Join us for this exciting workshop as DeKalb Chamber member, Jeff Brathwaite of 2 The Next Level, teaches companies how to use blogs to extend your companies marketing efforts. Blogging is not as hard as you think.

Seating is limited to 45 participants.

Presentation topics include:

•What is Business Blogging
•Why Should My Business Have a Blog
•What are the 3 Keys to Blogging Success
•Creating Your Own Business Blog
•Marketing Your Business Blog

Cost: Chamber Members – $5.00
Non-Members – $15.00

*If they use the code of BBS610 they will get a 15% discount.  Discount ends tonight.*

Location: DeKalb Convention & Visitor’s Bureau – 1957 Lakeside Parkway, Suite 510, Tucker, GA 30084.

The Business Builder Series is sponsored by DeKalb Chamber members -

My Thanks to DeKalb Chamber Marketing & Communications Manager Janniece Leonard and all who attended this event.

Here are some of the testimonials.

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Day 2 of WordCamp Atlanta was filled with highly educational sessions as well as long awaited and exciting announcements.  The first of these announcements came from the morning keynote Jane Wells. Jane is the User Experience Lead for Automatic the company that created WordPress.

The Merge

The topic of Jane’s presentation was “WordPress Resolutions: What to Expect in 2010.” Her talk came with a pretty big announcement. WordPress version 3.0 release will finally include the “Merge” of  WordPress and WordPress MU. If you are not familiar with the WordPress MU version think about running hundreds of thousands of blogs with a single install of WordPress. WordPress MU, or multi-user can do that. Jane had many other great things to offer in her presentation but to me the “Merge” announcement was worth the price of admission. If  you would like to see her full presentation on Slideshare please click here.

Session 1 “Parental Guidance”

I then went to my first session of the day. I wanted to stretch my mind and go to a more advanced session so I chose Ryan Imel’s presentation on “Building WordPress Sites Quickly With Parent/Child Themes”. I have been following Ryan through his blog that has almost nothing to do with WordPress. This kid is super smart when it comes to programming for WordPress so I wanted to finally meet him and hear what he had to say about theme building.

The concept of Parent/Child organization is not new but I was intrigued at it being applied to WordPress themes. Ryan showed a series of examples on how you should build your original theme off a framework of a parent to child. If done this way you can cut down on having to rewrite code over and over again for yet another project. One programmer in the audience mentioned that this way of building themes has cut his coding work literally in half.

Session 2 “Client Conundrums”

My next session was with Tammy Hart of Tammy Hart Designs. Tammy is an amazing site designer. Some of her work is so good it’s hard to believe that it was done with WordPress at its foundation. Tammy’s topic was “WordPress And Working With Clients”. She gave a break down on some of the do’s and don’ts that one should follow in order to keep your client and you on the same page.

Tammy stressed to ask your client plenty of questions. Don’t assume anything in your client relationship and always, always get everything in writing. She also mentioned that she has had to fire an occasional client or two for not following her rules of conduct when it comes to doing business with her.  Tammy was gracious enough to share a few resources that we as fellow WordPress attendees should take advantage of to enhance our own business. She suggested using both Jumpchart.com to help with client content creation and the plug-in Suma to assist in bringing paid content to WordPress blogs.

I want to personally thank the WordCamp Atlanta sponsor Mail Chimp for allowing us to have a wonderful meal for lunch. The line was long but the food was worth it.

Session 3 ” Readablity? That is the Question.”

I continued in the Design Track with session 3 and decided to see the presentation from Mitch Canter. Mitch is currently the “Chief Creative Mercenary” of his own company, studionashvegas. Mitch’s presentation focuses on three things when designing a blog or a website. 1. Readablity 2. Usability and 3. Findability.  The point that really hit home to me was his first, Readability. Readability asks the question, if someone came to your blog would they take the time to read the content? Do you have more distractions to reading your content in Widgets and Banner ads? Mitch also stressed that if you are a blogger it would be a wise thing to know some basic html code. Not that you are going to become a programmer but that if you had to look at your site’s code you could identify where some of your content is placed on the page. Mitch then shared some great educational sites for both learning more about WordPress code and for getting inspiration for future WordPress designs.

