Are you ready to get started with a WordPress Website but it still seems a bit daunting? In this webinar, I start at the beginning and talk about all the things you need to do to get a WordPress website started. We will go over the very basic elements, such as how to get a domain name for your site and how to choose a hosting account and exactly what you need to ask for. I will show you a simple WordPress install method and show you what settings you must know how to configure properly.

Whether you are going to create your own site or have someone help you, it is good to be informed. I work with people new to WordPress everyday. If you are a beginner, I know what you want to know and I am going to dish it up!

Be sure to sign up for my Just a Digital Minute which comes out every Wednesday with tips to grow your business with WordPress and Social Media! The signup form is in the sidebar to the right!

If you need a hosting account, I recommend Bluehost. If you click here to get it I do get compensated, but I swear I would do it for nothing! They are great to work with; answer their phones right away and answer all of my support questions.

Last week, I was interviewed by Henna Inam, CEO of Transform Leaders and host of her Atlanta Business Radio X radio show, Transformational Women. Henna asked me, along with two other social media women,  Diane Kaufman, Cynthia Rogers, to tell the stories of our companies and how we each have used social media to grow our businesses. Henna  wanted to hear from her panel of entrepreneur, CEO women, what we thought were the top 2-3 social media tools that actually drive business revenue. It was a lively and interesting hour.

Judi Knight Interviewed on Transformational Women Radio

Creative freelancers are passionate about what we do and spend a lot of time making other people’s businesses look great, but sometimes we are not as good about focusing on our own businesses.

It may be that you know what to do and are not doing those things, but with all the new technology and the way the Internet is changing the way people find people to do work for them, it may be that you need to cut through all of the haze and hype, and have someone tell you how all of this technology actually works together to help you powerfully connect with the people seeking your services.

Recently, I have been speaking on this subject a lot and have had a lot of request for my slides and notes from  people who could not attend these events. So by popular demand, I am going one step better with presenting it as a free webinar with the audio and slides available below.

Follow along the audio with the slide presentation for Rock Your Business with a WordPress Website:

• Learn my secrets of attracting plenty of the exact kind of clients that I want to work with and how you can do this too.

• Find out why a WordPress website is the most important thing you can have for social media marketing.

• Three strategies to migrate your existing site to a WordPress site.

• Why blogging is not what you think it is.

• The three most important things on your site for converting visitors into clients.

• How to have free and easy Search Engine Optimization to increase your traffic.

• How to make it easy for people to hire you.

I am passionate about helping you discover how to get your businesses rocking. I hope you can join us on Thursday night.

Come on and share the love with your pals on Twitter
and with your Facebook peeps.

Dan Greenfield of Listen Interactive put on an event called the Social Media Makeover Forum as a part for Digital Atlanta week. I was on one of three panels that gave one of  three local Atlanta Companies the opportunity to get  some pointers from what has been referred to as “some of the savviest social media gurus out there”. I am very honored to have been chosen to be in this group which included others from such companies as UPS, CBeyond, Arby’s, ING, Turner Entertainment, Fifth Group, Network Solutions and Constant Contact. 

The panel I was on included:

Shashi Bellamkonda (@shashib) – Director of Social Media, Network Solution
Michael Erickson ( @FifthGrouper) – Director of Marketing, Fifth Group Restaurants
Lanelle Henderson - Regional Development Director, Constant Contact

The company that is the focus of our panel is a local online Real Estate Brokerage, ClickScape, started three years ago by President and co founder, David Lightburn( @D-Lite). Here is what David said about the reasons he applied to have a Social Media Makeover.

Company Profile:

Clickscape: Real Agents, Real Results, Real Savings. Buy a home with Clickscape and we’ll share our commission with you. 
Clickscape is an Atlanta-based real estate brokerage focused on better real estate search and service. As a company of Realtors, we work for our buyer-clients to protect their interests and investment while getting them the best deal possible. Our in-house agents are called Client Advocates and are committed to providing excellent customer service. Our Advocates are salaried employees—not salespeople hungry for a commission. In fact, we share the commission we receive from the seller with you so that we stay focused on representing your best interests and not on pressuring you to buy a particular property.

