Well in keeping with my new theme of Ready, Fire Aim, I dove in and started using it. Still hesitant on how to make the most of it and how to organize, but I do have to say, the more I use it the more I like it and more importantly, I can read it!! There are times I am writing so fast that I can’t read my writing.

One of the very cool things is that I have it on both my laptop and my desktop PCs and they synchronize between both which is ultra cool in my book.  So if you are looking for a way to organize your notes, thoughts, to dos etc. I would highly recommend giving Evernote a try. The basic version is free and so far I am not seeing any reason to upgrade.

It is a tool that I think can certainly help!

In Part 1 – we covered the wide variety of “Free Themes” available

In Part 2 – we covered the pros and cons of “Bulk Themes”

Here in Part 3 we cover my favorite – Premium Themes.

A Premium Theme is one where you pay for a theme that has been thoroughly tested and usually comes with great support not only from the developer but from the community that has been built around it. When I have a question, many times I can search the support forum and find an answer without needing to post a question. Looking for inspiration on the options and things you could do with the theme? The community is the place to check in with.

My favorite theme companies are:

StudioPress – http://StudioPress.com^*
*Affiliate link

iThemes – http://iThemes.com

There are more great companies out there, but I have not worked with them as much. They have solid reputations and have a loyal fan base as well, such as:

Woo Themes – http://WooThemes.com

Thesis Themes – http://DIYThemes.com

While Thesis is a great theme, with a ton of capability, I have a hard time recommending this theme those who are new to WordPress. Yes it has a ton of customization right out of the box, as long as you don’t mind your website looking like a ton of others out there also using Thesis. There are very few times I land on a website using Thesis and NOT know it is a Thesis theme.

It works extremely well, it is a very solid theme, comes at a great price and has loyal community support. For me, I want my websites to look a little different and not have the Thesis look and feel. To get that custom look means getting comfortable with the back end of your website and not everyone has the time or desire to take that extra step.

Here is a new one that I have been hearing tons about and I just picked up one for myself to play with and use on an upcoming membership site that I hope to be launching in the next month or two.

Optimize Press – http://OptimizePress

This is a full featured theme that offers you the ability to do sales pages, video sales pages, membership sites, launch funnels, squeeze pages and more. I’m going to be starting the tutorials soon and can give you a better report later. The demos I have seen and the feedback I have heard from others is very positive.

When it comes to a WordPress theme, I am a firm believer in, “You get what you pay for”. That doesn’t mean you need to spend $100s of dollars on a theme, most of the themes I use from the links above range in price from $70 – $97. That is a great investment in your website and web presence. For the price you get a quality, well built WordPress theme that is easily customized, built for SEO and has a community of support in place so if you do have a question, you have a place to get an answer.

I hope this gives you some food for thought and ideas on where to go to check out the resources that can help you and your business.

There are definitely entrepreneurs out there who make a lot of money from membership sites – to be honest from what I have seen they are few and far between. Don’t get me wrong, a well done membership site can absolutely be a money maker, the potential is there and there for the taking. However, what I see happening over and over again is the idea of throwing up a membership site, inviting some people and then the money will start rolling in.

Sorry, but it ain’t going to happen that way! Membership sites take work. They take planning, forethought and management after the fact. When I walk someone through the process of setting up a membership site they often get frustrated by all my questions. There are some that barely answer and some that realize oh, I didn’t think of that and will take a step back for a bit and put some foundational pieces in the plan.

I’m getting pretty forceful and determined about making this the first step in working with a client. I don’t know if I can emphasize enough just how important this step is… it is huge! I have seen too many great membership sites get started, working beautifully and then go nowhere because there was no plan beyond the idea of  “if you build it they will come”. I’m raising my hand on that one – I have been guilty in the past of this exact same thing.

If you take the time, up front, you will save yourself countless hours of frustration and worry later on.

Here is just one example of a planning process.

The Who: A career/life/business coach

The Idea: Move away from a one-on-one coaching model and towards a one-to-many group coaching model

The Plan:

1) Structure: What will your membership model will you use? Self study, group coaching calls, homework assignments, community forum? My favorite plugin for membership sites is WishList Member and here is a great video from them that explains the top 10 models to consider. (yep these are affiliate links !)