Session 4 “How Stuff Works with WordPress”

The last session I will speak about is one in which I learned more about the founder and creator of the website HowSuffWorks.com than about WordPress. This session was presented by Jason Hoch VP, Product Development for Discovery Communications. Jason talked about how HowStuffWorks.com was started in 1998 by former North Carolina State University professor Marshall Brain started the site as a hobby. That hobby turned into full blown company that was then bought out in March of 2002 by Convex Group.

HowStuffWorks.com attracted at least 58 million visitors annually by 2008. So why would they use WordPress? WordPress allowed them to create a way to have a two way interaction with all the fans of HowStuffWorks.com. It also gives Marshall Brain a way to personally answer questions which he could not do via just the website.  WordPress also made it easier to create and display podcast. Jason also mentioned that they were one of the first to introduce the Facebook Connect WordPress plug-in.

Closing remarks & Gary V Givaways

The evening was wrapped up with a few givaways that included about 10 signed copies of Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book “Crush It”, ..which I didn’t win..;-( and  a Q and A session headed by WordPress lead developer Mark Jaquith.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the first WordCamp Atlanta here in my own backyard. The event was such a success they have already announce that WordCamp will be back in Atlanta February 11-12 2011. I was so impressed with all of the knowledge shared and the talented people I met.  If given the chance I would definitely look to one day go to one of  the WordCamps abroad. I would be more than happy to volunteer to organize the first WordCamp Barbados..;-)Who is with me!!!

All the best and see you next year.

JB

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Happy New Year Everyone,

I started out 2010 with something I have been wanting to do for some years now. I attended my first WordCamp. What made this WordCamp so much better is that it was in my own town of Atlanta, GA. I wanted to get there early and get a chance to soak in all that this 1 1/2 day conference had to offer. What made this such a challenge is that on this day our host city was on the verge of a snow storm with temperatures in the 20′s. There was even talk of the event being canceled or at least rescheduled. I took a chance and pressed on anyway and got to my destination without any mishaps. To my enjoyment and surprise there were many WordPress followers who braved the cold and ice as well.

Day 1

The first Wordcamp Atlanta was held at the  Savannah College of Art and Design or SCAD for short. The evening was kicked off with a brief welcome to Atlanta from the two organizers of the event Brandon Sheats and Tessa Horehled. We then broke up into the three session provided for us that evening. I attended a session presented by Amani Channel of Visual Eye Media. Amani talked about “The Secrets of Mobile Vlogging”. You may know Amani by his blog My Urban Report. Amani shared some great stuff on using video for your blog. The one thing I learned was that lighting and sound were just as important as shooting the video. Amani also recommend the Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera over the Flip MinoHD because of its external microphone jack. Take a look at the video and the blog post he did for WordCamp Atlanta.

My next session was with Topher Kohan of CNN.com. Topher’s session was on SEO and WordPress. Topher really broke down some of the great SEO solutions you can get with WordPress plugins. I learned how you can optimize your WordPress template by just simply adding breadcrumbs to boost your search engine love. Topher suggested many WordPress plugins for SEO but listed All in one SEO pack, WP Super Cache and Breadcrumbs as his top 3. I had already been using the All in one SEO pack but added both WP Super Cache and Breadcrumbs right after his session.

I then ended my evening with Chad Parizman’s session. Chad is currently the Director of Community Management for Scripps Networks’ shelter sites. These sites include my wife’s favorite cable channel  HGTV. Chad’s topic was “5 Situations Where WordPres Can Save the Day.  He gave some great real life scenarios on how using WordPress could literally save yourself a whole lot of headache. His best example by far was his “Oh Sh-t Moment, where he told us the story when his team has to construct multiple WordPress sites in order to be ready for a 12 am deadline where they didn’t know if one of their cable show channels contracts would be renewed. This meant that many of their viewers who were Cablevision customers lost two of their favorite channels, HGTV and Food Network. WordPress saved the day by allowing them to construct both www.ilovehgtv.com and www.ilovefoodnetwork.com in a matter of hours before both channels went black on their Cablevision provider.

