See An Ugly Duckling Website Transformed Into A Wordpress Swan... I’m wildly in love with Wordpress. It’s become my software of choice for publishing on the internet. You’ll understand why when you see the transformation it works on the first website I ever created.

Domain Extensions Determine Who Sees Your Website…Most people put a good deal of thought into choosing their domain name. But few realize that the domain extension needs to be just as carefully chosen. Here’s what a domain extension is and how it can affect your traffic.

No Matter How They Spin It, Cashgifting Is Still A Con..If you have an email address, sooner or later you’ll be invited to join in Cashgifting. This con is so seductive because it comes to you from an eager, well-meaning friends. Here’s the truth about this scheme, and resources for protecting yourself.

And take a second look at my tutorial on Backing Up Mozilla’s Thunderbird Email Program Is Fast And Easy With MozBackup. I’ve added additional instructions in response to a reader’s questions.

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Moving a simple Wordpress site shouldn’t be hard.  But all too often, my new clients started out with a service that promised "We do it all!" That is, they regsiter your domain name, set up a web hosting account and build your web site or provide you with a template to build your own.

This can seem like a good deal…at first. But then, my clients come to a crossroads. Their business is growing, but their web site is locked in to a service that can’t accomodate that growth.

In a recent case, moving the Wordpress site away from the original hosting company was like trying to wrestle a fish away from an octopus.  Among other things, they wouldn’t provide my client with access to her own Wordpress database.

I had FTP access to get all the files. And by installing a Wordpess backup plugin, I was able to get the database file. But without the user name and password, I couldn’t  install that database into the new wordpress on the new hosting account. And changes made to the database by the old hosting servcie prevented me from using the only work-around I knew.

Situations like this have given me a headache more than once. So I was delighted to run across a blog post titled Emergency Wordpress Access where Wordpress tweaker Yoast gives away a free script that solves this problem. It helps you get emergency access to the database by adding a new user admin account. You can download the file and see an illustrated explanation on his site.

Thanks, Yoast!

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine and this companion The Internet Wizards Blog to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the upper right corner of this page. You’ll be glad you did!

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Don’t Fall For Phony Offers To Renew Your Domain Names

Small business owners are often targeted by scammers offering to renew domain names. Here’s a "how to" explaining how to tell if a compnay that’s contacting you is honest or a scam artist.

See What Google Sees On Your Blog Or Website

 As a business owner, it’s critical that you know what Google is indexing on your blog or website. Luckily, this is easy to do. Here’s a "how to" explaining how you can see what Google has indexed on you, and why you should care.

 Don’t Let Bad Customer Service DOOM Your Small Business

Bad service shows up everywhere, in businesses large and small. But small business take a much greater risk when they treat their customers with contempt.

Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine and this companion The Internet Wizards Blog to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the upper right corner of this page. You’ll be glad you did!

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Blogs aren’t always easy to figure out, at least until you get used to how most of them work. If you’re new to The Internet Wizards Blog, this site map will help you see what’s here. On your next visit, you can check the right-hand sidebar for the section mark "Recent Posts" to see what’s new. The sections marked "Categories" and "Archives" will help you find previously published material. So will the menu bars at the very top of each page. 

Now here’s the site map, Each category is in bold. The articles that are published in that category are described. Click on any link to visit that article.

At The Internet Wizards Magazine

You are on The Internet Wizards Blog, a companion to The Internet Wizards Magazine. Here’s what’s going on over at the Magazine.

Read The Hunter-Gatherer Issue Of The Internet Wizards Magazine.. The Feb 2010 edition of The Internet Wizards Magazine presents three articles on using the internet to market your small business and it’s all wrapped around a Hunter-Gatherer theme.

Computers

Mozy Unlimited Backup Can Save Your Business, Save Your Life…Article describes how Mozy online backup service can provide an effortless way to protect your valuable computer files.

The Internet’s Big Secret-It Really Is WIRED!… Article describes why so many complaints about web sites operating improperly can be traced back to interrupted internet transmission rather than site error.

Creativity

The Internet Opens Up A World Of Unlimited Possibilities And Profits For Creative People… Article describes the nearly unlimited variety of products you can make and market on the internet.

