Cajun OnStar

Best Customer Service award for 2009 should go to the OnStar by GM employee in this YouTube video for not losing his cool and for really giving 110% to help these crazy Cajuns find their location. Even though this was intended as a joke, it just goes to show that some companies do provide great customer service in the worst situations. I know the representative could not understand this Cajun guy…probably only a true Cajun could, but he did his best to help them.

Some may say the pranksters were waisting this guy’s time, but he was paying for the service or the call.

Listen to this, and let me know what you think of the OnStar customer service. I think it was excellent!

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Best Customer Service – Cajun OnStar

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OK, you just did a Google search looking for someone that could help you with a WordPress blog or website. Do I have that right so far?

Now if I’m looking for someone that can help me on a WordPress blog or website, I would prefer someone that knows how to get a site to rank on page one in the Google organic results pages. I’m also going to bet that you found this article on page #1 of Google using the the keywords WordPress Consultant Dallas, or possible using web designer dallas or even WordPress blog design. Some of the other nearby cities could also come up on with this search, such as Plano, Richardson, McKinney, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Grapevine, Irving, Arlington, Fort Worth, Mesquite, Garland and many other North Dallas cities. Point being, you found me on page one of Google, so it would make sense to work with someone that could get YOUR site ranked the same way.

You see, I’ve learned a lot about search engine optimization since working with WordPress, and can tell you that it’s the best platform you can use to build your blog or website. It has great SEO capabilities, and Google just absolutely loves it. If you build your posts correctly (which I show my clients how to do), you will get ranked for the keywords and keyword phrases in your target market.

So building your website is not the only consideration you should be concerned with, how to get it ranked quickly in the search engines should be a high priority.

If you’re still reading this, then give me a call. We can discuss your site and determine if we’re a fit. If we don’t click, then no hard feelings. I know other good WordPress consultants in the area that I can recommend.

WordPress Consultant – Dallas / Plano

- I can be reached at (469) 766-8188. Just ask for Bruce.

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WordPress Consultant – Dallas

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Anik Singal Affiliate Classroom 2.0

Anik Singal’s Affiliate Classroom 2.0 launches today at 12:00 PM EST. This has already proven to be a very HOT launch for affiliate networkers and internet marketers, and the race to get the message out has been very competitive. Bonus offers are being offered as an incentive to sign up with over 3,000 listeners signed up to see the Affiliate Classroom 2.0 webinar held last night.

Anik and his team have reached their goal of raising $30,000 for charity by donating $1.00 for every person that signed up to download his FREE report called 3 Amazing Affiliate Business Models!

Anik claims that the Affiliate Classroom 2.0 is like an online University for affiliate marketers.

Building on it’s predecessor, the affiliate classroom 2 will have more features and training.

Some of the new additions include:

• Releasing over 50 courses on affiliate marketing, from COMPLETE Beginner to Advanced.
• TOOLS – “one stop shop” – Affiliates will now have EVERY tool they need (including keyword research and even a site builder)
• Proprietary online STEP BY STEP Training system that actually tracks student’s success…
• Testing/Certification – all included

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Anik Singal Affiliate Classroom 2.0 FREE Report

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Adding a video to WordPress can be done in many ways. There are tons of video plugins such as the Revver WordPress Video Plugin, Smart Youtube plugin, WP YouTube plugin and many more.

For this example, I’ll use the Smart YouTube plugin for this tutorial.

Check out the video tutorial here. I’ll be showing how to insert the video below (the SNL skit of Juila Childs)…pretty funny.

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How to add a video to WordPress

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Windows Live Writer is a tool I never really considered using with WordPress until I had a chat with some fellow developers at a Dallas WordPress Meetup. One of the developers said that all of his clients use it so they don’t have to actually log into the WordPress administration to post a blog. He said he’d rather keep them out of that area if at all possible, so as not to screw up anything.

Well, I began to think about what he said, and it sort of made sense. So this is my first stab at using Windows Live Writer to actually make a new post on my own blog to see how it works.

The installation of Windows Live Writer only took about 5 minutes, and the interface is really nice. Here’s a screenshot of the post I’m writing now.

Screenshot of Windows Live Writer

I’m not sure just yet how this will come out in the blog, but it sure is easy to write, insert images and edit my post.

I can even insert a table into my post…think I’ll give that a shot now.

Ok, that was easy enough.

There are also some plugins available for Windows Live Writer, but I’m not going to try that on this post. I’m beginning to get anxious to see how this will all look.

Think I’ll do another post later, and add a video into the post, or a map. This is pretty cool. If this looks good in the post, I can see why anyone would like using it as their main method of posting.

