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Hello Plinky! Hello Jane And Robot ! And Other Tales of Courage

Our hat is off to Jason Shellen! And to Vanessa Fox!  These two brave souls left Google to start their own companies in the midst of a recession.

They don’t talk about gutsy, they epitomize gutsy.

“Jason Shellen, resigned as Google’s manager of new business development in 2007 to launch Plinky.com, a startup that’s designed to inspire bloggers and users of social media sites. Shellen says he was getting complacent working at Google, despite the company’s domination of the Web.”

Vanessa Fox, aka, the Google Lady Webmaster, the most well-known woman among the SEO community, who helped build Webmaster Central, one of the company’s most successful projects took the leap as well. A star at Google, Rand Fishkin,  CEO of Seo Oz, in an anthem to her abilities and webmasters debt to her says:

” I don’t believe that anyone, outside of a few of Vanessa’s close friends, realize how much she’s done to help Google’s public image, their bottom line and their relations with webmasters, nor do most of us know how much Vanessa’s done to fight for webmasters internally at Google. … Webmaster Central was not only Vanessa’s department, it was her baby, her idea (right from inception), her show. If not for Vanessa, we might never have had the dedicated team of webmaster relations specialists (people like Jonathan, Amanda, Trevor, Susan & Maile). We might never have been able to send sitemaps to Google, see data about our sites (particularly the link data, for which Vanessa was always a fantastic advocate), verify ownership, select a preferred domain display or do any of the hundreds of other things that Webmaster Central enables.”

So, to Vanessa’s new company……. Hello Jane and Robot!

Most people in the high tech sector would kill to work at Google.  All that money.  All those stock options. Who could resist?  And why would you want to?

In, CNN.com’s reporting, They left the corporate cocoon to blossom, Shellen says he decided to leave Google despite a shaky economy because he wanted to force himself to change.

“Being an entrepreneur is all about risk and innovation, not timing the market,” Shellen says. “A good idea doesn’t wait for the perfect time to emerge. The ability to build something new outweighed the need for stability.”

Now there’s a person with the entrepreneurial gene.

“Shellen believes the large resources of a company can actually slow down the creative process. A person might want to invent a product, but small things like the name of the product end up being discussed in a committee.

“You don’t find that in a small company,” he says. “At my new company, Plinky, we sometimes dream things up in the morning and by the afternoon have it live on the Web. That never happens at a big company.”

In another example of taking the giant leap, “greater freedom is also what inspired Vanessa Fox to resign from her position at Google. Today, Fox is the founder of “Jane and Robot,” which helps Web site developers ensure their sites can be found by potential customers, and “Nine By Blue,” which helps businesses use online data to better understand their customers.

Fox says the challenge of creating something in an evolving space like the Internet was too great to pass up.

“As hokey as it sounds, there’s more to life than money,” she says. “As much as I loved working at Google, I am really enjoying the flexibility I have now, as well as the ability to really make a difference in the direction I choose to go in.”

If any of these comments sound remotely like something you might say, if you took the leap then Congratuations! You have the entreprerial gene.

So go for it!  Take the leap!  I salute you, too.  We hope to greet you out there launching your new business very soon. ( It certainly beats the cascading pink slips which will engulf many as gloomy economic times drag on and downwards, forcing many companies to cut back.)

In the meantime: Hello Plinky.  Hello Jane and Robot!

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Fish Where The Fish Are – Use LinkedIn To Job Search

I’ve already talked to you about LinkedIn being the number one resource where employers go to identify a great job candidate.  In the spirit of “fish where the fish are”, if you find yourself searching for a job, the first thing you need to do is to update your LinkedIn profile. Bait for the big fish.

