Laina Turner's Blog, page 73

Stress Free Website Hosting

I HAVE A NEW WORDPRESS HOSTING COMPANY  (and I love them)

Disclaimer: I have been compensated for this post.

MY RELATIONSHIP WITH BLOGS

I’ve had multiple blogs for the last few years, and I love blogging. I love technology. I love playing in the back end of WordPress and feeling all kinds of smart while updating plugins and such. That is until I update the wrong thing without paying attention to the pretty warning of potential errors or conflicts and get a white screen.

AN EXAMPLE OF A COMMON PROBLEM I ENCOUNTER

It’s 11pm and I’m getting a lot of work done and this white screen completely stops me in my tracks. My options with old hosting firms were to try to communicate with someone on Live Chat which may not be available and when it is,  it’s always dicey, or submitting a ticket with the host and waiting for some response. Those responses don’t normally come with a solution, and while their brilliant customer service people pass me from one tech to another, my clock is ticking, I’m not getting answers, I’m no closer than I was when I called and I kind of feel a little dumber since the whole thing began.

HOW MY NEW HOST DEALS WITH THESE SITUATIONS

I have my choice of using the ticket system, live chat, emailing the techs directly or even calling them directly. I describe what I did when the site blew up, and they’re on it. If they can’t quickly determine exactly what went wrong, the first option is to restore from the previous day’s backup. This can all be done within about 15 minutes.  I like the sound of 15 minutes rather than “we’re working on it…”

Then, after the site is back to normal, AcceleratedWP will do a sort of post-mortem on the issue to see if they can determine when it happened, what actions triggered it and why.  When they do determine that it was because I installed an ill-advised plugin or updated one that had an issue, there’s no blame game.  Simply a recommendation that we avoid this type of thing in the future.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A COMMON PROBLEM

I have some amazing photography I want to put up on the site, so I do. When I go to view the page, it’s obvious; the images are WAY too large for the page that causes the page to load slooooowly. I now know exactly how my visitors feel and it needs to be fixed. Where do I even start? I start with AcceleratedWP. I send them an email describing the situation, and they immediately have a remedy for the current problem, and something else to prevent future problems. Then instead of telling me how to do it they take care of it for me. That’s EXACTLY the type of help I need.

I KNOW THIS POST MIGHT SOUND LIKE A CHEESY INFOMERCIAL

…but all I’ve said is true, and the main reason I decided to do a sponsored post for them is I know others feel my pain. I want to be a successful blogger, and I want my blog to make a profit so I can quit my day job. To accomplish these goals, those two problems I mentioned can’t happen. To accomplish these goals, I need to:

Make sure my site is fast
Be sure that I’m not doing things the wrong way and potentially cause problems with the site, and I need to know who to call when something goes wrong. So while I’m not yet making a ton of money I took the plunge and instead of trying to find the cheapest web hosting around, I looked to find the best. AcceleratedWP not only makes all plugin and WordPress updates for me, they recommend many plugins for optimizing my site and will even configure them for me. Along with that, they’ve made many changes to my theme to prevent conflicts and keep my site up-and-running smoothly. And yeah, it costs more than $5 a month but the peace of mind is worth it.

I guess the easiest way for me to compare this with something my readers might be familiar with would be with hair styling. I know there are $6.95 and $7.95 haircuts available but having had experiences with those places I know the quality I require just isn’t there. The experience, knowledge and professionalism just aren’t there. I have completely the opposite experience with AcceleratedWP, and I will continue to be their customer until my blogging days are done.

So while you are thinking about how awesome it would be to have stress-free hosting, enter a raffle for a $25 Amazon gift card. The winner can turn his/her gift card into one month of our Standard service valued at $50.

Oh and take a look at the new Ambassador Program they just launched. Great opportunity if you’re looking for one.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Your Blogging Voice

One of the things that kids have over adults is a genuine voice. They are true to their passions and desires, and they are confident enough to tell you exactly what they love, what they want, and who they are.

We tend to lose that as adults and become more tentative in being our true self. Exposing all our hopes and dreams to the world. As a blogger, you have to do that.