Help Wanted-Creative People To Save the Planet… Article describes why it’s so important for creative people to use the internet and add their voice to the social conversation about what the future will be.

Get Excited And Make Things!…A British designer revives an old slogan from world War Two by challenging people to "Get excited and make things!"

What Happens When The Art World And The World Of "Get Rich Quick" Internet Marketing Collide?… Article describes an art exhibit where artists turned get-rich-quick ad from the internet into graphic images.

Free Tools

Make Free Puzzles To Keep Visitors Active On Your Site… Article explains how free software that creates puzzles can add interest to your site and keep visitors coming back to see what’s new.

General

Is Your Business Also Your Life Mission?… Bonnie Boots discusses the power of basing your business on a life mission and using the internet to broadcast that mission.

Here’s Proof That Any Dream You Dare To Dream Can Come True!… Susan Boyle’s amazing singing debut on Britain’s Got Talent becomes one of YouTube’s most watched videos and inspires the world.

The Zen Of Attending Internet Marketing Seminars: doing the most by doing nothing.. Bonnie Boots describes how being almost totally inactive at an internet marketing seminar paid off.

Welcome To The Internet Wizards Blog…Article announces the launch of The The Internet Wizards Blog, now being published by The Internet Wizards Magazine

Google

Just For Fun

Does New Photo Prove Mother Teresa Poked Kittens With Pins?… Article pokes fun at a comment made about Mother Theresa as a way of illustrating how easy it is to publish fake proofs and information on the internet.

The New 6-Word Motto For The U.S.-Coming Soon To A T-Shirt Near You!… Article gives the very funny results of a 2009 contest by the author of Freakonomics to create a new motto for United States currency.

The Birth Of An Internet Marketer… This short, funny story tells the tale of a con job that sounds very much like the offers put out by many so-called internet marketers.

This Is What Happens When Florida Freezes!… Photos of what Florida looked like during the freeze of January, 2010. Check out the "iguanasicle"!

 

Making Money

Balance Your Budget With Freelance Work While You Build Your Own Online Empire….Article explains that selling the skills you develop as you learn to create sites and market on the internet can be a wonderful source of income while your waiting for your sites to generate profits.

My Products

Success Depends On Finding The Best Price For Your Digital Product… How people creating their own products can determine what to charge and which price point will bring the most sales and profit.

Tap Into Trends To Create High-Profit Products That Appeal To Eager Buyers…Bonnie Boots explins, step-by-step, her time-tested system for identifying trends, then creating products that appeal to that trend’s audience.

Twitter About This-The Funniest T-Shirt In The Twittersphere!… Funniest ever Twitter T-Shirt design created by Bonnie Boots

Product Creation

What Is A Product?… Article explains what a product is and gives examples of the many types of products that can be made by individuals and small business owners using simple online and computer tools.

The Best Product To Sell On The Internet Is Your LIFE!.. Article explains that your life experience is unique and provides the basis for the excellent information products you can make and market on the internet.

Make Stuff That Has Real Value……. Article discusses why it’s important for the economy and important for your own inner self to work hard and produce products with real value.

Great Ideas For Creating Your Own Products Are Always At Hand… This article explains that ideas for products you can make and sell yourself are always right at hand by describing a couple that developed a baby safety product to protect their own infants, then sold it to other parents.

Blogs Can Be A Great Source Of Ideas For Product Creation… Describes specific ways in which blog comments can be used to generate ideas for creating your own products.

Product Creation Ideas Are Easily Generated By Browsing Ebay… Browsing ebay to find what’s popular, what’s hot and what’s unique, you can easily come up with a variety of ideas for products you can make and market yourself and sell on ebay.

Sonograms Give Birth To All Kinds Of Product Creation Ideas… Article tells of a woman that uses sonograms to develop unique gifts to welcome new babies. This illustrates the fact that the best source of ideas for new products is your own life.

Super Bowl 43 Offers A Million Opportunities For Digital Products…Article explains that the unique businesses and events right where you live are a wonderful source of material for information products.