All for now! If you have experience with Windows Live Writer and WordPress, please make a comment below to tell us how you’re using it and what kinds of results you’re getting.

Bruce

UPDATE: Ok, the post looked good after publishing, except the screenshot did not show up. It appears that I did not configure my FTP setup within Windows Live Writer.. I’ll do that later. So I uploaded the file via FTP and inserted the image. Also, the spacing between paragraphs was much bigger than what it appeared in the writer, so I took out the extra spaces. Other than that it worked just fine.

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How to use Windows Live Writer on your WordPress Blog

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OK, I just upgraded this blog from WordPress v2.6.5 to v2.7.1, and it was one of the easiest upgrades ever…thanks to Luke Gedeon. I thought that I could do an automatic upgrade from my hosting account, but it said that I could only upgrade manually. So I did a Google search to see if anyone had an “easy WordPress upgrade”, and low and behold I came across Luke Gedeon’s site with the answer I was looking for…How to upgrade to WordPress 2.7 – The easy way! I followed Luke’s instructions…and it was a piece of cake. The plugin was created by a very creative Keith Dsouza from Techie Buzz. Thanks Keith!

WordPress Automatic Upgrade Tutorial Video (this is a video tutorial of me upgrading one of my sites)

Below are Luke’s instructions…he said on his blog that anyone could copy them and spread the word, so I’m taking him up on it. Thanks Luke!

It is time to upgrade to WordPress 2.7

If you are like me you probably like to wait a few weeks months years to install the newest software. Upgrades take time, you have to learn new stuff, and new software usually breaks.

WordPress 2.7 is a little different. I have never seen software go through such a thorough vetting before release. Hundreds (possibly thousands) were testing this well in advance of release and multiple thousands were using it by the time of the official release.

All that testing does not make it any easier to install, though. Or does it? One of those testers built a plugin to make upgrading super-easy.

The Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin will take you through each step of the upgrade process. It gives you a one-click option to create backups then puts your blog in maintenance mode, installs the files, and finishes the upgrade. After installing the plugin, (plugins are much easier to install than the full WordPress application) you have 5-10 clicks and you are done!

So let’s get started:

1. Click here to download the plugin.
2. Upload the file you just downloaded into the /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
3. Unzip the file. (If I have lost you at this point, let me know. This is different for each host, but I can help you individually. Just ask.)
4. Goto your wp-admin and click the Plugins menu and the Plugins sub-menu
5. Find “Wordpress Automatic Upgrade” and activate it.
6. After activating the plugin you will see a pink bar at the top that says “Click Here to Automatically Upgrade WordPress to latest Version.
7. Anybody care to guess what the next step is?
8. Yup, Click on that link and enter the twilight zone.

After this you will have to click “Next Step” several times, and whenever it gives you a chance to download back-ups, do it. (two different parts need to be backed up) You will also need to click on the link to upgrade your database.

Please let me know who things work out for you. I want to hear all those, “Wow! That was easy!” exclamations. I also want to hear about any trouble  along the way, so maybe I can update these notes to make things even easier for others.

[Update]

Oh! Share this post with as many people as you possibly can. You can use social bookmarks like del.icio.us or rating sites like digg. Even better, you can copy this post onto your blog or write a post linking here. Let’s try to make this easy for as many people as possible.

[/Update]

Post from: WordPress Blog Design SEO - Customizations - Websites - Tutorials

WordPress Automatic Upgrade – WordPress Plugin Makes It Easy

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Thanks for stopping by Michele’s radio show. Below are some of the tips we discussed on the show for setting up your WordPress blog. Our wish is that you have a successful and abundant 2009 and that your business exceeds all of your expectations. Best wishes for 2009!

Breakthrough Business Strategies – BlogTalkRadio.com

Date: Monday, January 19, 2009

@ProsperityGal (Michele on Twitter)

http://blogtalkradio.com/twochickscreating

http://blogtalkradio.com/breakthroughbusinessstrategies

@Deauxmain (Bruce on Twitter)

http://www.deauxmain.com

Must Have Plugins to Start Your WordPress Blog:

• All in One SEO Pack – Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog.
• Dagon Design Sitemap Generator – Generates a fully customizable sitemap
• Dagon Design Secure Form Mailer – WordPress version of my secure php form mailer script
• Exclude Pages from Navigation – Provides a checkbox on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation.
• Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.
• Google Analytics for WordPress – A free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website.
• Sociable – Automatically add links on your posts, pages and RSS feed to your favorite social bookmarking sites.
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade – WordPress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the WordPress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the WordPress upgrade instructions. View my WordPress Automatic Upgrade Video Tutorial.
• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin – Returns a list of the related entries based on a unique algorithm using titles, post bodies, tags, and categories. Now with RSS feed support!

