A year ago, after 4-months of extensive research, planning, writing, editing, and rewriting, my colleagues, Susan Baka & Allyson Ward of Bay Communications, Liz Valentine of Valentine Dimensions and myself worked collectively to produce 8 publications and PowerPoint presentations for the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development & Trade eBiz section of their website. This week these publications have now been made available online. It is good to see them in their final format. This project was a good experience but deadlines were tight. It was my first time writing and as the technical consultant for this project, it was an opporunity for me to bring my expertise of the web to the table. Click http://bit.ly/146t9dJ to view the publications.

• Creating a Dynamic Web Presence

Small businesses can easily create more interactive sites to engage their target audiences.

• E-Commerce: Purchasing and Selling Online

Includes tips and strategies for attracting, serving and keeping your online customers.

• Social Media Marketing

Focuses on using social media (Web 2.0) techniques to promote your business online.

• Cloud Computing

Describes cloud computing and explains the benefits, concerns, types of cloud computing and what to consider when moving your business to the cloud.

• Blogs for Small Business

Focuses on the opportunities, benefits and how to’s of creating a successful blog to market your business.

• Successful Online Display Advertising

Discusses techniques to advertise your business over the Internet.

• Increasing Traffic to Your Website Through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques

Examines techniques to increase the volume of traffic to your website from potential customers using search engines.

• Integrating Mobile with Your Marketing Strategy

Explains how small businesses can integrate mobile with their marketing strategies to gain an edge in reaching out to and strengthening relationships with customers.

I had a client the other day still thinking he could reach the majority of his target audience – high school students through Facebook, but according to this infographic, it certainly doesn’t look to be where they are hanging out. Kids are our future trendsetters, so are your kids exiting this social tool? What tools are they using? Are they Tumblr’ing?

Revised rules regarding FB cover image:

If you recall when Facebook rolled out the new cover image there were tons of rules to adhere to, but this week, these rules have changed. So what are the new rules:

1. We still have restriction cannot have more than 20% of text in the image. Tool
2. All other rules pretty much gone, for example, CTAs (Call to Action can be put on), pricing allowed, URL to links, Contact info all OK
3. Covers cannot be deceptive, misleading or infringe on anybody’s copyright.

More flexibility for marketing, but don’t push your fans off.

A plugin is a small program that extends the functionality. There are FREE ones and premium ones. It is safest to download ones recognized by WordPress.

Things to look for when choosing a plugin to use:

1. Check for last time updated
2. Does the developer care enough to brand his plugin with a large image banner
3. The number of downloads, greater than 10,000
4. Reviews
5. Easy download

Must have Plugins:

Backup: backup Buddy, back WP up, WP DB backup
Security: Better, WordFence
SEO: all in one SEO, WP SEO by Yoast
Caching: w3 total cache, WP Super cache
Spam Control: akismet, antispam B
Statistics: Google analyticactor, Yoast,

Good to have Plugins:

Related posts: nrelated content,  WP Popular Post
Redirection: Pretty Link Lite, Redirection
Comments Plugins: Livefyre, disqus
Forms: gravity, contact 7

Social Plugins:

Really simple Facebook Twitter share buttons
Tweet Old Post

*Remember plugins can slow a site down. Make sure to delete all inactive plugins from your server and use plugins minimally. Some of these functions can be done through programming. Ask your developer what is the best approach.

Finding harmony amidst technology

Working with technology alone is enough to drive the average user into despair. And even those who are well experienced with the systems also tend to face adversity in the face of technology. So some key lessons that were learned and was brought up in the session by Michelle Horne, AICI CIP, was to ensure that if a lesson like this were to be done again, proposing to customize the audience to the level of their comfort (beginner, intermediate, advanced) would be probably be a better approach. My suggestion also after realizing this, is to bring more advanced users to help assist with the “hands-on” approach so I can continue moving the class along, instead of having it interrupted when a participant is falling behind (for whatever reason). Class size also plays a major factor as well.

