[Video] 5 Reasons Wordpress Should Be Your Author Website Platform

This is a guest post from Russ Henneberry. Russ writes, speaks, consults and executes on Internet marketing strategies that make mighty profits for tiny businesses. You can read Russ's Internet marketing blog here or learn more about his Wordpress Website Design here.

Growing an author's platform starts with a powerful and simple to use website platform. It is the "hub" of activity for you as an author. This 8-minute video and the article below it details 5 reasons Wordpress should be your author's platform.


Reason 1 - Wordpress is Flexible If you need to make a change to the text, images, video, etc., on your Website you will want to be able to make those changes yourself. Wordpress is the most intuitive and user-friendly platform available. In addition to making edits, you will also want to be adding new pages, articles, videos, and images to your Website. A living and breathing Website that is growing over time will build a community around you and your work.

Reason 2 - Wordpress is Discoverable Google is a powerhouse, and you can grow your author's platform by taking advantage of the traffic that Google will send your way. Wordpress makes it easy for both humans and search engines like Google to "discover" the content of your Website.

Reason 3 - Wordpress is Shareable The real power of the Internet is the remarkable speed and efficiency with which we can share things of interest and value to us. Wordpress is able to add the functionality needed to spread your message across the Web.

Reason 4 - Wordpress is Interactive As an author, you will want your fans to be able to interact with you and with each other. Wordpress can be configured to be as interactive as you want it to be with commenting, voting, surveys, forums, and more.

Reason 5 - Wordpress can be Automated When you add new articles, videos, and images to your Website you will want to let the members of your social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) know that you have something with which to interact or share. Wordpress can automate the "pushing" of this new content to your social networks. Learn more about Wordpress Web Design here.

Getting Around YouTube

This is the eighth in a series on Social Media.

No exploration of the giants of social media would be complete without YouTube, the largest of the video sharing sites. There is no question that YouTube is responsible for some of the Web's most successful viral campaigns (messages that take on lives of their own). Once your video is on YouTube, you can import it into a blog post and embed it in your own Website, thus tripling its exposure.

There are two aspects to YouTube: posting your own videos and watching other people's. Yours can be as simple as sitting in front of a camcorder and talking or as professionally produced as you can afford. Two pieces of advice when you make a video: keep it short and make it memorable—humorous, genuine, out of the ordinary.

When you visit YouTube, you will be prompted to set up an account or log in. In the upper right hand corner, under your name and a little drop down menu with My Channel, Inbox, Account, Subscriptions, My Videos, and Favorites. Your Channel is your public page. It contains your most recent uploaded video, your favorites, a place for comments, subscribers, and friends. You can edit your Channel page, Favorites, and Playlists by clicking on Account in the drop down menu.

There is always more than one way to get around a social networking site. Across the top of the screen are links to many of the same pages, plus some new ones:

• My Videos & Playlists - where you will find your own videos
• Favorites - other people's videos you have marked as your favorites
• My Channel - where all of your information is in one place, plus the ability to change layout
  
• Video Editor - an opportunity to edit or change your personal videos
  
• Subscriptions - new videos you may wish to subscribe to and recommended channels
  
• Insight - total number of viewers who have seen your videos, as well as more detailed information
  
• Messages - from people who have viewed your videos, plus a chance to reply
• Account Settings - includes profile setup, playback setup, e-mail options, privacy settings, activity sharing, and mobile setup

It is no wonder YouTube is popular and growing fast. If you haven't explored the many avenues for interacting with viewers and friends, you should set aside some time to do so. Every link leads to a whole set of opportunities.

Is it Mac, or is it me?

It’s not easy being a Mac person. First of all, despite all protestations to the contrary, it’s pretty hard to communicate with the PC world. And let’s face it, the world is PC. Second, every time something goes wrong, the smug PC person on the other end will automatically blame Mac. After all, what else could it be? But it’s the third reason that is driving me to distraction this morning.

Mac is innovative to the point of overwhelm. Every day there seems to be a new product, a new process, a new way to do something that was introduced only two days before. I never seem to catch up. Despite being a loyal member and regular attendee of One to One, Mac’s individualized training program for Mac users (only $99 a year), most of the time, I’m in a fog. Maybe it would be more accurate to call it a cloud, because that is actually the newest Mac creation.

When I signed up for a program called MobileMe (only $99 a year), my trainer, in a rush of words, informed me of all its wonderful features: another e-mail address; syncing capabilities with my other Mac (which has the old version of MobileMe, called .Mac); the ability to share large files and photos through my public folder; and, best of all, “the cloud.” The cloud is where I would back up all my important files that can then be downloaded to either of my computers. Here’s something no one mentioned: When I change a file on one Mac, it will automatically sync with the other one. That took a near nervous breakdown on my part to figure out.

MobileMe has many wonderful features I haven’t yet discovered. If I had actually followed my Mac trainer’s explanation of how to find all the interesting help topics on the MobileMe website it would have speeded up the learning curve, I’m sure.

“I showed you that,” he said. “You did?” I replied, suspecting early dementia. He was politely adamant; I was embarrassed. I remember him going over something I didn’t quite get, and the MobileMe videos and mini-manuals must have been what it was.

So, here I sit, enmeshed in MobileMe icons, MobileMe videos, and notes from my last MobileMe training session, trying to figure out which icon will take me where I want to go and how to password protect my public folder. If you know, please give me a hint. I would so appreciate it!