One of my own professional photos by Siddiqi Ray at au-ray.com.

Are you starting to field speaking engagement offers or are you interested in speaking to outside groups?

Most corporations and conferences will request your press kit before you negotiate your fee. Putting together a press kit instantly establishes your credibility. Think of it as your digital resume.

Once you’ve put this together, I also recommend keeping a copy in your online storage area such as dropbox so you can always access your info — even if you can’t access your website. Ideally, you will also save this information into a .pdf or .zip file so that you can easily send the kit via email.

The following is a guide of items that CAN be included in your kit — if you don’t have everything on the list, that’s ok. You may need to ask your designers, photographers or assistants for certain files.

Press Kit Quick List:

1. High resolution photos
   This should include your standard headshot — the image you use for all of your professional materials (website, brochures, social media profiles pics, gravatar, etc.) This will likely be a large file suitable for print publications.
2. Low resolution photos
   This will be smaller photos suitable for websites and electronic media (such as newsletters).
   You can use the same photo as #1, this will just be a smaller file size.

3. Short version of your bio
   This should be no more than one paragraph – hit all of your highlights but keep the writing tight and concise. Think presentation bio / blurb of a book jacket.

4. Long version of your bio
   This should be 3-5 paragraphs. You can go into a bit more depth and detail your education, inspiration, achievments and success stories.
5. Links to website(s) / social media accounts
   List all the places you actively connect with people (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest etc…)
6. Link to video demo reel
   If you have video, this is a great addition to the kit. Keep the clip short – no more than 2-4 minutes. Ideally, it should be hosted on youtube or vimeo. Keep it easy for your visitors to use the video by providing the embed code/link underneath the video.
7. Link to audio files
   Have .mp3s of interviews or podcasts? Put links here — if possible, add an audio player so people can instantly hear your voice.
8. Vector version of your logo
   You should have a vector version of your logo. You will use this version for all print materials (including business cards).
   The format will likely be .eps, .ai or .pdf — make sure you get this from your designer!
9. Bitmap version of your logo
   The format will likely be .jpg, .gif, or .png. This is typically used on your website or electronic media – again, ask your designer for this file.
10. Testimonials/praise from clients and customers
11. Press Mentions
    Have you been featured in a newspaper, magazine, blog, tv, or other media outlet?
    Show screenshots and links to article mentions. Website mentions often disappear into the ether — make sure to grab a screenshot of the article for your records!
12. Products
    Have you designed a product, written a book, produced a CD or DVD?
    Add product images and links to purchase your product.
13. Press Releases

I’ve owned Minima Designs since 2006. When I first launched my company, I never thought about business coaching for my own business. While I often worked directly with coaches who guided retail businesses, I never thought I could apply that thinking to my own company. I’m constantly reading blogs, magazines and books to keep pace with advancing technology – but online business coaching never entered the picture.

Enter 2011 and Marie Forleo. Encouraged by a very successful friend who runs an online heath coaching practice, I enrolled in B-school.

Ostensibly I took the course to increase my knowledge for my own clients, not thinking it would apply to my own business. The six week course revolutionized how I approach both client work and my own offerings. Marie provides clear, concise and ACTIONABLE strategies that work time and time again. Her encouragement and practical advice resonates with thousands of people.

The lessons I’ve learned and the connections with other like-minded individuals have been game-changing for me. More than anything, having a huge network of successful, smart and driven female entrepreneurs has been amazing. I know if I have questions, I can instantly reach out to hundreds of people who have the answers and are honored to help.

If you know me either virtually or in real life, you know I rarely promote people and programs. Integrity, transparency and honesty mean everything to me – I only recommend products and services that I personally use for my own business.

Yes, you have to do the work. No, it may not always be easy.
But it’s worth it, trust me.
Take the time to invest in your business and yourself.

Show your integrity and your creativity instead of straight up copying who you think is successful. There’s a huge difference between inspiration and plagiarism.

If you’ve been in business long enough, you may have even encountered a few copycats of your own.

The first copycat I encountered literally stole graphics from one of my most popular sites. Totally stunned, I called the business in question and was told that “they found the graphics on google” and couldn’t understand what the big deal was.

FYI, to those reading, all of my work is custom.
So yes, you are stealing, and no, it’s not a free template.

After 45 days, they finally relented and modified the site.
And yes, it looks awful.

When you copy others, you get a substandard product.
Design with integrity or hire people who care.

If you’re a coder, read the markup to understand it and make something functional.
If you’re a designer, figure out the techniques employed and make something new.
If you’re a blogger, take notes, but share your own thoughts.
If you’re an entrepreneur, quit copying your idols and create your own methodologies.

Learn & be inspired, but implement in your unique voice. It matters.

Encountered copycats? Share your story!

We wanted to keep the look in line with Julep’s New Southern Cuisine, Mint’s sister restaurant – a site we designed three years ago. Mint is a casual, everyday neighborhood restaurant featuring locally sourced food. Beautiful lights with Edison bulbs contribute to the warm, relaxed interior. Julep’s is a high end dining experience – an amazing restaurant with a romantic atmosphere (I even celebrated my wedding there). Both restaurants serve some of the best food in Richmond.

We wanted to reference the Juleps’ site, but still give the Mint site its own flair. Utilizing large-scale background images of the warm interior and food, the main site design features a menu that opens to display the amazing food offerings. Bacon wrapped dates anyone? The colors retain brand consistency with warm cream tones and mint julep greens. The mint leaf is used as a motif in the navigation, favicon and on the menu – referencing the logo for both Julep’s and Mint.