Your LinkedIn Profile should be as fresh and up to date as fresh squeezed organge juice

And packed with Vitamin C.  Give it that oomph, that sparkle. Take a cue from Guy Kawasaki’s LinkedIn profile and make it personal, engaging, conversational.  In fact, Guy has admitted he had some help from an exec at LinkedIn writing one of his best known blogs on how to use Linked in (Guy explains he didn’t know how to use it that well at the time.)  If Guy needs a little help sometimes, perhaps you do too.  If you are not the world’s best writer, hire one to help you.  By that I mean hire a college student or put out an ad on Craig’s list or eLance to find a good writer.  There are a lot of writers out there and a lot more of them than usual are probably looking for some extra cash about this time, with the recession and Christmas double whammy. It wont’ require a lot of cash either.

Point them in the direction of Guy Kawasaki’s LinkedIn profile and tell them, ok, you haven’t been a venture capitalist-entrepreneur-mover and shaker with Apple -founder of tech companies like Guy but you do have a solid profile of professional accomplishments and you’d like to put the best face on it. You want to exude power, confidence, experience and expertise.  And you want to be engaging, not dry as a pile of dust, while doing it.  A good writer can achieve that for you.

Important Point

If you’re currently unemployed, The LinkedIn Blog »  Getting Back-to-Business Checklist for Job Hunters suggests listing your current position as “open to opportunities.” Good idea.

Now: Edit your LinkedIn Profile.

The LinkedIn Blog also suggests, “if you just recently lost your job, make sure you update your status field in your profile so your network know that you’re looking for a job. It’s a quick and easy way to let folks you’re connected to know that you could use their help. David Stevens, one of LinkedIn’s users, updated his status upon being laid off. Within seven business days someone in his network knew of an open position, which Dave landed shortly thereafter.

Network, Network, Network

You should also put out the word on Facebook and any other social networks you belong to.  Then get on the phone and tell all your friends:”Open to opportunities.”  Then go to all the professional networking events you can squeeze in.

Networking is crucial. I just heard from one of the leading business consultants in the country that one of his biggest mistakes, when starting out, was sending out all these printed brochures to strangers when he had just come from a major company with hundreds of close associates who knew and respected his work already.  When he started working the phones with them, he starting pulling in consulting engagements.

Like this old pro, most of the work you get will come, one way or another, from people you already know.  Start calling or emailing them.  Then point them to your LinkedIn profile.

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Clinton Nomination Energizes Human Rights-Women’s Rights Activists

Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigning, 2007
Image via Wikipedia

Hillary Clinton took on a bit of an iconic mantle with human rights and women rights activists when, as first lady, she delivered a dramatic speech on women’s rights at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.  Speaking truth to power, Clinton boldly criticized the host country and other nations for abuses of girls and women saying: “It is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights,” she said then.

President-elect Barack Obama’s nomination of Hillary Clinton as the next secretary of state has energized human rights and women’s rights activists, who expect the former first lady to bring a dramatic new focus to the plight of women around the globe. I am also hoping Clinton will continue her staunch support of women’s economic progress, as I believe she will.

Clinton, a champion of global micro-credit, has said: “Although the economic plight of a poor woman in Bangladesh who wants a loan to buy a second milk cow or sewing machine may seem worlds away from that of a technology entrepreneur in San Francisco, the bottom line is this: No matter where they live, women need help breaking down the barriers to capital.”

Women have a notoriously hard time borrowing money, and we’re often forced to rely on high-interest, short-term credit, if we can get loans at all.

During Bill Clinton’s administration I participated in a White House conference on improving Latin America’s economy by counseling with and supporting women in the creation of small businesses.  What came of that was women who received a few hundred dollars to buy a sewing machine, then grew to have a factory that employed most of a village.  Women in a remote mountain village who raised geese, were empowered, with the help of an Internet connection, to begin selling goose down pillows to the United States and goose liver pate to France.

I know the Clinton’s believe deeply in economic support for women and I’m energized by the prospect of Clinton bringing that perspective to her new position.

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Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of Bootstrapping

Guy Kawasaki, American venture capitalist and ...

