Florrie Binford Kicher is the president of Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and is doing a great job of kicking off the AuthorU 2012 Extravaganza!

TONS of content coming your way in this conference where Florrie is speaking in Denver, Colorado today.

Here’s a recording of Judith Briles interviewing me on the Rockstar Radio Network last week. When her and I get together to talk websites, we could just go on forever! But force us to only talk about the most important elements of a website today, and an hour radio show goes by mighty quick!

Join me, along with a room full of published/self-published authors and aspiring not-yet-published writers, on May 3, 4, and 5 at the annual 2012 AuthorU Extravaganza conference in Denver, Colorado. I’ll be kicking off Saturday with a session devoted to using your WordPress website and blog to get better search positions on Google. But, that’s just a small piece of the enormous amount of content you’ll learn from the amazing speakers coming to town from around the country.

I interviewed Judith Briles about the event and you wouldn’t believe some of the things we talked about related to books and writing and publishing. I took 3 pages of notes!

You can listen in on our phone conversation here:

Download the MP3 file here:

And, while you’re listening, go check out the conference schedule and registration fee. By the end of the call, Judith suggested the value of the event is around the $50,000 mark. Just listen to the interview and you’ll understand why.

2 Ways to Register:

1) Register Here through my affiliate link so that you have access to a very special bonus I’ve assembled for this event. After registering, send an email to me at Marty@HereNextYear.com and let me know you signed-up. I’ll verify that you are registered through my referral and then I will immediately send to you my own personal bonus package to prime you for this event.

Sure, I’ll get a commission payment for your referral but my bonus package is worth worth almost twice the amount Judith is charging for the event!

You’ll get:

• Getting Started Event Primer
• How to Write Your First Book in a Day
• Consults with me (Marty Dickinson) during the AuthorU Extravaganza Event
• Post-event group conference call to combine notes from the conference
• One-month (4 meetings by phone) mastermind group membership to make sure you take action
• Support by email for a month after the event

2) Of course, you can bypass my affiliate link and just go to AuthorU.org (not an affiliate link) to register. You just won’t have access to my bonus offer.

If you’ve ever thought of writing a book or have a slew of books already published or you’re somewhere in the middle, the AuthorU Extravaganza is the place to be on may 3-5.

Melody Jones is doing a great job introducing social media culture to AuthorU attendees. If you’re an author or aspire to be, you really should start attending AuthorU events. Best continuing education in the Denver area.

I’ve never seen Melody Jones presenting before but really like how she’s mixing video into her presentation and group interaction as she presents about Google+, Twitter and facebook.

I also like how she’s building in an explanation of using Google+ along with search engine optimization. Authors tend to not want to participate much on social networking but yet authors love to write. Melody again is doing a great job inspiring the AuthorU group to stop whining about it and just start participating.

If you are starting your first website, you are of the fortunate many who have the opportunity to start at the top by doing things right the first time around by implementing a new WordPress website.

Here’s what’s going to happen though.

First, you’re going to have the immediate goal of spending the least amount of money to get a website up and running. After all, every sibling, spouse, friend, or colleague will tell you how easy it is to get a website for $0 to $750.

Notice how I phrased that with the spending even before the “up and running” part.

Second, your website will take twice as long to complete as you expected because you really didn’t know what to expect.

Third, your completed website won’t convert visitors to customers as much as you thought it would.

Fourth, you’ll send an email to your web-guy and say, “Why am I not getting any leads or sales through my website?”

If you even get a callback or a reply to your email, the response will not be a pleasant one.

Fifth, the war begins between client and web-guy.

That’s about the time WE get the phone call to rescue the client from the web-guy’s wrath.

This happens over and over and over again. So, don’t worry, you are not alone if you’ve already experienced a falling-out with your web helper.

And, don’t be embarrassed to reach out for help! It’s just good business to find a better solution.

The one advantage of going the cheap route the first time around is that you realize after a bit of pain that working on the web is a real business and you need to approach it with a real budget and a real planning process with a real team.

One thing you can count on though is using WordPress software to power your website.

There are at least 35 reasons to use WordPress for your main company website. For this post, I’d like to focus this post on the 20 most critical steps to consider when starting your new website with WordPress.