Creativity And Product Creation: If You’re Inspired To Make It, There’s A Market For It…. Article discusses the idea that thousands and thousands of special interest groups can be located on the internet. Every one of them can be considered a target market, a market that you can create new products for.

Should Stevie Wonder Do Keyword Research?… Article describes why keyword research is less important than passion and inspiration when it comes to product creation.

Taking Your First Steps In Product Creation… Bonnie Boots explains the specific steps that must be completed to create your own product

Bonnie Boots Makes Stuff And Markets On The Internet… Article discusses the wide variety of digital products Bonnie Boots makes and markets on the internet. She describes how you can do this,too, in her book "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products."

Tap Into Trends To Create High-Profit Products That Appeal To Eager Buyers…Bonnie Boots explains, step-by-step, her time-tested system for identifying trends, then creating products that appeal to that trend’s audience.

Promote Yourself

You Can Create A Holiday To Promote Your Special Interest… Instructions on how to name a special day and get it listed in Chase’s Calendar Of Events

Site Design 

Want To Energize Your Web Presence? Don’t Hide Your Face, Kimosabe!… Article explains why it’s so important to have your own photo on your marketing materials and what to do if you don’t like the way you look.

Don’t Let Sound Effects Scare Away Your Web Visitors…Article explains that the heart of good site design is letting your visitors take control of the environment.

Twitter

 TweetDeck Can Help You Manage Your Twitterverse… TweetDeck is a great free Twitter add-on that makes it easy to manage your contacts and update to Facebook.

How To Welcome Twitter Followers With A Welcoming Automatic Message… Article describes a free program that lets you add a welcome message to people that follow you on Twitter.

Einstein’s Too Smart To Be On Twitter… You don’t need Einstein to point out that if you don’t enjoy using Twitter, it’s probably costing you more time and energy than it’s worth.

Twitter About This-The Funniest T-Shirt In The Twittersphere!… Funniest ever Twitter T-Shirt design created by Bonnie Boots

When Astronaut Massiminio Twitters From Outer Space, Does He Get More Than 140 Characters?… Article suggests that if NASA considers Twitter important enough for astronauts to tweet from space, it just might be worth your time, as well!

Wordpress

 The PostRanger Interviews Bonnie Boots About The Fine Art Of Blogging For Business… Shawn Hessinger interviews Bonnie Boots and gets her secrets for getting your business blog noticed.

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I was clicking on my keyboard ever so quietly, checking my email one last time before I joined them in the Land of Nod. A link in an email lead me to a website. The instant that site loaded in my browser LOUD MUSIC BLASTED FROM MY SPEAKERS!!

Startled from sleep, my husband jumped up, tumbling the shocked cat from the bed. They both hissed at me as I struggled to turn down my speakers and close my browser. None of us were happy campers.

Has this ever happened in your home? It’s happened so often in mine that I now turn the computer speakers off after dark.

It’s not unusual to enter a web page and find music blasting when you’re in Facebook or when you stumble upon sales pages put up by immature male marketers. But I’ve even been shocked out of my socks by blaring eBay pages.

People who set their web pages to start playing music or sound effects as soon as a visitor enters haven’t stopped to think that people accessing their site might be quietly surfing as they wait in a hospital hallway, or sit with a sleeping baby.

These morons assume they know your situation. And they make a decision to take control of your experience.

That decision flies in the face of every study I’ve read on how people like to use the internt. In those studies, one thing stands out. What the average web surfer wants most when they visit a website is CONTROL.

They want to choose whether or not they listen to music.

They want to choose whether or not they watch a video.

Take away their ability to choose, and they’ll choose to leave. But be assured, the very people that drive you away with loud, flashing, annoying sites will also be the ones who try to block you from leaving with an endless sequence of pop-ups.

Web site design is not about entertaining yourself. It’s not about showing off the new plugin or widget you just found.  Web site design is about creating an inviting atmosphere for visitors, even visitors whose taste in music doesn’t match yours.

The morons blasting music from their pages will never learn, but you will.  You’ll learn to treat your site’s visitors like honored guests, not like hostages. You’ll learn to think about what your visitors want, not what you want them to have. And you’ll learn that ultimately, giving people what they want is the best way to get what you want!

