Print Marketing
Here are a few examples of my print marketing skills:
Design a better Twitter profile
There are many things to do to your Twitter layout to make it better for human consumption. Here are a few tips and tricks that should help you design-wise along the way 🙂
First of all, if you don’t want to go through the trouble of creating a full scaled Twitter background, I don’t blame you, it can be a major #PITA–there are so many screen types and sizes you will have to account for so it’s honestly not the worst idea in the world to do a Google Search for some free Twitter backgrounds. You can also get some free patterns and color palette ideas from COLOURlovers by Themeleon.
So moving on to your Twitter profile picture size.. It’s ideal to have a photo that’s square that’s maxxed at 500 x 500 pixels.. I suggest this number is your baseline. You’re totally welcome to upload a much higher quality photo; just keep in mind it’s going to crop it to a square. Your Twitter profile photo size will change to 73 x 73 pixels when someone’s just glancing at your profile, before they click the image to enlarge it. Also, when your photos is viewed in the home stream, you should also take note that it will resize itself to 48 x 48 pixels.
When you’re uploading any photo to the web, please remember to SEO (Search Engine Optimize, for all you newbies) the name of the file. Don’t just upload “IMG0069,” because that’s not going to ever help Google point potential searchers to your photo.
Now let’s think about your Twitter header image. Your header image should be 520 x 260 pixels. You should remember that there are certain places where your profile picture and Twitter bio content are going to be sitting.
Fill out the short form below for a free download for your own custom Twitter header. If you’d like to receive the Adobe Illustrator file, please Tweet me or leave a comment below and I’ll send it right over personally 🙂
[email-download download_id=”1″ contact_form_id=”2082″]
So that’s about it for the design… Why don’t you email me if you’d like to chat about perfecting your Twitter bio 🙂
Updated 10/27! Here’s an article from Mashable that will give you some direction when it comes down to your Bio. Please let me know in the comments section if you have any further resources you’d like to share!
How to remove Visual Deals from your Chrome Browser
A couple of days ago, I started noticing a little popup when I visited online stores.. Amazon, Craigslist, eBay.. even Google keyword searches seemed to trigger product placement ads, even though I consistently use AdBlockPlus..
So I figured I’d do a little digging and report back on how to fix this new adware/malware issue, since when I clicked on the actual link in order to try to disable the add-on, it took me on a wild-turkey chase! I had no such Chrome Extension or Add-On called “ChromeReload,” which was mentioned when you tried to disable it directly from each page…
First of all, upon Googling this issue, I came up with this article, which stated that it was probably the “Translate selection” extension. I did not have that installed, so I had to find another reason why this damn thing was loading.
I did remember that Pinterest’s “Pin This Button” pinged me a couple of days ago, telling me that it was going to start advertising in-app. I guess I just assumed that if I logged into Pinterest.com it would start showing me ads… not necessarily embedding them in my searches!
Here’s how to remove the ads:
- Click to your settings in Chrome and then click “Extensions” on the left-hand side of your screen (that’s those three horizontal lines in the right top corner, or Window/Extensions will also get you there)
- Find “Pinterest button” and click on “Options”
- A new tab/screen should pop up that says that Visual Deals product search is: enabled. Simply click that “Change” button to disable it.
Now just confirm that it’s gone! Go to any eCommerce site and click on a product. If you don’t see that random popup trying to get you to visit a different site, then you should be good to go 🙂
Let me know if this works for you in the comments–or if there are other Chrome Extensions we should all be weary of!
How to automate your social feeds
First of all, you’re going to need to have a Facebook Page (personal or business) and/or Twitter account… but preferably both. Rather than walking you through setting up those social mediums, I’m just going to delve right into the syndication 🙂
Sign up for a Twitterfeed account and add your new feed by pasting the link from the originating site/aggregate. Don’t forget to test your RSS to make sure the feed parses before continuing!
Do you have a proper RSS link? If you notice that it doesn’t seem to work, then you can always create a Feedburner account and burn it (get a proper RSS link that works) using that service.
Click to Advanced Settings. I prefer it checking for new posts every 30 minutes to an hour, and I usually post 1 or two updates each time it checks. Depending on the feed, you can include title, description or both. I also prefer to shorten links using bit.ly so I may monitor another level of analytics which will also notify me if a ton of people are clicking on one of my shortened links.