Recommended WordPress Themes:

• Revolution2 – Professional WordPress Themes (These are the ones I have been using)
• WordPress Remix – Premium Theme that offers WordPress as CMS experience
• One Theme – Premium WordPress Themes
• WooThemes – Premium WordPress Themes (also have some FREE themes)
• iThemes – Premium WordPress Themes
• WordPress Themes – 542 FREE themes last time I checked

Recommended Web Hosting

Bluehost ->

Good Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Information

seomoz.org – The Web’s Best SEO Resources – Tons of SEO information and tools. You will need to sign up for a free account.

Link Building Notes of an SEO Kindergartner – 19 pages filled with highly effective link building tactics shared by the coolest Mozzers

• Where to look for links
• How to get links

Using Voice Recognition or Speech Recognition Software for Blogging in WordPress

Most people speak over 120 words per minute but type less than 40 words per minute. What if you could speak your blog, instead of typing it. Think about using speech recognition or voice recognition software to make blogging easier. Once your software has been set up and trained to recognize your voice patterns, you can use it to dictate your blog posts. It learns to recognize your voice instantly and continually improves the more you use it. This can dramatically speed up the time it takes to get new posts up. Speech recognition software can type up to 160 WPM (words per minute) with 99% accuracy. Not too shabby, so give it a try.

• Windows Vista Speech Recognition – Free with purchase of Windows Vista operating system (built in)
• Nuance – Dragon NaturallySpeaking Speech Recognition Software -Starts around $99 and has many different purchasing options for Windows or Mac.

Screen Capture and Making Tutorials for WordPress

There are many times that you may want to take a screenshot of something to put in your WordPress blog or on your website. You may also want to find a way to make short tutorials, whereby you can record video of onscreen action, showing your users exactly what you’re doing. Well, I’ve found a great tool for doing just that. It’s called Jing. Jing is a free application that allows you to make screen captures or even video tutorials in 5 minute increments. Your captures or videos can be saved to your local hard drive or uploaded to Screencast.com. This software is made by TechSmith…the makers of Camtasia Studio. I love this application and encourage you to try it out to see for yourself.

• JingProject.com – Free software that adds visuals to your online conversations.
• Screencast.com – a TechSmith solution for business and academic professionals looking to manage and share videos, images, documents, or anything else online.

How to Keep Your Video Camera Steady – Even When You Are Moving

All to often we see videos that people make that would be pretty good videos, but the camera is so shaky it makes us drunk just to watch it. Steadicams (or camera stabilizers) are attachments used to capture smooth looking video even when the camera and camera operator are in motion. The camera operator may walk (or even jog), move through tight hallways and doorways, and even climb up and down stairs without shaking the camera.

There are professional video stabilizers on the market to remedy this situation…but they ain’t cheap. One is called Steadicam, and starts around $1500. Well, I found a way to make great videos without spending an arm and a leg on a solution to make your camera steady. It’s called Steadycam, and you can make one yourself for under $14.00. Johnny Chung Lee has a website devoted to showing you exactly what you’ll need to build it, and then shows exactly how to build it for under $14. Johnny does an excellent job and his design is brilliant. If you are not the handyman type, you can purchase the complete Steadycam for $39.95 from Johnny’s site…still a great deal. So check out the Steadycam and start making smooth moving videos today.

Rank Checker

Checking to see how my site is ranking in the search engines for my main keywords has always been a pain in the butt, but no more. I found a really cool Firefox plugin that checks my rankings in Google, Yahoo and Live with the click of a button. It does have a few setup steps, but once that’s done…it’s a snap.  You just put in your domain name, and list of keywords or keyword phrases, then press the start button. You’ll have your ranking results in minutes. You can also download your search resulting into a CSV file.

It’s a free rank checking tool for Firefox called Rank Checker, by SeoBook.com. Download the plugin for Firefox and start checking your site rankings today.

279 Days to Overnight Success

I came across a really interesting WordPress blog this morning by Chris Guillebeau at http://chrisguillebeau.com. His blog is The Art of Non-Conformity – Unconventional Strategies for Life, Work and Travel. He writes about how to change the world by achieving significant, personal goals while helping others at the same time. I found his e-book before I actually found his website. His e-book is 279 Days to Overnight Success, in which he describes how he became a full-time writer in under 10 months. I really like what Chris has to say, and encourage you to visit his blog and download his e-book.

WordPress Tutorials – for Newbies to Pros

Here are a few of my best links to WordPress Tutorials. These are great resources that will help the Newbie to the Pro.

