Business Blogging Pros

The Alexander K Group

Karroll K Alexander, founder of The Alexander K Group hosts these really powerful workshops for public speakers. It was turning into a real pain to have to work though his 'web guy' every time he added a new workshop date.

Several months ago we created a blog for Karroll and his company.  After using his blog for a while, Karrol came back to us asking if there was a way he could have the same ease-of-content-management for his website as well.

The top-tier blogging platforms have enough features these days that fulfilling his request was entirely reasonable.

Furthermore, the cost to create a 'blogsite' like this is very low compared to creating a professional-looking website from scratch.

Ten Must-Have Wordpress Plugins

When we set up a blog for a client, we want it to be 'firing on all cylinders'.  Here are the plugins we install on every Wordpress blog we create:

• Akismet.  Great anti-spam plugin.  It comes standard as part of the Wordpress files but neds to be set up, including the creation of an account on Wordpress.org.
• WP-Tags-To-Technorati Most people do not understand the Google juice that technorati tags give you.
• Feedburner Feedsmith  The plugin will detect all ways to access your feed (e.g. http://www.yoursite.com/feed/ or http://www.yoursite.com/wp-rss2.php, etc.), and redirect them to your FeedBurner feed.
  
  
• WP-Security-Scan  Use this plugin to make sure that you are complying with best practices for WordPress.
  
  
• All-In-One-SEO-Pack Provides complete control of meta tags and title tags to give your blog its best shot at high Google rankings.
  
  
• WordBook Each time you publish a new blog post it will automatically appear on your Facebook wall.
  
  
• ShareThis Probably the best general-purpose chicklet for allowing readers to share your content.
  
  
• Twitter Tools Each time you publish a new blog post it will automatically also tweet it.
  
  
• TweetMeme Provide you readers with a visible way to tweet about your content.  Also display the number of times the article has been retweeted.
  
  
• WP-DB-Backup Automatically backs up your Wordpress database at scheduled intervals.

A Testimonial

I was really nice of Jerry Kadansky to send me a testimonial for the work we did to create his website:

In today's world the phrase "let's get together for lunch next week and talk about it" is just another way of saying, "I will call you when I have time."  When you came over on Friday and we talked and brain stormed about our new  website, you said "I will have something for you on Monday."  I heard "let's do lunch."  To my delight you got back to us on Sunday.  And the website was up and live on Monday.   One of your strongest strengths is listening. The title tells the whole story.  You made it come alive! Thanks again for your creativity and fast response.

CertificateOfOcupancyPhoenix.com

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Jerry Kadansky. 

Jerry is a General Contractor and owns Jerry E Kadansky Contruction Co, Inc.  He has started a campaign to help owners of commercial buildings obtain grant money available from the City of Phoenix for building renovation.

Jerry needed a simple website and as you can see, Typepad is ideally suited for that.  Typepad's features allow you to quickly (this one was created over a weekend) create a website without spending big bucks.

Typepad vs Wordpress Again

No, I'm not picking on Wordpress. I just want to point out that you have important things to do.  Running your business is one of them.  Keeping your blog's software up-to-date to insure that the latest security holes have been plugged should not have to be one of them.

The other day, I woke up to see this:

Do you know how to do a Wordpress upgrade?  Probably not.  And you shouldn't have to.  For example, here's a wonderful little snippet from the Upgrading Wordpress page:

That's enough to give even me pause. As I write this, I am doing this upgraded for  my main website.  I performed the upgrade on my 'staging' website first just to make sure, and now - with anxiety level elevated just a bit - I'm doing the upgrade for the production site. 

So when people ask me why I recommend Typepad, This Is Why. Or at least one of the reasons why.

If you have a TypePad site all this stuff is taken care of for you.

Jim Bissonett

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Jim Bissonett as one of our newest clients.

Jim is a top-notch HR benefits specialist and operated the Scottsdale, AZ office of Monterey Benefits.

Monterey Benefits pioneered a new approach for serving the employee benefit arena - "Delivering solutions based upon sound business and insurance practices".

First Shipped Guide to the New TypePad

The first copy of Guide to the New TypePad shipping to a customer:

BoldMoves

Business Blogging Pros welcomes BoldMoves as one of our newest clients.

Their mission is help you get in touch with your core beliefs and desires; build exceptional skill in managing limiting self-talk; explore powerful new avenues for self-understanding; make choices based on your own personal passion, purpose and wisdom; and take confident action in a mood of ease and effortlessness.

This is one of the blogs we've recently created on the self-hosted Wordpress platform. One of the issues I've had with Wordpress is the inability to standardize on a theme. This meant that it was not possible to create any kind of standardized training materials, greatly increasing the effort for each wordpress client. I'm happy to say that I've found a couple of third-party themes that are sufficiently flexible that I think we can standardize on them. The result is that it is now attractive to train and support clients on wordpress.

Candy Fun TV Episode V

CBN Building Maintenance

Business Blogging Pros welcomes CBN Building Maintenance as one of our newest clients.

CBN is not your average janitorial service.  For example, during a recent visit Bob demonstrated the hand held airborn particle counter they use to monitor their clients' indoor air quality, revealing real quantifiable metrics about the quality of work his employees are doing.

Candy Fun TV Episode IV

Candy Fun News Episode VI