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The Art of Bootstrapping

There is probably no one smarter, more capable and creative on the Net….. and friendly, approachable and outgoing, in addition…. than Guy Kawasaki He has a string of successes as long as your arm.  And, from that, he has really honed his knowledge of entrepreneuring or, as most without really deep pockets wind up doing, bootstrapping.

You should read his entire post, The Art of Bootstrapping and, if you like that, you might consider buying Kawasaki’s latest book, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.

I’m going to point you in the right direction with five of Kawasaki’s guideposts, but if you’re planning to bootstrap, you should definitely read the rest of them at The Art of Bootstrapping.  If I had read his guidepost on How to Forecast From The Bottom Up, I could have saved myself a lot of heartache when I used a “top down” forecast, because I didn’t know any better.  The best advice any entrepreneur can give you is to learn from their hard earned experience and their mistakes so you don’t have to make them yourself. Here’s how to start:

  1. Focus on cash flow, not profitability. The theory is that profits are the key to survival. If you could pay the bills with theories, this would be fine. The reality is that you pay bills with cash, so focus on cash flow. If you know you are going to bootstrap, you should start a business with a small upfront capital requirement, short sales cycles, short receivables terms, long payables terms, and recurring revenue. It means passing up the big sale that takes twelve months to close, deliver, and collect. Cash is not only king, it’s queen and prince too for a bootstrapper.
  2. Ship, then test. Perfect is the enemy of good enough. When your product or service is good enough, get it out, because cash flows when you start shipping. Besides, unwanted features, not perfection, come with more time. By shipping, youll also learn what your customers truly want you to fix. It’s definitely a trade-off your reputation versus cash flow so you can’t ship pure crap. But you can’t wait for perfection either. (Nota bene: life-science companies should ignore this recommendation.)
  3. Start as a service business. Let’s say that you ultimately want to be a software company: People download your software or you send them CDs, and they pay you. That’s a nice, clean business with a proven business model. However, until you finish the software, you could provide consulting and services based on your work-in-progress software. This has two advantages: immediate revenue and true customer testing of your software. Once the software is field tested and battle hardened, flip the switch and become a product company.
  4. Pick a few battles. Bootstrappers pick their battles. They don’t fight on all fronts because they cannot aff ord to. If you are starting a new church, do you really need a $100,000 multimedia audiovisual system? Or just a great message from the pulpit? If youre creating a content Web site based on the advertising model, do you have to write your own customer ad-serving software? I don’t think so.
  5. Go direct. The optimal number of mouths (or hands) between a bootstrapper and her customer is zero. Sure, stores provide great customer reach, and wholesalers provide distribution. But God invented e-commerce so that you could sell direct and reap greater margins. And God was doubly smart because She knew that by going direct, you’d also learn more about your customer’s needs. Stores and wholesalers fill demand, they don’t create it. If you create enough demand, you can always get other organizations to fill it later. If you don’t create demand, all the distribution in the world will get you nothing.

(Kawasaki says) As my friend Craig Johnson, the great Silicon Valley corporate finance lawyer, likes to say, “The leading cause of failure of startups is death, and death happens when you run out of money. As long as you have money, you’re still in the game, and outlasting the competition is one of the hallmarks of bootstrapping.”

Amen!  The Art of Bootstrapping might well be called The Art of Belt-Tightening, Ingenuity and Persistence.

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Using Linked In For Job Search – Free Ebook

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Rita Ashley, technology recruiting veteran who has an insider’s view of how hiring gets done, believes LinkedIn is a powerful tool for job search and she has written an  ebook, LinkedIn for Job Search to make her point. Anne Fisher of Fortune Magazine wrote this about Ashley’s ebook”

“I use LinkedIn all the time but I learned things I didn’t know that are really useful.”
“My search isn’t in full swing but I sure wouldn’t say no if someone approached me.  Using the LinkedIn white paper, I know they can find me.”
“The screen shots helped me a lot because I haven’t used LinkedIn much.”
“I was blocked from getting new connections with people I don’t know.  The examples really helped me fix the problem.”
“Love the White Paper. Sure glad I didn’t have to sit through a whole class to get this information.  Keep them coming.”
“Do HR people really vet people before they decide to contact them?  I now know how to fix my profile.”

