Last week I posted my answers to the social media questions that members of the Halton-Peel Chapter of Professional Organizers in Canada recently asked me. As promised, this week I’m posting the rest of their questions, along with my answers.

©Depositphotos / Vladislav Kochelaevskiy

Blogging

What would be the #1 Social Media tool you would suggest to start with?

The best social media platform for you is the one most used by the people in your target market. Regardless of which one you choose, I strongly believe that a blog should be the hub of all your social media activity. If you devote a lot of time and energy to developing great content for your Facebook page, but all of a sudden Facebook is no longer popular, or your page gets deleted due to some technical glitch, it’s of no value to you. Instead, put all your best content on your blog, where it can remain permanently, and post links to it on your social media accounts.

Is WordPress the best place to blog?

I am a huge fan of WordPress.

Do you post photos onto your blog as well?

Absolutely! Photos not only add visual appeal to your posts, but they make them pinnable on Pinterest. In addition, if there’s an image in your post, a thumbnail will appear when you share a link to your blog posts on Facebook, making it more likely that people will notice it and click on it.

Would you separate your blog from your website? For example, have your business website with your domain and then your blog on WordPress.com?

You can do that, but I highly recommend that you incorporate your blog into a WordPress site on your own hosting account. Because your blog is going to be updated more frequently than your website, that’s what’s going to generate the most traffic. Don’t you want those readers to be as close to the information about your services as possible?

Do you have to pay for using WordPress?

Not exactly. WordPress.com is a free service, but you are limited to the design themes and features they offer. If you want to customize a theme or use your own domain name, you have to pay for a premium account.

Self-hosted WordPress (often referred to as WordPress.org) is free software, but it needs to be installed on a hosting account, which you have to pay for. It is much more powerful, allowing you to choose from a much broader selection of design themes, or even to have your own custom theme designed, and offers a lot more bells and whistles.

For a more detailed explanation, refer to my Website Owner’s Guide for Non-Techies.

What do you blog about?

The possibilities are endless, but here are a few suggestions:

• The organizing products you use most often
• Organizing books you’ve read
• Answers to questions people have asked you in workshops, emails, or consultations

For additional content ideas, check out:

• Blog Energizer’s Blogging Calendar & Planner (free download)
• Professional Organizers Blog Carnival monthly themes
• Blog Post Ideas plug-in for WordPress (free with any WordPress Package from Organized Assistant®

I don’t want to give away too much of my knowledge. What would stop people from using the information and  organizing themselves?

Don’t be afraid to demonstrate your expertise! Yes, people hire you because of what you know, but it’s not the only reason. Many people lack the time, energy, or interest to carry out a major organizing project on their own.

Michelle Shaeffer wrote an excellent post about this very topic: Overcoming Secret Blogging Fears: If I Give Away My Secrets and No One Will Hire Me

Email Marketing

Do you send out Newsletters?

I don’t do a traditional newsletter, but I do have a mailing list through which people can receive my blog posts by email.

What tool do you suggest?

I really like MailChimp. It’s free if you have less than 2000 subscribers, and you can email them as often as you like at no extra charge. It’s also one of the easiest email systems I’ve ever used.

How does  MailChimp make money?

They charge for people with 2000 or more subscribers. If you use the free service, you have to put the MailChimp branding in it, but if you get a paid account, you can remove it. There are also other features available for a small fee.

Can you set up both Newsletters and a blog through MailChimp?

Yes, you can. I have one client who sends out a quarterly newsletter in addition to a monthly summary of her blog posts.

How do you get people sign up for your Newsletter?

You can put a sign-up box on your website and on your Facebook page.

Do you help others to create newsletters?

Yes, I do. In fact, I started offering VA services when I was a professional organizer and another POC member asked me to set up a newsletter for her. I help by designing templates, setting up mailing lists, editing and formatting content, and setting up RSS-to-email campaigns.

Virtual Assistants

What do Virtual Assistants do?

This virtual assistant focuses mainly on blogging – including everything from WordPress installation and theme design (for both websites and blogs), developing an editorial calendar, proofreading and formatting posts, sourcing images, ghost writing – anything to help you promote your business through your blog!

How do you charge for your services?

For new blogs and websites, I charge by the project. For other services, I offer hourly packages which are good for up to a year.

Websites

Would you use Go Daddy for building a website?

I don’t recommend using any site building software that is offered by a hosting company. Aside from the limitations, if you decide to change web hosts, there is no way to transfer your site to the new service, so you basically have to start over again from scratch.

Do you know anyone who can help your website to be on the top in web searches?

I am very skeptical of anyone who claims they can get you top ranking in the search engines, as there are just too many factors. Furthermore, with personalization of search results, different sites come up for different users, depending on their browsing history. The best thing to do is keep adding new content to your site, using the keywords that your target market is most likely to enter in the search box.