Day 2

Day two was even better so I hope you come back tomorrow to find out how excited I was with the news of WordPress 3.0 future release for 2010.
Click here for Day 2

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After using the beta version on 2 of my many blogs, I can now upgrade them all with confidence to WordPress 2.7 Coltrane.  It’s all about us, the user. It’s the next generation of WordPress, which is why they bestowed it with the honor of being named for the great American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.

John Coltrane

If you are still not using the WordPress platform for your self hosted blogging, I truly recommend you switch to WordPress now that version 2.7 Coltrane has arrived.  There are so many new and improved features to speak about, I am glad they created a short video for you to look at some of the wonderful things the developers at WordPress came up with.

My favorite is the new look and feel of the customizable dashboard. The best feature of those that are new to blogging would have to be the ability to upgrade and install the many WordPress Plugins that make blogging on the WordPress platform second to none. No more FTP client uploads for both Plugins and upgrades for future versions of WordPress.

So without further ado take a look at WordPress Coltrane version 2.7 and let me know what you think.

So for all my Solopreneurs and Small Business folks who are still on the fence about taking your blog 2 The Next LEVEL. WordPress 2.7 should set your mind at ease. And if you need help downloading and installing it please send me an email or give me a call.

All the best

JB

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I am currently testing the new Version of WordPress, version 2.7  Beta and so far I am very impressed with it.

The new look and feel of the dashboard gives you navigation buttons down the left hand side. The most important navigation button of them all to me and many other WordPress platform users is the Media button. The dashboard also has a cool drag and drop configuration for all your most used window screens.

My good friend Peggy Duncan and I were in agreed annoyance over why WordPress made you create a new blog post or blog page in order to add new images to your media library. Well Peggy, the new media button takes care of that problem. Now you can add images to your media library in two button clicks. So you can now add and edit your images before posting anything.

The other major change is the ability to update your WordPress to the newest version without the use of an FTP client like FileZilla or CuteFTP. All you have to do now is click on the Tools button (see screen shots below) which will then give you a drop down of choices. One of the choices is Update as in upgrade your WordPress to the latest version. This feature works similar to the plugins automatic update. Even a novice WordPress user can now keep up to date with all new version updates.

Speaking of plugins, WordPress 2.7 Beta has made installing plugins just as simple as upgrading them. You can find additional plugins for your site by using the new Plugin Browser/Installer. This new feature will help you automatically search for and then install a plugin using the zip file format.

What has not changed so far is the uploading of new WordPress Themes. This still has to be done the old fashioned way by uploading your theme folder into your wp-content/themes directory. I am sure uploading Themes is not that far behind.

If you have not seen the new dashboard yet here are a few screen shots.

If you would like to test the new version out for yourself you can download WordPress version 2.7 beta here.

I am sure WordPress has even more great changes to come. I will post a follow up article when they release version 2.7 officially.

All the best

JB

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If you have a linkedin.com account you may want to try their new Linkedin Applications section.  Linkedin.com is a Web 2.0 social media website designed to help you with online networking for you or your business business.

The Linkedin Application suite is currently limited to 9 different applications right now. Company Buzz, Box.net Files, Blog Link, Reading List by Amazon, My Travel, SlideShare Presentations, Google Presentation, Huddle Workspaces, and WordPress.

I have tried all the applications but the ones that seem to work the best without any trouble in loading is Reading List by Amazon and SlideShare Presentations. These application are supposed to be similar to the many Facebook application that help you enhance your experience with the website. Unfortunately Linkedin may need a bit more time to get all these applications up to speed.

What’s great about having these applications on is they allow you to optimize your Lnkedin profile page. Given time these application will allow your Linkedin network to follow your blog posts using the Blog Link or WordPress app. Follow your Tweets with the Company Buzz app and follow your uploaded presentations with SlideShare and Google Presentations.

What’s not so great is the lack of support of these applications if they are not working on your profile page. I have been trying to get answers to why I can’t change the URL to the Blog Link app and why the Company Buzz app won’t show up on my profile page at all. All they give you is a feedback form that says your feedback is helpful but will not get a response.

As impressed as I am with Linkedin as a whole I am less than impressed with the roll out of these new applications. I would have thought that the 9 applications currently available would have been tested on multiple profile pages using multiple browsers. I have tried the applications on Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Crome all with the same results.