What David Lightburn Says:

We generate fresh content through our blog and disperse it through Facebook and Twitter. We tweet out and post cool and interesting real estate related news from other sites and bloggers. Our biggest challenges are personally engaging our audience on a one-on-one basis as well as building up our fans and followers. We’ve been using social media since the inception of the company, but have been pushing hard over the past 12 months or so to grow our social media presence through more consistency, but we have seen very little growth in our Twitter Followers and our Facebook Fans. I’m not sure what else we could be doing to increase our reach. Also, we haven’t had any new business (that I am aware of) come through social media engagement. I am optimistic that we can be successful through social media because we have a very interesting subject matter and put out quality content, but I’m very frustrated with our inability to get anyone to notice as of yet. I’m not sure what we are doing wrong!

In summary,  David says he wants: A social media strategy that will help us grow our audience and personally engage with users on a one-on-one basis to generate both business and general awareness of our company.

The following questions will be posed to the panel by Listen Interactive founder/owner,  Dan Greenfield. My notes are below each item.

Brand Building  – How can Clickscape better communicate their mission and use technology to change the way people buy and sell homes? How can they convince buyers and sellers that they have a better way of doing real estate?

Although I have a background in Real Estate Development,  I found it difficult to see exactly what the difference in this agency was than other companies that all have online search capabilities. They hide their unique selling proposition on an interior page. I think the best statement is the following:

No Contract, No Obligation, No Cost.

This needs to be front and center on the first page of their website, and then it needs to be explained.  Us — Them. When you go to their site it should be very clear that they are not your Old School Real Estate Company. Many of their prospects would be people who have little or no experience with Real estate Agents before so their message needs to be more than we are not them, since these people have not experienced the other type of agent. They appear to be making an effort to educate their visitors that there are a lot of bad real estate agents with their clever Horror Story campaign. However, it is still unclear how exactly they are not going to end up doing the same types of things.

Reputation Management – How can Clickscape use social media to build trust and change people’s negative perceptions of real estate agents — who according to David –are ranked with lawyers and used car salesmen when it comes to trustworthiness?

Building Know Like and Trust online is a process that is easier accomplished with a face on the company’s Social Media. Michael Erickson does this very well for Fifth Group by tweeting as @5thGrouper. He is interacting with people both professionally and personally on twitter and it is easy to “Know Like and Trust”  him which then transfer to the company he represents.

Each company must deal with the issue of how they present a human face to their Social Media presence.

Authenticity vs. Promotion – How does Clickscape promote their products while building trust/deeper connection and maintaining the integrity of their brand and their authenticity?

Currently, nearly all of the outgoing messages from ClickScape on Twitter and Facebook and even the blog are about them or presenting information which they are doing a fairly good job at. What they are missing is the interaction component which is a tough jump for companies to make since it seems as if it is not “business-like”. What I mean is that the majority  of their Tweets should be about other people including interactions that don’t seem to be at related to their brand. I suggest that they either start or get active on a Real Estate Tweet Chat and develop a presence as an accessable expert  “go to” company in the business.

Another idea is to have a question an answer format for their blog where people send in their questions and they answer them in a short, fun video letting your companies personality, knowledge and trust show through.

Increase Awareness and Engagement – How can Clickscape generate greater interaction and integrate the pieces of their strategy to form better online connections with prospects?

1.  To get more followers you can use a program such as Tweepi. It allows you to find other Twitter users even your competitors, and see into their list of  people that they follow and that follow them. It then allows you to see characteristics of each of those people and choose whether to follow them or not.Go through this process and follow about 250 people each week. Thirty to fifty percent of the people you follow will then follow you back. Give them a couple of weeks and you can then go in and unfollow the ones that did not follow you back.
2. A great way to get more exposure and targeted Twitter followers is to become a regular participant of one or more Twitter Chats. I am a regular on #BlogChat which meets on Twitter at 9 PM EST on Sunday nights.  I am sure there must be some Real Estate chats and if not you can start one.

Measurability – How do you measure the impact of Clickscape’s social media activity and track where leads are coming from? How do better measure ROI?

Their worry about the  main measurement of whether business is coming in through their Social Media efforts is misplaced at this stage of  the growth of their business. Even for SEO you have to get any eyeballs on the site, and have people linking to their content and sharing their content. Their first effort should be on creating great ad frequest content for their blog which shows who they are and what they are about by the types of posts they write. In the old days we told people who we are now we show them through our writing on our websites/blogs. While they are building up their blog content, which will continue to generate visitors with each post having the ability to come up in a Google search, they need to be generating more followers to their site and their social media platforms.

I recommend you sign up for a free account on Klout  which will give you one metric for the measurement of network reach.  Sprout Social is another site which will give you some heavy weight tools for a reasonable price integrating all of your social sites.

