Archive for Helpful Hints – Page 2

16 Oct

You Must Promote Your Business Daily

Promoting your business should be your main focus on a daily basis. It’s not easy, especially if you are like me, a small entrepreneur with many hats to wear. (I wear my hats to keep warm, and pay the bills.)

I am constantly reading all the latest news feeds on marketing and sales, content creation and social media. Everything changes daily and it’s often difficult to catch up. I take my iPhone with me to the gym and read my Google RSS news feed while climbing the StairMaster at Ballys. Most evenings I scan the news feeds on my iPad while relaxing to mindless TV shows and playing toss with Lucy, my Chihuahua.

As part of my desire to provide helpful content to small businesses who are reading my exciting and very useful blog, I will be adding links to what I feel are helpful marketing and business advice on a regular basis.

Check these out.

What do you do to promote your business? Spread the word here. Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook. Oh, and sign up for my newsletter. It’s there in the sidebar. Do it now. Please.

Business Practices Helpful Hints Marketing 101 Online Marketing
15 Jul

The Ultimate Guide to Free Fonts Online

In the beginning, there was Compugraphic

Once upon a time, in the late 1970’s, I used to run a typesetting machine. It was an old Compugraphic Imagewriter, a blue electronic box with a typewriting keyboard and a display screen consisting of a single line of type. The type was all caps. A simple arrow let you know if the type was in lower or upper case.

To typeset a job you had to visualize the entire layout in your head. Or you could sketch it out, if you were so inclined. And here’s the fun part, every time you wanted to change the font, you had to open the machine and change a film strip. Each font was on a different film strip, which had to be carefully attached to a roller of sorts. And they were expensive.

What you got was all there was

Even more fun, there was no memory beyond what you were currently working on. As soon as you set the machine to process the text to film or photo paper, it was gone. Yes, GONE.

Once a job was printed out it could be pasted up on a job board, using hot wax. Corrections and changes had to be entirely re-typed and pasted up.

Typesetting was a sought after specialty

For graphic design companies this was great news. It meant few people would be able to design, typeset and create their own ads, flyers, forms, brochures, business cards, etc. When you wanted these products you would visit the printer or graphic arts studio.

Today, free templates seem to be everywhere

Times have changed. Now all you have to do is turn on your iMac or similar PC type machine, select any one of hundreds or thousands of free templates and “create” your own, unique artwork. Changes are easily made and printing is at a touch of a button. Just remember, though. Free is not always better. If you truly want a professional, unique website, logo or design project, call Chuck at 310-791-5803. Just saying.

What is a font?

The dictionary describes a font as “a set of type of one particular face and size”.

Fonts are a breeze. Hundreds are included free with almost any program and thousands are available online, also for free. Just search and download.

Here are just some of my favorite places for finding free type fonts. Most have Windows and Mac versions.

When using free fonts make sure you read the licensing agreements. A lot of these fonts are available for personal, not commercial use.

The very popular Doris Day font

Free Doris Day Font

Everybody loves Doris Day. The 1950s was a great time. Business was booming, as were babies. I was born in that era. Relive the nostalgia of the 1950s with a perky script font that says Doris Day.

Download the Free Doris Day font here (for both Mac and PC).

A boatload of other free typefaces

Daily Free Fonts The free font archive (TTF fonts for free and cool fonts)!

Famous Fonts Lot of famous fonts from TV, Movies, Music, Publications, Games, Companies, Automobiles, Sports and more.

Fontspace Free fonts from designers around the world.

MadTuts Fonts and inspiration for designers.

SearchFreeFonts The name says it all.

Urban Fonts Lots of free fonts for your use.

dafonts A great collection of free fonts covering many themes.

1001 Free Fonts You’ll never run out of fonts at this site.

Let me know if you have a favorite free font website.

Sign up for our free Juicy Newsletter. Look for lots of fun, useful and fabulous tips on graphic design, marketing and business.

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Design Graphic Design Helpful Hints Website Design
05 Jul

How to Make Money Online in 5 Easy Steps

I have been a graphic designer and writer for over 30 years. Creative Juices was born in 1981. And in spite of the changing design field with the introduction of e-lectronics and computers, starting a business of any kind takes lots of hard work and perseverance. But with that said…

Starting your own online business is as easy as starting a blog.

This will not make you rich overnight, unless you get lucky. But you can bring in extra cash with a little effort by following these 5 simple steps.

  1. Start a blog in a niche you love. Make sure it is something you’re passionate about. I highly recommend using WordPress.org to create your blog. Because it’s self hosted you have complete control.
  2. Create unique, killer content. By killer I mean highly relevant and helpful content that people will search out and read.
  3. Sign up with Google for their free analytics, AdSense and keyword tools.
  4. Apply for affiliate programs like LinkShare or Commission Junction and sell other people’s products by placing ads on your site or reviewing products.
  5. Create your own products or services and sell it on your site and through affiliate programs. This could be anything from eBooks to T-shirts. Also check out Zazzle and Cafe Press to create products for sale. It’s free to sign up.