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine and this companion The Internet Wizards Blog to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the upper right corner of this page. You’ll be glad you did!

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Just thinking about creating a new product raises so many questions. What kind of product could you create? How would you make it? How would you sell it?

These are questions that made me stumble when I was starting out.

I’ve spent more than 30 years creating new products for all sorts of companies. I’ve written and designed everything from print books to craft kits. But way back when I was starting out, I was completely overwhelmed by the process of product creation. It seemed so complex and confusing!

But with luck and persistence, and a whole lot of help from more experienced writers and designers, I learned that there were basic steps to the process of creating a product.

I also learned that if I took the first steps, one by one, and actually worked on them, instead of just reading  about them, I was soon fully involved in creating a product!

These are the baby steps my mentors taught me to follow in planning the creation of a product:

1.Define your target. Know exactly whom it is you want to sell to.

2.Research your target. What age are they? Where do they live? What sort of products are they already buying? What is their average expendable income?

3.Make a list of items they are already known to purchase and enjoy.

4.Make a list of ways you could improve some of these products, perhaps by adding features, making it easier to use, simplifying it or explaining it better.

5.Make a list of resources you have available to you, ranging from your own personal experience and knowledge, to personal contacts you can call on, suppliers you know of, and anyone and anything else that may be valuable to you when you’re working on a product for this target market.

6.Considering the resources you have available, choose ONE item from the list of ways you could improve an already-existing product. Commit yourself to focusing all your attention on working out that one, single product idea.

Look around the room you’re in right now. Everything you see before you, every book and paper and pen, the computer you’re using, the chair you’re sitting on, the clothes you’re wearing, everything  is a product that began with these first steps.

By gathering pertinent information, brainstorming a number of product ideas and then committing to the ONE idea you have the time, the resources and the personal interest to develop, you’ve already completed the most important steps on the path to creating your own product.

Remember, using material and resources you’ve already created for your business is a great way to make your first product. If you’ve written a white paper or report, given a speech or taught a class, you already have the content you need for an ebook, a workbook, even a class presented as an audio or video!

If you want to spread your creative wings and make products to market on the web, my book, "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products"will inspire you to be your most creative, successful  self by showing you just some of the many ways I use the internet to make creative cash.

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  Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine, http://www.theinternetwizards.com and The Internet Wizards Blog at to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the upper right corner of this page.

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Are You A Hunter Or A Gatherer? …Trace your ancestry back to its earliest roots and you’ll find you inherited a tendency to be either a hunter or a gatherer. Find out what happens when a gatherer tries to engage in a hunter’s business.

Are You Hunting For New Business With A Prehistoric Website?…Is your web site so outdated in function and appearance that it’s nearly prehistoric? If so, here’s a suggestion that will keep you business from looking like a dinosaur to an audience of media-savvy web surfers. 

Why The Advice "Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow" Isn’t Working For You….If you’ve been doing what you love but the money isn’t flooding in to fill your bank account, you need to know there’s an unspoken flip side to that maxim.

I promise the funny illustrations alone will make it worth a visit.. The excellent articles are just the icing on the Cretaceous cake!

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine and Blog for self-employed professionals, small business owners and people with specialized knowledge that want to create their own products, and use Wordpress and the internet to promote and market their business. To stay updated on her doings, type your name and email into the subscribe form in the upper right corner!

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Note that your submission must be an existing event, not a theoretical one. But it doesn’t take much to create an event. Name it. Announce yourself as the sponsor. (That means you’re responsible for renewal information about your yearly event.) Then declare your event by sending out press releases and posting it on your site.

Of course, Chase’s doesn’t accept every submission. They look for “appropriate events,” They do not, for example, accept birthdays or other self-aggrandizing events. 

You’re more likely to have your event accepted by Chase’s if it applies to or would have importance for many people.

Declaring your own special day and having it accepted by Chase’s is a great way to bring attention and importance to your particular cause. As a side benefit, of course, it also brings attention to you, the sponsor, and traffic to your site.

Getting listed in Chase’s can be like winning the public relations lottery!

