Is your website neglected? If you haven’t updated it in six months or more, you need to ask a few questions, give your site some T.L.C., and get it to start working for you again! Here’s a checklist to get you started:

☐ Speaking of Search Engine Optimization: I seriously hope you haven’t spent thousands of dollars on Search Engine Optimization, Bonky! With a dynamic site that contains a blog, social media, and/or is built on the WordPress platform…you won’t need to anything like that! Read about how you can use your WordPress site, in combination with the content on your blog, and/or your social media, to increase your site’s presence in the search engines. You’ll be thanking me, oh yes you will.

The bottom line is this: is your website working for YOU? Are you selling product? Is the site bringing you new customers? If not, consider a Spring Cleaning – an upgrade from static to dynamic, or, at the very least, make adjustments, update your content, refresh your design. Email me at: info@e-girlfriday.com to get started today.

PS: Girl Friday is completely overhauling this site and converting it to a new WordPress theme built with…Builder! Same neato graphics and groovy style, but more functionality, fun and fabulousness. Stay tuned, friends!!

Helloooo!! WordPress is NOT just for blogs, you silly! It is a powerful Content Management System (CMS) , and thousands of companies are switching to WordPress to manage their own sites right now as we speak!

(Get a free evaluation of your current site and how it could benefit from converting to WordPress –
Be sure to include your URL; Girl Friday will  email you an evaluation within 48 hours!)

Take wine and restaurant websites, for example. These sites often have designs using Flash, music and layout elements that make for a visually beautiful page, but that actually prevent search engines from finding the site. Now just how sensible is that, I ask you? Why have a beautiful site that no one will see? Why, that’s like being all dressed up with nowhere to go to show off your pretty dress!

Be a smart cookie and convert your static site to a dynamic site on WordPress, and suddenly you have a platform that is beautiful AND search engine friendly (WP has built-in search engine-friendly stuff). Want the bells and the whistles, too? OK, honey you got it; with WordPress you can have a shopping cart, video, revolving images, Facebook, Twitter, etc. (and without a blog if you don’t want one)!

So, here’s the 411 again: you can have a beautifully designed site with revolving photos, video and other elements that would typically degrade your site’s visibility, AND you can have great Search Engine Optimization…all with a WordPress site.

Here are some samples of companies with beautiful websites built with WordPress that are NOT used primarily as blogs:

http://www.herout-caves.com/
(I know, the site is in French. But just look at the design…it’s a great example of a beautiful, simple, and very SEO and social media friendly site.)

http://fernwoodcoffee.com/
This site is very content heavy, which makes for great Search Engine friendliness. Their main focus is their STORY, which WordPress does beautifully!

http://theprobar.com/
This uses a very colorful background and images to great effect.

Girl Friday just loves WordPress sites and can build one for you, too or convert your current site to WordPress! It’s your party, so you get to decide how you want to work it honey!

Email for more info: info@e-girlfriday.com

SO ANYWAY…’cause GF is always in a hurry and looking for the quick way out, she tried the following solution that worked like a charm:

1. Create your Invite
2. When you get to the “Invite Friends” part of the Invite, it opens a Window with all your Friends listed. Don’t click on any of your Friends! Instead, Copy and Paste the following bit of code into the URL box at the top of the page  (Yes, you want to Paste OVER the URL address that is showing):

javascript:elms=document.getElementById(‘friends’).getElementsByTagName(‘li’);for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === ‘object’){fs.click(elms[fid]);}}

3. After you’ve pasted that code string into your URL box, left click your mouse in the URL box (anywhere is fine) and hit Enter.

4. BE PATIENT!! If  you have several hundreds (or over a thousand) Friends, it will take a minute or two (literally). Don’t touch anything, let it do it’s thing, go get a Diet Tab and a Slim Jim and take a break fer gosh sakes already!

5. When it’s finished processing, you will see ALL of your Friends highlighted in the Friends box. Now, just click “Invite” or “Send” and you’re done. You DID it!! I KNEW you could!! See…those strings of code are not evil…just ugly!! So don’t be afraid!

So NIFTY! how it works, huh?!

Click here for the link to the original blog posting.

Now you go and have yourself a Sunshiney day, Pumpkin!

HELLOOOOOOO?? Is this the party to which I am speaking?

You’ve probably figured out by now that If your website is a static HTML site, it’s expensive and time-consuming to program the site in order to connect it to your social media like Facebook and Twitter. You probably have to get on the phone to your site designer, or whomever did your site, and ask them to program it for Social Media. Oh Jiminy Criminy Grits, what a pain in the you-know-what!! Easier to take control of your own website, Girl Friday always says. But HOW??

Consider converting your HTML site to a WordPress site/content management system, Bonky!! That way, you can add Social Media, video, a blog, a portfolio, music, event calendars and so much more quite easily. And you can do all that fun Social Media stuff yourself. Or have your Girl Friday (or Boy Friday) do it for you. It’s easy! (Do you know Microsoft Word? Well, the WordPress content editor looks a lot like Word – so simple to use!) (Ask me how:  info@e-girlfriday.com)

When you log-in to your WordPress administration panel, YOU are able to control, edit and add content, pages, photos and more (once it is set up for you). (READ this forum posting for discussion among real users regarding static (HTML) site vs. WordPress).