The event was well attended and everyone of the companies and the attendees got a great deal for being a part of the Social Media Makeover Forum. I believe Dan is going to make it a regular happening here in Atlanta!

I am so glad to be able to have Sarah Robinson speak at New Tricks on August 25.  Brandon Sutton and I are sponsoring this event and we hope you can come (you can RSVP at the bottom of the page).

You know how when you start a business you struggle to find your place in it?  (It’s kind of silly when you think about it.  After all, it’s YOUR business.)

But, starting a business and making it work for you is a HUGE undertaking and it can be overwhelming.  Getting clients, doing the work, invoicing, getting more clients….If you don’t have a clear definition of what you do and who you serve, you can feel like you’re on a hamster wheel—running in circles but not getting anywhere. You watch other business owners who seem to “have it all together” and know exactly what they’re about and who their market is.  They make it look so easy don’t they?

Here’s the secret to success.  Discover what you’re good at, what makes your heart sing and how you can mesh those into your business.  Easier said than done, I know.

That’s where our friend, Sarah Robinson and her Creating Irresistible Presence  Equation comes in.

Clarity + Confidence + Courage = Cash Flow

You won’t just magically wake up one day and know how to make your business run smoother and be the success you want for it.

You have to work to discover the secret formula trapped within you.   Dig deep to uncover those secrets and bring them into the light.

We all have a powerful Presence that once we tap into it, will ignite our passion, creativity and even bank account in a way we’ve never seen before.

Sound good?

I think so.

Sarah is going to be doing the three day event,  Creating Irresistible Presence,  in late September in Atlanta Georgia. I attended it last year and Let me tell you, it was a game changer.

Creating Irresistible Presence is a very special seminar.  For one, it’s intimate.  It’s limited to only 50 people so you’ll have a lot of one on one attention.  For another, it’s emotional.

After all, digging deep into yourself to discover your personal success secrets doesn’t come lightly.  There will be tears.  And, laughter.  And bonding, lots of bonding. If that resonates with you, you can learn more here.

Just think, once you connect with your internal amazing presence, you’ll feel energized, enlivened and you’ll draw people to you.  Your work will flow and you’ll experience the vitality of knowing you’re helping others in the best way you can—and be rewarded well for it emotionally, spiritually, financially,

See, when you create a business aligned with your CORE values, it become effortless. You know who you serve and what you do best and that confidence draws the right clients to you like a bee to honey.

Speaking of confidence,  Sarah has a special equation.  She calls it the Creating Irresistible Presence equation.  It’s made up of 4 key components.

Clarity, confidence, courage= cash flow.  Sound good?

You can hear Sarah talk more about her equation, absolutely  free!

Join us Thursday August 25

At New Tricks
6:30PM  – 9:00 PM
Drinks and Food Too!

There’s no reason to put off living your dreams.  You have what it takes to create a business and a life that you truly love and inspires you.

If that sounds like something your gut is screaming for then come on out to hear Sarah speak at my little party.

We will have a blast. Hope you can make it.

If it doesn’t work for you geographically please check in on  her event,  Creating Irresistible Presence September 28 in Atlanta.

Here is to your stepping into your gloriousness!

Judi and Brandon

Dog Print by Walter Salas

I am stepping off the porch and inviting some big dogs to guest post on my site for ten days!  I am inviting you to join me for this free, 10-day blog series, Unleash Your Potential and Run with the Big Dogs, starting June 20, 2011.

Don’t feel like you are a Big Dog yet?  I hope this could be a chance to claim your turf by hearing from some of my favorite big dogs, absolutely free.

I asked eight special Big Dog bloggers,  to write a post for the New Tricks site, on the topic, “Unleash Your Blog’s Potential and Run with the Big Dogs.” The topic has expanded by leaps and bounds since first conceptualizing it and we are going to talk about how to get those leashes off in general and not just on your blog or businesses. It is all connected though, isn’t it?

How Will It Work?

• You sign up, absolutely free, to receive e-mails from me, a few before and each day of the series. I will send you a special message introducing you to that day’s Big Dog with a link back to my site.
• The series will start June 20th and run through June 29th. I will write the first post introducing the series on the 20th, have eight guest authors and I will write the last post wrapping up the series.

I Want You to Play Along!

• I really encourage you to read the posts, each and everyday and be sure to leave a question or comment (this is good training).
• I will make a Twitter list with all of the Big Dogs and the participants so you can follow each other and have some Twitter support.
• Each day, the Big Dog of the day, as well as myself, will be sure to respond to each of your comments.

Use these ten days to consider what you can do next that will catapult your life and your online presence to the next level.