See how easy that was? Again, you will not make millions doing this. But some people have been know to make six figures a year with their online businesses.

If you have any ideas on making money online the easy way, let me know.

And don’t forget to sign up for my semi-regular newsletter for fun and helpful tips on marketing your new and small business, online or otherwise.

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AdSense Blogging to promote business. Business Practices Helpful Hints Marketing 101 Online Marketing WordPress
21 Jun

Easy AdSense is Reset When You Install New Themes

The Easy AdSense Plugin for WordPresss is a great way to add your AdSense code to your self-hosted WordPress site. It’s easy to use and is often updated. You just need to generate the code first with your Google AdSense account and copy and paste it into the plugin.

Changing themes could wipe out your AdSense codes.

If you use the Easy AdSense Plugin and change or update your WordPress theme, the Easy AdSense Plugin returns to default settings and erases all your codes.

It’s important that you check on this. Failure to do so could result in lost income.

At least that has been my experience when using Artisteer 3.0 for the Mac to create my themes. I have not attempted to test this with other themes and would welcome other people’s experiences.

The only thing to do if this happens is to go back into your AdSense account and copy and paste all the original codes again. This would be a great time to update your AdSense ads if they’re not performing well.

#1 WordPress Theme Generator. Instantly create great looking and professional WordPress Themes.

AdSense Helpful Hints Online Marketing
15 Jun

Create a Clickable Header in WordPress 3.1.3 Using Artisteer 3.0 Beta 2 for Mac

Clickable Headers are Expected on Websites

WordPress is constantly updated as is Artisteer, which is a great program I use regularly to design WordPress websites. It is also a great program to design Joomla, Drupal and even static websites.

Artisteer - Web Design Generator

Most websites have their logo and/or header clickable to the home page. Unfortunately this is not a default process using Artisteer.

I’ve written about this before. But things change with each new update. So here is a simple code to make your header a clickable link to your home page:

In the sidebar, under Appearance / Editor / Header, look for:

<div class=”art-header”>

Replace this code with:

<div class=”art-header”onclick=”location.href=’http://www.yourdomainname.com/’;” style=”cursor: pointer;”>

And you’re done. Simple and easy.

Keep in mind that if you update or change your theme, this code will disappear and you will have to do it all over again.

Maybe this function will become a part of Artisteer or WordPress in a future update, I hope.

For more information check out:

Make Header Clickable in Latest Artisteer Version

Computer Tech Support Helpful Hints Software
01 Apr

Setting Up a Clickable Header Using Artisteer and WordPress

It’s a common practice that the header image of most websites link back to the home page. People expect this.

Linking your Header Home Using Artisteer and WordPress

What if you’re using Artisteer to create a WordPress template?

Here’s a simple way to link your header back to your home page.

(Before making any changes to the page.php code, copy the original code and save it someplace. If you mess up you can always return things to the way they were.)

1. Find the art for the header. It should be located in the wp-content folder in the theme folder under “images”. It would be called “header.jpg”.

Figure out the exact url for this image, or copy it to an easier location and upload it to your server. You will have to locate this exact url, either way.

2. Log into your wp-admin account.

3. Go to Appearance in your Admin page.

4. Click on Editor

5. Find “Page Template” (page.php) on the right hand side and click.

6. Look for the following highlighted code:

Original code for page.php header image.

7. Replace this highlighted code with the new highlighted code below:

Make sure to use your own domain name as well as the entire url address of the header art. Also include the proper height and width.

8. Update the page template.

You should now be able to click on your header from any page and it will take you home.

If you see a little box with a ? in it, that means either you do not have the correct, exact url for the header image or you did not upload it to the server.

For more details check out the Artisteer Forum.

Helpful Hints Technology Website Design
03 Mar

You Will Lose Your Data Unless You Backup

Hard drives crash and burn

It’s inevitable. You will lose all your data unless you regularly backup.

It’s happened to me. There I was, sitting at my computer when whoosh, the hard drive crashed. On my iMac. Can you believe it?

You think restarting will fix the problem. Sometimes it does. This time it didn’t. The only recourse was to spend hundreds of dollars to try and recover the data. And buy a new hard drive.

There are many backup options.

Since then I take every precaution to back up all my data.

  • Every project I work on I store in a folder I named “backup”. Clever and informative. Whenever I have chunk of time free I regularly back up all this data onto DVDs and then file them away.
  • I have a 1TB external hard drive. Being a Mac person I use Time Machine. I set this up to run a backup every hour. It’s come in handy a few times to rescue lost files.
  • I subscribe to Carbonite. It’s an online, off-site storage company, for both Macs and PCs. There are other options, but Carbonite has a free iPhone app where you can access all your online files. It regularly backs up all the data on my hard drive and stores it offline. Then if something happens to my home, external hard drive and backup DVDs, I’m covered. They do have earthquakes in California, you know.
  • I also subscribe to MobileMe. Big changes are coming soon, I hear. I use this service to backup my QuickBooks for Mac and Quicken.
  • I also use MobileMe to backup my home data, contacts, calendar and mail.
  • My music and photos are also backed up online, through Time Machine, on DVDs, Carbonite, iPhone and iPad.
  • I use Todo to store all my todos online with the Appigo sync service. I’ve also got all my todos on my iPhone and iPad using the Todo app. If only I would do my todos I wouldn’t need to store them.
  • I bought 1Password for my iPhone, iPad and Mac. This stores all my passwords and sensitive info. It’s a great program that asks you if you want to store login info whenever you log into something online.