People often ask me why I read certain blogs or what it is I write about that is so fascinating that makes people want to read mine (I have such blunt friends), and I say because we all find other peoples live interesting. It’s why reality TV has become so popular. We also like to learn new things and blogs give us insight to how others live and do things.

However, if you’re like me and like a lot of different things it can sometimes be hard to know what to write about. As I mentioned in a previous post, it is very important to have yourself an Editorial Calendar. Even if you can’t put exact post topics in there it allows you to brainstorm and have a place to organize your ideas.

Which brings us to your blogging voice. How you convey your ideas to your audience is your voice.

For example, you might want to post a recipe about oatmeal because you love it, and your kids love it. You think oatmeal that’s not a super cool thing to write about. All sorts of people have already written about oatmeal recipes much fancier than mine. Who cares? Think about why YOU and YOUR kids like it. Is it a family tradition to have on Sundays or is it what you serve your children when they don’t feel well? THAT is your voice. People will be drawn to your oatmeal because of the story behind it. They will want to create their story with their oatmeal and now they can because you’ve given them a way.

Someone might share my passion for purple unicorns, but our thoughts and feelings, and the story behind why I came to love purple unicorns is never going to be the same as anyone else’s.

Be YOU…because YOUR unique and people want to read that!

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Work It Wednesday – make your plan, work your plan

Work ON your biz, not IN your biz.

As bloggers, we are often solopreneurs, in this glamorous game on our own. As such, it can be hard to slow down and take time to work ON our business because we are frantically running in circles doing tasks IN our business. However, if we don’t take the time to work ON our business we run the chance of missing new and relevant industry information, we don’t take the time to measure ROI, or we are working so fast without looking at the bigger picture of what we are working towards we don’t realize we are missing pieces in our strategy.

This weeks challenge for me, and I invite you to join me, is working ON the business and to figure out which social media platform is the one that needs the most work, decide what the goal is to grow that platform, and create a strategy to get there.

The five platforms I normally try to interact on are Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google +.

My reader demographic is woman 35-55 and being in that demographic feel that studies show those women tend to be on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Because I wanted more than my gut to go on I did some research and while nothing was definitive (as the norm for social media) much of it did point to those three as well. Google + has long been a mystery to me, and I use it much less frequently for that reason. However, the more I hear people talk and the more research I do as a blogger I feel that I need to have more of a presence.

When I looked at my five platforms and where I am today on each and where I feel I need to spend the next 90 days growing I took a few things into consideration. My current stats, where my biggest opportunity is, and what my marketing calendar looks like through the end of the year.

Current followers:

Facebook Page 1000

Twitter 4800

Pinterest 350

Instagram 150

Google + 285

One platform I do pretty much nothing on and need to change that is You Tube, follower count less than 10, but I will post more about that at a later date.

While I do want to grow Facebook and Twitter even more, since I’m not doing too bad, I feel I need to focus my efforts on the other three. But the goal right now is to pick just one. I chose Google + because of what I mentioned earlier. That I really don’t have a thorough understanding of it and the reading I have been doing to try and learn more has said it is a good platform to use if you’re a blogger and is helpful to grow page rank. I figure if I focus on using it more and trying to grow my following, I will also grow my understanding of the platform.

There are 22 days left in September, so my strategy for the rest of the month is as follows:

1.    To add 10 people a day to my circles.

2.    Spend 15 minutes a day liking and sharing posts.

3.    Post my own blog daily.

4.    Post 1 of my books daily.

My goal is to increase my followers to 500. I feel that through this activity that is an attainable task.

What is your goal going to be?

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Philadelphia City Shots

Last week my new Nikon DSLR 5300 came, and I was super excited. I admit that excitement waned a little when I opened the box, looked at the manual, and was overwhelmed by how complicated it was. Luckily, my fiancé has skill in this area and for our trip to Philly I elected him to be my photographer.

All these amazing shots you see here are courtesy of him though I did get a some time to practice with the camera a little. Once I stopped being intimidated it was fun, and I can’t wait to practice some more.

Now off to read the instruction manual while you enjoy some great Philadelphia city buildings.

