by Yaro Starak

“… 2. Technology is too hard so I will never succeed

This has to be the catch-cry for every baby boomer out there who’s taken their recent retirement money and looked online to start an Internet business. If simply reading and sending email is challenging, how on earth can you expect to “have a blog” or “sell a product online” or “launch a membership site” if the technology will stop you from even getting off the ground?

Here’s the truth – technology is a bitch. It’s the biggest pain in the butt for most Internet marketers and we all struggle with it from time to time, but that shouldn’t stop you from leveraging it to make millions.

The problem is that you believe you need to learn how to do it yourself and you want courses that show you how to do every little step, so if you just follow the steps you make money. That might work, but why on earth would you spend so much time learning something you’re not good at and don’t enjoy?

Technology is not your problem, choosing to handle it yourself is.

All you need to do is hire someone, show them what you want and tell them to build it for you. This can be as easy as finding a website like what you want created and then telling your tech person to build it like that, or have them go through a course for you and tell them to handle the tech parts of the project. ”

Read the whole post here.

Make sure that you get yourself set-up so that you are carefree to focus on your work, your business or your pasttime.

The blog setup package from aligned blog support includes:

• Wordpress Installation
• Setup of Essential Plugins
• Baseline Content and Logo Population  of  your chosen theme
• Live Training
• One Month FREE Support and Maintenance

• WordPress installation – Installation of the most recent version of WordPress in your domain. If you don’t have your domain we can help you with that too.
• Essential Plugins – Install, activation and configuration of key baseline plugins for Anti-spam, Anti-hack, SEO Optimization and Stats Tracking.
• Baseline Content and Branding – Brand your new blog for your business and provide baseline content to start you off.
• LIVE TRAINING – 60 Minutes of live training to explain the workings of your new blog and give you the essentials to get started.
• One Month FREE support and maintenance for your blog at our “Just Enough” level -Weekly Backups; Update Report; WordPress and Plugin Upgrades; Special Request Projects (4 hours FREE); Emergency Support (up to 5 hours FREE).

Package Price: $495

What’s knowing that your blog will run smoothly everyday, 365 days a year worth to you?

What’s it worth knowing that if you have a problem – with ANYTHING – on your blog that you have someone ready to jump in and fix whatever is awry?

It’s kinda like having a mechanic for your blog, just like your car!  The Basic Support Package is designed for the blogger who operates a small but successful blog, needing only the basics to be sure they stay in operating condition.

Here’s what’s included:

• Weekly Backups
• WordPress and Plugin Upgrades
• Monthly Update Report

Weekly Backups –  A SECURE, COMPLETE backup of your blog (DataBase, Theme and Images).  Need a restore?  Just send an email – that’s included.

WordPress and Plugin Upgrades –  Evaluate risks, take necessary precautions, Activate all upgrades.

Monthly Update Report – Short update on all activities, also includes all your logons related to your blog.

Emergency Support – On demand emergency support at 50% off!

Package Price: $25 monthly

Ready? Let’s connect to get started!

easily). But not everything in cyberland works the way it’s supposed to when not given the proper environment. And so my tale begins…
I was contacted by a user of Headway the other day with some problems in getting the theme to work. Even though the theme is easy to use, as with all things, time is $$ and not everyone wants to deal with the nitty gritty of getting something unbroken or up and running.

To be fair, there were NO issues with Headway at all! But here’s the list of things we fixed to get things up and running:

1. Hosting
2. PHP version

OK.. short list. But, as I tell the story you’ll see how large it actually was. And I promise to keep the “lingo” to a minimum.

Hosting

The blog was being hosted with a company that was providing managed blog hosting. After logging into the account through an FTP client I noticed that the file structure was a bit strange. Not only did it have the normal WordPress folder structure but it also had a public_html folder and a shared_html folder. Hmmm….

Next I took a look at the Database to see if the issues might be the result of a DB (database) that could be rebuilt or repaired. More hmmmm as I discovered that the DB was part of a shared DB. Not optimal, but who knows if that was a contributing factor in this case.

