The Atlanta WordPress Users Group is going to be held at 130 Krog at New Tricks Atlanta Headquarters on Wednesday, April 21 at 7:00 PM. This is the 17th meeting of this popular Atlanta Meetup Group. Jack Kennard and I, Judi Knight, his new co-organizer, will give a basic presentation on how to go about getting a WordPress site up and started. I have written a recent post on moving your site from a WordPress.com site to a .org site and it pretty much outlines the material that we will cover. The presentation is planned to last about an hour including time for questions and answers.

Jack and I would like try and find a format for the group that can satisfy the diverse levels of experience in this group. So after the presentation we we will break into smaller discussion groups so beginners and more advanced members can talk about the things that are pertinent to their issue and get questions answered on both basic and more advanced topics. We are trying to work out the schedule so that there is little something for everyone.

With all of the interest and talent in our Atlanta WordPress Users’ group, we also want to give others a chance to present, so please, don’t be shy. Let us know if you have a topic you’d like to hear more about or if your would like to do the presentation for an upcoming meeting.

Some suggestions have been to have a meeting on the new features of 3.0 and another presentation on WPMU (multi-user version) and Buddy Press. So stay tuned, and keep in touch. I hope to see you Wednesday!

New Tricks was busy marketing this week on the premise that if we do our networking, and workshops in November then our December will be as busy as we want it to be. We had a great time at the Ga. Coaches Association round table meeting and the North Fulton Express Network Luncheon of the American Business Women’s Association. Good to see old friends and make some new contacts as well.

Here are our slides from both Dene’s and Judi’s presentations. The Coaches didn’t get to see Dene’s talk on Googling Yourself and other Online Marketing Tips. But both of the talks are on this Slideshare.

For those attending the workshop we are offering a free consultation on your on-line presence. We can do this by phone or in person so drop us a line or give us a call and we will get you on our schedule. We are limiting this offer to the first twenty people to respond.

Thanks so much to everyone who came to The Dynamic Duo: Online and Offline Networking Lunch and Learn on Thursday, Nov 12th, 2009.

New Tricks was pleased to present the lunch and learn in conjunction with Margo Geller and Associates.

It was a great crowd and we hope we taught you a few New Tricks. Since the boxed lunches from LottaFrutta got such rave reviews, here’s the link to their site: LottaFrutta

If you haven’t already signed up for the New Tricks newsletter, please take a minute to subscribe via the box on the right.

Here are the links to the slides. There are two parts:

Part 1: New Tricks for Social Media:

Part 2: Networking Plan

New Tricks Academy in conjunction with
Margo Geller, Inc. is pleased to present:

The Dynamic Duo:
Online and Offline Networking
Lunch and Learn
Thursday, Nov 12th – 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
130 Krog St – Unit A – 30307

Cost: $25 – includes lunch

If you’ve ever thought . . .

How will I ever get new clients in this economy much less master online communication tools like Blogs, Search Engine Optimization, Facebook and Twitter?

. . . you are not alone

Maximize your new media and traditional marketing resources in today’s economy.

• Judi Knight and Dene Shepherd from New Tricks Website Design + Blogs + Social Network Marketing will share a few New Tricks for Social Media. We’ll show you how to improve your online brand and using free social network marketing tools like Facebook and twitter to connect with your buyers.

• Margo Geller from Margo Geller and Associates, will share her 7-10 philosophy on finding new business relationships through face-to-face networking.

For more information and to reserve your space, please contact

• Margo Geller: Email margo@margogeller.com or phone 404.321.2131
• Dene Shepherd: Email dene@newtricks.me or 404.729.5456
• Or Register Online at the New Tricks events page

New Tricks had the pleasure of presenting our ‘New Tricks for Social Media’ to the Airport Area Kiwanis club members on Wed, September 23, 2009.

The crowd was great and the venue, The Feed Store Restaurant, has the same good energy as New Tricks World Headquarters.

We very much appreciated the opportunity to spend time with the club.

Here’s the presentation:

New Tricks For Social Media

Judi and I presented this ‘New Tricks for Social Media Presentation’ for the Brookhaven Rotary Club today. They were such a nice crowd. We hope they’ll invite us back soon.