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Bloggy Boot Camp – Philly

Bloggy Boot Camp – Philadelphia put on by SITSgirls this past weekend was all kinds of AWESOMENESS! I mean really freakin’ awesome. So awesome I almost couldn’t even stand it. Though the Mirassou wine helped my make it through. Moscato or Reisling…can’t decide which is my favorite.

But I digress…..

I attend 2 to 3 conferences a year for my other life, and while I usually come away with something of value, I have NEVER EVER been as engaged and excited about the speakers and content and people I was interacting with as I was at this conference. Even more importantly I learned a TON and had a complete A-HA moment, which freakishly works right into the blog branding, and redesign I currently have in the works to take things to the next level.

I have been blogging in some form since 2010, and it has been all over the board. At the time I was an HR consultant, which I didn’t really like, but was in the field because it was “safe.” What I wanted to do, my passion, writing and blogging, was a risk. So safe was my day job and I followed by heart on the side. At one point, I had 5 different blogs that were focused on a different interest of mine. Like many of us I am interested in a lot of things and for some reason felt I needed to keep them all separate, so as you can imagine, I was Jack of all, master of none. It was frustrating and got me no closer to my goal. At the end of last year, I realized how silly that was, and had my blog redesigned and dropped all my other blogs having the URLs redirected to my main site LainaTurner.com. I felt great about this in the sense of keeping it simple and streamlined.

It was a HUGE step.

However, I still have kept my blogging personality and my other professional personality separate. I’m not sure why except they just seemed like 2 different worlds. My A-HA moment today while listening to LC from mysisterskeeper.co and Hudson and Emily from HudsonandEmily.com was I have been short changing myself by not allowing my worlds to come together.

LC talked about leveraging your skills and strengths to provide value people want in order to create income. By not leveraging all my skills and talents and focusing them on growing my passion, I have not realized the full potential of what I can accomplish.

In my other life, I have an MBA and a Ph.D. and have been a business consultant, college administrator and graduate level business professor. I am a subject matter expert in the field of business, an instructional designer, and am an expert in creating the student engagement experience in a college classroom. All which are transferrable skills into the blogosphere yet I haven’t wanted to contaminate my fun blogging life with this stuffy business and academic stuff.

When I think of all the money, I’ve left on the table all these years by not realizing this it makes me cringe. The positive is I finally realize it and can retool my blog business plan to incorporate this aspect of my life, and it’s going to be AMAZING!

Can I get a HELL YA!

Thanks to all the great bloggers I met this weekend, the passionate speakers, and the motivation and inspiration they gave me. It made a difference, and I can’t wait to start making things happen.

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Chocolate Covered Popcorn

I love this easy treat that combines crunchy, salty, and sweet all in one. I had someone I worked with years ago make this and I love, love, loved it! Now I make it a few times a year. I hadn’t planned on making it for Labor Day but when I asked Sydney (my 8 yr old daughter) what I should make for a Labor Day week food post she said chocolate covered popcorn but in red and blue chocolate so with the popcorn it would be red, white, and blue.

As you can see by the picture though it came out more pink and blue than red and white. I wanted to put in more food coloring but my daughter has been watching DC Cupcakes lately on Netflix and she said they once mentioned that too much food coloring would make the frosting taste yucky and she was afraid it would do the same to the chocolate. Hence the pink and blue. I have made red and green at Christmas time and it was fine with adding enough food coloring to make the colors more vibrant.

What you need.

1/2 cup unpopped/16 cups popped popcorn – I use the trusty air popper that my significant other bought at Goodwill for $3.25. Love that thing. But I have also used pop secret bags and have done it the old fashioned way on the stove with oil.

Salt – to your own degree of saltiness.

12 oz bag Ghiradelli White Melting Wafers – which you can buy online or in most grocery stores.

Food coloring

The photo shopped gnome is optional but oh so cute.

Pop your popcorn and spread out on foil or wax paper.

Melt your chocolate according to the directions either in the microwave (like I do) or in a double boiler (which I don’t have).

When the chocolate is melted add food coloring until you get the color of your liking.

Stir in quickly.

Fling…yes I said fling…the chocolate from a spoon onto the popcorn.

 

Lets it cool and ENJOY!

 

What yummy things so you do with popcorn?

