WordPress Themes & WordPress Blog Design for Small Business.

In Ohio, where I grew up, we had cowtipping. Here in the blogosphere, thanks to Easton Ellsworth, we have blogtipping.

“What’s blogtipping? It’s where you forget yourself for a few minutes and think about another blogger. It’s a win-win. All you do is this: Say three nice things and offer one simple tip.”

I was the recipient of a blogtip yesterday, compliments of Tom Bailey over at Business Blog Hive. Here’s just a slice, but check out the full post for yourself, and jump on the blogtipping train next month.

“Michael D. Pollock’s blog is one of those solid pieces of work that every business blogger should add to their feed reader.”

Thanks Tom. And thanks Easton for starting the meme. This is a great way to expose new bloggers and generate some link love. And that’s good for your karma.

Overwhelm is one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs experience on a daily basis. The definition of overwhelm, according to The Brainy Dictionary is, “To cover over completely, as by a great wave; to overflow and bury beneath; to engulf; hence, figuratively, to immerse and bear down; to overpower; to crush; to bury; to oppress, etc., overpoweringly.” Whew…sound familiar? I’ve been there, too, so I understand -it’s not a fun place to be.

As a business owner, with a full personal life as well, you don’t have to look very far to understand why it’s easy to often feel over the edge. It’s not just that you’re simply juggling a lot - as an entrepreneur, you are also risking a lot - your money, your reputation, your future. Being an entrepreneur is a commendable pair of shoes to step into. And, if you don’t get a handle on understanding overwhelm you might as well buy stock in Band-Aids to deal with the painful blisters on your feet.

Believe it or not, it is possible to change your relationship with overwhelm enabling you to experience a better quality of day to day life. Here are my 10 tips for turning overwhelm around. If you want them to work - you will need to carve out the time to practice them, that’s if you agree with the adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Read the full article

A little over a month ago, I introduced Solostream Web Studio. If you remember, I set a short term goal to establish it as a successful small business web design firm. At the time, “successful” meant that it would support me financially without having to work an additional full-time job. I thought (hoped) I could make it happen by the end of the year.

It happened sooner than that. August 28 (last Monday) was officially my last day as an employee. I now operate Solostream Web Studio full-time from my home office. It’s a little weird. It just sort of happened. I wrote a few blog posts that drew a lot of interest and led to a lot of links from bigger sites, and the people just showed up and wanted to work with me. So much so that I couldn’t afford to go off to a job every day when there was so much business coming in here at home.

There’s more to it than that, of course, and I’ll talk about it later. For now, I just wanted to take this opportunity to update everyone and tell you how amazing it feels to be free. Especially after dreaming and writing about it for nearly two years.

Ever since I began using Skype a couple years ago, I’ve been looking for the best way to use it without being tethered to my PC by a pair of headphones. I tried the Bluetooth route, but the sound quality was less than adequate, and I could never get used to those little Bluetooth ear pieces hanging over my ear. What I really wanted was just to use my regular landline headset for Skype and regular landline calls (it’s all about integration with me).

This weekend, during a trip to BestBuy, I found a solution. It’s called the D-Link DPH-50U Skype USB Phone Adapter. Read the full article

Wendy Piersall wrote a nice post titled: Unsuspecting Secrets to Fast Blogging Success. Lot’s of good ideas there. Here’s one of my faves:

Be passionate about your chosen topic. If you are bored, your readers will be too. Same goes for blogging about a topic that you think will bring in the traffic and the money – but in the end, isn’t really what you are passionate about … Everyone wants to feel good and be happy – the more enthusiasm that comes through in your blog, the more your readers will catch it and come back for more.

If you really want to pump up the traffic to your blog or website, at least temporarily, just get a link from any of the Technorati Top 100 bloggers. No, it’s not easy, but here are ten ways that might gitterdun for ya.

Read the full article

One of my clients, Hi-Way Campers, has started listing some of their RVs for sale on eBay. Naturally, I had to figure out a way to integrate it into their website, which is build on a WordPress platform. First I looked around for a WP plugin, but there none to be found. And there’s probably a really good reason there’s no plugin. It’s too easy for a plugin. Read the full article

Rachel Cunliffe has a nice little write-up about how to password protect your WordPress site. I would add this to her list:

Check with your web host. Sometimes you can simply make a change on your control panel to password protect your site. My host 1and1, for example, provides this simple method in their FAQ section.

On June 28, 1994 I removed my U.S. Navy uniform for the last time and donned a business suit. Overnight, I went from steady-paycheck-sailor to self-employed life insurance agent (although I preferred the term “financial planner”). The number 1 rule you learn as a new life insurance agent is this:

You’re either in front of a client making your pitch or you’re trying to get in front of a client to make your pitch.

Read the full article

It’s time to start thinking differently about websites, blogs, podcasts, etc. In fact, it’s time to STOP thinking in terms of “blog” and “website” altogether. I’m not saying we should stop using terms like “blog” or “podcast.” Nor am I saying blogs are dead or anything like that. Afterall, the majority of the population hasn’t even caught up with the whole blogging phenomenon yet, and there’s probably no need to confuse them with new terms now.

But it’s time that we - as small business people, web publishers and developers - take our thinking to the next level. It’s time to start thinking in terms of an integrated “web publishing platform” instead of merely a blog, a website, a podcast or a video blog. Read the full article

Via Ann Michael

I am either incredibly foolish or very fortunate. Last year my husband and I ventured to go against well meaning advice and decided to build a house. Not just any house, but a completely custom straw bale house. For those of you new to alternative building - straw bale is an incredibly efficient, well proven, green method of insulating a traditional timber frame house. Read the full article

You may have noticed a little more activity around here lately, and I’m sure you’ve been laying awake at nights wondering what I’m up to. You have, right? Actually, I HAVE been laying awake at nights wondering what I’m up to, and I’m fairly certain I finally have it figured out.

Read the full article

If you’re sick of spam email and everything it takes to control it, it’s time you signed up for a Gmail account. I’ve been using Gmail for a little over a year, and it’s practically eliminated spam email for me. Sure, a few sneak through now and again, but nothing like the hundreds of bizop, porn, SEO and other spam messages I used to receive DAILY. It got to a point where I couldn’t let my daughter use the computer until I first had a chance to sanitize my Outlook Express inbox.

Anti-Spam Software Stinks

I had tried a few different spam filters, like Vanquish, but none of them really eliminated the spam problem. Yes, they “controlled” the problem, but they also gave me an additional task of checking the emails they filtered out to make sure none of them were messages I really wanted, which happened more often than I liked. I was still a victim to spam. Plus, there was the annual subscription fee. Not much, mind you - Vanquish is about 25.00 per year - but in a small business, why spend money when you don’t have to?

Read the full article

So, you want to irritate your website visitors? You say you want to provide a lousy experience for them and practically guarantee they never return? Here are 5 ways to make it happen.

1. Make your off-site links open in a new window.
At one time, this was “convetional wisdom” for websites. The idea is you want people to remain on your site as long as possible, so if you link to an outside site, open that link in a new window, and thereby leave your website alive in the previous window.

That line of thinking is so Web 1.0. The reality is people will leave your site whether you want them to or not. Methods to trap them or keep them there just irritate them. Let them have the option to open links in a new window (or new tab for us Firefox users) if they choose.

Read the full article