Download your free step by step guide for examples, screen shots and advice to use all the power of LinkedIn for your Job Search.

  • Get found by hiring authorities
  • Connect with people who can provide strategic introductions
  • Vet future employers
  • Learn who is hiring in your area
  • Establish your professional brand

    • Click here to download your free guide to becoming a power user of Linkedin for your job seach.

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    List Of The Best Christmas Shopping Credit Card Deals and 0% APR Offers

    DES PLAINES, IL - NOVEMBER 11: A sign showing...

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    The Best Christmas Shopping Credit Card Deals and Offers.

    It’s almost that time of year again….stores are already brimming with lighted Christmas trees, holiday displays and specials… where, bleak economic times or not, we all have to prepare to go shopping for our loved ones at Christmas or whatever their holiday celebration.  Now most of us are probably keeping a tight grip on our wallets, plastic and checkbooks, in preparation for even more gloom and doom from Maria Bartiromo, and belt tightening tips from Suzie Orman.  So here’s a very valuable list from Money Blue Book to help you preserve cash and credit and make it somewhat if not entirely unscathed through your holiday purchasing bout.

    List Of The Best Credit Card Reward Offers and 0% APR Deals For Christmas Holiday Shopping

    Here is my list of the best Christmas shopping reward credit cards (I’ve bolded the percentage rate you will most likely earn for purchases made at online stores and at most brick and mortar department stores and malls):

    1. Blue Cash® From American Express – Get up to 5% cash back for everyday purchases like groceries and gas, and up to 1.5% for everything else when you exceed $6,500 worth of usage. Prior to that you’ll earn 1% cashback.
    2. Starwood Preferred® Guest American Express Card – Get 1 point for every $1 spent, redeemable for versatile hotel and airline travel rewards. Potential to earn up to a potential 1.25% back with bonuses.
    3. Discover More Card – Get 5% cash back bonuses in purchase categories like department stores, travel, home improvement, gas, groceries, and restaurants, 5% to 20% cash back at retailers through Discover’s online shopping site, and 1% unlimited rewards for everything else. Earn a $50 bonus when you make $500 in purchases within 3 months, and with Discover’s special Christmas promotion, you can get $20 back for every $200 that you spend at participating mall locations.
    4. Chase Freedom(SM) – Get 3% bonus cash back on gas, groceries, and fast food purchases for the first 6 months. Earn 1% cash back on everything else with unlimited rewards, no spending cap, no restrictions, and no expiration date.
    5. Citi Premier Pass Master Card – Get 10,000 bonus points after $300 in purchases made within 3 months of account opening, and earn 1 point for every dollar spent (1% back), redeemable for airline travel rewards.
    6. Citi Cash Returns Card – Get a full 1% cash back on every purchase plus an average 5% cash back at 400 retailers within the Citi Bonus Cash Center, along with an extra 20% bonus for the first 12 months.
    7. HSBC Weekend Card – Earn 2% cash back rewards on everything you buy on Saturday and Sunday. During the rest of the week, you get 1% cash back for everything, with unlimited reward earning potential.
    8. HSBC Platinum Mastercard Cash Back Rewards - Earn up to a potential of 2% cash back with a limit of $400 worth of rewards, or 1% unlimited cashback on all purchases depending on qualification level.
    9. Capital One® No Hassle Cash(SM) Rewards Card – Get 2% cash back on purchases at gas stations and major grocery and drug stores, and 1% cash back on all other purchases, with no earning limit or expiration.
    10. Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa Signature Card – Enjoy a full 1.5% back on all purchases with no merchant restrictions. Points can be redeemed for cash and deposited into your Fidelity brokerage account.

