘Go stats’ and see what they have to offer.

“42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.” — Steven Wright

The BEST Network Marketing / MLM Opportunity EVER.

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