I have so many blessings to count this holiday season, it’s an embarrassment of riches. I’m grateful for my good health, my dear family and my fabulous friends. I’m also blessed with wonderful clients who are fun to work with and I have plenty of work to do. It’s been a very busy fall quarter here at Hoffman Graphics. I’ll just share the two biggest projects with you.

Herbalist book design

The first project was a 130 page book called Flourish: Go-To Guide for Herbal Medicine by Tierney Salter of The Herbalist. It was really fun working with Tierney again, who’s been a client for more than a decade. This is first print job I’ve worked on in several years! If you’re local and interested in knowing more about a variety of therapeutic herbal formulas, single extracts, 35 common health conditions, and diagnostic tools, Tierney is doing a book signing at her store in the Ravenna area tomorrow, Saturday, December 17.

Writing It Real membership site makeover

This is by far the most complex website I’ve ever developed. It was nine months in the making. During that time we re-engineered the entire business/marketing plan, establishing multiple membership tiers and a community forum, among other features. If you’re a writer or know someone who is, you can try out the offerings for two weeks for 99 cents!  This membership site offers a world of writing tools and writing instruction developed by master teacher, poet and author, Sheila Bender, including one-on-one consulting, workshops and conferences.

Important News for WordPress Users

After many months, WordPress has just this week released their newest version, 3.3. If your website is based in WordPress and hosted with me I’ve already updated your site for you. Next time you log in you’ll notice a new look. A couple of the changes you’ll notice are a slicker sidebar with “flyout” submenus which put everything in the admin site just a single click away and a new drag-and-drop uploader, which means you can drag and drop images from your desktop right into the media upload box in the admin. There are little first-time tool-tips which you can dismiss once you have the hang of the new stuff.

Cool Tools, Tips & Resources

• JoinMe, a free screen sharing tool: One of the most indispensable tools I used while developing the Writing It Real site
• 5 Simple Tips To Remain Safe on Facebook
• Going to Florida: marketing gobbledygook explained by friend/colleague Barbara Breckenfeld
• Tag, You’re It! The Storytelling Power of a Great Tag Line
• For Marketing Success, Skip the Social Media Hype

After spending the better part of 2011 restructuring the offerings, we’ve launched an all-new, fully WordPress-based site. We’ve expanded functionality to include a multi-tier membership strategy and a members’-only community forum.

Working with Sheila Hoffman is a dream come true—her knowledge of design, her attention to detail, her quick responses and her customized understanding of how an individual business will benefit most from its website has helped my business take giant leaps.

—Sheila Bender
www.writingitreal.com
Client since 2007

I cannot believe the last time I wrote was in June! Where did the summer go? After a glorious week riding our tandem bicycle in Eastern WA & Idaho during July I’ve been keeping busy with projects. Here’s a quick summary of work completed recently:

• Word & Raby: a small press publisher’s new graphic identity and WordPress website with shopping cart.
• Forward First Publishing: a makeover from a commercial WordPress theme to a customized version of that theme.
• Kernes Consulting: first time site, included a graphic identity & business card using a QR code.
• Seattle Collaborative Law Training Group: using an existing logo, greatly expands and enhances the original site’s content and structure.
• The Herbalist: 128 page print book called Flourish! Just went to the printer this week. It’s the first big print job I’ve worked on in several years. It was great fun to be working with Herbalist’s owner and book author, Tierney Salter again.

Cool Tools, Tips & Resources

Because it’s been such a long time, I’ve accumulated a wealth of items to share. I hope you’ll find something useful in the list. I’ve divided them into Free Online Tools & Business Articles.

Free Online Tools

• Free email stripper Removes those pesky symbols and extra lines in forwarded emails.
• Hello Fax I gave up my fax years ago. This service also lets you send officially signed emails–for free (first 10). It’s an efficient and affordable way to send faxes (which are still necessary for most legal docs).
• WorkFlowy This is the coolest, FREE, work tool I’ve ever used. It’s an addictive, simple and FUN way to organize your life including your work and share any parts you want with others.
• TitanPad Similar to WorkFlowy in its ease of use, this one lets people work on one document simultaneously.
• Prezi: Create “game changing” presentations online.