Am I paranoid about losing my data? You bet. It’s happened. And it’s not unusual.

I highly recommend you look into some form of data backup. Better to be safe than regret losing data or memories permanently.

Also check out How to Backup Your Data & Installation Discs from Gigaom’s Apple Blog.

Have you got backup horror stories? Share them here.

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Apps Business Practices Helpful Hints Technology
01 Feb

What Everyone Ought to Know about E-mail and Content Marketing

What is E-mail Marketing?

e-mail marketingSimply put, e-mail marketing is sending out regular e-mail to your current and potential customers. They need to be consistently reminded that you exist. Write from your own voice and don’t copy other people. Once people get to know the real you, chances are they will want to do business with you. You’ll become more than just a symbol or logo.

What should I put in my e-mails?

You could create a newsletter with helpful tips relevant to your business. For instance, if you have a landscape company you could write about how to prune roses.

You could tell a little bit about yourself and what you’ve been up to. How about promoting a new product or service and explain the benefits. Reviewing other people’s products can also be helpful.

What is this Content Marketing thing?

Content Marketing is not new, but is becoming very big. It often takes form in a blog. A brochure type website no longer cuts it. Creating a constant stream of new content on your website makes it popular with search engines like Google as well as site visitors. People love information they can use. Gear all your content toward helping the reader. They want to learn about something useful. Teach and inform and you won’t go wrong.

Can I do anything else with all my new content?

Certainly. Once you have a collection of informative and helpful content on your website, you can reuse that content in many ways. For instance, why not send your great content to your customers in your regular newsletters. Update and rewrite it to make it new even for those who view your blog regularly.

Organize your blog and newsletter content into an e-book. You can sell your e-book and add to your income. Advertise your e-book on your blog and in your newsletter (and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn). Sign up with an affiliate service and let others sell your e-book too.

Sign-up for your newsletter

Don’t forget to add a sign up link or form on your blog/website for your newsletter. Collecting a list of email addresses for your mailing list is a powerful tool to gain and retain happy clients.

And don’t forget to sign up NOW for MY fun and informative newsletter.

Plug for Constant Contact

I’ve been using Constant Contact for many years and recently signed up to be an affiliate. I like promoting a service I’ve enjoyed using. Constant Contact is a great way to stay in touch with your clients.

Place a link on your website for subscribers to your mailing list and you will soon receive a bunch of e-mail addresses you can use to send your newsletters to.

E-mail Marketing from Constant Contact is the perfect fit for small businesses, associations and consultants. It doesn’t cost much, starting at only $15.00 per month. It doesn’t take a lot of time. And it’s effective.

Constant Contact makes it fast and easy for you to create and send high-impact, professional-looking email newsletters and promotions. They have a wide variety of pre-made templates which you can customize with your own brand image. And you can track your results and monitor your success, to see how many people opened and clicked on your email communications. Plus there’s a great iPhone App so you can keep track of your stats anywhere.

Emails for Small Business with Constant Contact

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Business Practices Helpful Hints Marketing 101
06 Dec

Setting Up Apple TV and MobileMe

MobileMe Account Setup

I was excited to learn that Apple TV includes MobileMe. I clicked on the menu and was asked to “Add a MobileMe Account”. The way to enter text using the Apple TV remote is tedious, at best. You use a click wheel and scan through the letters onscreen. It’s the same way with Verizon Fios TV, which is also a pain.

I attempted to enter my MobileMe account but was given a message saying it did not exist. After some research I learned that maybe if I changed my MobileMe password, Apple TV would recognize my account. I did this and received the same results.

Apple Tech Support to the Rescue

Out of frustration I called MobileMe support and learned that I had to have photos in the MobileMe gallery in order for it to work. I uploaded some photos and indeed it did work. Over the years I have found Apple tech support to be very helpful.

Photos Only for Apple TV and MobileMe

Apparently MobileMe on Apple TV is only for photos. You do not get access to your calendar, e-mails or any other content. This was disappointing. I wish I knew that from the beginning. It would have saved me a lot of trouble setting it up.

Overall I have been very pleased with Apple TV and especially Air Play. I can easily play audio from my iMac, MacBook as well as my iPhone and iPad through my Panasonic TV and speakers. Unfortunately it does not work with Sirius radio yet. I look forward to more functionality in the future.

Apps Computer Tech Support Helpful Hints iPad iPhone Software Technology
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