Archive for December, 2008
30
Dec
Written by Susan on December 30th, 2008
Tip O’ The Morning
Maybe you want to give access to certain pages on your blog only to those who know the exact URL to get in? Or perhaps you want to maintain the integrity of your theme’s nav bar, which in my case only allows for links to 5 pages – beyond that, and any new pages I create show up in nasty places on my header, messing up my lovely symmetry, and making me crazy. I start creating lists of all those people I’d like to whack. It isn’t pretty.
Whatever your reason for wanting to create pages on your blog that either only a select few can see, or that you choose to link to elsewhere than the WordPress default, after much searching I finally figured out how to do it. Benefit from my hours of agony! Go on, I don’t mind.
- When you go into your dashboard, you start by choosing Write/Page. In the right sidebar, under the Publish Status field, you will see a check box labeled “Keep this page private”. Check it.
- Name your new page whatever you’d like, and add the content.
- When you’re ready, click on “Publish”.
When WordPress creates a new page, it assigns it a page ID number. Take note of what number is assigned to your new page. The URL will look something like this: http://yourblog.com/?page_ID=#.
What you’ll find now is that your page exists, and you can get to it if you type in the exact URL (or click on whatever link you have made manually and put somewhere on your page), but the new title will read: “Private 
title). If you intend for your customers or other visitors to your blog to have access to the page, you don’t want them to think they’ve landed somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. So how do you get rid of that unwanted “Private” text on your title?
Easy peasy.
- Go back to your dashboard, and into Design/Theme Editor.
- On your right sidebar, you’ll see the list of your theme’s templates.
- Click on functions.php. In the window, paste the following code:
function remove_private_prefix($title) {
$title = str_replace(
‘Private:’,
”,
$title);
return $title;
}
add_filter(‘the_title’,'remove_private_prefix’);
Voilà! You’re done! Now your new page looks just like all your other pages, but you retain the power over where the links to it show up. If you want it to be in your existing page list, add the html code pointing to it in a text widget, or place a more prominent link elsewhere on your page if you wish. Or, just leave it private. Point is, you get to decide.
Happy blogging!
24
Dec
Written by Susan on December 24th, 2008
It just turned Christmas Eve. I’ve reached a point on my blog-creating-slog where I can sit back for a moment – not all the content is up, just discovered a possible problem with people unable to comment, etc., but generally feeling pretty good about the strides I’ve made in the last few days. I have figured out how and where to add code, starting to understand Aweber a tiny little bit, and the lump in my throat is shrinking, temporarily.
I wanted to address the issue of isolation today.
I can best be described as someone who has to be both drugged and dragged to most social events, and once there, will most likely be found sipping the non-alcoholic drink behind the potted palm. I’m not shy, just don’t like small talk and the effort to look interested when I’m not. So the notion that success on the Internet will come only by mastering the plethora of social networking techniques that have sprung up in the last couple of years is a tough one for me to contemplate. I’ve nearly made it, panting and wheezing, to the top of the technological heap of problems that WordPress presented, when I looked over and saw the Mount Everest of Twitter that remains to be scaled.
Well, I can learn. I signed up for an account today and hours later already had 11 followers. I don’t know if that’s good or not, and I have no idea what the etiquette is for responding, who I should be paying attention to, what on earth the features are that will help me generate traffic to my site…in short, I Know Nothing About It. Or about any of the other sites that I hear bandied about in other’s blogs and twits.
But I DO know that I must use it as a resource to find people who know much more than I do, who have killer content on their sites that will inspire me to put equally good stuff up on mine, and that I must not let the fact that so many of them seem to know more than I ever will discourage me and convince me that no one will ever want to visit my blog, when there are others out there that would be so much more useful to them. I’ll keep improving; I’ll find my niche.
Meanwhile, friendships are forming, and people are learning where to find the resources they need to make this dream of Internet independence come true for them. So tomorrow, I tackle Twitter, add a few more student blogs to my Favorites, comment on a few more sites, and hand out my virtual business card to anyone who will take it.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Just before publishing this post I took one last quick look at my Twitter page, and I’m up to 12 followers! At what point do I qualify for Pied Piper status?
21
Dec
Written by Susan on December 21st, 2008
I finally got my opt-in form up! Those of you with a modicum of tech savvy would smile and shake your collective heads if I revealed just how many days it took me to do this seemingly simple task. But chuckle away, dear eggheads! I’m sure you’ll have the last laugh on me yet, when it’s revealed that I’ve done something egregiously stupid in how I’ve set it all up. Until then, I am vastly relieved and rather proud of myself.