1. Describe on paper what important people will be visiting your website

2. Find what your website has to look like to show those people you “know the game” of that industry.

3. Make a list of the content items those people need to see before making a decision to contact you for a quote or buy the product you’re selling.

4. Document 3 problems your product or service reduces or eliminates

5. Find at least 5 competiting websites and analyze them.

6. Identify approprate colors that speak to your targeted visitors

7. Brainstorm a tagline to accompany your logo

8. Choose Linux hosting so that WordPress will run most efficiently.

9. Contract with your designer that you will receive all orginal graphics files.

10. Assure you get all usernames and passwords to keep control of the project.

11. Apply graphics to PHP include files, which will require some PHP skills.

12. Add your primary navigation to the “Menus” area and use text-based navigation when possible.

13. Add a search box for visitors to search pages and blog posts, which is an off-the-shelf feature already included with WordPress.

14. Setup your contact form. Redirect your visitor to a “thank you” page after the form is completed online.

15. Adjust Permalinks to be search engine friendly for every post and page on your site.

16. Install plugins for better performance.

17. Install security plugins to “harden” your WordPress website from hackers.

18. Add HTML and XML sitemap as well as a Google Webmaster account to announce to Google every time you add a page or blog post.

19. Include a robot.txt file.

20. Use the H1 tag only once per page or post.

21. Add RSS subscription icon.

22. Offer an “alarming” giveaway to get visitors to opt-in to your list if they’re not yet ready to buy from you or make contact with you by phone or email.

23. Assure you have setup the correct plugins to make your new WordPress website appear consistent on any mobile device.

24. Test everything.

25. Go live!

In future posts, I will address each step with more details. But this serves as a starting point.

If starting your first website with WordPress sounds like a lot of work, well, it is to do it right! Our team at HereNextYear is standing by to help with your new custom WordPress website…the first time around…without the webmaster wars.

If your website is not in WordPress, we recommend you do whatever it takes to transfer your website to WordPress as soon as possible. There are at least 35 reasons why your main company website should be using WordPress, but for this post, I’d like to focus this post on the 20 most critical steps to convert your traditional website to WordPress.

There are 10 steps involved with transferring a traditional website to WordPress.

1. Decide if you are going to make the transfer on your own or pay someone to do it for you.

2. Make a full backup of your current website regardless of whether you are doing the conversion yourself or using outside help.

3. Verify that your current website is hosted on a Linux server as WordPress will not run most efficiently, if at all, on a Windows server.

4. Setup WordPress in a development area on your website so that no one sees the pieces and parts of your incompleted transfer as you are working on them.

5. Get access to your original graphics files, which are usually in .psd format, as it is easier to slice images using the native format.

6. Apply graphics to PHP include files, which will require some PHP skills.

7. Add your primary navigation to the “Menus” area and use text-based navigation when possible.

8. Add a search box for visitors to search pages and blog posts, which is an off-the-shelf feature already included with WordPress.

9. Setup your contact form. Redirect your visitor to a “thank you” page after the form is completed online.

10. Adjust Permalinks to be search engine friendly for every post and page on your site.

11. Install plugins for better performance.

12. Install security plugins to “harden” your WordPress website from hackers.

13. Validate HTML and CSS to assure all of your code is sound and current.

14. Add a custom 404 error page so that your visitor is directed to a page that they can still navigation through in case you changed some URL’s in the transfer process.

15. Add HTML and XML sitemap as well as a Google Webmaster account to announce to Google every time you add a page or blog post.

16. Include a robot.txt file.

17. Use the H1 tag only once per page or post.

18. Add RSS subscription icon.

19. Export all of your content pages from your other online database and import them into WordPress or create your new pages from scratch. Either way, you’ll need to edit every page and post for formatting, so plan on spending 20-60 minutes per page.

20. Test everything while in the development directory.

21. Go live!

In future posts, I will address each step with more details. But this serves as a starting point.

If this sounds like a lot of work, well, it is to do it right! Our team at HereNextYear is standing by to help with your conversion to WordPress. Let us know if you would like us to review your current website and supply a quote.

