This is just COOL!

I was contacted by my friend Adam Warner of WP Pro Business (great guy!) to see if I wanted to participate in an online business giveaway he was doing. Of course I said yes (especially having just run a contest for my site makeover re-launch). Adam is also using Rafflecopter for his giveaway- which, if you haven’t seen yet, is just AWESOME! Oh- and it’s FREE!

O.K., back to the GiveAway!

Adam has a great reputation in the WordPress community and has pulled together a GREAT list of of prizes! I’d also suggest taking a look at what he’s done with Rafflecopter- he’s definitely maximizing entry options (note to self here..).
Rafflecopter allows you to select what method of entry you want to allow for your giveaway.  With the Ultimate WordPress Online Business Giveaway Adam has created a few different options to enter- all offering different point values.

• Tweet About the Giveaway: +3 entries
• “Like” WP Pro Business on Facebook: +3 entries
• Subscribe to Our Website (100% FREE): +10 entries
• Write a Post on your Blog: +5 entries

Not too bad huh?

In terms of giveaways, I think this is brilliant!
Adam has pulled together a HUGE prize list (29 PRIZES!) and most of the prizes are being awarded more than once! So, as an example, I’m giving away 3 of the NEW Diving Into Genesis products and 3 memberships to the new WordPress Video Club (launching in March). Obviously the more often you enter and the more WAYS you enter the Ultimate WordPress Online Business Giveaway (say that ten times fast)- the more chances you have of winning! (see how smart I am?)

Well, that’s enough from me! You can enter the giveaway through one of the links above or by clicking the button below!

So the contest is over.

And a HUGE Thank You to EVERYONE who entered!

Before I announce the winners, (c’mon.. gotta have a little fun with this, right?) I thought I’d do a quick look back at how the contest went. Overall, I’m happy with the results. I definitely could have done more with this, made it bigger, etc.,  but at some point I knew I just needed to DO IT!

I know this is going to sound ridiculously obvious- but the more I promoted it the more response I got. Keep in mind one of the benefits of using Rafflecopter is that other people SHARE your contest/giveaway FOR you in order to enter (quite ingenious if I do say so myself). But I should have scheduled more announcements /auto responders to make sure I personally was getting the word out on a consistent basis. My challenge was simply that I got busy.

I had done a complete outline of what to do, how to do it, etc., but the problem is that I hadn’t automated enough of it! I’ve taken notes and written down what worked and what didn’t. I’ll definitely be doing things a little different next time. (Of course there’s going to be a next time! Not that I’m re-doing my site, just another giveaway for something else down the road!… think WordPress Video… hint hint).

Anyways.. I’m stalling.. enough already!

I did start recording the drawing of the winners so I could post the video- then Camtasia shut down on me. SO.. sorry about that! I have screenshots of what appears when you select the winner. I’ll try it again on the next giveaway.

Note: If you didn’t win- I’m thinking of doing a webinar for everyone who DID enter… I’ll send out emails asking for topics and we can do a private WordPress webinar. Just make sure to let me know if this is something you’d be interested in!

But in the meantime…

Here are the Winners!

Grand Prize: Dina Kosca

First Prize – Ivan Jukic

Second Prize – Linda Shum

Third Prize – Rob Taylor

Fourth Prize – Ivette Muller

So, being the visual geek that I am- the second I saw ManageWP I knew it was a godsend.

Why?

Because I consider myself someone who helps the EVERYDAY WordPress user, I’m always looking for tools, plugins, advice- whatever – that makes it EASY for people to make the most of their WordPress sites.

Enter ManageWP

There are a few different options for ManageWP (yes, including a free option)- but I’ll get into that at the end of the post. What you NEED to see is how easy it is to use, why you should use it and of course, what it is (I know, I haven’t said much about it yet, huh).

Here’s the quick & easy explanation:
ManageWP allows you to manage ALL your WordPress sites under ONE dashboard!
And I don’t just mean updating plugins or doing a backup.

1. One Login: First, one login to manage things just makes sense.  THANK YOU! (for people who don’t want to get into multi site)
2. Monitor: You can monitor ALL plugins and themes from your ManageWP account as well (and just click ONE button to update ALL)
3. SEO: Yep, it even has SEO options. You can view stats from your dashboard and try some paid options for SEO too.
4. Backups: What I like about the backups option is that I can eliminate another plugin from my site and use my Amazon S3 for storage of my backups!
5. Publish: You can add posts to multiple sites, add users and manage blogroll links too.
   (Not sure if this is a feature I’ll be using- but I think if you have niche sites where you are driving traffic with backlinks, etc. then this could be outstanding!)
6. Clone /Setup New sites: Yep! you can even clone current sites and do installs right from your dashboard too. I haven’t tried this out yet (but will).

This video is just a quick introduction to ManageWP. I’ll show you what the ManageWP dashboard looks like, how easy it is to update things and how to add a site (I’m telling you- it really is THAT easy!)