Despite these challenges, it was an enjoyable group to impart my knowledge of Social Media and WordPress (specifically). For those interested I have put together some mini video’s of the major areas that are covered in the Becoming Familiar WordPress Highlight Guide that was handed out to the participants. Those interested in downloading, please check out this WordPress link.

If you are trying to find harmony with technology, here are some suggestions which I have implemented into my 12-hour days of programming/designing/ creating.

5 Tips:

1. Each day give gratitude for having the technologies that are presented to us for use and the people involved to bring us the programs, platforms and information to help us utilize the tools.
2. Every 1.5 hour you are sitting in front of your computer, get up and bend forward and backward, stretch and walk around. You may think it interrupts your thought, but the stretch really helps open up the thought waves.
3. When faced with a chaotic situation with your computer or the program you are using, take 3 deep breaths, get up and walk away for at least 5 minutes, then come back. If the problem still persists, try to reboot computer. If it doesn’t boot down, call your local computer service provider. Majority of our frustrations with technology won’t do major harm, so in most cases when working with programs, take a bit of risk. There is always the “Undo” button or keyboard shortcut “Ctrl/Cmd Z”.
4. Proactive actions to deter from losing all your work – set auto save on most of your Office programs, and those that can’t, try to set a ½ hour or even 15 minute reminder to save your work ongoing. Always set up a backup system whether external hard drive or to the “Cloud” (Dropbox, JustCloud, ICloud etc.)
5. Each day make sure you are eating a healthy diet full of fruit/vegetables, whole grains, little to no processed foods. Try to walk daily for a minimum of 15 minutes, meditate for half hour (in one sitting/standing). At the end of the day, give gratitude again for making it through the day!

Balancing life:

Time constraints?
Time is just a concept. The real truth is “what we define” as our priority is what we tend to spend our time on. So the issue is not time, but what we feel is priority.

Come out and learn about the Social Media landscape and a step by step walk through of WordPress and how you can utilize these tools for your business or organization. FREE WordPress Guide available. All are welcome regardless of whether you are a member of AICI Association of Image Consultants International or in the need of CEUs. For more information or registration contact,

Angele Desgagne 905-601-58=929 or adesgagne@imageliteinternational.com

Please join me in congratulating him with his web presence launch. www.nickshearmanphotos.com

Created using WordPress platform

1. Sign yourself up with a Google and Bing account, and then sign up with Google & Bing Webmaster Tools
2. Set yourself up an XML site map – you can use free tools like, http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/
3. You will have to follow the instructions for site verification. See screen shots below to give you an idea.
4. If you wish to submit to Yahoo, you also must have a Yahoo ID.
5. You can then within the webmaster tools, submit your site. Though if you have done the xml site map properly, this will give enough information to the search engines to pick up your site. Make sure to go back and review your webmaster tools, as they give you tons of good information to help you to continue to tweak your optimization, content, broken links etc.

Google Webmaster Dashboard

Google Webmaster verification

Bing Webmaster Tool

Yahoo Explorer Tool

For more information, I will be speaking at the Company of Women, Toronto Breakfast networking group on February 8th. See www.companyofwomen.ca to register. If you are unable to attend, I provide 1 hour slot Skype consultations. My Skype ID is insitecreations. As well will be holding other public seminars or one-on-one training sessions. Feel free to contact me if interested in signing up to learn more.

More WebProNews Videos

His message is, “Without passion, a blog cannot become established as an authority or sustain readers. Forrester believes a lack of passion is the “biggest killer for most blogs out there.” He goes on to say that if a blog does not have passion, it will run out of steam before it can reach success.

Passion results in value, which leads to loyal readers. When businesses and people enforce these practices, the readers will go on to share this valuable information socially and produce links, which will establish the blog as a resource.”

So as you move forward into the new year, make sure to dig deep into your heart and bring forth the passionate nature of your business messages into your writing.