The steps are more involved, but yet, somewhat easier if you are intending on starting a brand new website in WordPress.

Brian Jud is speaking at AuthorU in Denver Colorado and doing a great job covering a boatload of content about book writing, book selling and book publishing. My goodness, checkout this agenda for a single 9-3pm program!

• What Makes a Winning Book
• Creating a Strategic Marketing Plan
• Pricing Strategies
• Retail and Non-Retail Outlets
• Getting on Radio Programs

Every one of these categories could easily be a full day of education in itself. This just goes to show the:

1) Quality of AuthorU programs and
2) Quality of content you must have in an event to get people to come out on a beautiful Saturday to learn to compete in business today.

And, rest assured, if you write a book, you are definitely in business. Great job Brian and thanks for coming to Denver. Connect with Brian at Book Marketing.

Marc LeBlanc is doing a great job teaching NSA Colorado how to do a better job making a business out of our speaking business. Just a couple of his takeaways are:

-Track Your Numbers! Side-by-Side-by-Side, meaning, track your sales (separated by profit center), along side with your actual deposits, along side by side of your side by your income as an owner.

-Go to GrowingYourBusiness.com – to download a free tool to help you track your speaking business numbers.

-G.R.O.W. = Get Results On Work – Make up your own application for yourself. For me, if I’m getting results, I’m growing. How do you get results? Work! Sometime, eventually, you have to get to work. Period! Love it, great point Marc!

-Don’t wait until you are happy to start tracking your numbers. Start tracking your numbers so that someday soon you will be happy.

-There has never been a better time to be a professional speaker.

-No matter what topic you speak about is in greater demand today than it was this time last year.

-If you are a professional speaker or thinking of becoming one, connect with Marc and start following him on facebook

-If you are a professional speaker living in Colorado, or are even just thinking of being in the business, you should be here! Be sure to come to the next NSA Colorado event. Hope to see you here in February.

The Ultimate FREE Guide to Making Blog Posts with WordPress

I’m asked several times a month by clients how to make a blog post. Sometimes the question is about where to get the content, how to post the format, what to do about images, and of course SEO.

Well, now I have a few websites where I’m asking member participants to supply me with “guest blog” posts too. So, I figure it’s time I put together a real blog post checklist to follow for clients, members, and of course welcome first-time visitors to the HereNextYear site too.

I’ve talked with my clients in great length to answer these questions, of course, so these steps might make more sense to them than to a person landing on this page for the first time. I just needed to assemble a sort of quick-reminder checklist for them.

If you have any questions, please add them to the comments area below and I will be happy to reply…for free…in a written form to your comments.

So, here goes…

Blog Post Length

A good blog post is typically 200-600 words in length. If you are a guest poster (posting to a blog that is not yours), this length may be considerably longer. Here’s an example of a guest post I made for Premium Web Cart. On your own blog, however, the typical length should be within the 200-600 range.

Blog Post Etiquette

Never write a blog post that is just a bunch of paragraphs. Your readership will be cut down to 5-10%. Always section off your content into the following pieces:

1. The problem – The intro states the problem and why it’s important that your readers know that there is something they can do about the problem right now. I like to make these intro sections either one or two paragraphs. Rarely will I go beyond that unless I’m guest
posting.

2. The solution – Present your recommended solution in either one of two ways–a series of steps or bullet points. Always use 1, 3, 5, or 9 steps or bullet points. Never use even numbers as the human mind is always wanting resolution. If there are two steps to the solution, the human mind will always look for the third, for example.

Once you get over the 9 mark, all sorts of possibilities exist. Use of “10 Steps” just seems to be not detailed enough for people anymore. It’s funny. Offer 3, 5, 9 steps and people get excited. But, 10? Blahhhh. Who wants 10 basic steps anymore? Better to go up to 21 Steps, or 35 Reasons.

That reminds me of one of my most popular blog post ever. It’s called 35 Reasons Why a WordPress Website is Better than a Traditional Website for Your Business.

Notice the numbered list. Notice the slightly longer intro. Notice the “Why WordPress” image (more on that further in this post). Notice the bold on the main points and light text of the description of each point.