    Credit Cards That Offer 0% APR Rates For Interest Free Purchases (Ideal For Christmas Shopping)

    1. Advanta Platinum 90-Day Interest Free Business Card – Permanent 90 day interest free grace period on all purchases. This special Advanta credit card grace period offer is recurring and continuous year after year.
    2. American Express Blue – 0% APR for purchases (up to 12 months)
    3. American Express Blue Cash® – 0% APR for purchases (up to 12 months)
    4. American Express Blue Sky® – 0% APR for purchases (up to 12 months)
    5. American Express Platinum Business Credit Card - 0% APR for purchases (12 months)
    6. American Express Clear Card – 0% APR for purchases (12 months)
    7. Capital One Platinum Card – 0% for purchases and balance transfers (Up until October 2009)
    8. Capital One No Hassle Cash Rewards Card – 0% for purchases (until October 2009)
    9. Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa – 0% for purchases and balance transfers (both 12 months)
    10. Chase Perfect Card – 0% APR for purchases and balance transfers (both 6 months)
    11. Chase Platinum Visa Card – 0% APR for purchases and balance transfers (both 12 months)
    12. Citi Diamond Preferred Card – 0% APR for purchases and balance transfers (both 12 months)
    13. Citi Platinum Select Card – 0% APR for purchases and balance transfers (both 12 months)
    14. Citi Business Card - 0% APR for purchases (12 months)
    15. Citi Business Card With ThankYou Network – 0% APR rate for all purchases (12 months).  Extra bonus offer of 10,000 ThankYou® Points after $250 in purchases, redeemable for a $100 gift card.
    16. Discover More Card – 0% APR for purchases (6 months) and balance transfers (12 months)
    17. Discover More Card – Clear – 0% APR for purchases (6 months) and balance transfers (12 months)
    18. Discover Open Road Card – 0% APR for purchases (6 months) and balance transfers (12 months)
    19. First National Business Edition Visa Card – 0% APR offer for purchases (12 months)
    20. HSBC Weekend Card -  0% promo rate for purchases and balance transfers (both 12 months)
    21. HSBC Platinum Mastercard Cash Back Rewards - 0% interest rate for purchases and balance transfers (both 12 months)
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    Tough Times Make For Desperate People: Don’t Fall For Scams

    Telemarketers!

    Image by Cayusa via Flickr

    Not only do people get desperate.  Companies do, too.

    Some offer to reduce your credit card debt for a fee.

    Some prey on people whose homes are being foreclosed.  For a fee, this person or business, will make that crisis disappear.  But, usually, the only thing that disappears is your money.  In one case in San Antonio, Texas, a couple lost the home they’d raised their family in after paying an unscrupulous business owner more than they owed the mortgage company.  This, after the business owner had already gotten and agreed to a “Cease and Desist Order” from a court over just this kind of predatory behavior.

    These are scams pure and simple.

    Perhaps it’s too harsh to call all of these enticing propositions scams.  But when you analyze some of the things companies, even very large, respectable companies, are asking you to do, they certainly could be classified as much better deals for them than for you.

    Last week my mortgage company asked me if I’d like to pay 2% less interest and several hundred dollars less a month in my mortgage payment, for no fee from them.  Naturally, I said “Sure!”  But when I received the paperwork yesterday, it turned out there were over $10,000 of additional fees, added into the mortgage payment.  Yes, over the life of the loan I’d be paying less interest, but it would take me 40 payments, or 3 years and 3 months to get back to where I am today.  Was that a good deal?  For the mortgage company, yes.

    Seth Godin in Too good to be true (the overnight millionaire scam) writes about the scams that crop up in tough times and the imperative to avoid being suckered in by them:

    “Times are tough, and many say they are going to be tougher. That makes some people more focused, it turns others desperate.