New Tricks is pleased to be a co-sponsor of the “Country Asian Tapas with Chinese Southern Belle” benefit event for Slow Food Atlanta.

The event, to be held at The Urban Oasis (also known as New Tricks World Headquarters), will begin at 6 pm on Sunday, May 31.

Join mother-daughter, Margaret & Natalie, as they host a special event of homestyle Asian Tapas with Chinese Southern Belle charm and hospitality. Enjoy fabulous food and multicultural socializing in unique, colorful surroundings. Come out to support good, clean and fair food!

The menu of “Asian Tapas” will feature seasonal vegetables in favorite homestyle and creative fusion dishes, like Five-Spice Rutabaga Stew and Smoked Tofu w/ Chinese Sausage & Garlic Chives.  Ni Hao, Y’all, let’s Wok the Garden!

30 Slow Food members/$40 non-members/$50 at-door. Get additional details and register online via Brown Paper Tickets (a fair trade company) or by phone 800-838-3006.

In addition to the May 19^th ‘Get Yourself a Free WordPress.com’ Workshop, New Tricks is excited to offer the following workshops as part of our ‘Tricks of the Trade Tuesdays’ series:

June 2^nd – 9 – 10 am – Getting the Most out of your Graphics – $25

A picture IS worth a thousand words. We’ll share some of our secrets for creating a great looking blog. Little tweaks that go a long way -  like touching up photos, resizing and adding layers to graphics, and great sites for finding free photo images.

June 16^th – 9 – 11 am – $ 25 – Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Learn how to maximize your SEO. Whether you’re a part-time blogger or business owner, this class will provide you with SEO skills to drive traffic to your site.

June 30^th – 9 – 11 am – $25 – Social Networking isn’t Scary

You have a business to run and just when you thought you were okay with the computer, e-mail and website… everyone started talking about interactivity, search engine optimization with blogs, social network marketing using things like Facebook… and what the heck is Twitter???  Spend the morning with us – we’ll take the fear out of it all.

Sign up for any of the workshops at our Events page.

Look for even more workshops in July including a repeat of the ‘Get Yourself a Free WordPress.com Blog’ course and ‘What’s the Difference in WordPress.com and WordPress.org?’.

Let New Tricks teach you or your small business how to make the most of the new technologies, to be painlessly competitive in this new environment. We are going to be hosting the following workshops on these topics at New Tricks World Headquarters over the next several months. The next one is going to be held Tuesday,  May 19th from 9-12. It is titled, Get Yourself a WordPress Blog.  We have two more spots open for this Workshop which is being held at no charge for this time only. You will leave having a WordPress.com blogsite and will know what to do with it. You can register on line.

• Changing your static site to a Blog /Content Management Website

• Get Yourself a WordPress Blogsite

• Why and How to Tie your Website to Twitter/Facebook/ Flickr

• Twitter for Dollars

• Intro to Working with Graphics for your Website

• How to Write Good Blog Posts

• Become an Expert on the Web

• Improve your Presence with Search Engine Optimization

On May 19th, from 9 am – noon, New Tricks is putting on our first workshop. At the end of three hours you’ll have had a boatload of fun and leave with your very own blog. Yes, we did say free. Please let us know if you would like to attend since space is limited.

WordPress is a Open Source program that allows one to use their software platform to have a blog, to build themes and templates and to basically have free access to build onto and around it. In this “Get Yourself a Free, WordPress.com Blog” workshop you do not have to have your own domain name. You will end up with a blog that will have an address like: www.whatevernameyouchoose/wordpress.com. So not only is the workshop free, but the blog is free and you do not have to pay for hosting or a domain name.

If you have your own domain name, this workshop still may be helpful to you, we will just have to meet with you separately to show you how to get yourself set up with what is called Self-hosted WordPress. In this case your blog/site url will be: www.whatevernameyouhave.com.

Be sure to bring your laptop since we will be working hands on. If you have art, graphics or photos please have them with you, already scanned in and accessible on your computer. We will have coffee and goodies while we get everyone set up on the wireless network so please be on time so we can all start together.

If you want to get a bit of a head start and drool over the possibilities of the self-hosted WordPress, go to www.wordpress.org/showcase and look at the many cool WordPress websites that they have out for show and tell.

Sign Up here to reserve your space today!