A Virtual Partner?

Small business owners and the busy executive often attempt to do it all. Overwhelmed business owners believe that success lies solely in their ability to handle it all. Virtual Business Partners help these very busy individuals realize that with a partner they can better leverage their time, while acquiring valuable resources that can prove crucial to their success.

After almost 20 years in the corporate world, I established Virtual Business Partners, Inc. back in late 2000. Since then, VBPartners has grown and morphed through various phases of virtual assistance services. From assembling a VA team serving a large network of clients to refocusing its vision as a sole VA practice, my focus is dedicated, personal partnering with my clients. Over the past few years, virtual partnering has proven to be the key to success.

For years, Virtual Assistants have provided services to their clients almost on a one-dimensional basis, focusing on the task list at hand and not necessarily the over-all picture. As a “Virtual Partner”, I offer multiple services that are integrated into the “bigger picture’ with you and your company’s future success in mind.

Virtual Assistant or VA…. an independent contractor providing virtual assistance in the form of administrative, technical, and sometimes creative services to clients, usually to other independent entrepreneurs and solo and small business practices, such as that of a lawyer or realtor.  Virtual assistants work from their own office (hence “virtual”), often at home, thus making it a fairly popular (and growing) profession… **Wikipedia

Virtual Partner… a virtual assistant that is partnered with and focused on the clients’ success. **VBPartners

After all, true success is possible only when all facets and efforts of your business are unified.

Strategic growth, necessary for success, is my focus and is integrated into my comprehensive services. Partnering with my clients makes all the difference. Their success is my success too.

Back-office, administrative, marketing and web related needs are the core of my services. My experience in the web design and on-going website maintenance field is backed up with many years and passion for the industry. I specialize in the customization of WordPress based websites and blogs, having a strong foundation with CSS and PHP coding. I also offer web design and maintenance for those preferring HTML and Flash, using DreamWeaver and FrontPage. Regardless of which platform is the choice, I always customize web sites designed specifically with the clients' niche and audience in mind.

Marketing my clients’ business is also a primary service I offer, including social marketing, internet marketing and viral marketing. Others include SEO – Search Engine Optimization; set up, cleaning and management of databases; graphic design; CRM – Customer Relations Management; copy writing and editing; customer support and much more.

Considering a VA? Not sure who uses Virtual Assistants?

My experiences allows me to bring to the table a vast array of knowledge, backgrounds and skills. I will not only partner with you to alleviate your back office administrative, marketing and website requirements, but help you focus on the ‘bigger picture’… your success.

Via my partnering system, I cater to professionals in all aspects of business including entrepreneurs, consultants, life and business coaches, authors, speakers, busy executives… basically anyone that is busy and trying to grow their business. 

My clients receive all of the benefits associated with working with a Virtual Assistant along with also receiving a partner who's interested in their success!

/*  (Whatever is written between the /* and */ is for notes, etc. Does not effect the theme)

Theme Name: WordPress (Usually the name of your theme goes here.)

Theme URI: http://wordpress.org/ (This is where you downloaded the theme.)

Description: Test Blog (This is whatever description the theme author has included, typically used for SEO.)

Version: 1.6 (Let's you know if there are other versions.)

Author: Joe Doe (Who to give thanks to!)

Author URI: http://JoeDoe.com (Where to go if you have comments, questions or just want to give thanks!)

Tags: powerful, cheat, sheet (Author's keywords/tags for SEO.)

*/

It's very important, when working with WordPress, that you understand all of the components that create your site. Take the time to get familiar with the 'behind the scenes' and it'll make your WP experience a much more pleasant (and easy!) one.

Over the course of the next few days, I'll be highlighting various areas for you.

Theme Structure

header.php …………………. Header Section

index.php ……………………. Main Section

sidebar.php ……………….. Sidebar Section

single.php ………………….. Post Template

page.php ……………………. Page Template

comments.php ……………… Comment Template

search.php …………………. Search Content

searchform.php ………… Search Form Template

archive.php ………………. Archive Template

functions.php ……………. Special Functions

404.php ……………….. Error Page template

style.css …………………….. Style Sheet

Some would say that less is often more. Less choices are better, less confusion and more direct.

However, your blog's subscription is one area that you should offer more choices in. This allows your readers to choose the best way for them to receive your content. 

The most commonly used option is a RSS feed, allowing readers to subscribe to all of your blog content via an RSS reader. This is a great option, but there will also be some that do not want to receive all of the content and just receive updates on specifics topics.  

WordPress makes it easy to offer your readers an option of subscribing only the specific category, or even tag, that they are interested in.

This all depends, though, on if you have set up permalinks or not. 