2) Content: What will your content be and how will you deliver it? Blog posts, articles, lecture, mastermind groups, q&a calls? How much content do you have? Enough for 30-days, 3 months, 6 months or a year?

3) Management: Are you going to be the “go to” guy or gal? Are you going to hire a virtual assistant to help you answer questions, tech support, upload content etc?

4) Launching: What is your launch strategy? Preview calls? Landing Page, social media, articles, guest blogging, blog posts…

5) Growth: Not only growth in number of members but growth of the program, after they are done with the first level do you have a next level in mind that you can offer your members? (retaining members is much easier and cost effective then attracting a new one)

Once you have this basic plan figured out and more importantly, written down, you can now start planning the installation and design of your membership site. Your plan will help you figure out what features you need and will offer your members, how to set up the content delivery and what your copywriting needs to emphasize to attract the attention of your target market, clarity is a wonderful thing!

It also will save you money when you hire help to get the site installed and configured. Speaking from personal experience, when I know and understand the scope of a project it makes my job so much easier. It helps me help you. The installation and set up go faster, I have a better idea on how to advise you on what functions and features you will need to consider as well as strategy for marketing and retaining members for the long term. When I understand your vision, I can help you bring that vision to life.

This is the same process I am walking through on a couple of my own websites that are destined to be membership sites – because in 2011 they are going to get launched!

If you are needing help walking through these planning steps or looking for some brainstorming help to map out your plan, I would love to help! To me this is the fun part, taking those idea and creating a plan, the satisfaction comes from seeing the membership site launch and the client excited.  You can contact me to set up your planning/brainstorming session.

Coming soon on the blog will be membership site features to consider, WordPress plugins to help you and your members, more on the planning process and lots more. Looking forward to sharing that with you!

Want to customize your blog feed – yes there is a plugin for that.

Need an event calendar? Need a donation button? Need a directory? Wait for it… yes there is a plugin for that too!

Want to have your blog posts convert to Pirate on “Talk Like a Pirate Day”? Oh yeah, there is even a plugin for that!

This is a great list of plugins, many I am looking forward to taking a closer look at and trying:

Mind Blowing WordPress Plugins « Lorelle on WordPress.

Have fun!

This Christmas weekend I’ll be spending time with my family, opening presents, eating lots of food, playing with the dogs, watching some of my favorite Christmas movies, and reading the Christmas Story. A time to just “be”.

December tends to be a reflective time of year too. A time to look back on what happened over the year and look ahead to the New Year. Last weekend I carved out a block of time to take a closer look at what got done, what didn’t and why.

This big issue I found… not planning. At least not thorough concrete plans that were written down on paper. I had lots of big plans in my head but that doesn’t get you very far does it.

There is a power in writing ideas down, seeing the words and acting on them. This didn’t happen nearly enough and I had to ask myself, why? I know part of it was overwhelm with too many ideas floating around in my head which made it hard to know where to start.

Another reason was that I did not take the time to be quiet and let the ideas flow. This is where a lot of my “aha” moments have come from this year and will be a bigger part of my business plan in 2011. These “aha” moments have come from reflective moments while at training seminars, journaling each day and many more while walking the dog.

Some of these “ahas” have even turned my projects and ideas on their heads taking me in new directions. That is exciting and scary at the same time. The result has been that some of my ideas and projects for 2010 did not happen. This is actually good and bad – bad that it is still on my list but also good in that it is a lesson that I needed to relearn. It has spurred me on to plan out 2011 by month, quarter and the year.

Where do I want to be at the end of 2011 and what do I want to be able to say in my year end blog post?

The past few months I have had the opportunity to venture out of town and participate in some incredible training seminars that gave me a lot to think about. A couple of the major themes? Planning, Goals, Speed and Accountability.

Planning

Make a Plan – Write out A Plan – Be Accountable to the Plan. Get that plan written out and schedule time to act on it and make sure to review and tweak on a regular basis.

Goals

With a plan written out you see your goals in a very visible way. The next step is to break them down into smaller, manageable chunks and start moving.

