Why did you start blogging?  And how did you decide to turn it into a book?

OK…here’s the truth — when I started my blog, Keeping it Personal, I didn’t know what a blog was, I actually spent time on google looking up the word and doing so research to wrap my arms around it.  What I did know is this, I was passionate about helping others.  That’s what I knew — SO with Keeping it Personal, I thought I could write a daily nugget to encourage or inspire someone — who ever would read what I had to say!  I gave the daily nugget a name “Daily KIP” {Daily Keeping it Personal} and in addition to that, I decided that if I had something else to share I would write a longer blog post — at first I did that periodically.  I was never a writer prior to starting this blog so I learned as I went — about a whole bunch of things!!

The second part of this question, how did you decide to it into a book?  

Well, I didn’t.  Actually — I believe that God was preparing me to write through the blog, but the book was a seed that was planted in my head by other people who had heard me share my story.  SO…the book and blog are separate — I do “keep it personal” in my book, that’s just who I am.  But the message of my book is Overcoming the Nevers — ALL those things that you NEVER imagined you would experience in your life, but you did!  Unfortunately those NEVERS leave behind linger after effects, if those things are not dealt with, they can become stumbling blocks in our lives.  SO — my blog has become my platform for the the book which is a blessing.  We are fortunate to have such amazing tools available to us to get our messages out! =)

Would you recommend self-publishing?

I actually wrote an article about this for a group that I’m in, Allied Women, I share the different publishing options there.   I would however recommend doing what works BEST for YOU!  I didn’t self-publish, I worked with an amazing hybrid publisher, Advantage Media Group.  I would go that route again, it worked very well for me.

How did you build up all three sites in such a short period of time?  

There are 4 keys components to building your platform:

1.  Vision.  You must have a vision, a purpose, passion for what you’re doing.  You must have a clearly defined WHY?

2.  Plan.  Develop a plan.  What is your content?  Who’s contributing?  What is your goal?  If there’s one thing you need to know about social media is that it’s NOT about getting it’s about GIVING. period.  If you are looking to GET, you need to reevaluate your motives and your WHY, back to the vision.  Traditional forms of marketing are better suited for “Getting” — social media is about giving and about developing a relationship.  THEN, people will buy or work with those people that they like, then you EARN the Get.

3.  Consistency.  This may sound harsh, but you are as good as your last tweet, blog post, status update.  My platform has been built through consistency.  This needs to be a part of your plan — frequency.

4.  Perseverance.  Many people give-up because they aren’t getting the “results” that they want or expected.  This goes back to the vision and the plan — If you have a clearly defined vision and plan you need to persevere even if you are not getting the comments, “likes”, re-tweets, or shares that you’ve hoped for.  You can press-on if your expectations are managed and you remember that on-line you are in the business of developing relationships, getting exposure, building your brand, building your platform.  You may not see instant income generating things happening, but if you persevere and focus on giving instead of getting you will be amazed by the doors that open up to you.

This has been my experience and the 4 things that keep me going.  I keep a “SMILE FILE” You can check that out here to encourage ME through “dry” times.

What are your next steps in 2012?

My next steps?  EXPAND <– this is my One Word for 2012. I will continue to keep putting one foot in front of the other, taking action and going where God leads me!  Speaking, Life-Coaching, Corporate Team Coaching, writing, and The Refine Conference for women.  Expanding my reach, knowledge, personal life, relationships.  I love what each new day brings, even when I’m presented with a trial or difficult situation, I’m determined to look for the good and discover what I can learn.

Your recommendations for new entrepreneurs?  

Be intentional about what you’re doing.  Don’t expect things to happen without a lot of hard work and dedication.  I coach many people who have a hard time wrapping their arms around this, but it’s crucial:  get to know yourself, discover the truth about who you are, unpack your motives and why you’re doing what you’re doing.  When we have a healthy relationship with ourselves our businesses thrive.  Of course this isn’t the ONLY piece, it’s just a recommendation — because starting out can be difficult, we tend to compare and want what others have — understanding WHO you ARE, discover your unique gifts and talents is what will set you apart from others.

Connect with Teri:  Keeping it Personal Blog | Personal Blog | Twitter

View all articles in Interviews with Business Mentors

How Categories & Tags in WordPress effect Readers

Categories in WordPress:

• organize content
• are hierarchical

Examples:  main meals, appetizers, desserts

Tags in WordPress:

• are keywords in the content
• are not hierarchical
• may or may not be displayed in the theme

Examples: beef, parsley, broccoli, caramel

How Search Engines view Categories & Tags in WordPress

Categories in WordPress:

• contain a search engine friendly link structure
• optionally used as keywords

Examples:

http://strawberriesareglutenfree.com/category/main-meals

http://strawberriesareglutenfree.com/category/main-meals/beef

Tags in WordPress:

• often used as meta data, keywords
• don’t usually have a hierarchical link structure

Questions?  Comments?