Even though I can only get 2 of the 9 to work consistently on my profile page, I still have hope that all of the applications will eventually perform to their fullest.  If you would like to see some of the Linkedin Applications in action please take a look at my profile page below and click on the View full Profile button on the bottom of the page. Oh and please leave me comments on your experience with loading and viewing these applications on your Linkedin Profile page

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyalexanderbrathwaite

All the best

JB

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Since I use most of these sites to help me run my business I wanted to list them so that you can make mention of some of the Web 2.0 sites that help you run your business. I have given a brief description on how I use each of these sites.
Please post comments on your top 10 Web 2.0 sites.

1. Zoho.com
2. PayPal.com
3. WordPress.com
4. Google Apps
5. Facebook.com
6. iContact.com
7. Logmein.com
8. Microsoft Live Small Business
9. Skype.com
10. Picnik.com

These 10 Web 2.0 website are actually in order of importance to my business. Your top 10 may look totally different and also might not be in the same order as mine. The top 5 are website I use daily. I do have many others that I use as well but these 10 are the ones I cannot do without.

1. Zoho.com (CRM, Spreadsheet, Word Processor,  Presentations, Database, Project Management, Organizer, Web Conferencing and many more)
Even though Zoho.com has not been around to long I still see it as my number one because of the way it helps me run my business. I mainly use it for the awesome and yes Free CRM but its all in one running a business capabilities are literately outstanding.

2. PayPal.com (Online Credit Card Payment System)
I have used PayPal.com the longest, going on 8 years now. I will talk more about PayPal.com in coming blog entries but for now I will only say it is a must have for any Solopreneurs business person that wants to get paid for their service or product via credit card today.

3. WordPress.com (Blogging)
This blog is using the WordPress.com technology. If you are just starting out in the blog world I suggest you start with Google’s Blogger.com but for a more professional and state of the art look and feel I would recommend WordPress.com.

4. Google Apps (Gmail, Google Doc + Spreadsheet, Google Calendar, Google Notebook, Google Adsense, Google Adwords, Google Anylitics, , , and many more)
Google Apps is a combination of Applications and Tools that can have a very big impact on your business. Gogge Apps could be considered a number one for most Solopreneurs and should be in most cases. It may move them up on my list in the coming months. In the mean time I will keep them here because my top 4 have just a little more influence on how my business runs everyday.

5. Facebook.com (Social Networking)
Facebook has taken everyone buy storm. If you don’t have a Facebook profile page get one today. Social networking is the future of business marketplace for Solopreneurs and business owners alike. Myspace is for the kids, dating and entertainment. Facebook is for those of us who want to market and promote our business to millions of like minded people.

6. iContact.com (Email Marketing)
Email marketing at its best. All the features your business needs to send out professional email campaigns. Remember email is still the most inexpensive and fastest way you can market your business to your targeted prospect and customer.

7. Logmein.com (Remote Support and Training)
I use this service both as a way to remotely log into my home computers when I am on the road or at a client site. I also use it to remotely train my clients without leaving the comforts of my home office. All you need is a quickly installed plugin and a Fast Access connection to the Internet on both ends.

8. Microsoft Live Small Business (Websites, Email, Online Advertising, CRM, Chat)
I can’t say enough about Microsoft Live Small Business because I regard it as the Best way a Soloprenuer can start out on the web. Where else can you get a starter website with domain name and branded email all for Free. Please see my previous blog post “Don’t Already Have a Website For Your Business? With Microsoft You Have No More ” for more information.
 
9. Skype.com (Long Distance and International Phone Calls, Chat, Video Conferencing)
Skype is the future of Internet Communication as far as I am concerned. I use it for making calls all over the united states and the world. Skype to Skype call are always free and Skype to land lines are really inexpensive. It is also a great video conferencing tool that will work with most of your existing web cam software.

10. Picnik.com (Graphics Editor, Photo Editing and Alteration)
Here is a great site for those of you who don’t want to pay an outrageous price for some of these photo and graphic editing software. Think of it as “Web 2.0 PhotoShop” without the cost and installation.

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