Solve your WordPress issues by 5 pm today!

How are you from the last time you read my blog?

If you are new, welcome to my blog!

You know that your website is the centre of your business. It helps to let prospective clients know more about you and what services you offer.

Yikes! One day you wake up and boom! You have issues upon issues and you cannot even reach your web designer when you need him/her.

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So please take these best practices I myself came across that as WordPress users, we might have overlooked. I thought this might be a good idea to share this with you if you have not come across this as well.

Secret tips for your website maintenance.

#1: So you have signed into your WordPress site and is wondering where to navigate to or what’s the next step to go from one tab to another.

Your dashboard is your friend, or simply put, your home for everything that’s happening on your site.

Make sure your dashboard is as fashionable as your style.

Your dashboard will normally have a summary of what needs to be done. For example, updating your WordPress site to the current version. Another notification could be updating your plugins or themes.

Always check what needs to be done and do this as soon as possible as the updates are available for your site to function at its utmost best.

Remember, your site counts on you to function properly.

Tip: Your first plugins should entail having ones where you can back up your site and having the current plugins that you choose for your site to use.

#2: I am sure you have heard before that not to choose passwords that are easy for hackers to guess.

Girl, you need to strengthen those passwords!

As a VA working with a number of different clients, it’s not easy for the human brain to remember every bit of information that is sensitive to use.

I recommend using a strong password that consists of numbers, uppercase, and lowercase text.

I have recommended LastPass as it’s one of the best password vault out there for you to choose from when storing passwords. LastPass has a free version to try right this moment.

Tip: I recommend using a password between 12-15 characters long.

#3: So based on tip’s 1 suggestion, it is always a good idea to back up your site.

Normally WordPress will display a notification of the current version available for you to update to the current version.

Backup your site regularly, as how you cleanse those makeup brushes!

Before you update, I would hope that you would be backing up all your information quite regularly or paying attention to the current plugins that you have installed. This can be done by using Dropbox to save your information that you have backed up.

Outdated plugins, run the risk of your site not operating at its full potential and causing hiccups that you would not want.

Remember if you are new to this I recommend choosing a plugin such as UpdraftPlus.

Tip: Do not solely depend on WordPress to notify you when to update your site; if you are pressed for time to keep track of these updates, it’s always a good idea to hire additional assistance for your WordPress maintenance. If not, I recommend using a scheduler to remind you of upcoming updates. This can easily be done using an app that has a reminder on your phone or computer.

#4: Anything that is not needed now, delete.

What I mean is, if you have out-dated posts, pages, or spam comments that are not useful to your current website, delete them.

Did you throw out your outdated makeup brushes of recently? Delete and throw out those outdated spam comments to the trash as well!

You want to have a website that is operating at its best.

When a visitor is seeing your site for the first time and sees spam comment on a post that is there for over a month, that can definitely be a turn-off.

Tip: Keep Hackers and Spammers away by having your site clean and fresh in the eyes of visitors.

#5: So you know the saying that a home is not a home without a dog sign? I did not make that up if it’s the first you are hearing about it.

The same can be said about your website. There are some basic pages that need to be on your website, whether or not you have an additional 8 pages.

Just like how you have the essential products in your beauty routine, you should have the same for your website.

These are what I recommend you have: home, about, product/service and your contact page.

I know you might have this because I might have created these for you. If not, you can share these page ideas with your friends and family.

Most people make the mistake of not having these four pages because they might be thinking that this is a personal website.

Some people might even have no pages at all with one of these suggestions or maybe two, but you do need a home page summarizing what this website is about.

You also need to engage your visitors by making them know that you are approachable to reach you (even though it’s online) through your contact page.

Tip: One way to reach your audience is through blogging. Maybe this is not for you, but you would prefer using tools such as a video, or an audio of you speaking to reach your audience. Don’t leave your website alone without making your audience know more about you.

If your site is always active, it’s best practice to always back up your site, update your themes and plugins.

Use these best practices and enjoy these tips. If you need a beautiful PDF guide to always reference back with these suggestions, you can Get it here by signing up for my newsletter!

It was nice of you to stop by.

Until then, happy hiring, and best wishes with your business.

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

Photo Credit: Haute Stock

Create your blog in an hour using these tools

8 / 9 / 16 6 / 1 / 18

How are you from the last time you read my blog?

If you are new, welcome to my blog!

◊This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.◊

You are dreading the creation of your first blog for your website and thinking to yourself, “I need to hire out help,” but in the meantime, you do have some ideas in place that you want to draft out before you publish the first post, whether you are going to publish it or not.

Here are some of my recommendations for creating your blog post. You might have been familiar with scheduling your days with specific tasks to be completed for each day. If not, you can get yourself familiar with this post HERE

What you need to start your blog loving!

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

From the time you have a thought about what you should write about for your blog post. I recommend using a timer to set how much time you will dedicate to create that content. I use Toggl to time myself. This is helpful because I know that I will dedicate, let’s say, 30 minutes to creating such a task and I will spend no more than that time doing so.

Now that you have set a time, the next step is to draft a list of some ideas that you have in mind to create your content ideas. I start by dedicating 10 minutes in creating 20 ideas that I might like or even creating a content map with a list of ideas that I think my clients would benefit from.

