There are new class offerings and new video-casts!

Be sure to update your RSS feed subscription so you don’t miss a post.

The new extension will feature:

• Site themes for download
• Training classes to get you up and running quickly
• Site design advice and how to choose one that works best for you
• Tips to avoid expensive mistakes
• How-to blog posts
• Podcasts with design experts and advanced users
• And so much more!

Be sure to check back in often for announcements on the launch. Or, you can subscribe to the RSS feed for immediate notification.

You can also follow Just the FAQs on Twitter.

Your site, computer, and browser need regular updates to keep them protected too.

Following is a simple checklist of routine maintenance that you can do in just a few minutes. While most folks put these tasks off because it disrupts their workflow, the time you invest here will save you countless hours of rebuilding a system that has been hacked.

Backup Your Site Files

If your site is on either a Blogger or WordPress.org platform, there are easy-to-use backup utility widgets and plugins that will do all of the work for you. Be sure to backup your site and content files. The site files are held in the theme. The content files are held in the database. Even if you have FTP access to your site, use the apps. They’re faster.

Backup Your Backup

Once you have stored the backup files from your site onto your computer, make another backup copy of them on another disk. This could be either an external hard drive, removable USB thumb drive, or a CD.

The rule of thumb is that if the data is not saved in three places, it’s not safe. One place is online. The second is on your computer’s hard drive. The third is on the removable drive. When it comes to data storage, redundancy rules.

Update Your Anti-Virus and Firewall Protection

The easiest, as safest way to do this is have your software auto-update and scan your system on a regular schedule. Yes, it slows down your computer’s performance time when it’s running. But that’s a small sacrifice to make compared to rebuilding all of the info on your hard drive. Most programs allow you to select the time when it’s best for the app to run. Perhaps you could run it during dinner, when you’re not likely to be working your computer. Be sure to have it scan any external drives regularly too.

Backup Your Computer’s Hard Drive

Because backing up an entire hard drive takes so much time, folks are reluctant to do this task on a regular basis. One trick you can use to get around this situation is to have it backup overnight while you sleep.

Backing up to an external hard drive is the fastest method to store your data. But, if you don’t have an external drive, there are several online storage services that charge a nominal monthly fee around five dollars. So, the yearly total would be less than the cost of an external hard drive, which usually has a two year lifespan. The speed at which the data runs will depend entirely on your Internet connection speed. But, if you perform the backup overnight, there is less Internet traffic, and that will improve performance.

Update Your Browser

Sneaking in through a security crack in your browser is the easiest way for a hacker to infect your system. Most browsers now come with auto-update reminders. Unfortunately, too many people just turn them off because they don’t want the look or features of their interface to change.

Bite the bullet and do the update. Learning the slight changes to the interface is a small annoyance compared to rebuilding your system.

While many consider it a painful chore to update their online security features, just consider how devastating it would be to your business to loose your entire site and all of its content. Consider how much time it would take you to rebuild if you lost all of the information on your computer. And, think of how long it would take you to get caught up on the backlog of work that accumulated while you were rebuilding.

There’s a lot of wisdom in that old adage, “A stitch in time saves nine.” Do your backups and updates soon.

One of the observations that Sterling made was that folks tend to describe themselves by filling their profiles with a list of generic adjectives such as: honest, dependable, and caring.

She stated that if everyone used these words to describe themselves then those qualities would no longer be unique. Instead, she suggested that creating a brief demonstration of those qualities would have more impact. For instance, a man could include a statement such as the following: I’m the guy you would call at 2:00 a.m. to come change your flat tire.

According to Sterling, such a statement shows compassion in action. It also demonstrates that he is a dependable, caring, enduring, and tolerant person. A demonstration statement delivers a vivid picture to the reader and helps them easily connect and identify with you.

That’s exactly the kind of connection you want to make with your clients.

You can use this online dating profile tip to help you market your product or services. For instance, if you offer a how-to series or helpful tips and state that they are easy to use, who considers them easy? One of the tag lines for Just the FAQs books is that they are written for non-geeks, which helps the target audience immediately identify with the product. The profile statement connects directly to the reader and demonstrates that it meets their need.

Another aspect of profiles that Sterling sited was that they often don’t convey the very best attributes of a person. When she read profiles that her friends had posted, she knew that they were omitting endearing traits. So, she offered to write profiles for them.