Other

Do you find QR Codes useful?

I have very little experience with QR codes, but I follow Stephanie True Moss on Twitter, and that’s all she tweets about.

Would you have any comments of benefits and ways of using YouTube?

That’s also beyond my area of expertise, but I know that video is becoming more and more important as a marketing strategy. If you’re interested in speaking engagements, it’s a good way to let people see you in action. Many organizers use it to demonstrate specific organizing products or techniques.

Big thank you to Chapter Secretary Blanka Smetana of Tidy Corners for diligently writing down all of the questions, and to Program Coordinator Michelle O’Sullivan of Saving Spaces for inviting me to speak.

If you have anything to add to my answers, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment! And if you have a question of your own you’d like me to answer in a future blog post, I’d love to hear from you as well.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on More Online Marketing Q&A.

Many new professional organizers choose one of our Starter WordPress Packages for their first website or blog, because it allows them to have a professional design at a very reasonable cost. One of the benefits of WordPress is that you can update to a different theme, even a custom design, any time you’d like a new look, without having to recreate your site from scratch.

When Lois Kennedy established 3 Step Solution by lk in 2010, her main focus was on residential organizing. We created her original website, shown above, using the Flexx Theme, with a little customization to match her logo.

As happens very often, the shape of Lois’ business evolved very quickly during the first year. After becoming GO System certified, she started offering workshops and other business services, and needed her website updated to reflect her new services and her new branding. She also wanted a more polished look to better attract the corporate market. We decided to redesign her site using the iThemes Builder Theme, which allows for complete customization, not only of the design, but of the layout of different sections of the website.

We’re all very excited about Lois’ new website:

Here are some of the other new professional organizer websites we’ve created recently:

• SeniorDownsizing.ca
• Very Organized
• Jean Linder Organizing

If you’re in the market for a new blog or website, or a new look for your existing WordPress site, let’s talk!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Another Website Makeover.

I’ve been working with WordPress for several years now, and am completely and utterly in love with it. Its simplicity allows even new businesses on a limited budget to have a professional site that’s easy to maintain, yet it’s powerful enough to meet the demands of seasoned business owners looking for something more upscale.

There are literally thousands of WordPress themes to choose from, and some of the ones I’ve worked with are delightful, while others have been a nightmare. The most amazing theme I’ve used is iThemes Builder, which offers custom layouts – including different layouts on different pages throughout your site. I’ve been using it for all of our custom website designs for the past couple of years, and it’s really spoiled me for working with any other theme.

Although we already had a large library of WordPress themes to offer our clients, some weren’t compatible with the newer versions of WordPress, and none were as flexible as Builder. Since Builder now has over 40 different designs (called Child themes), with new ones being developed all the time, we’ve decided to discontinue all of our other themes and work exclusively with Builder.

View our new WordPress theme library and learn more about our WordPress Packages.

How did your website or blog get its look? Please leave a comment below, then go to our home page to take part in our latest poll.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Announcing Our New WordPress Packages.

It’s been quite a while since I blogged about any client projects, but that’s not to say we haven’t been busy here at Organized Assistant®! We’ve actually had a lot of different things on the go, and I can’t wait any longer to tell you about some of them.

Above is a screenshot of a website we recently created for Neaten Up With Nancy. As a new organizer, Nancy opted for our Basic WordPress Package, choosing the Yukon Theme by iThemes for her design. WordPress is ideal for starter websites, because it’s easy for most people to add new content as needed, and we can easily give it a new design later on without rebuilding the entire site.

We’re especially proud to have been selected by some seasoned organizers to redo their older HTML website in WordPress, including Pat McArthur of Home Definition. Pat’s original website looked like this:

After implementing a new design created by Snapdragon Design, her site now looks like this:

I’m excited about learning to develop mobile versions of WordPress sites as well, and had fun creating this one for Smart Space Organizing:

I can’t wait to mobilize my own sites when I get a break in my schedule! I guess it’s a case of shoemaker’s children syndrome…

But don’t let me scare you off if you’ve been thinking about contacting us about a new website or other project! I have some great people working with me, and we’re committed to helping you enhance your online presence in any way we can.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Three Types of WordPress Websites.

One of the great things about being a web designer is the ongoing opportunity to learn about new trends, tools and features as I work on various client projects. The downside of this is that I frequently become disenchanted with my own site and find it challenging to make the time to do anything about it.

After squeezing in time to develop a new design for the Organized Assistant website and Your Organizing Business blog over the last few months, I’m finally ready to share it with you. What do you think?

I’ve also added a new feature that I think you’ll enjoy. Every month I’ll be posting a new poll on the home page and you’re invited to participate. All polls will be archived on the site so you can refer to them at any time. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve, but you’ll just have to wait for them!