The bottom line ended up being the LACK of customer support from the hosting service. I entered a trouble ticket on behalf of my now client, and got no response within 24 hours. I also tried calling several times and got … wait for it… A BUSY SIGNAL for tech support! Does anyone have a busy signal anymore?

After describing these issues to my client, and making a suggestion that better hosting with better customer support was to be had less expensively, we got up and running on a new server.

PHP Version

Now… clean slate. Installed Headway and clicked the activate button – FATAL ERROR! oops. Of course the gremlins in my brain were letting me know that after all that it better work. So, off to forum land I went. Forums are a wild and woolly place… and definitely not for the faint of heart.

After reading a bunch of rants, and trickling through the various fixes suggested for the specific error I was getting I learned that the culprit may infact be the version of PHP that the new hosting server was running. I quickly found instructions on their site on how to upgrade from the current version to PHP5, which is what Headway needs to run properly. Followed the instructions, created a special file (.htaccess), uploaded it to the server via ftp…

and.. Voila! Up and running with no issues. Yay.

If you’ve been having issues with Headway I hope this helps.  I know my client is now much happier.

One of the fabulous things about WordPress is that it can make your blogging life very streamlined and easy (that was the intent behind the platform).  Having the right plugins from the get-go is one of the ways it can make your life really easy.

Once you’ve gotten your WordPress Blog installed you’re going to want to add these plugins to keep bad guys out, you backside covered, spammers at bay and your finger on the pulse of your business.

Here’s the quick list:

1. Askismet – Anti-spam
2. Bad Behavior – Anti-hack
3. WordPress DB Backup – CYA!
4. All in One SEO – An easy Search Engine Optimization tool
5. WordPress Stats – know what’s going on easily, clearly and right in your blog admim panel.

Now for the longer story:

2. Bad Behavior
This one’s a bit geeky and very backend oriented.  Basically, because WordPress runs on a database (remember you had to get all those nasty numbers and keys to set things up?) there are “back doors” that hackers can access to use your blog for their own purposes such as spam.  Unless your a MySQL database engineer I don’t know of any other way to “close the backdoor” than this.  It’s great.  It works.  I got hacked once and swore I would never let that happen again.  This plugin does it!

3. WordPress DB Backup
You just have to have this one. Period. If your blog is your business, your musings, your ramblings, whatever you have to backup the Database on a regular basis.  That’s where all your content is stored (what you write) and if it gets corrupted, crashes or you hit delete by accident you loose it all.  Think of it… OUCH!  This plugin is fab and used by most to protect themselves.  You can set it and forget it, it will email you a copy of the backed up Database on a regular basis.  You can also have it store a copy on your blog server (but if the server crashes that may not be useful) or you can download it to your local computer.  No matter what do this…it really is important.

4. All in one SEO
I find this is pretty much the standard plugin for adding search engine key words to your posts.  It also has a section where you can add keywords for your blog in general.  It’s a well built plugin, has never given me any trouble.  Essential for making sure that you can have snappy titles and still get the right words out to the search engines.

5. Wordpress.com Stats
Everyone always wants to know “how am I doing?”. On the web we do that with stats.  And there are more stats out there than any one person can analyze in a lifetime! But, you’re going to want to know how your posts are doing, whether they draw visitors or not.  Normally you would have to log out of WordPress and then log into your hosting control panel to see what’s going on. Or you could sign-up for Google stats, but I think you need at least a Masters Degree to understand a lot of it.  This plugin will tell you the key pieces of info about your blog and how your visitors are interacting with it.  And the best part?  It’s right there in your WordPress admin panel… you don’t have to go anywhere else to use it!

I hope this has been helpful…let me know! And also let me know what else you’d like to learn about.  I’m here to help so feel free to ask!

My goal?  To provide top shelf,  expert support for WordPress bloggers who are more interested in using their time in other ways than managing the ongoing maintenance issues of their blog.  My niche is small to keep my expertise focused.  I’m a big believer in stick to what you do and do it well… I do my part leaving you to do yours.