I think it is going to be really fun and I am sure looking forward to upping my game in the process.

You will get lots of insight and encouragement from people who have been where you are and are now rocking and rolling with their businesses. All you need to do is to fill out the form below and agree to play full out. You will be in and I guarantee you will be ready to get your business off the porch and be running with the Big Dogs in no time.

So if you are serious about growing your business, this series is not only going to give you some great insights, but the actions you will take will give you great practice.  Are you commenting on other blog posts? I thought not.

Twittering? Hmmm not so much? These ten days are your chance to give it a try. You can chase your tail forever on the short leash of your own making, or you can take that leash off and run. I know you’ve got great reasons for why this isn’t convenient. It is summer after all. But damn! Big Dogs do not let summer stop them.

Are you ready? Because if you mean it, if you really want to take your business to the next level, be done done DONE with the excuses. If you are ready to do whatever it takes to unleash yourself and make great stuff happen, this series is for you. You have such a gift and talent and big ideas but you have to say off with the chain that is keeping you playing small. You need to leap off that porch with your bad self and go for what you want. I know it’s hard to do it with no support.

We all need our pack. Ah – but how do you find your pack? This person says this and then there is this seminar or that guru. How do I find my way? How did other people do it? We are going to find out. But I know what they didn’t do. They didn’t sit there in the chains of, “I am too busy or I am afraid.” We all have those fears and worse. But Big Dogs put one foot in front of the other and get the job done anyway. When I have been stuck, and believe me I have been there, I do two things. I read a book (that’s just me and it makes me feel better, like I am doing something) but then I have to get up close and personal. I look to others who are doing things I want to do and ask them to help me. Believe me, it is not easy for me to do and it is one of my growing edges.

This time I really broke out of the chains of my comfort zone and asked some of the brightest, smartest and busiest people I know, who are rocking their online businesses, to help me with this series. Chris Guillebeau was down to the wire on his second book deadline and was just weeks away from  hosting a conference for 500 bloggers and adventurers in Portland. I sucked it up and asked him if he would be one of my Big Dogs and waited for his response. He wrote me back and said he was slammed with his book and World Domination Summit and he had just turned down 5 other requests for interviews and such that week, but he said he wanted to do this for me. Yes. Wow. Why did I get this response from Chris? Because I had reached out to him before I even knew him IRL and offered to host his Atlanta book signing for the Unconventional Book Tour. I did host it and Atlanta blew it out of the park for Chris. This is one example of how I have learned to turn online relationships into In Real Life friendships that have helped me grow my business.

Who Is This For?

This series is for those of us who want to quit stopping ourselves from what we know we could be. It is for those of us who are ready to get off the damn porch and we are ready to do it Now. We will set aside 10 days beginning  June 20, 2011 to get ourselves to take the very next steps to running with the Big Dogs. We are going to stop with the excuses and take our ideas and actions into the world. AND to make all that happen, my guest authors

will be sharing, not only their wisdom, but also daily takeaway tips that you will be able to put into practice, immediately. If you want to join my Dogs and me, and this sounds like a good way to get it going, I hope you’ll join us by signing up below. Remember there is no charge and I will be sending you e-mails reminding you of who is posting that day and, to make it even more fun, maybe even including a couple of surprises along the way . . . so go ahead and lets get going.

Sign up is closed.

After You Sign up Please  Tweet it Out to the World.

And now take a look at who my friends who are so generously sharing their talent as part of this series? So glad you asked!

	Sarah Robinson	www.escaping-mediocrity.com @SarahRobinson
	Amy Oscar	www.amyoscar.com@amyoscar
	Mitch Canter	www.studionashvegas.com@Studionashvegas
	Brandon Sutton	www.brandonsutton.com @Brandon101
	Chris Guillebeau	www.chrisguillebeau.com@chrisguillebeau
	Chelsea Moser	www.SolamarMarketing.com@ChelseaMoser
	Bruce Sallan	www.boomertechtalk.com@BruceSallan
	Toby Bloomberg	www.divamarketing.com@tobydiva
	JudiKnight	www.newtricks.com@judiknight

Wow! Can you believe that summertime is right around the corner?

The flowers are blooming, the weather is warming up and I know those days are coming when we would rather be sitting by the pool than in the office.

In fact. . . check this out, my New Tricks team has already started their warm weather work habits!

Yes things do tend to slow down in the summer, BUT, I once had a boss back in the day, when I was doing healthcare marketing, who said to me,

When you plan correctly, there is no such thing as Summer or December.