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Wedding Wednesday

WE did it! We did it! We agreed on a ring! YAHOO!!!!

Can you tell I’m excited? After 3 months of being engaged and some not so fun ring shopping we had a successful trip to Distinctive Diamonds, which I wrote about last week. Tammy, our amazing sales gal at Distinctive Diamonds, delivered the CAD drawing of the ring created from the parts of the rings we had each liked. While I had been cautiously optimistic I hadn’t allowed myself to get too excited as to not be disappointed. I need not have worried…OMG…the drawing was awesome!

Matt wanted one tiny change, which they easily accommodated, and just like that we put down a deposit and they are starting the process of making it. In about 6-8 weeks I will be able to show you the finished product courtesy of my new camera!

We had fun with this process and it was largely due to the awesome Tammy. If you need jewelry I recommend paying her a visit.

What did I learn from this process?

1. Talk before you shop. Find out what the other persons expectation is BEFORE you head to the jewelry store.

2. Compromise can be fun.

3. But don’t settle for less that what you both want. The ring you both envision can be found. It might just take time.

What would you add to this list?

An InLinkz Link-up

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It’s All About Photography

I wrote last week about the need to improve my photography skills (among others) and subsequently the need for an editorial calendar so I can plan for the images I need. I feel accomplished that I created my editorial calendar for September and this month is going to be all about photography.

Because I am serious about my blogging career I  took the plunge and bought a Nikon D5300 Digital SLR camera instead of the point and shoot camera I have or even more basic my iPhone which is responsible for the majority of pictures I take. No more baby, now I’m running in the big leagues. I figured the pressure of having to pay off the camera would be incentive for me to be focused on getting better at this whole picture-taking thing.

I’m also going to blog about my learning journey and share with you all. I know that I’m probably not the only out there who probably can’t take pictures worth a damn so maybe I can help. If I can figure this out anyone can.

When I was told (by some people who know such things that I needed a DLSR camera I didn’t even know what DSLR stood for (digital single lens reflex) until I started researching. Here is an article I found helpful

To be honest I don’t know anything beyond what the acronym stands for so I went to half price books and got myself a couple photography books for dummies.

I’ve started reading them in preparation for the delivery of my camera today. Please note that the pictures in todays post are with my old style of iPhone photos. I’m sure the picture tomorrow will be a million times better – hahahahah!

I’m pretty excited about this but also nervous that it will be over my head. And I won’t be able to figure it out. But I’m willing to try.

Here’s a good post on how to use the damn thing. 

And one with tips to get better.

Anyone have any tips they can share with a newbie photo buff?

 

 

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Happy Labor Day!

I hope everyone enjoys their holiday as much as she is!

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Editorial Calendar…I Did It!

After my post Monday, on all the reasons why I should quit blogging, I have renewed my focus on improvement. My biggest area I need to improve regarding my blogging is photography and one of the components to getting better photography in my posts is planning. I might be able to write a post on the fly but that approach doesn’t always work for the photos.

To better plan out my posts means the idea of an editorial calendar. I have thought about this many times and have told myself I needed to do one but kept putting it off. But if I want to improve, it needed to happen. So I sat down and did it.

The idea part was fairly easy. It was the figuring out what exactly I needed for photography and how I would make that happen that proved to be the challenge.

My approach was very simplistic as you can see below.

Idea:

Description:

Research Needed:

Photography/images needed:

BLOG POST PLANNER

I wrote these headings out for the first month (each week Monday – Friday) and started filling in the idea piece. Like I said the easy part. Then I went back through and fleshed out the ideas with the descriptions, research, and images needed. At least ideas of images needed.

I admit I wish I wouldn’t have put planning like this for so long. It makes me feel so much better that I know what’s coming up and what I need. I already have the photos for a couple posts for next week and that has never happened. It’s liberating!

The first two weeks are 100% done and the rest of month at 85%. Mostly because I don’t know exactly what I will be photographing to correspond with a couple blog posts. Besides making me feel better, planning out the entire month allowed me to work in a trip that is planned and a family even that will provided interesting content. I felt much more purposeful and that made me feel more like a “real” blogger!

I’m so excited for September!

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