Not that I did this all alone. I’ve picked so many brains and tapped on so many shoulders that a number of you are probably taking me off your whitelist and checking Whois just to make sure you don’t live within 1,000 miles of my location. But I want you to know I’m deeply grateful for your help, or your offer of help, or your sympathetic encouragement. May I mention a few names in particular?
Dan Boggs went above and beyond the call of duty, spending much time on the phone with me, patiently explaining what I was doing and why I was doing it. Thanks so much, Dan’l!
Colin Pike stayed up into the wee hours emailing his thoughts, advice and instructions. He was kind, helpful, and just the kind of guy you want in your corner. You rock, Colin!
Austin Delaney, who has ridden to my rescue more than once, was willing to it yet again, and his help got me over some demoralizing hurdles. I want him to will me his brain when he dies. Thanks, man!
Paula Brett has been working at the online business for a long time, and she STILL doesn’t hesitate to help out the up-and-comers. Prompt, professional, kind. Now that’s classy.
One day I’m going to know half as much as these guys, but I vow to be just as generous with my time and knowledge. Show of hands, everyone who thinks Alex’s group is stuffed with the cream of the crop!
19
Dec
Written by Susan on December 19th, 2008
Hi, y’all!
Brief post wherein I wave a white flag.
Am currently listening to Alex’s terrific traffic webinar, and he reminds us that we needn’t worry about asking for help – we’re all busy, but I know this group is a world-class group and good and generous souls populate it. So…help!
I need a kindly tech head to contact me about some problems I’m having getting my PPP up and running. Can someone spare time from their own race to the finish line to help a stumbling comrade?
Muchas merci in advance!
17
Dec
Written by Susan on December 17th, 2008
Need some help with your writing? Got the tech stuff down but when you sit at your keyboard, the right words just don’t spring to your fingertips?
Worried that you’ll never get that sales copy, eBook, or motivational blog post off the ground because your writing skills are, you know, kinda…well, when you try to, like, say…wait, lemme start again….
And when you tink abuot your speling, well…that old dyxlesia strikes again?
Help is at hand!
Since my last post, The Internet Marketing Crowd forum is moving forward – now we have a pair of competitions that will provide the lucky winner(s) with a couple of great prizes:
Competition 1:
$250 worth of consulting with Martha Humpreys from coachwrite.com
Ghost writer, writer, writing consultant and coach, writing mentor Martha D. “Marty” Humphreys, helps you with your writing process. Marketing, sales, websites, bios, essays, ebooks and emails, novels and nonfiction, screenplays and teleplays, letters and memoirs written and/or edited by Coachwrite. Marty provides reading, writing, research, editing, brainstorming, support and coaching services for the client’s bio, letter, essay, fiction and/or non-fiction book/ebook, article, brochure or website. Marty also provides translation services from French/English/French, or Spanish/English/Spanish.
Competition 2:
$125 worth of consulting from Website Content Providers
Cryer-Davidson Writing & Business Consulting
They provide articles for your blog or forum, eBook writing, writing of long-copy sales page, developing reports or short eBooks for bonuses, developing promotional auto-responders to follow up on leads, auto-responder writing, writing of newsletters or ezines, writing promotional auto-responders for leads, writing eCourses to use as a promotional technique for leads, writing eCourses to promote affiliate programs; Article Writing; SEO Copywriting Services; Copywriting of standard webpages; Writing of FAQ pages, terms and conditions or privacy policies; Description of a Product or Service for an online catalog
And more!
Get on over to the Forum to see more about how to enter the contest and what these great sponsors can do for you.
15
Dec
Written by Susan on December 15th, 2008
ATTENTION ALL TECH CHALLENGED READERS!
Tip O’ The Mornin’ To Ya: One of Alex’s students has created a forum where we can all go to get (or give) some much needed tech help. You won’t find much there at the moment, but it’s a good start to a vital service – you get to post your questions, and someone who knows an embarrassingly great deal more than you will be able to sort you out and get you over yet another of the many tech hurdles we all have facing us in this wild ride to Internet Income success.
It’s called The IM Crowd Forum (click this link or on the pic). Get the word out on your blogs so we can all be aware of its existence!
Those kind souls who have been interrupted in their own journey to help others along might find this a nice base from which to dispense their tips and wisdom…no more sending the same instructional email to a dozen different seekers. Post it here once and point everyone who asks toward this site. When I get a sec, I’ll post the blogroll tip I mentioned in my last post to the forum, just to get the ball rolling. Those of you who have seen a need, and have the answer to any of the questions you’ve seen flying around, take a moment and do the same.