There are a lot of other advanced options here, such as posting to LinkedIn and their corresponding thumbnail images, post sorting, optional prefixes and suffixes as well as a keyword filter. I’ll be skipping on by these for this project (that’s up to your need!). Click the button that says “Continue to Step 2.“
Step 2 is where you link your services. If you are already publishing from your Facebook Page to your Twitter, then you don’t need to double up on your mediums.. Here you can choose from Twitter, Facebook (pages, personal), LinkedIn (personal only), and app.net.
Authenticate your account and find the page that you’d like to publish to.
There are a couple more UTM Tag options here, but for all intents and purposes, let’s skip that and click “Create Service.”
Now the feed should show up in your Twitterfeed Dashboard! If you know that the next posts are going to be coming out shortly, make sure you keep an eye on your feed over the next few hours to make sure it’s parsing properly.
Protip: Keep an eye on your feed on a daily basis if you don’t know where it’s coming from. You could be accidentally sharing some spammy posts. and that’s not good for your Kred nor your Klout o.O
Any questions or need me to help you set it up? Message me! -kris10
How to become an affiliate on Eventbrite and earn cash
So you’ve been invited by your friend/employer to become an affiliate of an event to make some money promoting it. Supercool. First of all, I suggest you sign up for PayPal and opt to get a debit card so your cash can be liquid sooner than later when the affiliate money from each event has processed into your account.
You should have received an email by now that gives you a link to click in order to sign up for the program. Click “Join this program” to get started.
This will bring you to your affiliate page, where it will give you your own personal referral link which you must share in order to get credit. If you direct your friends to the original link, you will not get paid.
Take this link to Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, your blog.. wherever you can post it to in order to make the most $ off of each event. If you keep an eye on your Referrals/Attendees page on Eventbrite, it will tell you how many people are clicking your link, how many tickets you’ve sold, your total sales, your share, and after the event, that which has been paid and that money which is still due.
Now rock it.
How to add Event Affiliates on Eventbrite
So you’ve got your event published through Eventbrite.. and you’ve created an affiliate program for your employees or random affiliates.
Here’s how you go about showing your own internal promotional program:
First of all log into your Eventbrite Management Dashboard, which should be available when you log in if you’ve created an event. You should have these options to the left. Click on the “Affiliate Programs” link and click the green button that says “Create a new affiliate program.”
It should bring up a screen that allows you to input a code as well as add a referral fee or % of ticket price. You can make it public if you’d like your event to possibly be picked up by local promoters and add a few notes that the affiliate will see. Save it.
If you click on the link of your affiliate name, you should be able to see a link. Copy that link and forward it to your employees in an email that sounds something like this…
“You’re invited to become an affiliate of our event and receive 20% of all of your ticket sales when people use your link to view and pay for this event. Please sign up for PayPal to get paid. To accept this invitation to become an affiliate, please visit this link and sign up to receive your customized web address. Your referrals MUST use your individualized link in order for you to be paid, so please post everywhere, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, your blog, etc.”
….
Now let’s look at it from the standpoint of your future affiliate.
How to promote your event and use your staff as salespeople on Facebook
Admin and Staff:
- Open a Chrome browser. If you don’t have Chrome installed, download it here: http://google.com/chrome
- Add the “Check Them All” plugin to your Chrome
Admin:
- Create a paid event using Eventbrite
- Publish it to Facebook using the “Manage” tab
- Add a public affiliate program and offer 10-20% of ticket sales
Admin & Staff:
- Find the event on your company’s fan page
- Click “Join”
- When you join an “Invite Friends” button will show up, so click it
- Click the “Search by Name” button and scroll down to “Newport, RI”
- Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list. Facebook will take it’s time populating all of your friends
- Click the black and white checkbox located on the chrome toolbar
- Then press “Save.” You may have to enter a “Capcha” to prove you’re a human
Admin:
- Give certain staff “Content Creator” privileges on your fan page
Admin & Staff with privileges:
- Download Facebook’s Pages Manager for iPhone and Android
- Take photos and video and upload them using the Pages Manager in real time
- Pre-event, find videos and photos of the band and post them to the event page
- If you have Twitter, tweet to @OnePelhamEast when you’re at the event
After the event:
- Export your email addresses into MailChimp
- Send weekly emails to past attendees or email signups with the weekly bands
- Work to grow your mailing list by making it easy for visitors
- fill out a short form by visiting a link
- or by scanning a QR code
Is this too much? Would you like to have x10industries share your event with up to 3,000 New England locals? For only $99 an event, we will set up your event on Eventbrite and Facebook and invite our masses! Contact us using the form below.