Oh- and before we get into the video- I should tell you who is behind ManageWP.

Vladimir Prelovac

You can read more about Vladimir on his blog, but he is a developer (plugin developer -SEO Smart links for one), author, blogger and contributor to the WordPress community.
You can check out the rest of the team over at ManageWP here.

O.K.- quick update.
As I was processing the video I sent a question over to ManageWP about which plugins could be eliminated. I literally got a response within 10 minutes! HOLY MOLY!

Here’s what Vladimir told me: Backups and maintenance plugin features are made obsolete by our features. He also said they’ll be adding more features (like security)- that will eliminate the need for other plugins.
Nice!

Enjoy the Video!!!

FINALLY!

This has been a LONG time coming. I think the post I wrote about this was a couple months ago (with screenshots).

You’ve probably seen some of my stuff out there already (twitter, facebook, email, etc.) that has the new look. I also want to share some of the new things going on here at ‘The WordPress Chick’ as well as the fun contest we’re running for the next 30 days!
I’ll also be sharing the progress of the contest, what’s working, what’s NOT working, how I’m doing what I’m doing, etc.

First:
Why I did this

It’s been almost 4 years now that I’ve been doing this and I’ve changed my site theme a few times (original one created for me, Church theme by StudioPress, Magazine theme by StudioPress, Genesis & Magazine Child theme, customized Magazine Child theme and now….. the Scribble Child theme built, of course, on Genesis!).

Probably one of the BIGGEST things you’ll notice is that my ‘Chick’ isn’t present on this site (I actually had a few people mention to me that they hoped I’d keep her around.. Thanks for that! ). I think I may have her pop up now & then, just not sure how or where (maybe a contest? hmm…).  This is a VERY different look than my previous theme: new colors, new style, new logo… the works.
It’s hard when you do this for a living, are a complete geek about graphics and see NEW stuff out there ALL the time! (If you’ve ever taken a look at Brian Gardner’s site, you’ll know what I mean! He’s SUPER talented and changes his theme more than pretty much any site I visit! I think I would too if I had his skills).

MY POINT… it’s hard NOT to want to change things up a bit.

The Challenge?

That is a LOT of material to change. It’s not just the theme or logo.

Second:

How could I do this differently?

If I was going to go through with this, what would be involved?
I didn’t want to just put up a new theme and that was that. So I pondered over what to do and realized why not treat this sort of like a ‘product launch”, run a contest, track what works, what doesn’t work, blog about the process and just be as transparent as possible!

Whew!

But of course all that meant more planning and work. WHICH… is fine, but if you’ve ever done anything like this and rushed it you KNOW how THAT turns out! So I took my time (and truth be told, there are still adjustments and tweaks I making. Bear with me please…) and here we are!

Enough of that!
On to the FUN STUFF!!!

 Relaunch Contest!

This is going to be SUPER easy and SUPER fun!

Promise.

1. All you need to do to enter (& win) is to use the widget below. This widget is created by “Rafflecopter”… which is FRIGGIN AWESOME! But more about that in a post during the contest as well (remember, I’m tracking EVERYTHING).
2. Just follow the instructions in the widget.
3. You get points for each entry. There is one mandatory entry (ex: in order to enter you have to ‘share’ on fb). Once you’ve done the mandatory entry you can enter again via another method (sharing on Twitter which will give you another point/entry).
4. At the end of the contest (February 5th), we’ll draw a winner. Well- RAFFLECOPTER will draw the winner (yes, they make it THAT easy!)
5. You can enter as OFTEN as you like. We’ll be doing random drawings throughout the 30 days for additional prizes outside of the main contest prizes!

Prizes!!!

What are you waiting for? Enter below TODAY! (and everyday if you like!)

I’ve been doing some serious contemplating on this post this past week (yea, sounds trite, but the reality is the end of the year is the ideal time to do this. I’m done with resolutions though- I’ll work from intention).

I’m going to do this in more of a list style than a super wordy post (o.k., I’m going to ATTEMPT to… let’s see how it plays out). Because sometimes less is more.

A Look Back

What Worked:

• BLOGGING!
  O.k, this one sounds a little ‘DUH’. But anyone who has clients probably understands that when you have client work it’s pretty easy to get caught up in these projects instead of putting YOUR work, site, projects first.
  Hands down- the more often I post and create content, the more my business grows.
• VIDEO!
  I get MORE comments, feedback and usable analytics when I include video in my posts. Unfortunately this got in the way a bit for me because I started feeling like I had to do a video EVERY time I posted- and it can be a bit time intensive (a new computer is on the horizon VERY soon! ), but at the end of the day it WORKS!
• Creating my OWN PRODUCTS!
  I finally started working on my own product(s). And it has, WITHOUT a doubt, been the single SMARTEST decision I made this year. Lots to work on in terms of execution and promotion, but putting out a few courses and my ‘Diving Into Genesis” product as well as the “WP SEO Mastery Course” was the BEST thing I did this past year (for my business). You can probably guess there will be more of this in 2012!
• HIRING!
  This year was HUGE for me when it came to hiring a team! I now have a full time assistant, programmer and graphics person on my team. Which means more overhead, but it’s also brought in more structure and piece of mind. We’re still implementing systems and getting things in place, but I’m fine with all that.
• Time for ME!
  I’ve finally learned that when I start feeling off balance, crabby, frustrated, pissy… you name it… if I don’t take time for myself NOTHING will get accomplished.
  