Last year, my December was huge, and I plan for this Summer to be the same.

How about you?

In fact, if you think about it, we have a great chance to work on our businesses when we have those windows of time where it may be slower.

And if other people are slacking, then it can be our time to SHINE and get ahead of the pack!

Towards that goal, I have planned a couple of really fun and business enhancing activities for myself for the summer, and I’ve mixed those in with some vacation time and lazy lake house weekends.

I’d like to help you get your business rocketing like the Fourth of July, too.

I’m pleased to announce my summer version of the Summer Master Mind Coaching Group.

The Summertime Mastermind Coaching Intensive

I’ve designed this coaching experience to give participants a TON of individualized attention, so we can focus on the exact points that will make the biggest difference for you.

I’ve also added a group component because – well – it’s just more fun that way. And if summer isn’t meant for fun, I don’t know what is!

Here’s what I have planned:

Margo Geller going for it!

During the months of June, July and August, we will have:

• One, 1 hour group training call, which will be recorded in case you can’t make it at the time of the call. These calls will be on a specific topic related to growing your business and social media tools with directed teaching and some hot seat coaching.
• One, 1 hour individual, private coaching call.
• One, 30 minute individual coaching session to give you just the right bump to keep you focused and fresh.
• Priority e-mail access to me and my team.
• And a super bonus! Keep reading to the end to read about it.

You will also have:

• A private website for the group members only, where special tutorials will be posted, and you get to meet with the other participants, share what you’re up to and get/give support from the group.

I hope you can tell how much I’m looking forward to this summer program

Here are some ideas on what we might work on together over the summer:

• Help determining the best business strategies for getting your goals.
• Getting some clarity on creating an amazing online presence.
• Becoming proficient in using Social Media to attain your business goals.
• Finding your voice for writing posts that get attention and comments.
• Learning how to write posts optimized for search engines.
• Skills and techniques to develop online relationships as well as you do IRL (in real life).
• Connecting the dots on your distinctive skill sets to create a brand new revenue stream or business.
• WordPress skills to ramp up your online presence and visibility.

Of course you aren’t limited to things on this list. We can work on whatever is most pressing for you 0r that “thing” that needs to happen so you can play at the level you know you were meant for.

And yes, I know many of you are scanning the page to find out how much this costs.

But hey, wait a minute . . . before we go there, I want to ask you just a couple of questions:

1) How much will it cost you and your business to not move forward in the lazy, hazy days of summer?

2) How much would it be worth to you to keep on keeping on and skyrocket your progress forward at a time that many are slacking and actually make progress on that one big THING with the love and support of others on a similar path, while still having that margarita by the pool?

We are talking Catapulting Each Other Into Greatness Here! And we are gonna get there with:

- Three, one hour, one on one, power coaching calls.

- Three, 30 minute, one on one, touch base, what do I do now, calls.

- Three, one hour, dynamic interactive group teaching/coaching calls.

- Priority email access to me for quickie questions.

- A private website to gather as a group and exchange support.

And drum roll the Super Bonus that so many of you have been asking for:

One, three hour study hall each month at New Tricks, where you can come work on your site and product offerings and get some IRL hand holding from me and my team. Those of you that can’t make it here to New Tricks World Headquarters will be able to phone in during the study hall and get help with whatever you are working on.

Thinking about it?

This format for getting yourself to the next level is powerful and accessible. I have personally experience the power that a group has to get me to the next place I need to go. I have been in Sarah Robinson’s mastermind group for the past eight months. I signed right up after her Creating Irresistible Presence Workshop last October.

The cost for her mastermind group way up there, but I knew in my gut that I had to do it. I was just led to say this is what I need next to go where I wasn’t even sure where I was going. Can I tell you a secret? I made the entire amount back for workshop and the eight month mastermind coaching program in just the first month after doing the Creating Irresistible Presence Worksho and it was from business I would not have had if not for the people I met and the work that I did. So, I look at it like the whole thing was not only Fureeee but it actually paid me to do it since my income has continued to be higher ever since! (BTW, Sarah is doing the Creating Irresistible Presence Workshop again this fall and it is something I highly recommend.)

However, lets get back to the next few months. Are you going to work on your tan, go around in circles, keep doing more of what is not working for you? Or maybe you are ready to get your business going full throttle?

Now for the Money part . . .

I am going to make this easy for you by offering it at $1600, with a Monthly Payment Plan.

Or, a cool $1,200 if you’d like to take advantage of the Pay-In-Full option and get a $400 discount on that price.