3. The send off – Provide a recap of how important this topic is and that by using those steps or bullet points, the reader will be well on their way to improving upon the problem. You may decide to have a link to a product you’re selling or give a phone number if additional services are suggested. That’s completely fine to do in a blog post…BUT! You want to be sure to finalize your steps or bullet points before suggesting the next step.

For an example of properly closing off a discussion and suggesting there’s more, go to my blog post about 5 Home Page Designs for Pro Speakers

3 Types of Blog Posts

There are three core types of blog posts. Others do exist that I might post something about someday, but focus on these for now. They are enough to keep you busy for years!

1. How-to information – Position yourself as an expert in your field and that you are willing to share what you know. Craft a nice mix of giving them the goods without giving away the farm. Start these types of blog posts with lists.

Examples:

“3 Easy Steps to….”

“5 Questions Everyone Should Ask Before Hiring a….”

2. Industry News – Know when news is happening in your industry so that you can blog about it. Go to Google Alerts and setup several keywords you are trying to get search positioning for.

When anyone on the Internet posts content or news that includes those keywords, you will receive an email with a link to that document. You might want to adjust the settings at Google Alerts so that you are only notified once per day.

With an industry news post, you have two choices. You can either add a link in your post to an article you saw someplace and then make a comment about the posting; or, you can make the posting as if YOU discovered the news and you’re reporting it to your readers. Either is fine. But,
personally, I choose to link to other websites and give them the credit for the news and then give my side of the story on my blog post. Just lets me appear more honest that way.

3. “Real Stuff” – I use this term real stuff because these are the blog posts that most people equate to “what I ate for breakfast.” You know…the real useless stuff. Or is it?

Remember, people BUY from people they know, like and trust. I’m going to add another word to that list you’ve probably heard many times before. And, that word is “relate-to.” People will buy from you if they know, like, and trust you. But, if they can relate to you, more people will buy from you and they’ll buy more from you.

Every once in a while, you need to step aside from telling people how smart you are with all of your educational lecturing (blog post type 1) and

industry opinions (blog post type 2) and simply prove to people that you are a real human being that has the same questions, experiences, findings,

intrigues as your audience does.

One of my most favorite “real stuff” posts was my very first YouTube

video where I recored my then 9-year-old racing a ski instructor down a NASTAR course…and darn near beat him! It has nothing to do with my

industry or educational steps. It shows I’m a regular human being with a kid and a hobby beyond just working all the time.

The Headline

You don’t need me to tell you how important a headline is. If you’ve ever sold anything or written anything on the web, you know that a GREAT headline is really a big deal. You really need to take the time to craft a headline that hooks your reader. And, when I mean hook, I’m not saying hook them into buying, or even hooking them to call you. You just want to hook them into reading the next paragraph. If you’ve accomplished that, you’ve accomplished everything the headline is supposed to do. So, how do you find out what you should be writing about in the first place and crafting a headline?

• Go to Google’s free keyword search tool.
• Search the Google search tool for the main phrase that you are interested in making a blog post about. Example: “tree trimming” (I’m writing this portion using a specific example for one of my clients in case you’re wondering where I pulled “tree trimming” from)
• Add the captcha words so the search will function. If you use this tool on a few searches, Google will ask you to login to your account. So, you may wind up setting up an AdWords account inside Google to see full results. That’s fine. Go ahead and setup the account. You will use this tool frequently and simply having an AdWords account is free even if you never run a Google AdWords campaign.
• Notice all the keyword phrases in the search results. They can be further sorted chronologically by clicking on the column header. So, that means you can sort the report by Keyword, Competition, Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches.
• Pick a headline for your blog post that BEGINS with one of the resulting keyword phrases on this search results page …because people are already searching for those phrases.

So, if I entered “tree trimming” in the top search area, I would see a search result report that would include the word “tree trimming services.”

I would then begin my headline with that phrase and THEN tack on the end of it the content I wanted to get into the blog post.

“Tree Trimming Services in Rogers Arkansas are Reported Higher Priced than Ever Before”

NOTE: Because it takes me forever to craft the perfect headline, I had my programmers craft a little tool for me that creates headlines for me using the 250 most effective headline formats. I just answer a few questions and it spews out 250 possible headlines. Go check it out inside our completely FREE members area. Have a couple of other tools in there for you too.