Know how to post a video to your blog? Share the steps. Found a better way to get your Profit Pulling Platform up? Let us all know (me especially! Still working on this one). Know of a plugin that will make life easier for we newbie bloggers? Don’t keep it a secret! Just want to say something encouraging? Bless you for a saint.
And those of you who are just starting out, feel free to ask any question. I’m not sure there’s really no such thing as a dumb question, but go ahead and ask it anyway. Life’s a risk.
12
Dec
Written by Susan on December 12th, 2008
This is a quickie update, folks, as the momentum is building with the Alex Jeffrey’s group of students at the moment. I am in the process of tweaking this blog’s design goofs, trying to upload some links, signing up for Aweber, getting a marketing domain name, looking into Adwords, partnering with those who are in this process with me, reading the how-to info on Alex’s website, taking notes of all I do to put into a how-to eBook of my own soon, responding to comments and questions…
All this while trying to remove my head from my anal orifice! Shoot, I may post video of THAT, if I ever get around to learning how to upload vids.
So I necessary am pressed for time. But fear not, Reader, I will have a post very soon that tells you in excruciating detail what I’ve been doing to keep up with my fellow students in this astonishing Internet Income training program (including posting links you can follow to learn even more). I also intend to give away some of the how-to’s I’ve managed to pick up from helpful students along the way that I see others are also struggling with.
Are you wondering how to get a blogroll list of names on your site quickly? Others have explained how to add to your list one-by-one by going into your WordPress dashboard, choosing Manage – Links, and clicking on Add New. But if you want your blogroll up fast, and you see that others already have a long list on their sites and want to save yourselves some time, I can send you an .xml file I have of about 70 names or so. Just comment on this blog and I’ll email that file to you, along with the instructions on how to upload them all in an instant (thanks to the great help from Austin Delaney - you’re on my Christmas card list, man!)
If you know how to create an .xml file of your own, I’ll put the instructions here:
First, go into “Widgets” in your WordPress dashboard and make sure that your Links are added, so it shows up on your sidebar.
Then, follow these steps:
In your WP dashboard:
1. Manage
2. Links
3. Click ‘Add New’
4. Over on the right, under ‘Related’ you see 3 links: Manage All Links, Manage All Link Categories, Import Links. Chose ‘Import Links.’
5. A page comes up that says “Import your blogroll from another system”. Go to the Browse button under “Or choose from your local disk.”
6. Find where you’ve saved the links.xml file
7. Make sure the category selected at the bottom is ‘Blogroll’ (there’s a dropdown list if it isn’t already listed as the default)
8. Click ‘Import OPML File’ button at the bottom.
Since my name doesn’t happen to be on this list, could you do me the favor of adding me manually? That’s Susan Livingstone (with an ‘e’ at the end!), and the address to this blog, of course, is http://susanlivingstone.com.
That should do it – I’d love to hear from you if it works (or even if it doesn’t – we can brainstorm our way out of the mess, if necessary).
Finally, want to mention Garry Parke’s “Get A Slice of the $1 MILLION Up For Grabs!” post – get there (from here), read it, follow the directions, and you can get your name and a link to your blog in Alex’s new eBook wherein he describes the case study he’s making of this, his first training program (and all the successful student’s he created from it – THIS MEANS US!).
More later, folks – must go and see if I can increase the circulation to my butt, now.
11
Dec
Written by Susan on December 11th, 2008
Self-tooting horn!
I’ve managed to create a blog, as anyone reading this can obviously see. Well spotted, alert reader! I still have some issues, like making the text big enough for human viewing – the default seems to be on little bitty, which is somewhere below font size 1, apparently. Hopefully fixable. I’m also using WordPress for this blog, and haven’t figured out just yet how to get my personal API key, which I need to get some of the plugins I want to use working. But these are fairly minor. The main thing is I GOT MY BLOG UP!
And I couldn’t have done it without some help from a fellow newbie, who’s several steps ahead of me on this journey to Internet fame and fortune. As you speed along that information highway, O Cherished Reader, take note of those of us in the bike path, pedaling doggedly along. Please don’t run us down.
Anyway, I want to give a shout-out to Dean Holland (www.deanholland.com) who’s helpful new ebook on how to set up a blog in WordPress got me over some hurdles and made it all happen quicker than it would have, left to my own resources.
He’s allowed me to offer you a copy of his book for free, just by clicking on the picture. (Told ya – I’ll pass along anything good I can to help you in your own quest!)
He would deserve a mention in any case, just because he’s a helpful guy who’ll offer a hand and a kind word to those of us who are struggling to be like him when we grow up. So visit his blog and tell him Susan said “hi”.
