mariacalanchini.com

Getting Your Website Designed For Under $100 – Step 2

mariarise — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 21:02:05 +0000

This is a very simple step 2 in getting your website designed very inexpensively. If you are a small business on a tiny budget you can still have a beautiful website. In step 1 I showed you how to find a virtual designer. In step 2 I am going to show you how to come up with a design concept and then use your virtual designer to create your vision. The process is very fun and very simple and all you need to do is research elements that you like on other websites and let your designer’s imagination go to work. You will want to use a screencast tool like Jing to communicate with your designer. It really can be simple if you take it step by step. Here is a simple breakdown of the steps.

1 – Hire a virtual designer

2 – Find other websites that have elements that you like

3 – Make a screencast video for your designer showing him/her what you like on other sites

4 – Send your designer your logo and your screencast video and tell them what you want on the landing page of your site

5 – Ask for a first mock up based on your video and logo

6 – Go back and forth with your designer tweaking the look until you are happy with the results

How To Design and Build Your Website(s) With An Outsourcer Very Inexpensively – Step 1

mariarise — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:40:16 +0000

In this video I walk you through step one of how to design and outsource your website. Step one means finding the workers that are right for you and that you can afford and that you can build a relationship with. This process can be intimidating to a lot of people so I am going to show you just how easy it can be. There are thousands of amazing workers out there who are willing to work with you on a very part time basis, even as little as 2 hours a week. Once you find a great contractor you can build a long term relationship with that contractor and have them available whenever you need them. Odesk is my absolute favorite place to find a contractor.

How To Do Keyword Research For Your Website, Find Hidden Keyword Gems

mariarise — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 18:37:02 +0000

Knowing the right keywords for your website is one of the most important things you will research for your website. You must know how to find and select the keywords that people are actually looking for. Google has all this information and will gladly share it with you for free. All you have to do is a little bit of research using the Google keyword tool and won’t take long to uncover some hidden gems. In this video I do live research for a new kids website that I am building. I will walk you through how to use the Google keyword tool and show you how I am picking my keywords for my upcoming site. In this video I find a great keyword for my site that won’t be hard to optimize for because it is a longtail keyword and not as many sites are going to compete for it. In the next video I will show you how and where to put these keywords on your website so you can make sure that the search engines will find your site. If you don’t already have my on site SEO map just click here for an instant download.

Here is a link to the Google Keyword Tool.

How To Pick A Great Hosting Service

mariarise — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:34:28 +0000

Having a great hosting service is one of the most important elements to your website. No matter how great your website may be if your hosting goes down, your site is down. I have seen client after client held hostage by their hosting company because they don’t really understand the ins and outs of what a great hosting company should offer and how much it should cost. First and foremost a good hosting company must offer great customer service round the clock. This is key and it is one of the qualities that I look for in most of my online service providers. You want to be able to speak with a knowledgeable, friendly representative that will help you troubleshoot any issues you have. If you never deal with your hosting and you let your webmaster take care of all that, that is fine but that bring me to point number two. Don’t be held hostage by your webmaster either. I see many small businesses who let their webmaster host their websites. What happens if you break up with your webmaster? Not a good situation! You always want to be the one that owns your hosting account. You can give your webmaster access to your account but you want to own it. In this video I walk through the ins and outs of web hosting, what you should look for and why you should never pay for email accounts.

For my favorite hosting company, just click here

Two Must Have Tools For Every Website Owner

mariarise — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 19:47:06 +0000

There are so many tools on the web and it gets very overwhelming to sort through all of them and try to figure out which will be the best to use. Less is usually more when it comes to this type of thing. A couple of foundational tools that keep you well organized and save you time are usually the way to go. Through years of working with multiple clients in vastly different businesses I have found that these two tools apply to everyone; lastpass.com and jingproject.com. I have had clients tell me that these tools have changed their lives. Most of them regret not using these tools earlier. So what are these tools?

Last Pass is literally the last password organizer that you will ever need. It generates passwords and organizes them and remembers them. If you are old school and have your passwords stored on some excel sheet on your computer that you have to look at every time you log in, you will love last pass. It is safe, it generates unique passwords for all of your accounts and you can share these passwords with others via lastpass without people actually seeing your passwords. Just go here and get it. Did I say that it is free? because it is or you can upgrade to premium for a whopping $12 per year.

The second must have tool is Jing. I Looooove Jing and can’t say enough good things about it. You can use Jing to record your computer screen and anything you care to say while recording your computer screen. I use this all the time to make little videos that I send to clients explaining how to do things. It saves me hours on writing out long lengthy emails or trying to describe something that I can just show them on Jing.

I promise you these tools will change your business life for the better. Go get them!

How To Hire A Virtual Assistant

mariarise — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:26:02 +0000

Have you ever wanted to hire a virtual assistant, aka a VA? A VA can be an assistant that is based anywhere in the world and can do just about anything that can be processed on a computer whether it is word processing, website building, accounting, editing photographs etc. The possibilities are endless. Hiring a VA overseas can be a bit of a daunting experience the first time but it is really much simpler than you may think. With Odesk, not only can you find a virtual assistant but you can test them out first, pay them through Odesk’s secure system and track their work online. Yes, that is right, in order for a VA to be paid he/she must first log into Odesk before starting work. While working Odesk will monitor their computer screen and you get a daily work diary so you can check out what your VA has been up to. In this quick video I show you the ins and outs of how to hire a virtual assistant overseas.

Get A Free Phone Number and Text Service

mariarise — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:05:37 +0000

Are you a small business that wants a free phone number? or maybe you are a solopreneur who doesn’t want to give out your personal cell phone to everyone you meet but you don’t have two phone lines. Maybe you have a house line, a business line and a cell line and you want to consolidate everything to one number. Google voice is the perfect solution to a free phone number because it is free and you can do all sorts of cool things like record separate voicemail greetings for different callers, have all your voicemails transcribed to text and sent to your email box, get the google app and text away for free and the list goes on. Check out all the amazing features right here and then go get yourself a google voice number.

How To Back Up Your Computer With No Hassles

mariarise — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:12:23 +0000

Are you one of those people that knows you should back up your computer but doesn’t want to deal with it? Backing up your computer without any hassles couldn’t be easier with Mozy. All you have to do is sign up for an account at Mozy.com and go through a short and easy set up process. Once you are done, you are done and Mozy will continue to back up your site every 6-8 hours automatically. Don’t wait until your computer crashes to back up your hard drive.

Online Organizer

mariarise — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:19:44 +0000

Have you ever had multiple people working on one project? Do you find yourself sharing files and emailing back and forth with your colleagues? After a few days it can be very difficult to manage all the data a collaborative project will create. I just started using a fantastic online organizer called Podio. You can use this for small or big projects or just your own stuff to keep yourself organized. Take a look at this and let me know what you think.

Free Keyword Tool

mariarise — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 04:44:36 +0000

Ever wonder how certain blog posts end up at the top of Google? Google knows all and it certainly knows what keywords we all search for. If you know how to pick and choose the right keywords for all of your blog posts you will have a much better chance of landing a spot in the search engines. Today I am going to show you a free keyword tool, courtesy of Google, that can help land you a coveted spot in the search engines.