30 Day Challenge To Get Your Business Online

[workshop]

It is easy when you know how
And if you understand the importance of passing these skills on to next person
It even gets easier and then easier.

Why?

And once again
That question has an easy answer
If you can impress the importance of sharing knowledge and skills with and onto the next person
And there are more and more people doing the same thing
The chances are that they are going to figure out the very thing that is eluding you right now
And having done so,
They might just make the effort to pass it back to you, along with everyone else.

The perfect world, maybe
But one that also makes perfect sense.
To me at least.

[workshop]

Next we are going to change the image in the header.
You can replace it with picture or a customised logo and graphic

[workshop]

Go to Appearances and click on Header
Your first option is to Select an Image
Go to the browse window and go to Pictures on your C drive
Select the image you want to use and click Open
This takes you back to your Dashboard
Click Upload
You now get the option to crop your Image
But select Skip and use as is
(I am in hurry to finish)
Go the the bottom of the page and Save
And Voila you are now a designer with a bright new future as a web site developer/designer.

But before you get too carried away go to the top of the page where you will see a link to View your site
And yes you have customised the header and yes it is that easy.
But the chances are that there is still a bit of work to do on that image.

[workshop]

I am not very good at "design" and try to get by with what I can resize and crop with Picture Manager
This is despite the fact I am almost certain that there are very useful, free tools available, that allow one to do what those that are more imaginative than I, to create logo's, brand and design.
I just don't have the time nor the need, let alone the inclination to learn
If I really need more than a resize and crop job I get a tame designer to design it

But most of the time I go to Pictures
Open the picture I want
Right click it
And select Open with....Picture Manager
Click on Picture in the options menu
Select Resize
I use "Percentage of original"
And reduce/increase the width until New Size under Size Setting Summary shows a width of 940 pixels
This is the recommended size of the image used in the default Wordpress header
I then click OK
And Save As after opening File in the Main Menu options

Next click on Pictures again
Select Crop and chop off bits from the top and bottom until the image is as close to 198 pixels high
When you are ready Save As and you should have an image that works
It's a hack job, yes
You have butchered a perfectly good picture
But it works
And sometimes the client even thanks me once I have uploaded it

Next we will try getting a little cleverer
Sometimes you end up with a demanding and difficult client who won't accept second best
And that is when you need to get creative.

[workshop]

We have now mastered the default template
All it took was a few quick and easy key strokes
And you have already figured out that you can do stuff with the background
You can insert even more stuff into the code

You don't really need me any longer

You can almost fly
You have found the template download function and have been looking at the options you have
Options offered by the wider community which you have by now become a part of.

But pause for a moment and reflect once again on your part in this.
We have reached the point where I am struggling to appear to know anymore than you.
And this is where you need to start participating, to start sharing what you know and understand
There are an infinite number of templates to choose from
Some you will be able to figure out for yourself, others you are going to need help with
This is where we need to build an active workgroup.

And no we are not finished yet
We have a couple of pages set up
We have primed them for Google
And whilst we have been waiting we have taken steps to dress the site

What's next?

[workshop]

We have created a simple site
We now have to start thinking
And trying to figure out how we are going to use the web

What do we want?

In most cases we want to profile the business we run
This could be as simple as a Home page equivalent of a business card on the net
A web site we point prospective clients to for contact details on signage pamphlets and other adverts
Or something a little more ambitious where we profile the business
And we direct clients to it who looking for details and information about the business.

A site we would build by simply adding and organising pages.
But why not optimise it for the search engines and slap together an internet marketing plan
We have already touched on the basics.

But you must understand that this is a bit like fishing
Google does things slowly, so kick off your shoes, put the kettle on and start lighting your pipe.
You are going to learn that everyone has an opinion about something none of us really understands
And whilst you need to listen, don't believe anything anyone has to say on the subject

[workshop]

Start by building links you place on other sites that link back to yours
Start the way we all started by looking for and placing your site on free link directories
But try to avoid the fast talkers. Those who guarantee to list you on 4,000,000 search engines and the first page of Google.
And not because this can damage your chances of ranking. Its just the wrong mindset. Something that should be avoided.

Google will not, cannot penalise you for links pointing to your site. You have no control over these links.
They will however judge you on the quality of the sites who you link out to. This is where you must take care.
When you vote, vote wisely. Don't link to just anyone for the asking. Stay away from reciprocal linking requests

Only link out to sites you know and respect.

[workshop]

Links are a contentious subject
You will get bombarded with advice about high PR and dot.edu links, authority links, relevance and contextual gobbledy gook
And whilst some it may well be grounded in fact, tread cautiously, especially when asked for your paypal details.

Apply and rely on your common sense
A quality link is a link which lasts the longest
Find out what is meant by a no follow tag and what a targeted back link is.
Take your time, build your link profile slowly
And ensure that whatever you do, you make yourself useful.

Wordpress comments by default are no follow
This because of link spam, the need to manage link spam.
Don't do it. Link building takes time, time costs money.

You want links that last
You want quality
And link spam is not quality
It is here today, gone tomorrow.

[workshop]

And this is what is commonly referred to as SEO
All you need to become another expert is patience, practice and common sense
Ask questions and share your experience
And whilst we are waiting we might as well get back to building the web site

Nothing will have changed
It will all be exactly the same
Just as you left it

That's what I like about the web
It is timeless

[workshop]

We have an About Us page, a What We Do section, a Contact Details page and an Enquiry Form
And we have been creating child pages under What We Do to introduce the visitor to the different divisions in the company
And next thing we have to look at are Posts.

You make periodic posts to make announcements, news and to keep the site ticking over
Google likes updates, key word rich content, key word rich title tags and targeted back links
Posts are an essential part of any SEO programme
But you don't have to post every day twice a day
Once every three months is just as effective.

So post as and when there is a need to post
SEO is 99% common sense and there is nothing to be gained by faking it.
The only thing you achieve by posting more frequently is to encourage the spider to visit your site more often and use so much more of your bandwidth.
Its not going to make the slightest difference to your positioning in the search results.

Keep it simple, keep it real

We have created a simple site
We now have to start thinking
And trying to figure out how we are going to use the web

[lance71]

This is all great info and great advice. I would like to know - for now - specifically about the link building part of SEO. How would we go about finding long lasting links and secondly how would we know these would be long lasting?

[workshop]

You don't. And before we start.
There is one simple rule. Keep it real and always make yourself useful.
Don't forget it

I will introduce you to the seedier side of town. A place where all the spammers, scammers and fast talking types hang out. I will show you how they do it and how not to do it. Something you have to do, have to learn in order to understand that it is pointless to waste your time running faster and faster, just to stay still. Then once you know and understand the futility of it all, we will start looking for the real thing.

Sadly however I am afraid it may well also be a fruitless quest, as in the search for the holy grail

[lance71]

That is great and I am looking forward to finding out more and gaining this knowledge on this.

[lance71]

Being brand new to the whole SEO world i am excited to learn more.

[workshop]

There is not a lot to learn
Mostly ethics and common sense
Stuff that tends to get a little blurred in the heat of the chase

But other than that it is down to experience and lots of patience.