Because of my desire to give each of you super attention and deliver personal value to those who enroll, I have to limit this to only 10 special people and a couple of seats are already spoken for.

If this Summertime Mastermind Coaching has your name on it (and you already know if it does), I encourage you to take action on it because, once these spots are gone, I won’t be opening up any more. So do a gut check and see if it fits. If so, let’s go.

Pay In Full ($1,200) by June 1st.

Payment Plan ($1,600, broken down like this: $400 now holds your spot and then three more $400 payments the first of each month: June, July and August. )

So are you ready to dive in?

Sign me up. I’m in and I’d like to save a few bucks and Pay in Full for a reduced fee of $1,200 (must sign up by June 1st).
or
Sign me up and I’m going to pay as I go with four payments. $400 is due now and then another $400 payment will be due on the first of each month in June, July and August.

I hope you are able to take some time this weekend to relax and  enjoy your friends and family and count the blessings in your  life. I know I am particularly grateful as I have watched the terrible  tragedy unfold in Japan. My thoughts and prayers go out to  everyone there.

Having been through a couple of devastating hurricanes, (I even  lost a house to one)  it seemed at the time that things would never be right  again. Then last summer,  I was just sick about the thousands of barrels of oil gushing out of that well, spoiling our most precious beaches, fish and animals on the Gulf coast. Yet, I have seen time and again that people are amazingly resilient and what I could not imagine being right again, did spring back. While we can’t stop natural disasters from occurring,  I do fervently wish that we humans can learn from these disasters how to not compound the naturally occurring events with those based on greedy consumption and dependence on so much power that we  then create oil spills and nuclear accidents and flooded homes in places where they should never have been built in the first place.

The things I have seen cannot touch the magnitude of what is happening in Japan.  I truly cannot imagine the scope of the problems that Japan is dealing with now  and it makes any little grievances I  may have in my life  seem very insignificant.  So last Sunday night on Twitter some of my buddies from the Twitter Stream and from #tweetdiner started tweeting about the lack of  press that people in Japan are getting in Social Media and the relative low amount of donations and support of Japan compared to other tragedies of recent years. Margie Clayman said we should  make a website to raise awareness and money for Japan and do a week long Tweet Chat to get people to donate  a minimum 10.00, which is the cost of two or three cups of coffee,  to the Red Cross. Can anyone make the website, she asked?

Well, Margie is one of my favorite chatters on Sunday night #blogchat and I looked at that tweet and knew that although I could put together a website, I was much “too busy” to do it this week. But, I just decided oh what the hell, Let’s jump in and see what happens. I am really glad I did.

That night I put together a logo for Care4Japan. The next day, I built a site using  the Genesis framework with the child theme Social Eyes by StudioPress.

I had not been mush of a Genesis fan until Marna Friedman did a wonderful presentation at our Atlanta WordPress Users Meetup Group this month. I actually went in and completely customized the colors, fonts, and background so the new Care4Japan  site bears little resemblance to the original theme,  but it went together really easily and I am now a true fan.

I also had to scurry to get some content on the site. I used Creative Commons photos from Flickr, and I added the Genesis RSS widget to the sidebar tracking the #careforjapan rather than use a twitter widget that only tracked one person’s tweets.

My friend from Atlanta, former rocker, Johnny Colt, is in Japan now as an iReporter sending his updates and what is happening there to CNN. I got his feed and uploaded it with a Plugin called Feed WordPress, that makes each of his posts from his RSS feed into a post on our site,  in the category, Disaster News. This was a great way to offer people some fresh news about what is really going on in Japan right now.

Jeanette Baer was able to get some code from the Red Cross that will track the donations coming there from our links. I imagine this works much the same as the way we tracking affiliate sales with a special link. I am trying to customize a donation graphic that will show how much we have brought in.  Since we are not an official 5013C  non-profit we cannot really collect money through Paypal ourselves. We would no be able to have the donations be tax deductible to the donors and we would be subject to paying taxes on the donations. There is also the trust factor involved in having people donate directly to the Red Cross.

It has been a whirlwind to do this web project with a loose group online with only one initial phone call. All of the rest of our communication has been done through Twitter and e-mail. I have met and worked with some great folks on this project,  Margie Clayman, of Clayman Advertising ( @margieclayman),  Jeanette Baer, from Primary Color Advertising (@myagenda),  Joe Ruiz from Strategic Driven (@SMSJoe), Anne from Ozio Media (@oziomedia), Ann Saulovich @solete, Kenny Rose , (@gritO8). It really goes to show that it does not take long to get a site up when you are motivated and get right on it. Yay team!