WordPress is a content management system…and Social Media is also built on content. Visitors, customers, or clients interact with your WordPress site’s content by making comments, asking questions, purchasing product or downloading information you’ve provided. The same process occurs within your Facebook and Twitter profiles.

And so, it makes sense to have a content-managed WordPress site that connects to your social media and even your email blast software (like Vertical Response). The WordPress site becomes your marketing hub, the center of your content exchange with site visitors, and the site around which your social media revolves.

Think about it, then contact Girl Friday!! Now get back to work, dear. You’ve procrastinated long enough.

Here’s the scoop, served in a nutshell, covered in chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry:

1. Status Updates are now seen on Google, Yahoo, etc. search engines: So if you post any colorful updates that you wouldn’t want Mom or your boss to see, you can change  your Privacy Setting under “Profile Information” and “Posts by Me” to show your Updates to “Only Friends,” rather than the “Everyone” setting. Because “Everyone” means Everyone.
2. Your “Personal Info” is also now set to default to “Everyone” by the new Facebook settings for family and relationships (relationship status) and your birth date (do you really want this information seen to anyone and everyone online? Think about identity theft here). You can change this setting.  Go to “Privacy Settings,” “Profile Information” and for each field listed on this page, change the pull-down menu (to the right). You can choose “Everyone,” “Friends of Friends,” “Only Friends,” and “Custom.”  The “Custom” field allows you to choose “Only Me,” which might be the best choice for your sensitive data like birth date.
3. All of the above Personal Information, if it is checked or defaulted to “Everyone,” is also available to the search engines. Under “Settings/Privacy Settings/Search,” look to see if the “Allow” box is checked. If you do not want your Profile information to be search-able, uncheck this box.

For the complete article, and links to more information on protecting your privacy within Facebook, see the sourced article here.

Now go out there, and take on this Facebook thingy, and don’t be afraid!! ‘Cause once you’ve conquered this small challenge:   “You [will be] able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Eleanor Roosevelt said that, and I just love that lady. Have a sunny day!  Love, –your Girl Friday

Well, don’t worry your brains about it, Cookie. IF YOU ACT NOW, all ya gotta do is call 888.382.1222 and tell those nice people at the National Do Not Call center to put your number on the list to be BLOCKED from those nasty ole TELEMARKETERS. Make sure you CALL FROM YOUR CELL PHONE. Your number will be blocked for five years. Proving that, yes…technology IS grand!! Now call them right now, and you have yourself a lovely day.

–your Girl Friday

You do not have to be a writer, or a blogger, to have a blog site. A blog site is just another website built on a platform (Girl Friday loves the WordPress platform) that allows you to log-in to an administration panel in order to add pages, content, photos, product information, video, etc. And trust me, it is really FUN to take over the control of your website…you feel powerful, in charge, brilliant and suave, sophisticated and way ahead of your competition and you might even lose a few pounds and ten years off your face! Well…maybe not that last part. WordPress is absolutely FAB, but they haven’t perfected age-regression yet!

When you convert your static website to a dynamic WordPress blog site, that will allow visitors to interact with you – they can respond to your content by making comments, asking questions, purchasing product or downloading information you’ve provided. Blog sites offer many more opportunities for the visitor to take the call to action that will convert them from a visitor into a customer or new client. The communication that you have with the blog site visitor is what distinguishes a blog from a brochure-style, or static site; there is no such interaction between a static site and the visitor. And honey, isn’t that what EVERYONE says it’s all about?? Communication?? (and you thought it was all about the hokey pokey, silly you!).

With a WordPress blog site, you do not need to know HTML or coding to build new pages or update your site. No more calling your site designer to make little changes that you can do yourself. You own your WordPress site, baby and can control everything in it. Dontchya just love being in control??

A WordPress blog site can also be set up to connect to your social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter. Post your new content once on your WordPress blogs site, and that content can be posted, at the same time, to your Facebook/Twitter accounts. So all your Friends can witness how in control you are, learn about your site/business, read your new content, buy your stuff, worship you from afar!

WordPress blog sites also support e-commerce, advertising, affiliate marketing – using widgets and plug-ins that you can easily install yourself, WordPress blogs have limitless possibilities and flexibility.

There’s a bit of a learning curve if you are completely non-computer literate, but the dashboard is a “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get  (WYSIWIG) editor window, so if you know Word you should have no problem. And you are one smart cookie, anyway. You can do this!!

Love the way your current site LOOKS? Don’t worry your pretty head!! Converting your static site does not mean you have to lose your beautiful design…you can have a blog site that looks just like the existing site. But if the goal is to bring in lots of visitors to the site, Girl Friday thinks you should consider using the blog, and it’s fresh, keyword-laden content, as your home page….I’m just saying!!

Long ago I chose to make my groovy and fun Girl Friday blog into my home page. I do it this way because when I post to the blog, it is indexed more frequently by search engines, so that my target market will find this site more easily. And I LOVE being FOUND!!  YOU’LL love it too!!

