Category: Business

This is a place to contain all my little threads.

Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation
By jean

Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation

Motivation — that illusive component

I found this talk informative,– and I guess five million other people did too.

I’ve discovered TED talks (which can be found at www.TED.com) and once in awhile my thinking is challenged, as it was today.

Dan Pink speaks on “The Puzzle of Motivation”. Enjoy!

Autonomy –  independence or freedom, as of the will or one’s actions: the autonomy of the individual.

This is a 21st Century skill. Perhaps it’s more of a desire. What keeps the autonomous individual from becoming lazy? What keeps student directed learning (autonomy) from becoming an avenue to low performance?

Perhaps you have some ideas? Please comment below :)

Self-hosted WordPress website – the beginning
By jean

Self-hosted WordPress website – the beginning

 

Summary of article:

  1. Think of a domain name (I know this is difficult for some of us)
  2. Obtain a host and register your domain name (details below)
  3. Your host will set up your new website!
  4. Make your website home your own (more on that later)

Get Started:

Of course the first step is figuring out your domain name. This step took me three months. I don’t think it will take you that long, but it is a decision that should take some thought. Once you have chosen a domain name, and believe it is unique, then you are ready to register the domain name and obtain a “host”.

Here’s just a short video to help with a bit of insight into starting a self-hosted WordPress website.

In the video I show how to navigate to WordPress.org to get started. There you can read a bit about WordPress and its various features. But if you are in a hurry, just click on “hosting” in the menu and you will get a run-down on that.

“But I thought WordPress was free…”

It is important to note that if you are only blogging and that is what you plan to do exclusively (no products to sell), you may best be served by going to wordpress.com and starting a free blog there. There are a lot of design features and you can even have your own domain name for a bit of cash.

A blog on wordpress.com is free (see above). A self-hosted website (launching from wordpress.org) uses paid hosting on a shared or private server. The installation of WordPress content management software on your site is free. In addition to your WordPress install, you will use a “theme” (free or purchased) to style your website.

If you are convinced that you need a self-hosted WordPress website, you will note that on the “hosting” page at wordpress.org, they admit that almost any host can handle a WordPress install, and they provide a list of requirements.

How do I find a “host”?

If you are going to go “indie” here and find your own host, look for hosts that advertise that they are WordPress friendly. Many will have WordPress “one-click” installation. There are many good hosts out there!

On the “hosting” page at WordPress.org they have three recommended hosts, — Bluehost, Dreamhost, and Laughing Squid.

Blue host and Dreamhost offer domain registration as part of the sign-up process. (If, however, you already have a registered domain — no problem).

Laughing Squid recommends that you get your domain registered with hover.com because they do not offer domain registration as part of their sign-up process.

Hopefully these notes will clear up any confusion, but feel free to leave comments below.

Click on the image below to see the video

self-hosted WordPress website

Self-hosted WordPress website

By jean

Installing Salient WordPress Theme

This is actually not hard – and can be done from the WordPress Dashboard. Apparently lots of us stumble on this point, because it is listed as a FAQ on the support site. If you just fly by the seat of your pants on this and try to upload the themeforest zip – you will get an error “no style sheet” – and think: “…oh, oh. I’ll have to go through the back-door (ftp)”.

Not true :) Listen up!

Download your new Salient Theme (after purchase) and save it somewhere you will remember on your hard drive (or equivalent).

Un-zip the downloaded zip file remembering the location you have chosen.

Within that first downloaded zip file, you will find all the Dummy Data you need, — and — another Salient zip file!

Couldn’t be easier. Go to your WordPress Dashboard and click on Appearance >> Themes >> Add New (at the top of the Themes page).

Upload the zip that was within the original ThemeForest zip file (salient.zip) and you will see Salient appear as an installed theme.

If you took the time to cruise the Salient Demo, you will know what type of Dummy Data will prove helpful. Dummy Data is merely properly set up “place-holders” that are especially useful if you are setting up this Theme for a new blog. Dummy Data may help you understand how the Theme works and/or how to achieve the look you wanted from the Demo.

If you liked the Ascend version of Salient, you will need to install the Ascend Child Theme.

Well that’s enough for today. Be sure to check out the Salient tutorials for set up, and the helpful PDF instructions (salient-user-guide) included in the original downloaded zip-file.