In order to see the size of your blogger download file, you will need to download it first. Navigate to your blogger’s settings and click on Export Blog

Then click “Download Blog” and when prompted, save the file to a location you’ll remember.  (The default location is the “Downloads” folder in Windows.)

Open the folder where you saved the Blogger export.  The name of the file will be “blog-mo-day-year.xml”.  After opening the folder you’ll be able to see the files and its size – one on top and at the bottom.  Do not try to open the file if it is very large, it will likely create errors.

This test site is a download size of 94.1KB. (There are 1,000 KB in a MB.) The limit for the Standard Limo Service is 64MB (not KB).  If you are not sure what size your blogger download is, or if you qualify, let us know and we will help you find out.

Credit: http://www.emailgoodies.faketrix.com/

Every so often, our firm advocates on behalf of clients with their hosting companies.  Its not that the hosting companies are doing anything wrong or unfair; its that the clients just aren’t getting anywhere no matter what they say or do.  And its genuinely frustrating to feel as though your concerns are being dismissed!  And last week, there were three times where we had to get answers from web hosting companies that our clients were frustrated with. So here are some tips to getting the answers you need from a web hosting company support person.

Be clear about the problem

State clearly what the problem is.  ”My site is down” is not nearly clear enough.  You need to give the support desk more details.  Be clear about your site address, any error messages,  and what you were doing at the time of the error.  Also include how long you’ve been seeing the error.  These examples will work:

My site was down when I logged on this afternoon.  I don’t know how long its been down for.  I, nor any of my administration team was logged on at the time.  The last time it was working fine that I know of was last night when I went to bed at 11PM EST.  When I try to go to my site, www.mysite.com, this is the error that I get:  ”500 cannot connect to database”.  

I was in the middle of typing my post, and all the sudden my browser (FireFox) crashed.  When I put it back up, I cannot get to my site(www.mysite.com) any longer.  I can get to Google and other sites just fine.  I can check my email.  Its been down for 30 minutes.  The error message I get is: …. 

I’ve been getting emails all day that my site is down.  I was seeing it just fine.  But now I can’t.  When I go to my site – www.mysite.com – I get this error:  ….  I’ve been seeing this error for 10 minutes now.  I can view other sites and my email just fine.  I’ve rebooted my computer.  I’ve rebooted my browser (Chrome) and there are no other problems on my end.  

Describe your software and general use

When you have a website, you install files onto the server to show to the world – that is known as your website.  And there are hundreds of programs that put files on servers.  Some programs reside on the servers themselves, while other programs reside on your computer at home.  It will be immensely helpful when speaking to your host’s support person if you describe what software your website uses.  For us, it is WordPress, with a theme, and various plugins.

It is also helpful to tell them how your site is used.  For example,

I get roughly 2,000 unique visitors a day.  I have an e-commerce site from which I make my living.  It is imperative that it be up and running soon.  

My site is a simple brochure site which gets 1000 plus visitors per day.  I have a conference coming this weekend, and I MUST have that site back up and running immediately!  

My site is on a VPS and I get 7,000+ visitors a day.  I have mostly text, some images, and I post a video every day on the blog.  It is my full-time income and every moment its down, means I’m loosing money.

Help yourself

Have you ever contacted support, and been told to refresh your screen?  Unfortunately there’s a very good reason for this.  Most of the requests for support can be avoided by making a few simple checks before you call:

• have you tried another browser
• refreshed your screen
• waited 2 minutes and refreshed
• cleared the browser cache
• Checked a site like: http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
• checked your internet connection – can you get to a friend’s website?  Check your email?
• rebooted your computer

Make sure to let the host support person know what you’ve already done to try and solve the problem on your own.

More relevant details

It is really important to include any and all other relevant details in your first contact – let them know you are serious about solving this and have done everything you can first.  Other things to include in your support request:

• have you installed any new software, plugins, themes recently? (this includes advertising widgets or other javascripts)
• recently changed anything about your site at all
• is your software up to date
• are your plugins up to date
• has the traffic or use of your site changed

Approach with caution

Remember, Support Desk personnel spend all day answering support requests.  If you want yours to get attention quickly, state why it is urgent and be polite!  They deal with cranky people all day long.  Be the one that is reasonable and polite and curious.  You will find a resolution faster if you are working together instead of at odds.

If you’ve had a particularly great experience or particularly bad experience with your host’s support desk, I’d love to hear about it!