Business Articles

• Five Easy Tips for Getting Referrals
• How To Make Quick Web Videos For Social Media With Your iPhone
• The Truth about LinkedIn 2-3 Degree Connections (and whether to ignore them or not)
• Facebook vs. Email: Which List Should You Build?
• Social Media Marketing – Why it might not be working for you!
• 10 Tips for Posting on Your Business Facebook Page
• Understanding how to get the most from Categories & Tags on your WordPress site
• What is Vook? (clue: video-book)

Office Closed December 17, 2011 to January 2, 2012

Please note, the office will be closed December 17 to January 2 to celebrate the holidays.

Wishing you a healthy & happy holiday season.

Sheila is a magician!  She took four seperate visions and wove them into a website that shines for us.  Style, skill and patience were the hallmarks of her interactions with us.

—Anne R. Lucas MA LMHC
Seattle Collaboration Law Training Group

Administration Tools

• Statistics: Google Analyticator
• Site map on custom 404 Error page: Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
• Bonus link:
• Anti Spam: Defensio

Search Engine Optimization SEO

• Google XML Sitemap Generator
• All In One SEO Pack
• I use Headway Theme’s built-in SEO

Social Media

• Sexy Bookmarks: a little different & fun, one of many
• Facebook Tab Manager: for custom FB landing pages
• Bonus links:
• Digg-Digg & Sociable: recommended by Bob Dunn

Community Building

• Envolve Chat: easy to use and free up to 25 simultaneous chats (with ads)
• Mingle Forum: easy to use and free

Making over a live site?

• Maintenance Mode: I always use a sub-domain of my business to develop new sites and use one of the above tools to migrate.
  However, if that’s not an option for you and you need to develop on your live domain be sure to this plugin.
• Redirection: If coming from a traditional html site you’ll want to use this plugin to assign every html page to your comparable WP page
• Bonus link:
• Theme Tester:  Test a new theme while showing the old theme to visitors

Migrating Sites?

• BackupBuddy
• Free alternative to Backup Buddy is Backup & Move

Developing sites for others?

• WP Status Dashboard: Helpful for keeping track of many client sites. This plugin keeps the dashboard informed on the status of all your websites. This includes indexing status, WordPress version and active plugin updates. NOTE: This plug-in is currently not available for download. The developer will still sell it to those who would like it (without support) for $20.  Email justin@scheetzdesigns.com
• Meanwhile, I’ve discovered the new tool that does significantly more called ManageWP. This plug-in is in beta. They plan for it to remain free for up to 5 sites and thereafter the fee will be minimal (currently  projecting to charge ten cents per site per month).
• Bonus link:
  • Outbound Links: So you don’t have to teach your clients to always set the target. This does it for you automatically.
  • White Label to customize the Dashboard for clients

Event Registration & Calendars

• EventEspresso: Lite or Premium
• Event Calendar Pro: works with Gravity Forms

Membership Plugins

• S2Member (free)
• Wishlist (easier to use)
• DAP (more powerful)
• Bonus links:
• Membership plugin review compares WPMU Dev with Wishlist & MemberWing and goes on to list all the other options
• Another Membership plugin review with comparison chart for Wishlist, DAP, YourMembers & MemberWing

Unique Uses

• Co-Authors Plus
• Dynamic Headers
• FAQ-Tastic paired with AJAXify FAQ-Tastic
• Page Peel
• Bonus link:
• Better Protected Pages
• Free assortment of jquery mega menus, tabs, accordions, etc
• J Shortcodes: Allows you to add custom buttons, content boxes, tabs and accordion panels, build call to action and information boxes. You can choose color, size and shape for any of these elements.

Premium Plug-ins

Downside?

• Fee is set based on number of sites, usually the lowest is for 1-3 sites and the highest for unlimited sites
• Fee is typically for one year. They’ll continue to work thereafter but if you want updates and/or support you will have to pay a reduced renewal fee annually.

Then why pay?

• Best of class (quality you can count on)
• Ongoing development, updates, improved features & support

My Top Premium Plug-ins

• iThemes’ Plug-in Buddy Developers package which includes:
• BackupBuddy
• Display Buddy
• Gravity FormsPippity
• Pippity

Sheila Hoffman takes design and consulting services to a new level.  She provided a package of design and web services that fit my business objectives as well as my personality.  Her value-add:  She introduced me to other web-based and like-minded cohorts in the marketing field.  She is a strategic thinker who is easy to work with.  I recommend her without reservation.