If permalinks are set up, then all your readers needs to add is add /feed/ to the end of the category or tag URL to get its feed. 

If permalinks aren't set up, then someone needs to add &feed=rss2 to the category or tag URL. 

See the following examples:

Permalinks: http://www.yourblog.com/tag/sky/feed/ 

Default: http://www.yourblog.com/?cat=2&feed=rss2

In fact, just about anything on your WordPress site can easily be converted into a feed. You can do this byappending the feed indicator to the URL. If you were to append it to your search results, you’d get the search results feed. If you were to add it to an entry’s permalink, you’d get the comments feed for that specific entry. 

Don't clut your blog, though, with several feed buttons.

Take the time to create a subscription page which explains the different options for subscribing to the various areas of your blog. Make sure you provide instructions for the different options too. 

Also,make sure that you update your feed buttons and links to mention that there are multiple subscription options.

Did you know that your comments can be separated from pingbacks/trackbacks?

Many bloggers have started to use this format. 

Having your pingbacks/trackbacks before your comments can proove to be a pain for your readers if they'd like to leave comments on your post. 

Just remember…Pingbacks and trackbacks reference your idea elsewhere. Comments are added and act as a continuation of your post, on your site.

Makes sense that Comments, then, should receive priority, right?

Don't Use Tags & Clouds in Your Sidebar 

Although most would not recommended this, it is one true sign of a blog vs. website. Tags do provide SEO benefits, helping Google and blog directories find and categorize your site.Just keep them off of your sidebar. 

Speaking of Your Sidebar….

The key here is to have it be consistent. Titles such as Blogroll, Categories and Archives are blog related and your visitor will immediately identify your site as a blog. Also, keep an eye out for themes that have different sidebars depending on the page that you are on. Keep it simple, keep it consistent.

More on Your Sidebar….

By displaying and using your Pages in your sidebar, you provide easy navigation to your site and also the look/feel for a website. Use the “Pages” Sidebar Section as Your Main Navigation. How to do this varies on the theme that you are using. Some provide the Pages already in the sidebar, while others allow you to insert it via widgets.

Use Nice Search Plugin 

It's a great and simpleplugin, making searches your visitors perform on your website look less WordPress-style. It gives the look of a customized search engine that has been installed on your website. 

Don't Use Comments on Your Pages 

User-contributed comments are a easily recognized as being part of blogging. Keep your comments limited to your Posts, but disasble them on your Pages.

Towards the bottom, in Discussion, make sure that Allow Comments is disabled. This will give your site the atmosphere and feel of a website. 

And Most Importantly… Don't Refer To Your Website as a Blog

If you want your site to be seen as a website and not a blog, don't refer to it as a Blog. Probably the most simple and yet most commonly overlooked tip! 

Step 1: Add a ‘posts_where’ Function

A WordPress filter is needed to accomplish this, and we’re going to be tapping into the ‘posts_where‘ filter.

The reason being is we need to modify the query used for the loop and exclude some posts.

Here’s the function we’ll be using called post_strip:

function post_strip($where) {

global $myPosts, $wpdb;

$where .= ” AND $wpdb->posts.ID not in($myPosts) “;

return $where;

In the above code, I use a global variable called $myPosts, which is comma-separated string of post IDs to exclude.

Step 2: Start the First Loop

Within this first loop we’ll be keeping track of the post IDs being used. Nothing fancy is being done here. We’re just pulling the last five posts posted.

<?php

global $myPosts;

$myPosts = ”;

?>

<div>

<?php

$my_query = new WP_Query();

$my_query->query(‘showposts=5′);

if ($my_query->have_posts()) : while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>

<?php $myPosts .= $post->ID . “,”; ?>

<div><?php the_title(); ?></div>

<!– Post Stuff –>

<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

</div>

Pay special attention to the $myPosts variable, which is used to keep track of all of the post IDs.

Step 3: Add the Filter

We’ll now need to add a posts_where filter for the second loop. This filter will use the post_strip function we started in Step 1.

<?php add_filter(‘posts_where’, ‘post_strip’); ?>

Step 4: Start the Second Loop

The second loop is a repeat of the first loop to demonstrate that the posts are not being duplicated. The second loop uses a different loop technique since paging isn’t necessary.

<div>

<?php

$my_query = new WP_Query(‘showposts=5′);

while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post();?>

<div><?php the_title(); ?></div>

<!– Post Stuff –>

<?php endwhile; ?>

</div>

Step 5: Remove the Filter

The filter we added in Step 3 now needs to be removed.

<?php remove_filter(‘posts_where’, ‘post_strip’); ?>

Download this plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/random-redirect/