So, using my blog in this manner makes my website an actual marketing tool, rather than a brochure site that just sits there looking pretty but doesn’t do much for bringing in traffic. And I’m all for looking pretty, but come on…get to work and bring home the bacon, I mean, the website traffic!!

Girl Friday can turn your static site into a marketing tool that you can control, that is SEO friendly, and that will attract new visitors and business by converting it to a WordPress blog site. Comment on this blog post, or send me an email to: elaine@e-girlfriday.com

Write a comment to this blog post, ask a question, or send us an email for more information to:  marketing@leafandvine.com.

Here’s the truth: you need to figure out which social media tool works best for you, for your business, and for the staff and resources you have on hand to manage that social media. Not all businesses need a Facebook account, nor should certain businesses even have a presence on Facebook…and certainly not everyone should Twitter. And LinkedIn has its own special purpose that may not fit in with your business model or way of working.

It’s to your advantage to look at the different social media tools available and then ask yourself a few questions:

1. Is my target audience even ON Facebook or Twitter?? If you are a financial planner whose clients are all retired, chances are they are not on Twitter – they don’t even know what that is!  If you are trying to gather a younger clientele for your business, however, you may want to be on Facebook and reach the adult children of your older clients. They may be on Facebook for social reasons, and can get to know you in that online community. Let’s say you are a new restaurant – you’ll want to reach people in the surrounding neighborhood who are on Facebook, where they and their friends talk about or suggest places to go out to eat…by all means, gather as many of those Friends as you can! ON the other hand, if you are a business coach offering services to corporate clients. LinkedIn may make better sense as a social/business networking tool for you. You become a resource on LinkedIn, where other businesses search for your unique skills or services. If you believe your target market is heavily involved in a particular social media, you’ll want to be utilizing that social media tool, and it’s community, to keep your online presence fresh and engaged.
2. Do I have the time, or the staff, to consistently engage in the social media conversation? If you can’t devote time on a consistent basis, whether daily, weekly, bi-weekly, etc.  – honey, you are just a wastin’ time and who has time to waste? Not Girl Friday!! and I’m sure you don’t either!  So I’m going to save you a ton o’ time and tell you that you need to make sure you can consistently maintain whichever social medial tool you choose to participate in. If you start and then allow your Profile or Twitter account to remain outdated, it looks to visitors as though you don’t even visit your own sites…so why should they?  Social media is of the moment; be present, be there now, be a part of the conversation that is happening today. So stay up to date, cupcake!
3. Should I perhaps just choose ONE social media tool, stick with it, be consistent, and give that a try?? Well, um…in a word:  yes!!  See if you can manage just one social media tool, OR, a blog if you have one. Be very consistent…if Twitter is all you can manage time-wise, then do Twitter. But do it well. If you feel really comfortable in Facebook, and you can manage your Profile or Fan Page in a way that promotes you and your business in a personable yet professional way…then go for it. Better to do just one social media tool, and do it well, than try to manage three or four different accounts where nothing of value or relevance is posted, or it is inconsistent.  You can always add on more social media once you master one.

Don’t feel guilty that you’ve neglected your poor Tweets, have not responded to all those Facebook emails, or updated your contacts at LinkedIn. Take a deep breath. None of this stuff is going away. Conserve your energy…plan carefully….then do it!!

And if you’d like some great information you can use, take our “Navigating the Maze of Online Marketing” workshops….workshop III is this Thursday, November 19, 10 a.m. in Petaluma, CA. Go to this link to reserve your spot:  http://onlinemarketingmedia.eventbrite.com/ or….send me an email to: info@e-girlfriday.com.

Girl Friday Virtual Marketing and NeighborhoodNow are actual professionals…we don’t just play one on TV! Learn about our Workshops on “How to Navigate the Maze Of Online Marketing.” We are offering them in the North Bay and beyond, and can present to your company and staff, too.  For more information, email Girl Friday at info@e-girlfriday.com today!

1. On your HOME page, under the Left Sidebar, click on the “More” link to expand the Sidebar.
2. Click on “Create New List.” It will open a new window, where you will see all of your Friends listed.
3. Name your New List and then click on all the Friends whose Status Updates you would like to see (instead of the “News Feed”). When finished, click on “Create New List” button at the bottom of the window, and close it. (PS: you could even name your new list something like: “MY News Feed” if that works for you, or “My Music Friends,” or “Business Friends,” etc….you get the picture!)
4. It will place your New List in your left sidebar. Now, if you ONLY want to see the Status Updates of those Friends in your New List, just CLICK on that New List, and Facebook will only show you THOSE Friends’ Status Updates…there ya go!

It’s easy as buying an apple pie (not making one – I don’t think that is really easy!) You will be filtering your own News Feed and only seeing the stuff YOU have determined is of interest to you. FACEBOOK -  get outta our brains, fer gosh sakes!

(thanks Kirk for reminding me about this feature!)

Want to learn more? Girl Friday teaches workshops, consults with small businesses, designs stuff and writes things. Send her an email: info@e-girlfriday.com