Speed

One of the advantages of being a solo-preneur is the speed of implementation. Well that is the theory anyway! I tend to get stuck in analysis paralysis reviewing all the options, researching just one more piece of the puzzle and taking the first action step tends to get shoved to the back burner.

Learning to Ready, Fire, Aim is a learned skill for me, it is super easy to get stuck on the aiming and never firing. Another area I’ll be focusing on in 2011.

Successful entrepreneurs go for it – make it happen and tweak along the way.

Accountability

As a virtual entrepreneur it is so easy to get isolated and not reach out for help. It is easy to forget to ask (or remember you can!) for help from a coach, colleague, family member and try and do it all on your own.

Accountable to your written plan, accountable to mastermind members, business coaches, business partners or a colleague, it needs to be someone or a group of someones who are willing to tell you you are are dropping the ball or that you are doing great. This can be incredibly powerful and helps remove the blinders off of our business and the direction we are heading.

What worked?

Great Training – training I have been looking for and wanting.

Live Training – Attending live events for training, to get that in-depth, intensive times of training, meeting people and getting out of the office has been great and I plan on finding more events in 2011 to continue this growth.

Planning – The 2nd half of this year I have done more planning and evaluating on a deeper level then I ever have before and the prep work for these planning sessions have taught me a lot and each step is preparing me for my next stage of growth.

Growth – You can’t help but grow as an entrepreneur both personally and professionally. That to me is one of the big draws of being in business for myself, the opportunity to stretch and grow.

What didn’t work?

My project list did not shrink – Nope in fact it grew. But that is okay, this year has been a year of investigation, growth and ideas. I’m excited where it will take me next year.

Not enough time off – I’m an introvert, I need time to get away and rejuvenate. I’m also a SI on the DISC profile and have learned that getting away to think and plan is not a luxury  to consider, but a necessity to keep me moving forward. (I’ve already planned out much of 2011 for regular breaks to get away and plan – very excited!).

So what does this all mean?

There are lots of changes coming for The Blue Jeans VA, I know I have said that before, but in 2011 it is gonna to happen. Writing it out has made a huge impact and there are pieces in place to launch the changes I have in mind. In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing more about these changes and how it affects how I work with clients, including new processes, time-lines and the type of new projects I take on.

With each new project we will take a closer look at the why of the project – no the just the how.

This makes a big difference in the final result and how effectively it works.  It doesn’t matter if it is a new website, website redesign, membership site or new video series. Knowing why you are doing it, what is the final result you are wanting and expecting and then working on the how to get it done will be an exciting journey to take. I get excited just thinking about it!

So what did and didn’t work for you this year? How are you going to fix what didn’t and continue what did in 2011?

It has felt like working on a big puzzle at times, getting stuck on the outer edge, not sure how to fill in the center. But now the center pieces are starting to fall into place and understanding my personality better has had a huge impact on this process.

I have read a ton of books on these subjects, I’m a sucker for those personality tests, I’m curious to see what results will be. This year has been different, the personality tests have started to make sense. Light bulb moments of why I enjoy certain things and others I don’t, why this job/task/project has been so much fun and why this one really drove me nuts.

My business is starting to change as a result of this understanding. I am taking a closer look at they type of work I do, services I provide and the people I work with. Now I can put a finger on why some things worked and some really did not.

When doing a consult with a client, I am now learning to listen better and ask questions about work styles, work preferences, communication needs etc. Interestingly, this journey has shown me that some of my strengths, or at least what I have thought of as strengths, are tasks, jobs etc. that I have grown into – not because they are things I like to do but because I have been around long enough to know the “big picture” and this is the “next logical step”. This happened quite a bit in the corporate world and I have seen it in my journey with clients as well.