  Some of my favorite stand by’s:
  - Naps! nothing beats a good nap in the middle of the day, especially when your bed is comfy and I LOVE my bed!
  – Pool time! This is my sane maker during the summer. A good book and a long float goes a LONG way!
  – Exercise. This works best when I start my day with a workout (which is hard when my kids are off because I really like sleeping in… )
  – Time with my peeps! Family, friends, networking… this is what it’s all about, right? Oh… and my new beau! But we’ll get to that in “a little love”
  – A trusted therapist mentor (yes, she’s my therapist, but really so much more)! For me, this isn’t a high priced business coach… I started seeing my therapist after I lost my husband, but I think I’ve done more self-work this past year and a half than in the 7 years prior. She has done more for me (and my business) than ANY coach could have possibly done (I’m NOT saying not to hire a coach, I’m saying TRUST what YOU know YOU need at the time). And I don’t even care that my friends call me “What About Bob!”
  – SOME type of meditation or spiritual practice built into my day… EVERY day! Nothing throws me off quicker than when I don’t do this.
  -Letting Go
  
  
• Having FUN!
  I decided mid-year this past year that if it wasn’t fun I’m NOT going to do it. When I followed this, it worked.

What DIDN’T work:

• Being on retainer.
  I had someone hire me (for a decent chunk of change) to be on retainer to work on getting their business really launched on the web. I will NEVER do this again. O.k., maybe that’s a bit dramatic. But…
  “When people show you who they are, BELIEVE them!” Ever known in your GUT that you simply SHOULD NOT work with someone? That was the case with this client- but I did it anyways (… read between the lines here… followed the money). I’m not referring
  to clients who we do monthly maintenance, service for, etc. I mean someone who thinks you are at their beck & call. I realized very quickly that I had created a job for myself.  The ending of this agreement was a HUGE blessing.
• NOT having set hours and availability.
  I found myself (again), being TOO available and feeling like I was NOT getting anything accomplished.
  Why is it the most basic and obvious things can be the hardest? (seriously, if you have an answer, I’m all ears!)
• MORE than you need!
  A year ago I decided I needed to invest in Infusionsoft for a big project. EPIC FAIL.
  I think it’s a great system- but I don’t need it. It’s more than I need and I spent WAY more time working on it than working on my business.
  Back to Aweber. But more on that in an upcoming post too.
• Listening to the crap in my HEAD instead of the feelings in my GUT!
  Without fail my ego head steers me wrong (the majority of the time… see the first bullet in this list about being on retainer).

Life Lessons

• Being vulnerable is O.K. Actually, it’s more than o.k. It feels really good and I actually like living my life in a gentler manner (note: can’t say I’ve mastered this- have a LONG way to go, but I can’t go back now).
• Rest is not only helpful, it is REQUIRED!
• Taking time for learning new things for my business PAYS off! Yes, that means actually going through the courses and products I buy.
• Letting Go WORKS! (yep, this is in this post twice for a GOOD REASON)
• It ALL comes down to CHOICE! This is a TOUGH nugget to swallow… but no matter how you slice it, EVERYTHING comes down to choice. You can choose your mood, your response, your reaction, WHO you work with, HOW you work, ALL OF IT!
• Intention lasts a LOT longer than motivation.
• Quiet is GOOD!
• Meditation works (well, when you do it… ).
• Being Kind is always better than being Right.
• Being totally open and authentic helps people connect with you. We all have our own scary stories, skeletons, you name it. Sharing is powerful (albeit incredibly HARD… the rewards are worth it. I promise!)
• And to quote Coldplay, “I’d rather be a comma than a full stop”

A Little Love

Speaking of being TOTALLY open and authentic… may as well share this piece of my life too!

Many of you may know my personal story and how I got here (if not, check out my ‘About’ page, which, depending on when you read this, should be totally updated going into 2012!). I was widowed 8 1/2 years ago when my kids were 6 & 2. It’s been a long and challenging road getting here (no regrets), but I am giddy to share there is someone in my life again.

I’ve dated on & off since losing my husband, but nothing has been like this! Love has entered my life again and I’m truly grateful.

I’ll keep you posted on this, but needless to say I’m not spending quite as much time in front of the computer as I used to, which means being more efficient when I am working is a HUGE priority.

Here’s to a wonderful, kind, inspiring, strong and successful 2012!

Kim