During this winter break, I spent quite a few hours working on a wordpress site for an on-campus organization known as Stonebridge Concerts. This is the third website I have designed in the last year and was by far the easiest one I have ever designed before. My past websites have been my own website Alexanderwmoore.com and a website for a local coffee shop called Beans on Broad. Both of these sites were built utilizing different themes available for wordpress, and were the source of much frustration for me as a novice web-designer (not to mention the pressure of making a website that is for an actual business that has my name on it like beans on broad). I wrestled through the builder+child themes in order to build beans on broad, but as the course I was taking on content marketing continued to expand my knowledge of wordpress, things gradually got easier.

I am not going to be so bold as to say that after these two sites I was an expert on web design, but things have gotten a lot easier. It is so true that practice makes perfect. You can read tons of blogs about webdesign, but until you get the chance to really try it out, it’s not going to click. For example, the Stonebridge website I created over break took a total of 20 hours as opposed to my previous endeavors which took upwards of 60+ hours to design, and even then there is still work to do. This is merely a result of having logged hours on wordpress and growing in an understanding of how to work with wordpress.

Make learning easier:

1)      Take the time to learn the theme you are using. As one might expect, each theme has different features that require a certain learning curve, but do not allow this to scare you away from using the theme. I spent a full semester switching themes whenever I did not understand things after five minutes, which is an awefull way to do things. Instead of running away, stick with it. I would give it at least an hour or two of solid usage to understand the theme (as long as it is actually capable of the things you desire it to do). If you are just starting with wordpress, I would recommend using a builder + child theme because it allows you to form a foundation of understanding about wordpress and web-design.

2)      Check out youtube/google for help from experts. Giving away information is part of the internet content marketing revolution, which is great for you because there are tons of bloggers who are giving away great information that can really help you make your website.

3)      Use plugins: Plugins just make life easier. Here are a few I really like

Gravity forms: This widget allows for the easy creation of forms that you can install on you site to get user feedback with ease.

Smart youtube: This widget enables you to post youtube videos in a simple yet aesthetically pleasing way.

WYSIWYG Widgets: This widget allows you to install your own text/photos/logos/etc. into widget bars on your website. This is a super handy plugin that is also free.

WordPress editorial calendar: If you are planning to do a large amount content marketing (which you should) this will help you organize things and store up posts in advance so that your content gets spread out throughout the calendar month.

Professional athletes have been making headlines for many years here in the United States; however, some have been making headlines based on posts that they made on their Twitter pages. For those who do not know, twitter.com, is a microblogging social media outlet. Posts are 140 characters are less and many celebrities, athletes, and TV personalities have been using it to gain more fans and followers. Today athletes have been causing arguments based on how professional it is for them to be using Twitter especially during competition or about their team that they are employed by. Two of the more controversial tweets  by athletes over the past two years have been by NBA mega-star Lebron James. He tweeted:

This was in response to many people who criticized him on his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. The other one was by Pittsburgh Steelers starting running back Rashard Mendenhall:

This was in response to the news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed.

The bottom line is that these men and women are in the limelight 24/7 whether they like it or not. That is what they signed up for when they became a pro athlete. They do not have to be role models per se and everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but I think some of these athletes need to be more conscientious about their social media “game.” Twitter is a great use and following many celebrities and athletes is worth while, but due to their place in the public eye it is their duty to make sure that they are responsibly keeping up with their social media networks. That is my opinion, what is yours?

Blogging for money became a hot topic in the early middle 2000’s. The thought of writing a blog and getting readers to view your material while you make money seemed easy enough. But how feasible is it to make a decent amount of money blogging? In reality, fairly difficult.

Google created its Google Adsense program to make it easier to display ads on your site. It is simple, free and easy, but you need a lot of clicks to make hardly anything. Google Adsense is a decent starting spot, but if you really want to make money it needs to be from a company paying for an ad spot or a broker selling one for you. Pay per click isn’t nearly as profitable as selling ad space. The key is, create a site that generates a lot of traffic, then try and use your impressive Analytics data to sell ad space for top dollar.

They use Facebook fan pages to have fans support the team by declaring that they are fans

Top 5 fan pages on Facebok:

1. Pittsburgh Steelers

2. Minnesota Vikings

3. Indianapolis Colts

4. Green Bay Packers

5. Washington Redskins

They use Twitter Accounts with followers for teams and not to mention a ton of players with followers who have individual accounts that tell about different aspects of things that are happening off the field.

Top 5 followings:

1. New England Patriots

2. San Diego Chargers

3. New York Jets

4. Oakland Raiders

5. San Francisco 49ers

People believe though that Social Media for the NFL and all sports teams is a source of advertising and media that is very much untapped. Very few of these organizations have professionals running the social media system and they don’t know how to effectively use this tool. Doesn’t mean they are doing it wrong since they obviously keep making tons of money, but the point is still being pushed by people around the country.

http://www.sportsinfo101.com/businesstips-topics/how-nfl-teams-use-social-media

Its like Ebay with lower prices and a different kind of system. I’ll explain. They present the site with a page showing lots of absurd deals; ipads for $3.00, TV’s for $4.00. Then they ask you to put bids on the items. Each bid is a couple of cents more than the previous bid.

Here is the catch, before you start you pay the site for a set amount of bids, around $60. Then you can begin bidding on any items they have on auction, each bid is like 5 cents. But the other catch is, each bid costs you money even if you don’t win.

This site could save you a lot of money, but it is risky. How many bids are you willing to put in? How high a price do you want to pay? And when is it actually saving you money?

This is up to the buyer.

If done right you could save a lot of money, if not then its pretty much a casino.

http://www.quibids.com/

1. Squidoo has 1,800,000 user made different “lenses”.

2 They call their pages “lenses” because each is one person’s focus on something that their interested in, something that matters to them.

3. The entire company is only run by 6 people. The most famous creator is Seth Godin.

4. They are 1 of the top 100 most viewed companies in the United States.

5. They generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual royalties to charities and to their users.

6. Many of the users earn more than $1,000 a year from Squidoo. Some make $10,000. On average a user can make between $4 to $40. And they are many who just use Squidoo to give it to charity.

7. More than 1,000,000 people visit Squidoo everyday.

8. They have a tool called SquidU which is a page where you can get tips for making better lenses.

9. Squidoo is free to use.

10. Their main page has a list of 25 different broad topics including

• Food and Cooking
• Pets and Animals
• Travel and Places
• Weddings
• Parenting and Kids
• Holidays and Celebrations
• Education
• Fashion and  Beauty
• Arts and Design
• Entertainment and Media
• Culture and Society
• Music
• Sports and Recreation
• Cars
• Healthy Living
• Internet
• Relationships and Family
• Nonprofits
• Business and Work
• Computers and Electronics
• Home and Garden
• Hobbies, Games and Toys
• Video Games
• Books, Poetry, and Writing
• And a Squidoo Community