Here are some of the things I have come to understand better about me this year:

• I’m a troubleshooter & a fixer – give me a problem to figure out and I will dive in and see how to make it work. This is one reasons I love working with WordPress, creating videos or editing an audio – I see what needs to be done now, I know how to do it but now it is time to jump in figure out how to make the pieces fit.
• I’m an emailer – Even as a kid I was not one to talk on the phone, did not enjoy it at all. Nowadays, if it can be typed, drawn and faxed/emailed, woohoo, I’m your gal. Of course the phone is not out of the question but I do avoid it if at all possible. But I am much more comfortable with the written word then I am the verbal. It will also depend on the client or team member I am talking to. There are some that a regular call is no problem, the call will be fun, energizing, creative etc. it is a connection point with others – especially when really technical explanations are needed, just give me my keyboard!
• I’m not a manager/minder – I enjoy collaborating with professionals but have come to realize that I am not a manager anymore. I’ve done the whole hiring, training, firing thing before, for many years in fact and it is not something I am looking to go back to. The team I will be building over the next year will be professionals I can collaborate with and not have to manage.
• I’m a collaborator – There is something magical about sharing creative energy, sharing ideas, brainstorming and then working with someone to make it happen. Working with a group of people, all of whom are working from their strengths to bring that vision to life. That is so energizing. This is a new focus for me in 2011, finding ways to collaborate with others whose services, skills, personality etc. compliment mine and create something really cool and meaningful.

What about you?

Do you know and understand your personality enough to know what type of VA you can work with? Enough to know what kind of VA you need? Did you catch the difference in those 2 questions? We’ll talk about the first question here.

What type of person can you work with:

• Are you a phone person or an emailer?
• Communication – Do you need lots of details or are you more of a “just the facts ma’am” type of person?
• Are you serious? Funny? Sarcastic?
• What speed do you operate? Full speed ahead all the time, fits and starts, slow and methodical?

These are all things you should be aware of and be able to talk with a potential VA (or your current one…) to find the best fit for you. Once you know and understand your needs, you can ask questions during a consultation about how they prefer to work and who they like to work with. The answers to these questions can give you confidence in your decision or it might show you some potential red flags before you get in too deep.

This may seem like a lot of work but it is such an important step that it warrants some time and attention. Make sure you are noticing your work habits, work hours and communication preferences. What bugs you when talking with or emailing others, what makes you say, wow, that was a great email, I know exactly what they are talking about. Or I really need to be on the phone for this one to help us both understand what I need. Are you visual in your learning? Audio?

All of these are important in your journey as a business owner. The team you bring on will either help move you forward or hold you back. Make sure you are building a team that will help move you and your business forward.

What other personality traits do you think are important when working with a virtual assistant?

But just like free themes… you really need to be careful. Many of these themes will work just fine out of the box, but as soon as you need to customize a little or a lot, look out. Unless you know your WordPress structure and PHP code inside and out you  may be in for a headache. More than once I have had clients spend hours trying to get it to work and then contact me for help, and end up paying me to get it fixed or get it to look the way they had envisioned. As a small business owner this is a drain of your time, energy and possibly not worth the effort.

If you are looking for themes that you can add to your WordPress site and just change a few things like banner, or title text with a few sidebar graphics thrown in for example – go for it. You will have a wealth of choices at your finger tips and these will not be themes you see everywhere you look. This can be an incredible resource for you.

When it comes to customizing on a larger scale you could very easily run into the same problem you encounter with free themes.

• Little or no documentation
• Probably very little support
• Bad, disorganized code
• Features may not work exactly right

Just be careful before jumping in and take a few minutes to check things out:

1. Can you easily find a contact page on the site to ask questions?
2. When you do an internet search on the company name are their more negative then positive comments?
3. Do a search on Twitter http://search.twitter.com does the name come up? Positive or negative tweets?
4. Check on WordPress.org, do you see anything mentioned about the company or the particular theme you are considering? What are the comments?
5. Ask! Ask a WordPress geek, ask on Facebook or Twitter, find out if anyone else has worked with the company and ask what was their experience?

Doing just a few minutes of research up front can save you time, money and frustration. This is your business, this is your presence on the web, make sure it is going to work for you!

There are so many to choose from Free Themes, Premium Themes, Bulk Themes… This week we are going to take a closer took at Free Themes, where to find them, what to look for and what to consider.

First things first… Free Themes are fun – looking at all the options, the creativity of designers and incredible array of features. And even better, they are everywhere, you would be hard pressed to not find something that would work for you. The best place to start is to look at WordPress itself: http://wordpress.com/extend/themes, here you probably could find just about anything you might need.

If you go to Google and type in the keywords “free WordPress Themes”:

About 66,200,000 results (0.20 seconds). That should do it don’t you think?