—Susan Kernes
www.kernesconsulting.com

Is it summer where you are yet? Last year in the Northwest we called June “Junuary”. It’s been pretty cool, gray and damp here. I’m writing to be sure you know that the office will be closed July 1-25. Summer or not, this is when we vacation. Before I go I thought I’d share what’s new here.

I just launched a makeover of a site I first designed in 2002. It’s now a WordPress site. The staff is excited to be able to manage their own updates. We created a password protected area for them to send employees to for access to forms and other materials. Check it out at www.carecorner.net.

I’m also hard at work on two other WordPress sites. One is a new client and should be ready to launch by the end of the summer. The other is another makeover of a complex membership site that I designed 5 years ago. I’m learning all about the ins and outs of creating a membership system within WordPress. This project is why I’ve been researching Squeeze Pages. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Squeeze Page

The idea of a Squeeze Page (sometimes called a Landing Page) is to entice a first time visitor to provide you with their email address in return for something (white paper, trial, video, etc). This is typically something of more value than just a newsletter. Once you capture their email address, you “drip” a carefully crafted sequence of communications to them at timed intervals, working to build a sense of trust and relationship and offering them “deals” to increase their commitment to your services. Obviously, this can be useful for some business models and not so much in others. I’ m sure you’ve been the recipient of this type of campaign and may’ve even found it a bit spam-like. Often the way someone arrives at such a page is via a link in a signature block, Tweet, Facebook post, online ad or even on your website. The page would be designed to focus attention on signing up, therefore would not typically have any of your signature website features (header, footer, navigation, etc). This is so they don’t get distracted and leave the page. They will get all that information in your follow-up communications. If you’re interested in learning more, here are a few of the most useful links I read:

• John Hayden: Five Ways to Simplify your Landing Page (John offers a fabulous newsletter)
• The Magnetic Opt-in Formula (free e-book models the process)

Cool Tools, Tips & Resources

• Square Up credit card reader is the coolest new gadget if you need to take credit cards on the go. This free little USB gadget  plugs into your iPhone or Android. You pay only when you use it.
• Shared Business Space lets you list or locate space
• Weave Silk is a fun, magical interactive gimmick and time waster!
• Banckle offers a collection of collaborative online applications, free for first year
• Google for Non-Profits just upgraded offerings
• BobWP is my Biznik colleague Bob Dunn. He just made all his training videos available for free. If you use WordPress subscribe to his Tip of the Day. Here’s just one such tip: When creating categories for your blog, try to keep the number of them at 10 or less. The fewer, the better.
• 7 Rules for Not Sucking at E-Mail offers mostly very good tips though I’m not sure I agree entirely with the 3-sentence rule.

Office Closed July 1-25

Please note, the office will be closed with limited email access July 1- 13 (bicycling, Spokane, Missoula, Idaho) and then no email or phone communication July 14-25 for our annual silent meditation retreat.

• Headway Videos
• Gallery of  Headway sites
• Headway Documentation including CSS Map
• Headway Tips
• My Affiliate Link for Headway

Resources for further Framework investigation

• Overview of some theme framework features
• WordPress Codex on Frameworks
• Headway vs. Thesis – A Designer’s Review
• Why I switched my blog’s premium WordPress theme from Thesis to Headway
• Thesis Theme vs Genesis Theme: A WordPress Premium Theme Comparison
• Professional CMS WordPress Themes — PageLines
• ThemeShaper | Shaping WordPress Themes
• Catalyst
• Linked-In Forum: Are you/not using a WordPress Framework when you develop your and your clients websites? And why?

I love this time of year. The days are getting longer and there are crocus and cherry blossoms appearing. I just had my second Biznik article published. I’ve mentioned Biznik to you many times. It continues to be a great source of support, education, and business referrals for me. And yo may find it could also benefit you. My recent article is an orientation to how newcomers can benefit from Biznik. You might find it interesting: Do you invite and sponsor your networking contacts into Biznik?

Social Media Marketing including Facebook

Are you overwhelmed by all the social media options? Unsure how to make good use of them? I hear that a lot. In my effort to stay informed I’ve been watching and reading a lot. I thought I’d share a few of the best with you. Of course each resource is an “expert” using their video or blogpost to lure you into their business. Fair enough. A good model to emulate.