When I do this, I dedicate another 10 minutes or so to see how best my headlines will make an impact. Let’s say my first idea from the draft list is to create how to write your first blog. I then analyze my headline by using this headline analyzer to see if I am appealing to my clients and if my point is drawn across in reaching them. You can check the analyzer here at your disposal CoSchedlue take a look, you will see what I am talking about when you do this.

Now that you have 20 minutes out of your time schedule with your headline analyzer and you have a better feel for what to write after you have your ideas mapped out. I normally write out 10 blog post ideas that I want to achieve, let’s say, for the upcoming week.

Any ideas?

I do a draft of my first blog post by writing 4 main points that I want to bring across to my readers. This is aligned with each topic that I have in mind that I want to write about in the future.

You do not have to write out four main points because you might have content ideas flowing and might start writing on the spot of what you have in mind.

If not and you are like me and have to think through what to write, I have these points as a guide, then I start to write from each paragraph, then I elaborate what I want to bring across.

After doing such a task, I do not spend more than 20 minutes writing my four major points that I want to bring across. Remember that because you are familiar with what you will have in mind of what to write from the headings and ideas, this is only a draft of what you will have in mind and it does not have to be perfect on the spot.

Tools to support your blog loving.

For the next 10 minutes that you have remaining before crunch time, you can proofread what you have written. You can get additional help by using Grammarly. This is an app that will help you with grammatical errors and sentence formation. Trust me, you would benefit from this.

So you have ten minutes remaining and have successfully proofread your content and are free from grammatical errors. You are thinking to yourself, where can I find images to bring my content to make that impact? There is a list of images that are free to use from the Internet. Please do not use Google images, as these images might be copyrighted.

You can always use free & paid stock images but my favorite to use thus far are a list of bundled images by sites that I have used, these free and paid websites provide beautiful images. Now that you have an idea of what you have drafted before, including the appropriate image, you can now hire out for the additional help to create the additional content that you need as well as proofreading your content again just to be on the safe side.

So, there! You have done this successfully within an hour of creating your ideas for your content. You also know where to go to analyze if your headline is making an impact and that draft you have made you can do a double take on Grammarly.

Now that your Copywriter has sent you the final draft of what you require for your content and you are now ready to publish, you can do a search on your website to see if there is any copy out there of your pages. This can be done over a period of time and is not limited to when you have made your first post. This is only another tip for you to make sure you have no copies out there being used without your knowledge Copyscape

There you have it, a blog ready to be published in an hour’s time. If you have any questions and would like to share your wins, feel free to do so.

It was nice of you to stop by.

Until then, happy hiring, and best wishes with your business.

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

Photo Credit: Haute Stock

Asana: How to love using & managing a project in seconds!

8 / 8 / 16 12 / 23 / 17

How are you from the last time you read my blog?

If you are new, welcome to my blog!

You might be wondering to yourself, what is it and how can it help your business improve productivity? I blogged earlier about scheduling your days, you can check this out HERE

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

When scheduling your days, Asana will come in handy, and did I tell you that I love using it and it does help manage my personal task for the week. Asana also sends me reminders when I need to complete a project/task. A little bit more about that later.

Say what now! What is Asana?

Asana is a project based software and, as stated on their website, it keeps track of teamwork, as well as projects that each individual member is assigned to complete.

When you first go on the site, the visuals and how it is laid out is what caught my eyes to use this beautiful tool. Even though it’s beautiful, it’s even more effective than what meets the eye.

When you create your account, you will first get a step by step guide on what you need to do to fill out your business information, such as your company name, your teams information if you have any, as well as uploading files, sharing specific tasks with others via email and access to certain tasks, depending on how your settings are set. You also have the option on how you would prefer to see each task to be completed.

Why you should love Asana too!

Now, why do I love it? First of all, when I log in my dashboard, I have the option of creating my list of tasks for each day of the week. This is where I start first. I add a task and set the date that I want to have it completed. I also have a reminder that can be set for a week notice, to let me know that I have until a week to complete such a task, or I can set this to be a periodic task that will be happening every week or monthly.

You have two options to see your scheduled tasks; the list version, which I prefer, as well as the calendar version. I do love that the layout shows out each list of tasks to be completed, which is under the new task option, you also see the upcoming tasks for the week and later tasks are also shown.

How to make Asana work for you?

Now, for putting this project management tool to work. I know you are busy with your days, so reminders do come in handy when you have to remember a task to be completed.

Each time a new task is added automatically. When it’s set, a reminder is sent to the email provider that you have signed with to remind you to complete a task. You also have the option of delegating such a task to a member of your team.

This can be done by allowing, them access to that task and keeping track of what is being done for such a task. This includes inviting that team member by email for that team member to access the task to be completed, and this is where uploading a file will come in handy.

Status updates anyone?

Team conversations are a benefit because you can post what you need to be done, review what’s been happening with such a task and see for yourself the progress of your task.

You choose what the team member is able to see and what should be done, and this can be in the form of sharing a project with that team member who is assigned to complete that task.

So why not try Asana for yourself? You know you want to because it will make such a huge difference in your business and team members do not physically have to be there for you to see the progress of a task to be completed.

Try it out and share with me how Asana has helped you with managing your task better in the comments below. I look forward to seeing your wins until next time.

It was nice of you to stop by.

Until then, happy hiring, and best wishes with your business.

Don’t forget to check the sidebar and footer of this website for awesome resources!

Photo Credit: Haute Stock