I am in the midst of a fantastic project at work called JoyFul Women. (Which is also created by yours truly on WordPress platform ^_^ )

Anyways, back to the calls and emails. I really want to help these friends of mine. But I don’t have the buffer right now. Then I remembered that I used to create an online video specifically tailored for my client on how to navigate around WordPress Dashboard, how to create/edit page, create edit/post, upload images, videos etc. I know and I am very sure that others would have thought of it too. The basic WordPress 101 video that I usually create for my client is good enough for them to maintain their own website for months until they come back to me and wanted to add a new plugins, which they usually afraid to do. Like adding a new reverse indicator on their car. But they are happy to take care of their own servicing.

Then I found this website that is perfect if you want to know about setting up, installing and getting around WordPress Dashboard. The wonderful thing is, it is on online video! No need for you to read, text after text after text of instructions and get frustrated after page 3!.

Here is the link : WP Central Station

WP Central Station not only covers the basic of wordpress, but advanced level and multi-level membership level and that I cannot wait to get my hands on (heheh evil grin!) The price to access the online resources is only a small investment compared to what you can achieve for your organization and business. And the resource access is for a LifeTime!! Hey to me, this is a no brainer!

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I use my mobile phone for calls, text message, photos and videos on-the-go. I don’t even play games on it. As my telco contract ended, and I have a $200 voucher from them, why not get a smartphone. I thought, it will be another under utilized phone I am going to have. However, I was very surprised on how easy this new phone is. I integrate it with my Social Network apps, the usual suspect Facebook, Twitter . Then I explored the Apps Market and saw lots! of Apps that I was drooling to download. I am practical and download apps that I useful to me. Expense Tracker, Endomondo to track my running, Recipes apps (don’t ask), CamCard for snapping business namecards on the go and lots more.

This is a fantastic channel. In Singapore itself it has a very high penetration of smartphone users and Singaporean is the highest internet users in SEA. Whatever not? Everyone on the public transport have their ears plug and eyes down on their smart phone, be it for games or watching drama (still figuring out how they download them).

No doubt this is the space/channel that business need to be on! Apart from online, or having your website smartphone ready, you need to start understanding this smartphone users’ pattern and market. For business who already have loyalty ideas or to have a notification apps that allows their fans to know of their new product or promotions, it is time to start. The wonderful thing about not being in the techy space, you don’t have to! Get another person to do but before you embark on paying thousands of dollars (like the start of website) invest into information on what you need to know.

This I found to be useful. I found this site and I am sure it will be an add on knowledge to put my business on the techy edge.

Click on image below:

Small investment for a bigger rewards. Happy learning!

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Why? WordPress? I have been building websites since late 1990′s using HTML, templates, resizing graphics, resizing product pictures for both the large image and thumbnails. Because the people I work with has very low budget for website and cannot afford a website developer that cost in more than $10k (at that time), and also because, I have a good heart, I took on the project. It is very easy but when you have hundreds of images of products and product pages, it does get a bit mundane.

But Hey! It worked at that time. Then every time, they have a new update on content, prices, pictures, they will come back to me to make those changes.

To be honest, I do feel guilty charging them $100-$200 dollars for a sentence change, or update price of products. And being a small company and new business start-up, they do some trial web marketing to attract the right customer to buy their products. After a while, they just abandon their website because, they get too busy to sit and think through what are the pictures and products to update next onto their store front.

After I discovered WordPress engine and the community that supports the development, themes, plugins and all the bells and whistles, I thought why not just start on WordPress! If you are a new online-retailer and has been flooding your Facebook albums with pictures of your products, answering comments, PMs of What is the price? Do you have it in XL or S? Or I like it in purple, blue, orange? Then there is the whole hassle of getting pre-orders to transfer to your bank account and then telling them to PM if they have transferred?

Why not just have a separate website where all these information are listed? Number of stock-available, price, promotion codes and best still, get them to pay to you directly via PayPal or Google Checkout. I have recently stumble upon this theme for WordPress that is absolutely ideal for online product business. It is called “Market”

The “Market” theme works in conjunction with WordPress, a free content management system that has revolutionized the web with its power and simplicity.

Without going into too much technical detail, this makes adding or editing pages or website text incredibly easy.  Basically, if you can fill out a webpage form, you can modify your website.  (No HTML knowledge required!)

Rather than struggling through the standard technical requirements of setting up a website, you simply install WordPress, upload the Market theme & activate it, enter a few settings (such as your Paypal ID), choose a color scheme, and that’s it.  Your online store is setup in minutes, and you’re ready to start adding products!

