Inquiries flow in daily from folks who, due to the ease of use of WordPress, want to start a new site using WordPress as a way to earn extra income.

I get it. Times are tough. But regardless of what platform your site is on, if you seek additional income, you have to approach your endeavor as a serious business first. This is where, unfortunately in my experience, many fall short. While WordPress can offer enhancements and benefits, even WordPress isn’t the end all be all many contacting me with new businesses seem to think it is.

Putting up a Web site of any kind in of itself is not starting a business. While WordPress allows a low cost entry barrier and the ability to manage your site more easily and less expensively, WordPress in no way negates the site owner from doing their business due diligence.

Here are some considerations every new business owner needs to evaluate in order to give their new enterprise the best chance for success in the long term:

• Investigate and formulate a business that is one which is as niche and tightly market focused as possible. “Me too” sites that are similar to the hundreds or thousands of sites currently online will have more of a challenge rising about the noise — and in the rankings.
• Purchase a creative and descriptive domain name. Read my Top 10 Domain Tips.
• Setup a PayPal Business Account — not a personal account — so you have the tools and features you will need to securely and reliably accept payments.
• Do a search at the US Patent and Trademark site to ensure your new business name is not in conflict with established trademarks.
• Have your online store on a platform and shopping cart that gives you all the necessary tools and the features that onliners have come to expect from a trusted shop owner. Read my article: 10 Must Dos BEFORE Building an eStore.
• Have a well written and detailed FAQ and policy page that covers all your terms, shipping methods and time-frames, operational and return information so that info is up front and center for customers to review — before they make a purchase.
• Be prepared to respond to customer e-mail inquiries in a prompt and professional manner.
• Understand that “being social” and involved in marketing your new online business will take a serious time commitment from you to build awareness for your new business. Plan on 12-14 hour days being standard and customary — that’s what it will take!
• Make the effort to understand SEO enough to be able to create your site content and structure with the basics in mind. Don’t believe for a moment that “Top 10″ or “above the fold” rankings happen overnight or are easy to attain by simply changing keywords or resubmitting your site. Understanding the reality of how search engines really work is crucial.
• Be aware that everything you do, from the business cards you include with your shipments, to how your package those shipments, to every keystroke you make in your communications will build a perception of if your business is one built on the premise of quality and integrity.
• Take the time necessary to choose the right WordPress Premium Theme with the features and functionality you need to cater to your site visitors. Only premium themes come with the support you will need to rely on to give your business the best launch possible.

While the above is not the end all be all, taking these issues into consideration before you begin developing your new WordPress site will provide a solid foundation. If you find you are willing to dilute the importance of any of these points (or the topics covered in the linked to articles), you may be best to hold off until you are ready to do what is necessary to succeed. You need to have a mindset for success!

Doing business online is not a slap-up-a-site with the same stuff many others are already successfully marketing and thinking you’ll succeed by osmosis. It is not a “build it and they will come environment”.

Doing business online is rabidly competitive and serious business — not for the weak of heart. But for those up to that challenge, they understand and are willing to do, embrace and learn what they need to make their business endure.

“It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’
You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”
~ Sir Winston Churchill

And, yes, WordPress can help you do just that.

At your service,
Judith

WordPress How To: Start a New Business is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

With all the crazy cool Premium WordPress Themes that are being developed now-a-days, less and less customization is necessary to get that slick and professional look you desire.

But the one thing every site owner will want to customize is the theme’s logo. Many premium theme developers are now adding easy upload features within their premium theme dashboards to replace the designated default theme logo.

However, for those themes that do not offer this option, it is as easy as 1,2,3 to change your theme logo to what you prefer. All we have to do is a logo file switcheroo:

1. First, view your site in your browser. Right click on the default logo that is currently displaying in your theme, and choose “Properties”.
2. A box will display that notes your theme’s logo image properties. You now know where the default logo is located (usually wp-content/themes/theme-name/images), what format it is (.gif, .jpg, .png) and what dimensions the logo graphic is so that we can duplicate that.
3. Now all you have to do is create a logo graphic in the size noted. Once you have created your logo graphic, save it with the same file name and format as the graphic currently in place (.gif, .jpg, .png). Then all you have to do is upload your logo graphic to the location where the default resides on your hosting server to complete the switcheroo.