If you’d like to help out, we are asking that you go to the Care4Japan site, like our care4japan Facebook page, make a donation to the Red Cross using our links, and then leave a comment on our donate page.

Although we are only asking for 10.00, please feel free to give more and then leave a comment on the site with your #Twitter hashtag . During our  tweet chat April 2- 9, we will be giving away prizes to people chosen at random from those who have donated through our site.

Many of you know I also run a bed and breakfast and event space called the Urban Oasis and we put on lots of events here throughout the year, so this topic is very important to me. We really used Social Media to put on a super book signing for Chris Guillebeau’s Art of Nonconformity book tour. Event planners should really bone up on all the cool social media apps that will come in handy to insure the success of your next event.  Here are several ideas I have used myself and a couple that I can’t wait to use ( thank you,  Denise Quashie).

If you are having a large recurring event, it is best to create an easy to use WordPress website for it. If you can’t swing that then at least give it a Facebook fan page. If your gig is going to be one time only then a Facebook Group will work just fine.  With a website, Fanpage or Group you can keep all of the information about the event in one central place and it will be searchable by Google and that will help to have more people find out about it outside of your own circle.

Whether you have a page or not, you should definitely get the word out on Facebook by making it into an Event on Facebook. This does not take the place of having a Page or a Group.  This allows you to get it on the radar of your friends and friends of friends. But if you want people to register for the event and pay for it, then also make it an event on EventBrite which does a great job with allowing people to register and pay for the event. You can set EventBrite to show a list of people  that are attending to the other people considering attending, which is  a good incentive for them to join the party and sign up.

If you have a website, you can embed the EventBrite sign up right on your site, or it is fine to just provide a link to it. EventBrite takes a bit out of each registration, but it is free for non-profit or free events. You can even use EventBrite for a webinar series and have people sign up and pay to attend.

If you are putting on a seminar or course that has multiple classes meeting  in various rooms at various times, then Sched* could be the answer to your prayers. I found out about this app, and some others, this weekend at SoCon11. They actually should have consulted one of their most knowledgeable breakout leaders, Denise Quashie (@DQTweets), like I did, to find out about this cool Sched* app because SoCon11 had to use the old skool method of hanging papers up on the walls for people to sign up for their sessions. Not the most elegant solution. There is a free version of Sched* and it can go up from there to even making iPhone apps for your event.

Be sure to make a Twitter hashtag for your event, so you and other people can Tweet about it and use the hashtag to index all the tweets about your event. Use “What the Hashtag” to make sure it isn’t being used for something else. And at the end of the event you can get a printout of all of the tweets from What the Hashtag that were tweeted with your event’s hashtag.

Twitter is a great way to build excitement about an event and is an easy thing for other people to retweet so you can get a lot of traction out of regularly engaging with people on Twitter. If you are just getting into Twitter and you know you are planning an event, don’t wait to start engaging with people and trying to build a following when you need to start Tweeting. Do it now so you will be prepared and hopefully have a loyal group of followers who will care about you and the event and help you to get the word out. Remember to have a friend, be a friend. This has never been so true as with Twitter. So, if you see other people tweeting out their event give them a hand and they will do the same for you.

After the presentations, you can post your slides onto Slideshare. It is like YouTube, but for slide shows. Cool.

Of course, after the event, keep the party going. Don’t just black out until next year’s event. You have hopefully built up some momentum, so keep your community informed and growing. So all you event planners, do these things and your next year’s event will be even more successful.

Have you put on an event and used any of these tools or others? Let us know how that went.

Chris Guillebeau's unconventional book tour in Atlanta

I hosted the Atlanta Meetup for Chris Guillebeau’s Unconventional Book Tour on October 28. It was held at New Tricks world headquarters which doubles as my bed and breakfast, the Urban Oasis . I am so blessed to have this amazing space and love to share it with people.  We’ve never had a bad party here so I knew it would be great no matter what and  this event surpassed all my expectations!  So how did this event even come about?  The thing is, I had not actually ever met Chris in person until the afternoon he arrived for the book signing. Last year, I found Chris’s website and started read his blog and bought one of his workbooks. I had commented on his blog  and I twittered him a time or two about things he wrote that I had info on, but that was the extent of it. When I heard he was doing the tour, I wrote to him on his site and offered to be a host for the Atlanta event. Then, serendipitously,  I also ran across Sarah Robinson’s course, Creating Irresistible Presence ( CIP) . It spoke to me and I paid my money and signed up. I met some great people and actually Sarah knows Chris and he did a presentation for (CIP) it. He delivered it on a video because he was on his book tour.  Shortly thereafter he got back in touch and said he would like to do the event at my place if the offer was still open. So that is how it came about. I saw where I could be of help to someone and made an offer. I saw a workshop that seemed to be a great fit and jumped on it and made good IRL (in real life) relationships.