The hours, days, or even weeks worth of time you save in setup, can now be spent focusing on activities that will BRING IN money (marketing and traffic building).

Furthermore, Market is backed by a risk-free 60-day money back guarantee, so you’ll be confident that you have nothing to lose (except for those hours and hours of tedious technical challenges).

Supercharge the speed at which you launch your business.  Imagine having your online store up and running in less than a day!

The Market theme takes the “technical” out of setting up a storefront, so you can spend your time on selling products.

Find out more here:

==> http://www.markettheme.com

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This receipe below is for a basic website (HTML only) you need to get started.

Ingredients:

1 year domain name
1 year web hosting
1 web designer (already hired)
1 page outline of your website content or structure
Your business logo in .jpeg
and some links to websites like

Methods:
1. Register your business domain name with domain name registra like (GoDaddy.com)
2. Register to web hosting company like (HostGator.com)
3. Meet up with your web designer and show him/her your website content outline and some samples of the websites you like. Pay the desposit to your web designer. Wait for at least 2 days for your web designer to come back with some mock-ups of your website.
4. Decide which mock-up you like best. Or if you like to further develop on one of the website, tell your web designer this. Wait for your web designer to give you the revised mock-up design with how all the pages will look like.
5. Keep revising until you are happy. But do not revise too much as this will cost you on the revision fee. At most revise 3 times.
6. Once you are happy with the complete mock-ups of all the pages, tell your web designer to proceed with the development.
7. Give your web designer access to your web hosting for them to upload the pages. In the meantime, you work on the content for your website.
8. When you have finish with your content and happy with it, sent your web designer your content. DO NOT sent until you are sure of the content. Web designers hate when you revised content.
9. It will take at least a week for web designer to put together the website. Web designer will sent you the Beta release of the website. Look through it in detail and inform them if there are something you do not like. Note: Not the design, but images use etc. At this point, you cannot change the design.
10. Once you are happy with it, sign-off and your web designer will upload to your web hosting. Pay the balance to your web designer.

Cost to build a basic website:

Domain name registration /year: US$10.00
Webhosting /year : US$120.00
Logo design: US$500
Web designer: US$750 – $1500 depanding on your choice of designer

Total: US$1380 above

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Is a website just a website or is there more to it? The answer depends on your marketing strategy. Having a business website IS part of your marketing strategy. There will be cost to maintain it, be it your time or you hire a Web Master to maintain it for you. Then there is the cost of Web Hosting, Domain Name registration and renewals. The examples below subscribes to small business owners who are managing their own websites.

When new clients approach me for quotations, I usually qualify their requirements into the following requirements.

Below are the different types of websites that are suitable for the different types of businesses.

Brochure or Portfolio Website

The easiest way to start your website is to have Brochure Website. As it says, it is basically translating your existing brochure about your business onto your website. The content of this website includes maximum of 5 pages. Home, About Us, Services, Products, Contact Us done! That is all you need. You can elaborate further in the subpages of About Us to be more in-depth, to include, company, history, board of directors and so on.
There is not much maintenance to this website, perhaps on annual basis. Most Brochure or Portfolio websites are flashier and over the top, since it represents the image of the business.

Informative Website

Information driven websites are websites that are content rich and has a high frequency of changes. Perhaps almost every day! For example, if you are a personal financial consulting firm, Educate-and-Entice strategy is a way for you to build confidence to your website visitors of what you can do for them. Your website homepage will have the different content, tools, tips on how a person can manage their personal finance.
The most cost effective way to build this website is to build it on a Content Management platform like, WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. You can update your own content without having to employ a web master.

Sales-Driven Website

Your website is your business. That is what a sales-driven website is about. You are selling your products from your website. Examples of some of this websites are e-commerce websites, selling ebooks or selling just ONE product. This websites are very focus. There are probably less than 3 pages. The ‘Landing’ page, Order Form page and Payment page. You must include an online payment gateway like PayPal, WorldPay or other secured payment options. If your sales closing process are tedious, you probably lose your customer.

Community Based Website

A Forum page or websites are community based websites. If you expect your website visitors to be more active to post articles and discussions about specific topics, then this is the website you need. Examples of such websites are social networking types of websites where visitors of similar interest would contribute and participate in the discussions and activities.

A lot of time, the website you envision for your business comprise of a bit of all of the above. Is it possible? Yes it is. But before you hire an agency to do all that, look at your business development phrase. Do you need to implement all of that at the start of your business? Probably not. And you do not need to follow what your competitor is doing. So, look at your business and marketing strategy and see what kind of website you need.

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