In the meantime, I am here to serve you, so please don’t hesitate to let me know if there’s a poll question you’d like me to ask, a topic I should cover in the blog, or a particular feature you’d like to see on the site.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on We’ve Got a Fresh New Look!.

If you were to ask me what I like best about my work, it would be a toss-up between developing new WordPress sites and providing blog support to professional organizers, so naturally, I was thrilled when Clare Kumar contacted me about setting up a blog for her.

Clare and I had spoken briefly in the past, but had a wonderful opportunity to get to know one another when we sat together on the train to Montreal for the POC Conference in November 2010, and I was really impressed with her enthusiasm, her professional manner, and her outgoing personality.

She already had an up-to-date website which represented her brand quite effectively, and after considering several different options, she decided upon a blog that not only had the same look and feel as her website, but that would integrate with it seamlessly. She also had several unique features in mind which I had not seen before, and as a result I’m pleased to have several new items in my toolkit that I’ll be able to apply to future projects – and maybe even my own blog!

I had a wonderful time working with Clare and her graphic designer to create her new WordPress blog, and I’m sure you will enjoy reading her posts.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Another Professional Organizer Joins the Blogosphere.

There’s nothing like a custom designed website or blog to give your organizing business a professional online image, but it’s good to know there are other options if you don’t currently have the budget or the need for a custom site. When I discovered premium WordPress themes, it opened up a whole new world for me – and it can do the same for you and your business.

There are literally thousands of themes available on the Free WordPress Themes directory and elsewhere on the Internet, and I used to spend hours looking for just the right one for a client’s site or one of my own. Sometimes, when I finally found one that was just right, I’d find it didn’t work properly or wasn’t up-to-date to handle all the current features of WordPress.

Last year one of my clients introduced me to iThemes and I haven’t looked back. Their themes are gorgeous right “out of the box” but someone with knowledge of HTML and CSS can easily customize them to more closely match your business branding or your personal vision.

Because they’re so easy to use, Scott and I were able to create new websites for three clients in one month without working overtime or falling behind on our commitments to other clients. The two screenshots above represent our Basic WordPress Package, with little to no theme customization. Fresh Appeal Staging is based on the Edmond theme, and Amazing Space on the Yukon Theme.

The third site, 3 Step Solution by lk, is based on the Flexx Theme. This site required our Enhanced WordPress Package in order to customize the colors to match our client’s logo. The Flexx theme is really quite amazing, because it allows to you customize your layout without any technical expertise. This is the same theme I used for the Golden Horseshoe Virtual Assistants Group and W.P. Consulting & Associates websites. You have to look pretty closely to tell, don’t you?

If you’re ready to try building your own premium WordPress site, here’s how you can get started:

1. Purchase your domain name from your preferred domain registrar (I recommend MyDomain).
2. Purchase a hosting account from Hostgator (affiliate link) or another service that allows one-click installation of WordPress.
3. Purchase the theme you like best from the iThemes Theme Store.
4. Install WordPress, upload your theme, and your site is now ready for your finishing touches!

If it sounds like this will take more time or technical skill than you have, contact me for a free consultation. I’d love to help you make your ideas come to life.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Get Your Website Up and Running in No Time!.

Perhaps you created a website when you launched your organizing business. Over time, you may have added or discontinued some services or decided to specialize in a certain area, and it’s important that your website reflect these changes. It’s equally important to update the design of your site to effectively represent you as an established professional in the organizing industry.

Heather Burke has been working in the field of organization for over 10 years, and in residential and commercial interior design for over 15 years, and she had a very basic website to market her business. Due to her current studies through the NSGCD Certification Program and her active involvement with the Kingston/Frontenac Region Hoarding Coalition, Heather wanted a website that would effectively promote her expertise in hoarding and chronic disorganization. Rather than simply updating the information on her existing site, she decided to start a whole new website dedicated to the organizing side of her business. She worked with a graphic designer to develop a logo, and asked me to create a WordPress website around it. I am now very proud to show it off:

We were able to import the posts from her existing blogs on Blogger in order to take advantage of the full power of WordPress. Heather now has her website and her blog all in one spot, which is great for branding, as she no longer has separate sites that don’t look and feel the same way. Furthermore, every time she publishes a new blog post, it will generate traffic to her website, which is great for search engine optimization.

Another benefit of using WordPress is that it’s not a major task to add new content to the site, even when that involves making changes to the navigation menu. If you’ve ever tried to change the menu on a regular website, or asked your webmaster to change it for you, you know that it can sometimes be a big job! And you can be sure that Heather has some amazing plans for her site, which is going to continue growing over the next while.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Heather to bring her new website to life, and I’d love to do the same for you! If your website doesn’t reflect your professional image as well as you’d like, please feel free to contact me for a free 30 minute consultation.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on A “Smart” New Website.