Visiting Richmond? Go to Mint for lunch and Julep’s for dinner!

Spam. Ick.

Whether human generated or bot made, it’s a definite PITA.

Did you know that there are thousands of people employed to generate linkback spam? By commenting on your site with links back to their sites, they are trying to improve their page rank on search engines..

Here’s a secret trick I install on all my new sites that has helped tremendously with automated spam:

Install the growmap anti spam plugin.

This free and simple plugin requires the commenter to click a check box to prove they aren’t a spambot. It won’t prevent human generated spam, but it will greatly cut down on the auto-bot generated junk.

Find you’re getting a lot more spam on your blog?
Try these other plugins & techniques:

1. Akismet plugin — the grandaddy of them all, it is one of the most popular spam blocker plugins for WordPress. Akisment works by comparing comments posted on your site with the Askimet database to determine whether it’s spam or not.
Note: it does cost $5 a month for commercial sites
(and yes, if your site is related to your business, it is considered a commercial site).

2. Bad Behavior plugin – This plugin reviews the comments posted to your site and reviews how it’s being posted and by what software. This can prevent new kinds of spam as well as existing spam that’s being posted on other sites.

3. WP-reCAPTCHA – This plugin uses CAPTCHA technology to determine if the commentator is human or not. The poster must type in a random series of letters and/or numbers. Spambots typically cannot read the generated combination, preventing them from commenting on your blog.

4. Spam Free WordPress plugin

Other tips:
1. Make sure you have the discussion settings set to moderate/approve comments
2. You can block keywords and blacklist bad IP addresses

Rushing through changes and not testing is one of the biggest issues I see with DIY sites.

When we review our own site over and over, it’s easy to miss what is painfully obvious to our users.

• If you have buttons / calls to actions, are you testing them to make sure they still work?
• Did you add facebook, twitter & other social buttons — that don’t link anywhere?
• Does your email signup button work?
• Does your contact form work?

Nothing is more frustrating to your user than to repeatedly click on a button that goes nowhere — or worse — goes to an error page!

Take these action steps to whip your site into better shape pronto:

Please note – according to FaceBook’s terms of use, you can’t do the following:

• you cannot show price, discounts or give directions such as “Download it at our website” — that info must go in the about section of your page
• you cannot show contact information, such as web address, email or mailing address
• you cannot make references to Facebook features such as Like or Share
• you cannot make any calls to action, such as “Get it now”, “Tell your friends” or “Sign up for our newsletter”

Check out the Facebook Help Center for more information.

Have a cool photo to share? Post it in the comments below!

Tip #1: Clean up your dashboard.

When you log into WordPress, you’ll often see a lot of information on the main screen. Unless you’re a developer, most of the items will not be of interest to you. Instead, use the dashboard to show useful notices — if you’re using a shop plugin, analytics plugin or contact form plugin, you can see the latest information posted here.

To hide items from the dashboard, click on screen options at the upper right top of the screen and uncheck anything you don’t want to display.

Tip #2: Show more posts / pages on one page

Working with a lot of content? The default setting for page number is 20 — but what if you want to show more? Click on screen options in the upper right and put in the desired number of pages you’d like to see on one page (I usually show 30 or 40.) This will show more posts or pages on the main screen.

Tip #3: Give your space some space to write!

To increase the size of the text entry box when writing a blog click on:

Tools > Settings > Writing

Change the post box to 30 or 40 to give. I don’t recommend going larger than 50 unless you are working on a large monitor.

Tip #4: Change your default category

While you’re on the writing settings screen also change your default category from “uncategorized” to your most commonly used category. That way, you’ll always have your posts in a standard category.

I’ve had more clients than I care to count have their sites removed, email hacked and passwords changed by disgruntled (ex) exployees.

So here are a few safeguards to put in place:

1. Backup your site.
   (I know I know, we always say we’ll do this..kind of like writing a will and flossing our teeth.) But at least try to do this once a month — put it on the calendar. Do it when you feed the dog his heart worm pill. You can set sites to auto-backup, but I always like to make sure I also have a copy I’ve manually created stored in an off-site (cloud storage such as dropbox) location. In one instance, a client’s employee deleted all of the content from a site — I was able to have them back up and running in minutes.
2. Store your passwords in an easily accessible secure location.
   I personally use a password protected Excel spreadsheet stored on my hard drive, but there are numerous online password systems. Please don’t use the sticky note taped to the computer system of password recovery – you’re just inviting people to hack into your accounts.
3. Change your passwords
   When someone who has access to your accounts is removed from your company, make sure you change the passwords for all accounts. Think of yourself as a digital landlord changing the locks. Make sure to change passwords and remove extra accounts for your:

   • WordPress site
   • web host
   • email account(s)
   • email newsletter service (constant contact, mailchimp, aweber, etc)
   • FTP account
   • twitter
   • facebook
   • any other social media accounts
   • online scheduler (mindbodyonline, genbook, bizeebee, etc)
   • paypal, merchant accounts
   • any other online service accounts

   **Bonus points if you setup separate accounts just for them – then you can easily delete their accounts.

4. Use strong passwords
   It’s easy to use the cat’s name, but use strong passwords whenever possible. Google “strong password generator” to find free online services that instantly generate complex passwords that combine letters, numbers and special characters. And by the way, “password” isn’t a strong password.
5. Let them know you’re watching
   Make it a part of your HR manual that any malicious online activity will be monitored and not tolerated. There are great plugins to monitor activity on WordPress and if you use gmail, you can track what IP addresses accessed your account.

Check it out at http://bizeebee.com/blog/2012/01/6-things-to-know-before-hiring-a-web-designer/