You can use this trick to show off your skills too.

Think of it as writing a profile for your best friend. You would be excited to tell others about them and all the wonderful things they had to offer. Excitement is contagious. If a potential client gets excited about what they read on your site, they are likely to tell someone else about it. Word-of-mouth is the best kind of promotion and makes products go viral quickly.

The profiles that Sterling writes are intended to get responses. Think of this as a conversion rate. Give your readers a reason to read more or to buy your product or service right away. As Sterling states on her site, “In the business of sales and marketing, traits do not sell products, but rather, it is the power-packed words describing a product’s benefits that trigger an emotional response and, ultimately, a purchase.”

The reason that I would never recommend such a service to one of my clients is because these templates are based on a proprietary format. Following are three reasons why using these services may be a bad idea.

1) No matter how much you customize the template, it still belongs to the hosting company. If you want to change hosting companies in the future, you can’t simply take the design with you. This means that you’ll have to pay a designer to re-create it for you or use a different design. Keep in mind that the look of a site is part of your branding.

2) You will not be able to back up any part of your site onto your computer. The hosting company may offer backups that will reside on their site, but will not allow you to back up the data on your computer. That means that the template theme and all of the content, which is stored in a database, cannot be moved to another host.

3) You can only use the widgets, gadgets, and plugins offered by the host. Those created by third-party are not usually allowed. This means that if you find a cool plugin for your sidebar to advertise something, or one that makes your site administration easier, you may not be able to install it.

The whole point of a host providing templates and build-your-own site services is to lock in repeat business for their hosting product. Once you are heavily invested in the site, you are not likely to move it because you would have to start all over again from scratch.

Following are six of the top reasons why I recommend using a WordPress based site instead.

• WordPress is open-source code, meaning that there is nothing proprietary about it.
• You can go with almost any host provider.
• Themes, or templates, are available from multiple designers and you can change them at will without disturbing your content.
• You can back up your theme and your database (all the content info) on your computer and move it to any other host at any time.
• There are hundreds of thousands of free widgets and plugins written for WordPress and more are being created every day.
• WordPress integrates seamlessly with other products, such as an online calendar and with RSS feeds providers, email campaigns, and more.

Most of my Web design clients come to me for their second site. Almost all of them got ripped off or trapped in a bad deal on their first site. The rest created a site that looked pretty, but didn’t function well. Each one has either told me that whatever money they saved doing it themselves was not worth it in the end, or they tell me that whatever money a consultant costs is far less than having to start over from scratch or paying to have a site built twice, not to mention the time needed to restore their content.

Normally I would advise you to read the fine print before you sign up for one of these services, but there is none. The companies that offer such services are selling ease, and that’s exactly what they deliver. There is no problem as long as you stay with that host for as long as you own the site, or if you never need anything for your site beyond their restrictions.

Related posts:
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In 2006, Dean Radin, who is the lead researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), interviewed Rollin McCraty, who is the Executive V.P. and Director of Research at the Institute of HeartMath, for a Shift in Action podcast. Among the topics discussed was the role of intuition among serial entrepreneurs, executives, and venture capitalists.

McCraty recalled a study conducted in Australia with serial entrepreneurs who have been successful with more than one business. In-depth interviews were conducted over several years. One of the notable things that was found to be consistent was that they all relied on intuition. Another common thread was that they all cared about the community in which they lived and were focused on ways to contribute directly back to it.

A few years later, McCraty conducted his own study with entrepreneurs at HeartMath, in association with Cambridge University, using a slightly different protocol for measuring the intuitive index among serial entrepreneurs. The results confirmed that entrepreneurs showed a much stronger psycho-physiological response than non-entrepreneurs or those with non-executive jobs.

In the interview, Radin also mentioned a study conducted in the 1970s by Douglas Dean at The New Jersey Institute of Technology where precognition tests were given to executives. The results were correlated against their company’s profits. The study showed that there were significant correlations between executives that displayed stronger precognition ability to higher profits. The findings were collected into a book, which is titled Executive ESP.

Because non-profit research facilities like IONS continually seek funding, Radin often comes into contact with venture capitalists. In the interview he noted that all of the highly successful ones rely heavily on intuition simply because they are constantly working in a realm of high uncertainty.