If you are new to WordPress, just learning and getting comfortable with using it. And especially if your budget is tight and not a ton of $$ to invest, a Free Theme is a great way to get started.

Having said all that, there are definitely things to be aware of.

1) Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth – There are some wonderful themes out there… but there are also many that are, well, junk. Take a few minutes and do some research. Google the name of the theme, see if there are any comments about it. Definitely go to the WordPress Support Forums and do a search on the name, see what others have encountered, good and bad.

2) Be prepared – You may run into trouble and free themes do not normally come with support. Hopefully you won’t run into an issue but you just never know.

3) Code can be messy – In my journey getting to know WordPress I have come to greatly appreciate the value of Beautiful Code… there have been many times, when helping a client, I have run into some of the most ugly, messy, disorganized code possible. Which can take a lot more time for someone like me to figure out what is going on and find possible fixes.

Generally (and of course there are always exceptions) the more organized the code the better luck you will probably have.

4) Customizing… maybe - The great thing about Free Themes is that with all the options out there you probably can have something that is ready “out of the box”, but in the chance that you need to change a logo, change a color etc. see if you can find out about the customization options.

5) WordPress 3.01 - With the newest release of WordPress, there are quite a few free themes, which do not come with support are not 3.0 compatible, make sure to double check this important point as well.

Here are some additional resources you might want to check out:

Theme Forest: By Envato offers a free theme each month, there have been some cool ones too!

I’m a huge StudioPress, Brian Gardner fan and my top recommendation. He has some great free themes and are how I got started. Here is a list of quite a few of them http://www.eblogtemplates.com/author/bgardner/

Chris Pearson of DIY – Thesis Theme also has a collection of early themes that are great to work with – http://www.pearsonified.com/themes (scroll to the bottom)

The more I learn about WordPress the more I realize I have to learn. The “Press This” tool is quite a tool, to not have to think about logging into your site in order to do a quick post may be exactly what is needed to get your blogging habit back on track.

For my bookmarks toolbar I use Xmarks which you can sync across computers and different browsers. Hmm, I”m sensing another tutorial….

Thanks to Andy Traub for introducing me to this cool little tool!

I have been a huge fan of the eMachine computers (I know… don’t laugh too hard!). They have been awesome computers for me, just outgrew my 2nd. Rarely had any problems and both lasted for a long, long time.

But the poor little guy was getting old, I needed way more space and a quite a bit more computing power. In comes the granddaddy of a computer… an HP with a 1 TB hard drive and a wonderfully huge 6 GB RAM. Woohoo! Now this might not seem like a big deal these days but consider that my desktop pc was chugging along with only a 160 GB hard drive and 1GB RAM, it was a trooper each day, especially with what I was putting it through!

Using it has been a dream, at least it was after I got everything transferred over, that took a long time and I still have a few programs that need to be installed. I am faster, more efficient and I’m no longer wishing for greater speed or wondering what I can delete or uninstall to give the poor computer some breathing room.

So this got me thinking, what other areas in my business have I put off, or ignored, getting the right tool for? It hit me the other day that I have not been taking advantage of the help of other VAs. Yes, I have been ignoring the very thing I tell my clients to do. So last week one of the VAs I had worked with earlier this year, got in touch to say hello and check in and my goodness what excellent timing! I realized right then and there that this was a tool I needed to have in my business and keep in my business. Good ole’ fashioned help. (Not to generalize virtual assistants as tools… really more of an asset but I think you get the drift)

By bringing on another virtual assistant to help me out in my own business, I am going to become even more efficient, the to-do-list and want-to-do list is going to start being tackled (it already is!), and I am going to be able move some of my projects forward. Wow novel idea!

So I am taking a closer look again at that to-do-list and see what other areas I can have her take on so that I can keep moving my business forward and tackle some of those wish list items that seem to keep falling to the bottom of my to-do-list.

What tool do you need today to keep your business moving forward?

If you had an assistant, what could you tackle and cross of your to-do-list today? This week?

P.S. If you have ever considered bringing on a virtual assistant onto your team check out our FREE special report “How To Find And Hire A Virtual Assistant”. Sign up for it here on our site for instant access.