Using Images and Photos

Every, well, maybe not “every” but certainly 80% of all of your blog posts should have at least a photo or an image of something that describes he blog post. Also, a photo or image helps to promote the blog post on social media because people are attracted to those images when I post the blog post on facebook and Google+.

So, you need to start including a photo OR an image (some sort of graphic, bought or produced on your own) with as many blog posts as you can. You will get better with this process as you go.

If you don’t want to take the extra time to go take photos and you’re not much of a designer, using iStock.com is a great alternative.

• Go to iStock Photo and make an account.
• Buy some credits…probably good to buy about 50 credits.
• There’s a place on the left column with a bunch of checkmarks for the type of image you want to receive in your search results, including photos, illustrations, video, audio, flash…Reduce your search results to find what you want faster by only leaving “photos” and “illustrations” checked, unless of course you know for a fact you would rather use a photo for this particular blog post or an image/illustration, then uncheck the other to reduce your search even more.
• When you find a picture or image that relates to the topic of your blog post, you will need to resize it to something that works well with your blog post. I usually set screenshots or photos to 500 pixels wide and 72 ppi resolution for easy viewing and, yet, quick loading.

   

   

  For smaller images, like those you see when I post topics about WordPress or facebook or Google+, I make those smaller so that I can have content to the right of the image. And, I’ll have that content styled to not be butt-up against the image but a little to the right of it. [Clients, let me know if you need help with styling]

   

• ALWAYS buy the photo or image in the lowest resolution possible for the least amount of credits.

   

• Once you have about 10-20 pictures or images, you can start re-using them with blog posts as pretty much every blog post should be somehow related to your topic and therefore have something to do with at least one of your collection of images.

   

• Design (or have your designer make) or create four or five little images that you plan to blog about most frequently. That way you don’t have to always spend money buying images and photos.

   

• And, let’s not forget about video and taking your own pictures. Not only does Google love images and pictures, well, facebook and Google+ do too! When you post a video or photo to your blog post, either will come up as a thumbnail when you add a post to facebook or Google+. Always feature a photo or video (or illustration too of course) in any blog post, because the social network posting will display those to viewers and attract them to visit your blog post.

   

• Finally, make sure your image or photo is NOT linked to anything. If there’s a picture, just about everyone will click on it. But for seo reasons, you want to keep your image/photo tied to your blog post.

Blog Post SEO

After you’ve added your post content, headline, and photo, move your way down to the bottom of your WordPress post admin area and complete the most important fields of the All-in-One SEO Pack, which are:

• The Page Title
• Meta Description
• Keywords

  Remember, the keywords field is one of those things that’s way at the bottom of the totem pole as far as what Google looks for so don’t pay too much attention there. Just add maybe 3 or 4 phrases and that’s enough.

   

  Just a few more steps that I’m going to keep in the SEO list by continuing with #4:

   

• Double check your URL to make sure it has the same keywords you just added to your Page Title. You can change that URL remember. And, it should be more exact with what people are searching for than what you have in the headline. For the tree trimming example, I would make my Page Title in the SEO Pack plugin to be “tree trimming service best prices [location]” because that’s not only something a large amount of people are searching for, but also fits well with the headline you created earlier.

   

• Publish the blog post and then go find three (3) other pages on your website or other blog posts on your site, go into edit that page through WordPress and then change a few words in your content so that a text link makes sense. For example, I might have on a different blog post the following sentence:

   

   

  “You might be wondering why tree trimming is usually so expensive…”

   

  I would enter the post and change that sentence to look like this:

   

  “You might be wondering what to expect for tree trimming service best prices…” whereas that underlined blue link would be a live link to your NEW blog post you’ve been working on all this time.

   

  Finding a few other pages or posts on your website to link to your new blog posts shows Google you have created something that is related to another pot and that if you have it on three other places on your website, it must be rather important. So, Google lists it. See how that works?

   

Alrighty, I’m all excited to go make a new blog post! Wait, I just did. Ooops.