So that is really the next step for a lot of people. Use social media to get involved with people  rather than just push your content out and lurk in the background. Find the people in your niche who you think are doing great things.  Read their blogs, buy their products, help them out when they need something. That is how it starts. Go to workshops and conferences. They will remember you. When you need them they will help you spread your message.

But now, let me tell you how it was . . .

The evening was absolutely amazing. It was the halfway point for the book tour, number 33 out of 66 stops. Atlanta did me proud. I saw lots of old friends who I love to bring together and made lots of new ones. Two thirds of everyone there had a blog. Everyone had a streak of non-conformity or wanted to cultivate one. And did I mention that we had about 125 people of all colors and ages come out?

Keith and Donny

A couple of weeks ago at an outdoor market in Decatur, I met some musicians, Keith and Donny, and signed them up for the entertainment. Keith and Donny donated their time playing such sweet and perfect acoustic music, because I had spent talking to them about their marketing and web presence, and the next day, I got them a paying gig. It was wonderful to have the acoustic guitars and harmonies lend a festive spirit to the magical night.

People made and brought amazing food, Dorothy Knight made homemade sushi and basil rolls, Beth Lord made antipasti platters that looked like the high end caterer came to town, there were Mediterranean platters and oh my, then there were cupcakes! Chris always asks people to bring cupcakes.

We had a fire pit going outside under the stars with the party lights twinkling, and it was perfect weather. All week it rained and was so humid you couldn’t stand yourself, and then the weather broke with a beautiful crispiness without being chilly.

I just love the linchpins, Laura,  Amy and Shari from the Lady Rogue Business Network,  they ladyed the bar outside which got everyone circulating.  My peeps from Sarah Robinson’s Creating Irresistible Presence Workshop were  mostly all here. Dana Reeves and her fourteen year old son ( who took these photos),  Lori Latimer, Callahan McDonough, Shannon Short, and Brandon Sutton. We missed you Traci and Lana. And from this evening,  we have all decided to get together once a month on our own to continue our journey of sharing and caring and rocking our businesses. Sarah, was there in spirit having hosted Chris the night before for his stop in Birmingham.

Linda Knight with her head in her painting

Three of my actual sisters, Dorothy, Edna, and Linda participated. And of course Callahan, my older sister that I never had, was there with bells on. My sister, Linda painted a huge, ten by nine foot, mural on artist canvas of Chris and two tigers reading his book set in front of my window wall with one of my dogs heads coming out of the window, and the tigers paws on a stack of Art of Non-Conformity Books. Amazing. She painted the whole thing in a week and she worked her day job too. She is so friggin’ creative . . and crazy. Chris walked in that afternoon after we had hung it on my friend Joe’s photography background stands ( solving another one of our questions, how were we going to hand the damn thing so that people could get their pictured taken with their heads in the place of Chris’s face in the painting?) Anyway, Chris was speechless. Overwhelmed. Could not believe his eyes. I loved that I was their to witness his seeing it for the first time. I wish Linda had not been in the shower!

Chris’s sister Mary was able to drive over from Birmingham. She was a doll and it was fun to see them enjoying each others company. Chris’s message about living your own path, and giving back to the world and doing something with your life that leaves a legacy was very inspiring. He is an excellent speaker and  is centered and able to be completely with you in the moment. Really hits the heart of the matter and people who had not heard of him or heard him speak were blown away. He sold out of all of the book seller’s books and his own.

I was able to spend just a bit of alone time with Chris about my business. He was very generous and offered to help me anyway he could. I was so enchanted, I forgot to get my book signed!  But he told me, just let me know if I can do anything for you!

Now the event is behind me and Chris has 33 events left to go!  It is Saturday morning.  Our bed and breakfast guests were up and out of here early to their conference,  and I am going to JeJu, a Korean Spa, where I will get in the various hot and cold tubs, the sauna, and steam rooms,  get scrubbed from head to toe, have my hair washed and then go put on the comfy clothes they give you and lounge around while I work on my vision and business plan for the next ninety days – without a computer or other distractions.