This article A Social Media Strategy for WordPress Users says “According to the numbers, over the past 12 months, the number of referrals from social networking sites to blogs has doubled. Social traffic is becoming more important than search traffic according to some. How do WordPress users adjust to this reality and exploit it to your advantage? The core strategy should be to embrace and focus.” So it’s not something we can ignore. This article is a quick read and offers ideas on how to use Facebook as a tool for dialog and brand promotion.

Last month I mentioned Facebook marketing strategies and best practices discussion. I mistakenly said it was a 3 minute video. Oops. I dropped the zero. It’s actually a 30 minute video. It’s worth watching if you have the time and interest. This is another, shorter video (12 min) that talks about the different options on Facebook (profile, page, group, etc). If you prefer to read, HubSpot offers an e-book (PDF) on Facebook Page Marketing.

Next issue…Squeeze pages and the marketing funnel.

Cool Tools, Tips & Resources

• Do you text? I don’t. But every now and then it’s the best way to get someone’s attention quickly. Now you can text, for FREE, without using your phone. Check out Joopz.
• If your website is based in WordPress, be sure you’ve updated to the newest version 3.1. Not only are there some great new features such as the admin bar and ability to easily link to internal pages, but it also protects you from security issues. I automatically update your WordPress for you if you’re hosted with me.
• Do your parents ever ask your for computer help? Mine do. Microsoft has posted this cool free site where you can choose simple video tutorials to email out. Check it out: Tech Support Care Package. You might find some useful info there for yourself too. I just sent a link on how to do a screen capture to a client. It’s easy and fun.
• Don’t get “sidehacked” when using Facebook over public WiFi. Here’s how to make FB secure with https: 1) click on Account in the upper right corner. 2) Select Account Settings. 3) On that page near the bottom, click on Account Security. The first option at the top will be Secure Browsing (https). Click that, then hit the blue Save button just below it. You’re done.
• Do you know what the “cloud” is? The term has become ubiquitous as has the use of the cloud itself. It simple means using tools on the internet instead of your computer. Do you use Gmail? If so you’re cloud computing. Last week Gmail went down. This is an interesting article about The Danger Of Becoming Too Cloud-Dependent
• And finally John Hayden is offering free webinars in the coming weeks on his Charity How To website: How To Employ The Dragonfly Effect to Create an Effective Social Program and The A to Z of Mobile Fundraising.

Vacation Schedule

The office will be closed with limited email access April 15 – 25: Spring Break bicycling in Tucson.

I met both my end-of-the-year goals for 2010: adding a self promotion video to my website and Biznik profile and posting my first article on Biznik. Thanks to friend and client Terry Simpson’s skill and patience, I’m quite pleased with my new video on my homepage.  If you’re thinking about a video, be sure to check out Terry’s site. Let me know if you have any questions about my article Choosing the Right E-Mail Marketing Tool. It outlines what to look for with lots of useful links. The article was rated 8.7 out of 10 on Biznik, been read about 400 times and generated a lot of discussion. As you can tell, writing an article can be excellent exposure. Also, you’ll notice I’m sending this email via Mail Chimp who came out a clear winner in my research.

SoCo Culture Makeover

One more thing I completed before the end of 2010 was the makeover of the South King County Cultural Coalition’s website. Five years ago I designed their website and it was time for an updated look. They were excited about the benefits of the underlying WordPress database to restructure information and improve their visitors’ experience. You can now search the site and display information by location as well as categories. The best part is that the client can now maintain the entire site themselves. Even the slideshows!

Cool Tools, Tips & Resources

• Do you ever wonder if a website is down or if it’s just you? Now you can easily check at Down for Everyone or Just Me?
• One of my go-to people for all things WordPress is Bob Dunn who I meet through Biznik. He has a great article on 5 Copywriting Questions to Ask Yourself in a Website Redesign
• Facebook marketing strategies and best practices discussion (3 min video)
• Do you ever wonder what all the acronyms mean such as CMS, SEO, RSS? Check out WebSmart.tv for a single page of brief video explanations.
• WordPress SEO by Yoast — Without a doubt one of the best single page resources you will find on Search Engine Optimization.

Vacation Schedule

The office will be closed with limited email access during the following dates:

• January 24 – February 3: Visiting Mom in Florida
• April 15 – 25: Spring Break bicycling in Tucson