Your ONE membership gives you access to members-only content for ALL our Plus sites:

• Psd Plus
• Vec Plus
• Net Plus
• Audio Plus

At $9 a month (or $22 for three months, or $78 per year) it’s a fantastic deal. And if you don’t love it, no problem, because your membership comes with a 100% money-back guarantee within the first month. But with over 3,000 happy members, we’re sure you’re going to love Plus!

250+ Super Cool Wordpress Tutorials – Newbie To Pro –

- This is a great resource for WordPress Tutorials. A great collection that will not disappoint you.

110+ Massive Wordpress Video Tutorial Collection

- Another good collection of WordPress Tutorials. Check it out. Awesome stuff.

Twitter for WordPress Plugin Tutorial

I like the Twitter for WordPress plugin, so I made a quick tutorial on how to install it in under four minutes. It’s really easy to install and configure, so please take about 3 minutes and watch the video.

WordPress Database Backup

WordPress Database Backup Tutorial

A few weeks ago I was experimenting with a new plugin when something went wrong. I was getting an error page when trying to view my WordPress plugins. After trying many things to get it to work I had to use something that I thought I’d never need…my Backup. I have been doing automatic WordPress backups for a while now, and really wasn’t 100% sure it would work if I needed it. Luckily it did. My backups are done weekly and emailed to me. I had to find my latest backup and restore it using phpMyAdmin in my cPanel. It worked like a charm. I lost my most recent post which was done between backups, but I was grateful that was all that was lost.

So the lesson I learned was to ALWAYS have a recent backup handy. If you post daily, you need to backup daily or twice daily. If you post more often than that, you probably need to backup hourly.

Here is a video tutorial of how to install the WordPress Database Backup plugin. It’s quick and easy, and may save your butt like it did mine.

How to add a video to WordPress

There are tons of ways to add a video to WordPress, but I’m going to show you how to do it using the Smart YouTube plugin. It’s really simple, so just take a look at the video tutorial I made on How to Add a Video to WordPress.

Get Listed

Preferred firm in the Custom Website Design category at WebsiteDesignersList.com

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Breakthrough Business Strategies

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WordPress training for small business owners and individuals is now taking top priority in what my I will be doing in my business. As a web designer and someone who knows WordPress pretty well, I’m beginning to see ways that I can help small businesses take advantage of what WordPress has to offer.

WordPress is the best tool that I know of for getting found on the web today. It’s super search engine friendly, meaning I can post a new article now, and 10-15 minutes later you can find that new article on Google.  My pages get ranked so much higher and faster in the search engines than any other type of website I’ve worked on. And what’s really nice about it, is that I can teach others how to do it.

So I designed a series of training webinars that I’ll be hosting to teach people how to use WordPress as their web design software of choice. If you have been paying a webmaster to update your site, you really should take a look at the course I’ll be teaching. Once you learn this skill, no one can take it away. The WordPress tutorials that you will have access will take you from using tools of the trade for building websites, to customizing your website so that it has a unique look, specifically designed for your company. The tools that I use, are all FREE, so you will learn what they are, how to install them, and how to use them.

Take a look at my program, and if you decide to take control of your business by learning to build and maintain your own website, you will be set free from ever having to depend on someone else for this part of your business. I look forward to meeting and working with you.

Click here to see the WordPress Training program in detail.

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WordPress Training

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• Anik Singal Affiliate Classroom 2.0 FREE Report

Okay, this is probably the best plugin (ScribeSEO) I’ve come across in a very long time. It with help you optimize you pages and posts within WordPress. It gives each page a score…like 63% out of 100%. Then it will give you detailed things you can do to improve your score and get it to 100%. Awesome plugin and very easy to use.

Check out my new Website Workshop Webinars using WordPress

Below is a list of WorPress Plugins that can come in handy when building your site.

This list is sortable by the plugin name…just click the little arrow next to “WordPress Plugin” to sort.

Please visit our WordPress Widget List also.

Post from: WordPress Blog Design SEO - Customizations - Websites - Tutorials

WordPress Plugins List – 100+ Popular Plugins

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• How to add a video to WordPress

I came across a cool plugin that is really easy to use when you want something in your menu or navigation to point to another URL instead of a page within your site.

Page Links To allows you to point WordPress pages or posts to a URL of your choosing. Good for setting up navigational links to non-WP sections of your site or to off-site resources.

After installing and activating your plugin, just go to the page you want to edit and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Just fill out the form show below to tell it where you want that page to point.

Get the Page Links To Plugin here.  Let me know if this helps with your WordPress Blog.

Page Links to Plugin for WordPress

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Page Links To or Points To – WordPress Plugin

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