Take your time with all these steps. Go one by one and you’ll get it. If you have a question, HereNextYear clients, you know where to find me by email, phone, or Skype. If you’re not a client, be encouraged to make a comment to this post and ask your question there. I reply personally
to all inquiries.

And, if you do want to learn more about this process, you might checkout a mini-book I wrote in December when I first realized how to get any and every one of my blog posts on Google…within 5 seconds! Often in the #1 position!

In fact, when I launched it originally last month, I even called it “5 Seconds to #1″ and it sold handsomely for the five days I let it out.

I can’t offer the orginal discounted special I gave in December, but I will open it up again the same document, 5 Seconds to #1 on Google, for purchase for just $14. BUT, that’s only going to be available ONLY until Saturday, January 21, 2012. I’m soooo close to having my Getting Brutal with Google fully updated, full-length, SEO ebook completed, (the only thing that stopped me was a deadline to have my first 5 chapters in to the Wiley group for the 2nd edition Web Marketing All-in-One for Dummies coming out in April, but that’s another story!)…

…in which the “5 Seconds to #1″ document is included.

I won’t be selling the 5 Seconds document at all when Getting Brutal launches…and that will be at the same rate it has been for the past 10 years at $79.

So, there you have it. One big giant blog post for sure, but still the same format. Intro with the problem, bullet points or steps to follow for the solution, wrapping up with a convincing statement that I HAVE given you what you came to the page to see. And, then offering some step to take if you want to do even more.

Have a great rest of the week. This is Marty Dickinson saying blog well and bye for now!

I have to admit that I get bored quickly listening to speakers at seminars and conferences. So, about a year ago, I started bringing my video camera along whenever I would attend an event with a well-known presenter.

As soon as the speaker would start speaking, I would jump out of my seat to take a photo and then upload it to my laptop. From there, I would make a blog post and challenge myself using several steps to see if I could get the post onto Google’s #1 spot for the speakers name…by the time they were done speaking.

I didn’t think much of it as it was really more kind of a game than anything to see how fast I could get these posts onto Google. The first post I made live at a conference, took about 45 minutes to show up. The next time only 20 minutes went by and my new post was on Google. In October I made a post while sitting at an NSA meeting and only 8 minutes after I hit that “Publish” button, the posting was there on Google.

At first, I thought my results were skewed by my own search history settings on Google, so I went to my other fav search tool at Scroogle.org that allows you to search without any of the Google personalized search junk influencing your search results. Same thing. #1 position!

Of course, I knew the real potential of such a process would be for getting higher search positions for keyword phrases related far beyond just a public speaker’s name.  I would spend the next month hording my new found process. At least I had some good stories to tell the next time I was to be the one presenting. But, that’s as far as it went.

About two weeks ago, I used the same process to write a blog post about Google+ and how big companies just looove Google+ and how those big companies have already attempted to dominate the space. Google had been implementing some big changes to their search algorithm that same week, so I decided to see if my process still worked and I added one other ingredient to the steps. That post got to the top of Google in……5 seconds!

 

What was the difference between my 8-minute record and my 5-second record?

 

The use of Google Plus in tandem with my blog post.

 

Enough was enough. I had to document my process in full beginning with my WordPress website setup strategies and detail out the entire posting process.

 

This past Monday, I released my latest mini-eManual to my subscribers fittingly called, “5 Seconds to #1″ for the whopping Cyber-Monday cost of just $7. I know it’s worth a lot more than that, but hey, it’s Christmas season!

 

The feedback from my subscribers and members so far has inspired me to release it to anyone interested but I’m only allowing it to be made available until Monday, December 5 NOW REOPENED!!. Then I’ll remove the order link until it reappears in my January 2012 revision of my full-length manual Getting Brutal with Google, which I’ve been selling for $79 and updating continuously since 2005.

 

I think it’s only fair to charge for this manual since I spent all day Saturday after Thanksgiving to put it together for you. There’s nothing left out, no “secret sauce” that you have to pay another $100 for to get. It’s all there.

Surprisingly enough, not many people are talking about or using this method. They must be all caught up in something more “sexy” like QR Codes or mobile spam or something.

 

This product is NOW AVAILABLE only until Saturday, January 21, 2012!