    You may be tempted at some point to try to make a million dollars. To do it without a lot of effort or skill or risk. Using a system, some shortcut perhaps, or mortgaging something you already own.

    There are countless infomercials and programs and systems that promise to help you do this. There are financial instruments and investments and documents you can sign that promise similar relief from financial stress.

    Resist.

    There are four ways to make a million dollars. Luck. Patient effort. Skill. Risk.

    (Five if you count inheritance, and six if you count starting with two million dollars).

    Conspicuously missing from this list are effortless 1-2-3 systems that involve buying an expensive book or series of tapes. Also missing are complicated tax shelters or other ‘proven’ systems. The harder someone tries to sell you this solution, the more certain you should be that it is a scam. If no skill or effort is required, then why doesn’t the promoter just hire a bunch of people at minimum wage and keep the profits?

    There are literally a million ways to make a good living online, ten million ways to start and thrive with your own business offline. But all of these require effort, and none of them are likely to make you a million dollars.

    Short version of my opinion: If someone offers to sell you the secret system, don’t buy it. If you need to invest in a system before you use it, walk away. If you are promised big returns with no risk and little effort, you know the person is lying to you. Every time.

    Has anyone tried to scam you?  Write and share your experience.  It will help all of us to have a common pool of scams to avoid.


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    BootStrapMe: Tips for the serious bootstrapper

    A pair of boots with one bootstrap visible.

    BootStrapMe: Tips for the serious bootstrapper.

    Just in case you’re not familiar with the term, Wikipedia to the rescue: bootstrapping or booting which began as a leather strap evolved into a group of metaphors that share a common meaning, to better oneself by one’s own unaided efforts, or a series of self-sustaining processes that proceed without external help.

    Sound familiar?  If it sounds very familiar, you may be a bootstrapper.  I have bootstrapped a number of businesses so it’s a very familiar term to me.

    Shawn Hessinger, who is a bootstrapper himself, is also a blogger and journalist who spent years covering business issues. Then he decided to dive off the deep end, become an entrepreneur and blog about his adventures. He shares some hard won knowledge, which might be helpful to you, if you are considering bootstrapping or are already in the thick of it.

    “Once the wave of exuberance over starting a new bootstrap business passes giving way to a lot of hard work accompanied by occasional disappointment, it’s time to take some serious stock…

    • Take criticism seriously. Though it’s the part that NOBODY wants to deal with, the fact is criticism can be your best friend, if you learn to read it correctly. Learn to draw inspiration from your customers’ complaints to build a better product by knowing the difference between things you can change, things you can’t and what requests are just unreasonable.

    • Treat your startup like a job. You would think this would be obvious to anyone. But, if the reason you became an entrepreneur is so you wouldn’t have to do it, it’s time for some unpleasant facts. Behind all the supposed glamour that comes with owning your own business, there’s just a lot of plain old fashioned effort. Think of it this way. The only difference between work you do for your startup and what you do for an employer is the person who owns what is built by that labor in the end.

    • Reinvent yourself daily. There will be things that don’t work and paths that lead to no where. The benefit of bootstrapping is that while you have no money, you also have no constraints. With no one looking over your shoulder to tell you, ‘That’s not how you do it,’ finding the right equation may be easier.

    • Focus on problem solving. Most business goals can be better seen as a series of challenges to overcome or problems to be solved than as the pursuit of a single and constant goal. Break your startup into challenges and set priorities for what must be done. With each problem you solve you will find others arising. Keep the process going and you will slowly inch toward your goal…often almost without realizing.

    • Never give up. Never surrender. … There are days you will feel like throwing in the towel. Remember, very few things are an immediate success. Persistence is key in the end.”

    To read this entire post or more of Shawn’s blogging, go to BootStrapMe: Tips for the serious bootstrapper.

