As you can see if you’re here longer than 2.7 seconds, some of my most recent posts are missing from the blog… I had a site crash last week.

Fortunately, I do do back ups; unfortunately I wasn’t doing them regularly or often enough. My last backup was from March, ugh.

A bit of advice… if you’re NOT backing up your blog, start doing it today.

To get you started, here’s an easy to use Wordpress backup plugin and for database backup, download the WP-DBManager, which saved my blog’s life. The instructions are pretty easy to follow. I’d hate to see anyone have to go through what I’ve had to with getting the site back up, or heaven forbid, lose all of your hard work.

If you have any problems, just give me a shout and I’ll help you out.

So, luckily I save all the articles I post and all is not lost. If you’ll just give me a few days, I’ll get everything up to date, and hey I might even throw in a few new articles and resources for ya, lol.

Exciting News

Look for some added services and great changes coming to Main Street Geek in the next few weeks. I don’t want to let you in on too much just yet, but I think you’ll like what I have planned. Stick around.

photo credit: Mykl Roventine

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Course Creator:

John Yeo

Format:

PDF documents (downloadable with free Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Official Website:

The Blogger’s Paycheck

Description:

Blogger’s Paycheck is a series of 5 step-by-step downloadable guides that show you how to set up and make money from your blog(s.)

Contents:

• Volume 1: Foundation & Setting Up (65 pages): This volume is all about challenges for beginners, finding your niche, designing your blog, setting up your blog and posting to your blog.
• Volume 2: Traffic Mastery (40 pages): This volume includes information on different sources of traffic, how to track your traffic, getting links, article marketing, online communities and what to avoid when creating traffic.
• Volume 3: Marketing Online (100 pages): The benefits of online marketing, reaching your target market, free advertising and email marketing, building an online community, search engine optimization and branding are some of the topics in this volume.
• Volume 4: Profit & Monetization (15 pages): This volume focuses on the selling of links and advertising on a blog.
• Volume 5: 6-Figure Earner’s Mindset (10 pages): The last volume reveals John’s “18 Golden Secrets to Long Term Success” and includes practical advice on time management and maximizing your efforts.

Who the Course is for:

The course is suitable for those completely new to blogging and existing bloggers who want to increase their traffic and/or profit, particularly bloggers who don’t have their own product to sell.

Thoughts:

This is a really down-to-earth, easy to comprehend course, which is pretty refreshing in the area of Internet marketing products. It offers the nuts and bolts, and also gives you an honest picture of the work involved in using this method of blogging for profit.

The course not only gives new bloggers the information they need to set up and start their blog, but John also covers “Challenges for Beginners” including information overload, being distracted by other opportunities, not knowing where to start and other pitfalls that new bloggers most often face.

He also offers important parting advice in the final volume that really shows how to maximize your time investment, which is particularly useful for those who may have jobs outside the home or are otherwise limited in the time they can devote to their online ventures.

More Information:

Visit The Blogger’s Paycheck for more details.

By Alice Seba & Annette Elton, Guest Geek Authors

We’re frequently asked how people can get more traffic to their website, set themselves apart from their competition, and generate more leads for their business. Of course, there are many things that play a factor in this, but one of the simplest ways to do all of the above is with content.

Many of us already know this and use content readily, but every day we receive new questions from people who are desperate for traffic, yet aren’t utilizing content in their marketing strategy.

We’ve all been told content is king and we know it’s true in online business, but have you sat down and thought about why? What makes content the most important thing that a website owner needs to have in order to move forward with and grow their business? The benefits of using content go beyond just having a huge website with lots of information.

Let’s start at the beginning of the content journey.

Whenever someone sits down at their computer looking for information on a topic they go to their search engine of choice and enter a targeted phrase that describes the information they’re seeking. The more targeted content you offer your readers, the greater the chance of people finding you for the various phrases they enter.

Once they’ve found your content, they’ll read it and hopefully take your product recommendations and/or sign up for your mailing list…and thus a new relationship builds.

Offering quality, targeted content is just one way you can use content to get more traffic. Just like any other business, word of mouth plays a huge part in your website’s traffic. As visitors come to your site, they will take in the content and if they like it, they will pass the word on about your site. They may tell their friends and family about it, post your reprint articles on their site or blog about you, bringing you even more traffic. By giving them something to talk about, you can position yourself ahead of the competition.

Just a bit of caution, regarding word of mouth…it works both ways. On the flip side of telling others about your great information, visitors will also pass on a suggestion to avoid your site if you don’t provide good content. The quality of your content is just as important as the content itself, so be sure you’re giving your readers the information they really want.

Content is a key tool in improving your traffic and your business growth, but use it wisely. Take the time to think through how you present your content to your readers and you’ll be busy sweeping the dirt off your site’s front door from all the new visitors.

Editor’s Note: If you’d like to take the hassle out of content creation and get back to running your business, let All Custom Content take care of all the little details. For professionally researched and prepared content, visit Mila & Alice over at AllCustomContent.com.  Be sure to tell them Vickie from Main Street Geek sent you and they’ll take great care of you.

Photo by Bill Ward’s Brickpile

If you run a website, you’ve probably wondered from time to time about the design. Things like whether it’s  the right time to change up the colors, add a little ‘curb appeal’, or maybe even do a complete redesign of the look and layout of your website.

If you’ve been considering a fresh, up to date design, here are a few important points to think about:

• Are you thinking of a redesign just for the sake of it? If you answered yes, it’s probably not time for a redesign yet. Remember, a website design serves a specific purpose. If you’re unsure whether to do a site makeover, keep in mind that your current design might have a specific purpose that you may not be aware of. You’ll lose that if you do a redesign.

• Now on the other hand, if your site design has been exactly the same since 1990, perhaps it is exactly the right time – and long overdue – for a redesign. The last thing you want is for people to see your old-fashioned looking website and just leave without ever checking out your content, product or services. If this is your case, here is one important point to consider before doing a redesign.

• Doing a website redesign is sort of like performing plastic surgery on it. Your site loses its identity, whatever that was, for the better or worse. At first glance, your regular visitors might not recognize your new design. There’s a small risk of losing them just because they think they hit on the wrong page. With that in mind, it’s important to keep a characteristic feature from your old website look. This could be the logo of your site or perhaps keeping your old text style for the title.

Play it safe! You don’t have to decide. Let your visitors tell you what they want by putting a poll on your site. (I highly recommend Easy Internet Survey. I’m using it for Ask Ms. Geek and you can try it free!) If they think you need a new look, go for it! You want to give your visitors what they want. A website redesign is an affordable and easy way to do just that.

One of my favorite types of projects is giving old websites a new look! If you’re ready but just don’t want to tackle it yourself, contact me for a free consultation. You’ll have a great looking updated website in no time at all.

Blog photo by benoneill