By jean

Installing a WordPress Premium Theme

Recently, a client wanted a theme update. She had purchased Salient theme which she found in Theme Forest. Try not to get overwhelmed!

From Theme Forest, click on WordPress tab to see what can be installed on your WordPress.org self-hosted site. (Only 5,013 choices at the time of this writing.)

Now do you feel like a kid in a candy shop?

I dare you to look along the left sidebar and choose among the “categories” or “tags” that suit your purpose. Think about what you are and do some exploring. Creative? Minimalist? Homey? Non-profit? Choose!

Oh my! Get a cup of coffee and start exploring. When you reach the spot that “feels like me” (or you in this case) — note what theme and other details you can.

Navigate to that theme’s website and look at all the permutations of that theme. You probably want this to fit you for at least two to three years, so choose wisely.

If you have an e-commerce site, don’t forget to be sure that fits easily into your theme, or you will be in for a lot of custom coding. (Expensive.)

If you already have a store on another site (like Shopify or 1 Shopping Cart) check their site to see if they will integrate with your website.

All themes on the market today should be “responsive” – meaning they “know” on which size screen they are displaying, and adjust on the fly. I would say, this is a must.

Other than that, you find what floats your boat – sliders, landing page, menus, social media – and get excited about the new look you are going to achieve.

We were pleased to find that this new theme (Salient) had documentation and videos to instruct about set up. All their demos gave us new ideas, and it was simple to create a whole new look.

Well, that’s enough for now. Go start poking about and find yourself a beaut WordPress Premium Theme!

 

Essential WordPress Plugins
By jean

Essential WordPress Plugins

WordPress Plugins

It is no secret that WordPress sites have been under attack for the last few weeks and I hope you are not one of the victims.

In response to this new threat, I installed Wordfence on every site I manage. Maybe I was just blissfully ignorant before, but this new tool has found me watching “real time” as attacks come in. I have allowed myself on occasion to become actually rather bothered about the targeted randomness of this activity.

This is a must-have plugin, if for nothing else than to lock out people trying to login under your hopefully non-existent username “admin”.

Along with Wordfence, I would suggest that you have a nice backup plugin and that it is scheduled to run regularly. (Barring that, please backup regularly from your C-panel.) I personally use Online Backup for WordPress. I confess that I have never set up the online locker. Though included and possibly useful, I have been happy with backing up and downloading or having emailed the zip file to my own computer for safe-keeping.

Another must-have is Akismet. This handy little plugin requires that you obtain a key to make it work. It is well worth the hassle. After that, with a minimum of attention, you will save yourself much time sifting through innocuous comments.

The problem with sifting through innocuous comments is that many seemingly nice comments of the type —

“I compliment you for this great writing. Your content is amazing. I have searched the web for this information and now I am bookmarking your site to follow and six grinder pins before Tuesday. Yours sincerely, Ima Hacker”

— seem to me to be casting for that first comment approval. Then if your settings are in the normal (not paranoid) configuration you will open the door for anything & everything coming from this person. (Most WordPress blogs are set to accept comments from anyone who already has an approved comment.)

I also run WordPress Hash-cash Extended along with Akismet together filtering 99% of all spam. I used to be fascinated by spam. We were small. Times were slow. Who were these people who graced us with their Louie Vuitton handbag websites? Since then, I have learned to take a more pragmatic approach to spam and delete it as soon as I can identify it. These last two plugins do a super job helping me undo the spam stress.

Essential WordPress Plugins

These plugins are the biggies that I use every day. Beyond that, you might want an editor, SEO plugin, broken link checker or any number of other functions. The sky’s the limit at that point. Once you have taken care of back-ups, spam, and website attacks, you are pretty much home free to adapt your blog to your needs, while resting in the knowledge that your site will not fall total victim to cyberspace rambunctiousness.

Image credit: pixelsaway / 123RF Stock Photo

By jean

Everything I Needed to Know to Succeed, I Learned as a Ten Year-old

succeed with industryWe attended a beautiful wedding over the weekend. I was enjoying the reception, — listening to the music and watching the young people dance. “They will dance through the night!” I exclaimed happily. “No”, my neighbor informed me, “they have to be out by ten”.

It was then 9 o’clock, and I realized there were stacks of dirty plates at the back of the room. Continue reading →