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

Are you afraid of hiring a Virtual Assistant?

8 / 6 / 16 5 / 5 / 18

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

If you are new, welcome to my blog!

Yes, I am talking to you. You have managed to leave the corporate job that you were in, or maybe you have reached a time in your life when you want to do things on your own, on your own time and be the boss of your own business.

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

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

Is your business, taking you away from the tasks that you love doing?

Stop! Do you really think you can do all of this on your own? Yes, you can but some part of your life will be suffering. Yes, it could be the kids’ game, the husband waiting for you to stop paying more attention to the new business than him, and even you who might have forgotten to take a bath (Yes, I said it).

I was in your shoes; I was working for my clients and trying to build a name for myself. I have learnt—yes, you can build a business on your own, but I soon realized that I cannot do it entirely on my own no matter how hard I try to dedicate 12-14 hours of my day. Some part of my life will be affected.

How a Virtual Assistant will help you today!

Do you know that a virtual assistant can help you? Do you even know what a virtual assistant is? A virtual assistant can provide the additional support that a business needs from everything from administrative support to social media presence.

I will speak on three ways you can hire a Virtual Assistant, whether it’s from a freelancing platform, a job board or A virtual assistant having their own website. With each platform that you choose, they do offer payment from all major payment sites such as Paypal.

Business owners can choose from a vast majority of virtual assistants that specialize in certain areas. You do not need to worry anymore or be panicked because a virtual assistant can provide the minimum technical and administrative support for your business.

What you should know about A Virtual Assistant.

When I first started out, a general virtual assistant starting rate can start from $25-$30 per hour while a specialized VA can start from as much as $75-$100 per hour. Now I am not talking about those third party sites that offer rates that are smaller than those VAs who have established themselves by creating a website or name for themselves.

You have options to choose from, to work with a VA!

There are many ways to hire out for assistance. This can be depending on your budget and which platform you are comfortable with. I started out with Fiverr, which is a freelancing website that starts at $5. There are other freelancing websites that you can hire out from, but you have to join this platform in order to hire these freelancers.

A second option is joining a reputable job board that facilitates different types of virtual assistants. I really liked VAnetworking because this site provided free resources as well as great benefits to start your business. You have to join such a platform in order to hire your first VA and post your specific tasks. Did I also mention that it’s also free to join and post your request when finding the perfect VA for your business?

The last method that you can use is hiring directly from a virtual assistant website. Some key factors to look out for when hiring is to see from other past clients, through their testimonials on the VA site. If none is provided, then a sure way is to ask the virtual assistant to provide a client that has worked with him or her and has no problem in providing a positive feedback.

Another factor is when hiring a virtual assistant through a website, more than likely, a VA will have a contract in place for you to sign and what is expected and how long the task will take to be completed.

Remember, hiring a virtual assistant is the easy part of the process. In most cases, the fear is not knowing what this virtual assistant can do for your business and not being educated enough in this industry. On the next post, I will talk some more on what tasks can be used to start off with when hiring a virtual assistant.

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