In your hosting control panel, you will find FTP upload tools and File Managers that allow you to upload files to specific locations on your hosting server. All you have to do is make sure that the logo you create is the same size (so it fits nicely) and that it has the same exact file name in order for it to display properly.

Give it a try and let me know how it work for you, O.K.?

At your service,
Judith

WordPress How To: Change Your Theme Logo is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

Customizing your WordPress registration page and login process is something that many WordPress site owners are interested in doing. The most commented posts and what I received many e-mails about are about that very topic.

On one of the threads in regard to a plugin that I no longer am able to recommend due to lack of support by its developer and it not being updated for WordPress 3.0, led to requests for me to make a replacement recommendation.

WordPressers are primarily asking for these three features:

1. A registration or login page that was not the default WordPress screen.
2. Ability to send customized e-mails in lieu of the default WordPress registration and password recovery e-mails.
3. Ability for users to set their own passwords.

And I’ve found a plugin, that after testing myself and found it quite nifty, I am comfortable in recommending to you that meets these three desires and then some!

Theme My Login WordPress Plugin

Theme My Login Features:

• Your registration, log in, and password recovery pages will all match the rest of your website
• Includes a customizable widget to login anywhere from your blog
• Redirect users upon log in and log out based upon their role
• Show gravatar to users who are logged in
• Assign custom links to users who are logged in based on their role
• Customize user emails for registration and/or password recovery
• Send user emails in HTML format
• Allow users to set their own password upon registration
• Require users to be approved or confirm e-mail address upon registration
• Theme user profiles

Theme My Login makes your WordPress registration/login page look just like it is part of your theme. And, you can customize the included CSS file for any additional enhancements you desire.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

At your service,
Judith

Theme Your WordPress Registration Page is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

Thanks to the tons of WordPress plugins there are all kinds of nifty special touches you can add to your Site/Blog to customize how it works and looks based on your unique needs and desires.

UPDATE 06/2010: With the important and comprehensive release of WordPress 3 this month, it is important to only use plugins where the developers are ensuring their plugins are compatible. The Register Plus plugin originally discussed and recommended in this article, is no longer recommended as it is not being updated or supported by it’s developer. It was last updated in 2008 and the developer’s page for the plugin is now 404ing.

So please review my follow up post on registration plugins that you can use instead by following the link below:

How to Trick Out Your Registration Page

Comments will therefore be closed for this post. If you want to discuss this topic or have questions, go to the post above.

I’ll also be doing a review of registration plugins and alternatives later this week, so subscribe to my Muse Alerts in the sidebar to your right!

At your service,
Judith

UPDATE: WordPress How To: Register Plus Plugin is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

You know what it’s like… You go to a search engine or Web site, find a link you are interested in, click on it and a “404 — Page Not Found” error page displays. You could have typo’d the URL or the page, post, directory has changed or is removed. Regardless the reason, you didn’t find what you were looking for. There you are staring at a blank visually boring unhelpful error page. Drat!

Two things then happen when this occurs on your site. You have ruined the user experience and have created a frustrated user right out the gate. You also then have a user that didn’t find what they were looking for.

What many then do is hit their back button to start their search over. Sometimes going back to the search engine they found your link on never to revisit again. Opportunity lost.

The thing is, as your site grows and takes on a life of its own, it is hard to track outbound links and page/post changes that could affect internal site linking. Outbound links go off-line, internal links change through the normal course of updating — it happens. The good news is you can easily solve this dilemma!

You can avoid 404 horror with three nifty plugins:

1. Smart 404: This plugin allows me to have a customized message and 404 page, that then makes suggestions to the user of possible substitute areas on my site. Helps to keep visitors engaged and on my site.
2. Redirection: This plugin manages 301 redirections, keeps track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have.
3. Broken Link Checker: This plugin keeps tabs on any broken links on or off site to minimize users having to see your 404 page in the first place. When you login, on your Dashboard will be a notice of any broken links found allowing you to edit, delete or disregard.

I’ve had these three plugins in place on my site for over a year now and they really help save me a ton of time with my site housekeeping versus having to do all this manually.

Why not give these plugins a try and let me know how it works for you?

At your service,
Judith

WordPress How To: Avoid 404 Horror is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...