I love anything and everything to do with blogging, I love working with professional organizers, and I love customizing WordPress themes, so when an opportunity comes along that lets me do all three at once, you can be sure that I am in geek heaven! Today I’m excited to share with you my most recent project:

I first met Tina Blazer of Spot On Organizing back in my organizing days, when she drove all the way in from Toronto to help me de-clutter a client’s home, in preparation for putting it on the market. We’ve stayed in touch since then, and I was really pleased when she asked me to create a blog to match her newly redesigned website.

Although for the most part I work directly with my clients, it was great collaborating with Tina, her webmaster, and her graphic designer to bring her new blog to life. Scott and I look forward to supporting Tina with her blogging activities and other projects over the coming months.

Earlier this year, we created a new WordPress site for another client, using the Red Essence theme from iThemes, which is one of the 100+ premium themes in our collection.

We’ve got several other WordPress projects on the go for professional organizers and other small business clients, and I just can’t wait to show them off!

If you’re thinking about starting a blog, giving your existing blog a facelift, converting your website to WordPress, or launching your first website, please let me know. I’d love to provide you with the perfect theme, whether it’s one from our theme library or a custom design just for your organizing business.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Recent WordPress Projects.

So, you’re thinking about a new website for your organizing business – how exciting! No matter if it’s your very first site or you’ve been online for a while and are ready for a change, whether you’re a do-it-yourself-er or are working with a web professional, you can make the project go more smoothly and increase the ROI of your new site by drawing upon your strong organizing skills.

Although you may be anxious to get your site up and running, over the years I have learned that taking the time to make a few decisions right from the beginning can save much aggravation later on, and increase the likelihood that your website will help you achieve your business goals. Whether you use a whiteboard, a notebook, a Word document, a spreadsheet, or some other system, the answers to following questions should be planned in writing before the web development process even begins.

Do you already have a domain name?

Choosing a domain name which corresponds to your business name will make it easy for people who already know about your business to locate your website. If your ideal domain name is not available, think hard about what else might be effective. Using hyphens to separate words is one option, but keep in mind that you’ll have to mention those hyphens each and every time you tell someone your website address. Using your full business name might work, but not only is it a mouthful to say, “my website is thebestprofessionalorganizingserviceintheworld.com,” but just try and fit that on your business card!

Do you already have a logo and/or colors to represent your business?

For maximum impact, you will want the design of your website to complement your logo. Even if you don’t have a logo, you should use the same colors on all of your marketing materials to strengthen your brand.

What is the purpose of your website?

Do you simply need a basic brochure-type site you can direct people to when they ask if you have a website they can look at, or are you relying on your website to bring you new business via search engine traffic? Do you plan to sell any products (either your own, or through affiliate programs)?

Who is your target market?

Do you prefer to work with young families? Seniors? Home-based businesses? Non-profit organizations? Corporations? You will need to tailor both the look of your site and your content to appeal to the people you are trying to reach.

Who will write your website content?

You may choose to hire a professional copywriter who will ensure that you have a compelling marketing message that is also search-engine friendly. If you’re comfortable preparing your own copy and your writing skills are good, then go for it! If someone else is creating your website, be sure to ask if they will proofread and edit your work, as many designers do not provide this service. Another option is to choose a web designer with experience in the organizing industry, such as Organized Assistant, who will work with you to make sure that your website represents you and your business effectively.

What type of design appeals to you?

Would you prefer a menu across the top, on the left, or on the right side of the screen? Do you like dropdown menus?

Do you want to include a photo of yourself? Before and after pictures? What about clipart or photos to enhance your text? Where will you get them?

Take some time to study websites that you like, and make note of what it is about them that appeals to you – is it the layout, the colors, the overall feel, or something else? Of course, you don’t want to copy someone else’s site, but being aware of what you like and don’t like will help you (or your web designer) to create the right look for you.

How do you plan to keep your site up-to-date?

If you want to be able to make your own changes in the future, make sure that your web designer is aware of this fact so that he or she uses WordPress or another user-friendly technology. You don’t want to find out after the fact that you’ll need to invest in and learn to use a specific software program if you want to add a new page to your site!

Adding new content on a regular basis will do wonders for your search engine positioning. That’s one of the reasons that blogs are so popular! Even if blogging is not in your immediate plans, WordPress is an excellent Content Management System that will easily allow for the addition of a blog at a later date.

How much can you afford to invest?

Notice I said “invest” and not “spend?” Your website is an investment in your business, and a professional design should not be considered a luxury. That being said, a quality website doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Our WordPress Packages start at $325.00 and include your first six months of web hosting at no additional charge.

The above considerations are even more important if you’re replacing an existing site. If your current website isn’t working well for you, you need to identify how it may be lacking and make sure that your new site addresses those issues.

If a new website is in your future, let’s talk! I’d love to help you make your ideas come to life.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Developing a Plan for Your Website.