    You may also want to consider these suggestions by

    Esther Dyson,  who gave some advice to Bambi Francisco CEO, co-founder , Vator TV, Inc. (Owner) in Esther Dyson: Feign smarts by listening more

    Dyson is “widely regarded as an Internet/high-tech luminary, thought leader, and respectable investor, having put money in some of the hottest startups, such as Flickr and del.icio.us (both part of Yahoo), and more recently 23andMe, which is backed by Google.

    In this “Lessons learned” segment, Esther offers her advice to entrepreneurs and lessons learned to investors.

    Her first is to listen. “Whatever the context, people will think you’re smarter,” she said.

    The second is to be focused and not be distracted. “More companies die of indigestion,” she said. “Pick one opportunity and do it well, rather than do five or six things badly… opportunities will always be there.”

    The third one is “always make new mistakes.”

    Hopefully, we can all focus in, listen to Dyson, and try to only make new mistakes

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    How Do I Do This? Easy Blogging For Blog Newbies

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    Ok.  We get it. After posting Shall We Talk? Easy Blogging For Blog Newbies, we learned a thing or two about your needs.  Although we know there are bloggers galore on every topic imaginable out there, there are also a number of you who are just stopped cold at the thought of starting a blog.  You might like to, but it seems too complex, too involved, too frustrating, too….whatever.

    You’ve probably heard that saying: “To anyone whose only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” (Kind of like tunnel vision or having blinders on when it comes to others’ perspectives.)  To those of us who’ve already taken the high dive off the cliff and into the warm and welcoming waters of the blogosphere, the whole process seems rather user friendly and simple.  We perhaps forget where we started from.

    I remember the first time I ever looked at a WordPress page, with no training and no preparation.  I thought “What on earth is this and how am I supposed to learn it”?  ( I think mild panic sets in at the first glance of the unknown, particularly when we know we’re supposed to do something with it…….like produce a published page, but how do your do that?)

    I know Arthur, one of our blog readers, commented that he liked the post, Shall We Talk? Easy Blogging For Blog Newbies, and thought it was great to challenge women to make their own blog and create a community but regretted that the process was too complicated and long:

    “I wonder if a step by step approach wouldn’t have been easier to follow…In a perfect world there will be some videos made from actions on both main platforms (Blogger and WordPress).”

    Well, this post is an attempt to make the process easier for Arthur and all the hopeful bloggers, many of them women, for whom he speaks.  If any of you can add to this or enrich it with your own expertise or experience please do. For now, let’s see if we can break this down into bite size pieces:

    1.  Free WP installation

    There are sites out there which specialize in WordPress and will install and set up or transfer your WordPress site free.  One such site is SiteGround.com You have to get hosting with them at $5.95 a month. But you also get Free WordPress themes and WordPress tutorial. That sounds to me like a good way to get your feet wet.  They say they are the #1 WordPress Host, but there are probably others who offer the same services.

    2. Gettting Started With WordPress tutorials

    When you sit down, shake off that little twinge of “beginner’s anxiety”, and start to use it, WordPress has extremely intuitive administration: you will be able to compose a post and publish it on your website with just one click! The following are 2 different tutorials, both using screen shots, but the second is video, so also has a guide talking you through the process.

    SiteGround.com offers an Easy Start tutorial with screen shots of every action telling you exactly where to go and what to click, step by step. It very clearly explains and shows a graphic of each of the following:

    If you prefer to learn using video goto Ithemes.com Tutorials

    NEW! WORDPRESS 2.6 BASICS

    I was going to share with you how to start writing posts, the quickest and simplest way I know, again, just to get your feet wet.  But since I promised this would be in simple, bite size pieces, I’m going to save that for the next post : How Do I Do This Faster & Easier?  Easy Blogging For Blog Newbies

    I hope this post has helped Arthur and all of you get started with your own blog.  Write and let me know how it’s going and what your experiences have been.  If there’s something specific you want to know, just tell me.  Our goal is to get you up on the Net, blogging your heart out, sharing all your stories with us.  Just remember: You make the path by walking on it.

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