Both Radin and McCraty concede that having a high intuition index is only one component of becoming a successful business manager. They both suggest that a balance between intuitive and rational cognition is necessary. As Radin states, “If you were a pure intuitive, you might be a good psychic reader, but that wouldn’t necessarily mean that you were able to balance your checkbook.”

Research shows that intuition plays a critical role in business. So does caring for your community. It’s not always just about the sale. It’s about balancing heart and mind into a profitable whole that ultimately becomes a win-win for everyone.

In the most recent versions of WordPress, the code that aligns images with text in your blog posts has changed. While your posts look fine on your blog, they probably loose their formatting when being sent out on your RSS feed. It’s very likely that the image sits in its own paragraph, isolated from the associated text, which usually appears below the image instead of beside it.

There is a workaround for this problem. It’s not exactly a kosher fix, but it does resolve the problem for most feeds. A WordPress plugin has been designed by Janis Elsts called Align RSS Images.

It scans your RSS feed and ensures that every image has the correct alignment and margin settings. Basically, it appends the WordPress generated code with HTML elements that most all readers can use without error.

So, get the plugin and make your feed look as good as your post. Your followers will be delighted.

Both the post and page editors allow you to enter content by using either the Visual mode or HTML mode. Using the HTML view mode only allows you to create a simple link. This is also the case when you use Quick Edit or make updates via your phone.

Using the Visual view mode allows you to select from advanced settings, and that’s what we’ll cover here.

Once you highlight a word or phrase in your post and click the link icon, the window shown to the right appears.

The first line is for the URL of the link. This is the only information you can enter while in the HTML viewing mode.

The Target option is the key to keeping your site available to your readers when they click on the link.

When you click the drop-down arrow you will be given two choices of what happens when the viewer clicks the link (shown right).

The first option is for the link to open in the same window. This is the default when no target is set. What this means is that when a viewer clicks on the link, the page they are currently viewing will be replaced by the linked page.

That may be fine if you are redirecting viewers to another page on your site. But, if the link goes to a related site, you’ll want to choose the option for opening the link in a new window. Most browsers now support multiple windows open. Using this option means that your site will remain available to the viewer without them having to click their browser’s Back button to see it again.

You can also give your link a Title, which helps with SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.

The Class option allows you to further format the link by choosing where it will be aligned on the page, adding a caption, link to a remote Gallery of pictures, or embed rich text media such as a video. The last two options are available on WordPress versions 2.9 and above.

Behind the text you see while creating a Word document is a set of code that contains all of the formatting information to correctly display that text. Many times when you copy and paste from Word to an online posting source, that formatting gets carried along with it. At that point, you have two choices. You can either manually remove all the Word formatting, or start the habit of saving all of your Word documents as plain .txt files.

There’s an easier way.

All blog platforms give you a text editor with two ways to enter the information.

• In Blogger, the two views are Edit HTML and Compose.
• In WordPress, they are Visual and HTML.

Pasting the contents from Word to the HTML view strips it of all formatting leaving you with a clean copy. You can simply return to the Compose or Visual mode to easily re-create any special formatting, such as words in bold or colored text or links.

One of the other tricks I’ve found helpful is to include the full URL of a link in the Word draft. That way, it will be easily available after pasting in my blog editor. It will usually look something like this:

Visit Just the FAQs (http://www.JustTheFAQs.net) for more helpful resources on blogs and websites. Be aware that on WordPress, entering a link in the HTML mode has less options than in Visual mode. Look for another blog post on that soon.

Using the HTML mode for copying lets you save your drafts as a Word document without having to create a second plain text version or manually having to remove extraneous formatting.

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If you are on Blogger, just go to the Layouts tab and edit the section that shows your copyright information.

If you’re on WordPress and the copyright is in the footer of your theme, it requires going to the Appearances link in the sidebar of your Dashboard and then clicking Editor. But, be aware that this will display the code that runs your site. So, be careful with your editing.

If you have a static site or static site pages connected to your blog, hopefully you used a Server Side Include (SSI) file for your copyright information. That way you only have to update one file. If not, you’ll need to update every page of your site, and that’s not much fun. If that’s the case, you might want to investigate using an include file. Think of it this way, you’re already going to have to update every page any way. Why not modify the code slightly with the include file. It will save you a lot of time next year.

If you have questions about how to update your copyright notice, leave a comment here on the blog.