How to back up and upgrade your WordPress site using GoDaddy
It’s actually super important to back up your WordPress site or blog.. If you haven’t read the news lately, WordPress sites are becoming compromised and have been targeted by hackers because of easy-to-guess passwords or security flaws in outdated WordPress builds. WordPress pushes out a few updates a year, to ensure your site is pretty darn secure and you should definitely keep an eye on your Dashboard every couple of months…
So, after you’ve changed your password to include a CAPs and a # or a few of both, and notate it somewhere private, you can work to update and back up your WP build. You should not be logged into your site while you’re updating it. If anybody could possibly be working on your site at the time you’d like to update, please tell them to log out.
Log into your GoDaddy and click to your Hosting Connection Installed Applications that need updates.
Click on “Update Now”
Then, you’ll be taken to a page where you can Install the new update… where you should click “Install Now.”
The next screen is simply going to walk you through the patch install update… Pretty much if you want it done without thinking so much, just keep clicking “Next” for the next two screens.. but this will explain them a little more…
Step 1: Patch install details
1) Backup the database,
2) Install the patch, and
3) Confirm the installation is successful
Step 2: Schedule patch
This will let you choose a time (the default is usually 5 minutes from now) where GoDaddy will back up your WordPress and upgrade your database. Click Next.
Now your installation request for WordPress has been submitted. The administrative email will receive a confirmation that the patch is complete.
**KEEP IN MIND***
IF you happen to be working with a custom-built theme, it may not play nicely with the newest version of WordPress.. you should contact us if you feel that your site is more complex so we may professionally assist you.
How to restore your randomly deleted Google Contacts
(featured image credit izifunny.com)
One of my clients believes his gmail recently got hacked into because he seems to have lost all of his contacts suddenly 🙁 …so immediately after changing his password to something much more secure in his Security Settings, we did a complete restore to a week prior, when he knows he had his contacts in there.
First, go to Google Contacts and find the “More” dropdown..
Then, click “Restore contacts.”
Restore to like a week ago…
And that should bring them back! If not, try to restore back a little farther. Let me know that it works for you in the comments!
10 Best WordPress Plugins
So I’ve gone through a lot of trial and error this year with themes and plugins and trying to work within the realm of my clients’ needs. A lot of you guys asked for things I didn’t even know I could do…
Here’s a shortlist of what I have been working with in 2012 and through 2013 🙂
Your WordPress blog comes naturally with this amazing spam filter, but you do need to sign up to get an API on their website. To sign up for an API key, click here. Star that email that you get because you’ll probably need that key later on in your blogging career. You can use it with multiple blogs.
To use: Goto Plugins>Activate Akismet>Settings>Paste your API Key & update.
Even if you don’t have the ability to edit your favicon (that little thingie in the corner of your browser), this will override any (most) theme favicon customizations.
To use: Goto Plugins>All in one Favicon>Settings>Upload
Google Analytics for WordPress:
Easily integrate Analytics without getting too elbow-deep into code thereby screwing up your site.
If you ever find yourself in Google Webmaster Tools, you can easily upload a sitemap. This plugin will create http://domain.com/sitemap.xml so that you may paste painlessly into your sitemap dashboard.
Comes standard but if you’re more familiar with WordPress.com, you should activate this by default. Has a lot of functions if you connect with WP.com
Link Manager:
Now that the new upgrade of WordPress doesn’t include the ability to add/edit links (unless you created your site and edited your links prior to the 3.5 release), I suggest all new installs should add this plugin. Here, you can list your affiliates, clients, links to other sites you trust, ads, etc.
It’s that annoying pop-up thing that hits you every time you come to this page–but it works and gets me business. Connect with the Facebook API for additional functions.. and it’s not that $$ if you want to get the paid version. This plugin boasts Online Scheduling and an easy way to connect via your calendaring software with a proactive contact form.
Meteor Slides:
If you want a responsive slider that either is images or points to pages, install this plugin. Here, you can manipulate the # of slides, size, frequency, navigation, transition, and all by installing a [shortcode] in any of your pages or widgets. You can have multiple slideshows on all your pages. I’m not saying it’s not time-consuming tagging and re-naming all your images for SEO purposes, but do that part first, and thank me later.
Pinterest Pinboard Widget:
Pinterest fever is spreading like wildfire. Why doesn’t your company create a user account and spread knowledge within your market? If you’re an architect, write articles about structures with compelling imagery and start sharing! If you’re a restaurant, pin photos of your food and offer recipes on your blog. If you’re an interior designer, start writing and pinning about the sort of design you concentrate on. Or hire out x10industries to market for you..
User Role Editor:
If you want to remain the Admin but want to give your client more access to the back end.. you can manipulate user roles, overriding any defaults using this plugin.