Chase’s Calendar Of Events, of course, is the book used by every newspaper, magazine and calendar publisher. Anytime you see a list like “Today’s Events: National Pie Month, Fire Prevention Week, Pain Awareness Day, that list was compiled from Chase’s Events Calendar.

As a newspaper columnist, I always had a copy of Chase’s Calendar Of Events on my desk. Looking up events is an easy way to spin a story idea, especially when you need 200 words to fill a small space just minutes before print deadline. So keep in mind that you never know where your special day or event will be noticed. It could be reported around the world!

The deadline to submit an event to Chase’s Calendar of Events is April 15^th. Events submitted and accepted by April 15, 2010 will be published in the 2011 edition. You can see full details by clicking here to visit Chase’s Calendar of Events.

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Blog and The Internet Wizards Magazine for self-employed people that want to sue the magic of the internet to build their business and boost their profits. If you want internet marketing made understandable without all the hype and hard sell, you’ll want to add your name and email to the subscribe form in the upper right corner

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Last week I was considering attending a trade seminar for owners of digital publishing businesses, in particular because Corey Perlman will be one of the speakers. Perlman is well known for his book eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques To Grow Your Business. He’s conducted more than 200 eBoot Camp workshops all over the world and is considered an expert at teaching small businesses owners how to effectively use the internet to market their goods and services.

Surely such an internet expert jumped on the Twitter bandwagon early and has been tweeting ever since, right? Wrong. When I checked on Twitter, he wasn’t listed.

I told this story to a new client who came to me in part because  he butted heads with his last business coach. That coach pushed this internationally known medical expert into doing daily postings on Twitter and Facebook, telling him “You must! All the experts do it.”

My client complained that he considered it a waste of time and an annoyance. “It puts me in a bad mood every time I stop to do it,” he complained. “And I can’t believe my business rests on something so inconsequential as tweeting.”

I told him I agreed. There’s simply no sense putting him in a bad mood once a day by forcing him to stop and tweet. Not when his time is so valuable.

I offered to put an assistant to work writing daily tweets for him, but this client is having none of it. He had Twitter shoved down his throat and now he’s through. And I’m fine with that.

As a business coach, my job is to find the most effective ways for each of my clients to market themselves on the internet.

With so many ways available, one tool or another isn’t going to make or break any business. I strive to guide self-employed people into using the tools they’ll enjoy most, because those are the tools they’ll use most often. And in marketing, persistence pays off.

If you’re forcing yourself to use Twitter because you’ve been told ALL the experts do it, give yourself a break. You don’t need to be Einstein to figure out that  if you don’t like using Twitter, it’s probably costing you more time and energy than it’s worth.

P.S. Perlman’s blog this week contained news that he’s now on Twitter. But I’ll be surprised if it’s the expert himself, and not an assistant, that’s texting in those tweets.

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Hello! Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Bonnie Boots.

I spent thirty years as an award winning, freelance writer and designer. As a freelance writer, my ability to create compelling content brought me work with media of every kind, including television and radio. In fact, my morning radio spots were among the highest-rated drive time segments in their market in 2001. As a weekly newspaper columnist, my witty writing made me one of the most talked-about media personalities in Tampa Bay and garnered multiple national awards. As a writer for magazines and newspapers, I’ve been the recipient of multiple major awards from journalism associations including the Society of Professional Journalists and the Association of Food Journalists. In addition, my artwork and product designs have been published by numerous magazines and major corporations such as McCalls Patterns & Crafts, one of the largest craft publishers in the world. But then I discovered the internet! Today, I’m an award-winning digital publisher and coach/consultant in online publishing and marketing. My focus is on helping people maximize their creative potential, make their own products and market on the internet. I’m passionate about teaching people to use the internet as an avenue for profitably publishing, advertising and promoting their own goods and services. Want to know more about me? Click here to read an interview with me by Shawn Hessinger in the PostRanger Blog. Want more? Click here to read an interview with me by award-winning newspaper columnist Judy Hill. Want even more? Use the subscribe form in the upper right to stay in touch and be updated on new material in this blog and my websites!

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