Humanity. Most importantly I recognize that a lot of bloggers DON’T speak HTML (HyperText Markup Language) or PHP (the scripting language used to make blogs work the way they do) as a native language, nor do they have an interest in doing so.  That’s where my work will make you smile. I use plain english to explain things, with tremendous patience and empathy.  Having worked as a User Experience Designer for many of my 12 web years I have a special knack for making things understandable to just about anyone.

Here’s a little bit of what I do and don’t do…

What I do:

• Help you with technical issues related to your blog, explaining everything in plain english.
• Fix problems that  you run into with your blog
• Provide you with ideas for technical things you can do to make your blog better
• User Experience advice to help make your blog more effective
• Teach you about all these things – so that you can either manage on your own or at least have a clear understanding of whats happening with your blog

What I don’t do:

• Design new themes (But have a large referral base for this)
• Re-design themes
• SEO optimization
• Internet Marketing
• Increase Traffic to your blog
• Make you feel inadequate

Does this resonate for you?
If so, please take a look at the support packages available
and let’s connect about what would fit for you.

Blogging 101: How do I find help for my WordPress blog?

August 24, 11:07 PM  Social Media Examiner Cheryl Phillips

WordPress is just one of many blog platforms available and it is also one of the most popular. From novice bloggers to…

Want someone to find that special plugin, get it installed and configured so that it does what you want it to?

When things go crazy do you want someone to call who will not only fix your problem but make you feel like things are back under control?

You have arrived at the right place.

If you are a do-it yourselfer who just needs someone to watch the shop and be there for big emergencies, then this Aligned Blog Support package is for you.

Here’s what’s included:

• Initial Phone Screen (1 Hour)
• Special Request Projects (2 hours monthly FREE)
• Emergency Support (5 hours monthly FREE)
• <Weekly Backups
• Update Report
• WordPress and Plugin Upgrades

Initial Phone Screen - A one hour review via phone of your blog, your needs and what you expect for your monthly support.

Special Request Projects – 4 hours FREE monthly for special plugin installs (shopping cart, member site), theme modifications, etc.

Emergency Support – On demand emergency support via phone, email or IM; 5 hours free monthly.

Weekly Backups –  A SECURE, COMPLETE backup of your blog (DataBase, Theme and Images).  Need a restore?  Just send an email – that’s included.

Monthly Update Report – Short update on all activities, also includes all your logons related to your blog.

WordPress and Plugin Upgrades –  Evaluate risks, take necessary precautions, activate all upgrades.

Package Price: $150 Monthly

Ready? Connect here to get started.

Would you love to have someone you trust covering your bases behind the scenes so that you are free to do what you do best?

Do you want to understand what’s going on but not have to DO anything?

Are you looking for support that doesn’t make you feel ridiculous?

The Full Boat support package is designed for the blogger who wants a lot of personal attention, clear and easy to understand explanations of what is going on with their blog and the ability to know that it’s being done, done right and with lots of communication.

Here’s what’s included:

• Initial Phone Screen
• Bi-Weekly Phone Check-in
• Special Request Projects (3 hours monthly FREE)
• Emergency Support (5 hours monthly FREE)
• Weekly Backups
• MonthlyUpdate Report
• WordPress and Plugin Upgrades
• Recommendations; Installation and Training

Initial Phone Screen - A one hour review via phone of your blog, your needs and what you expect for your monthly support.

Weekly Phone Check-in – A Weekly Call to make sure all is well.

Special Request Projects – 5 hours FREE monthly for special plugin installs (shopping cart, member site), theme modifications, etc.

Emergency Support – On demand emergency support via phone, email or IM; 5 hours free monthly.

Weekly Backups – A SECURE, COMPLETE backup of your blog (DataBase, Theme and Images). Need a restore? Just send an email – that’s included.

Monthly Update Report – Short update on all activities, also includes all your logons related to your blog.

WordPress and Plugin Upgrades – Evaluate risks, take necessary precautions, activate all upgrades.

Recommendations; Installation and Training – Provide suggestions for improvements, and training for any installations.

Package Price: $325 Monthly

Get started here.