Business Tools 101- Websites

October 3, 2015 by Debra 2 Comments

Hi, websites are wonderful. At least I believe so! A website is your online presence; a necessity for any business large or small. Not just for businesses either. There are many uses for websites.

INFORMATION: Seemingly gone are the days when you would look something up in an encyclopedia or dictionary. If there’s something you want to know, Google is generally the first port of call for most users and there’s nearly always a website that has the information you are looking for.

SELLING: Online shopping – eCommerce.

RELATIONSHIPS: Online dating.

FUN: Playing games. Surfing the internet, watching videos and generally procrastinating!

Website Business Tools 101

Below I will mention the tools and programs I use to create and work with gmasDiary. Not all of these are necessary, however- to accomplish what I like doing; they are needed.

Choosing a website platform

Have you thought how difficult it would be to create a website? Or wondered what tools you would need to create the website? Here are a few suggestions. I personally have used WordPress.com and WordPress.org platforms. Either one of these two I recommend. The main difference between the two sites is hosting. WordPress.com is free and requires registration. WordPress.org is self-hosted through a hosting company like Bluehost. For complete information on both WordPress types, click here.

Now if you are interested in a blogging site only, WordPress.com and Blogger.com are similar, free and require registration. Both are pretty easy to set up and get going. Your online space is limited with these accounts.

Using WordPress.org requires a hosting account as I mentioned previously. This type of an account allows more flexibility for your creative designs. You can create a regular website or a blogging website or a combination of the two using a one-step installation function from the admin control panel. gmasDiary was created with this platform. I link to pages created with the CoffeeCup HTML program featuring image galleries, videos, calendars and other fun stuff! Which is the main point for this business tools 101 post. When you are ready to set your website up, please refer to these complete detailed instructions.

One of the biggest reasons I prefer the WordPress platform is because of the admin control panel. As long as I can connect to the internet, I can access the control panel of my website. This allows me to make instant changes as needed. With other website design software- changes can only be made with the computer where the files are stored. This is very limiting and can be a real pain! WordPress also offers many free responsive templates. With all the different smartphones, tablets and computers this is essential!

Choosing a HTML editor

What is a HTML editor you might ask. As explained by Wikipedia, an HTML editor is a computer program for editing HTML, the markup of a webpage. Although the HTML markup of a web page can be written with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality.

I absolutely LOVE CoffeeCup! Please head over and check it out- CoffeeCup HTML Editor. There is a free HTML version you may want to try first. Just an FYI- with CoffeeCup, you can download and try any one of the programs free before buying.

When working with HTML codes, I have booked marked this webpage- w3schools. As noted on the right side of this webpage, I refer to this site often!

There is a learning curve to working with websites and HTML coding. Believe me, if I can do it; so can you!

Selecting a FTP program

In a nutshell, FTP is a program used to transfer files from your computer folder file to your website online folders. The program I use is Smart FTP Client. For several years I have been using this and just have gotten comfortable using the interface. There are many other good choices. As mentioned above- CoffeeCup.com offers excellent programs.

Detailed information for, What is FTP and how to use it can be read here.

Let me show you

I created an HTML page using CoffeeCup’s HTML Editor default layout- two column fixed 5.

You can view it here.

What do you think

Do you think you will create your own website? Or if you already have a website, what programs do you use and why? It would be fun to hear your answer!

Best Wishes,

Do you have your letterhead? Letterhead Business Tools

Business Tools 101

September 26, 2015 by Debra 2 Comments

business tools 101

Hi, would you like to have the tools for creating an awesome business or personal appearance? The online world has opened many opportunities for the individual and entrepreneurs. I would like to share some of my experiences I have learned through my photography business.

Being a small business owner, I have realized image is very important. This is also the same in personal endeavors. Presenting oneself is essential for success. Business Tools 101 will be a series of tutorials on what I consider the basic most important marketing materials for personal and business use. Notice how I said marketing materials?

Let’s begin with the tried and true – stationery letterheads. The digital era has overtaken hand written letters. Personalized stationery has many uses hand written or typed. Information written on the stationery can be saved as a pdf file for website download. Websites will be covered in the Business Tool 101 tutorial series.

When designing I personally prefer simple. Simple is more.

Lumapix Fotofusion is my design software of choice. Any designing program can be used (Photoshop Elements, Paintshop Pro are two examples).

MicroSoft Office Word is the word processing program that I use the most to type and save documents with. If you are interested in a free word processing program there are several to choose from: LibreOffice and several others can be found here.

Please note: I have not used the free word processors listed above. Should you give one of them a try, it would be nice to hear your thoughts on the program in the comment section at the end of this post.

Creating a Personal/Business stationery letterhead.

Create your design for a standard page 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches tall. Set the margin for all sides to 0.125 inches.

designing tool

Most consumer printers do not print edge to edge of the paper. This is the reason for the quarter of an inch margin around the letterhead design. Also note Microsoft Word documents have margin sizes as well. My default header margin is set at 1 inch. With this in mind, my header logo is 2 inches wide and 1 inch tall. At the end of this post is a pdf download link with the tutorial on gmasDiary stationery! Once your design is completed, save to a folder as a jpeg file. Be sure to save the jpeg file at 300 dpi resolution.

Once the letterhead image is created and saved, the next step is creating a Microsoft Word template with the newly designed letter head.

Creating a Microsoft Word document template

Once the you have opened your Word program the letterhead jpeg file will be added to the document as a watermark.

microsoft template

saving watermark

inserted watermark

You can save your themes to any folder. If you would like to have the theme appear in the My Templates, they will need to be saved in the default folder. Click on the ? in the upper right corner of the Microsoft Word screen. In the search box I typed the phrase, “what folder are my templates”. A similar screen as below should appear explaining where the default folder is stored on the computer version you have.

tada saved

Creating a personalized letterhead pdf download.

Have fun with your letterhead!

Take Care,

Calendar – Sept 2015 Just 16 Friday’s til Christmas!

August 31, 2015 by Debra 2 Comments

calendar - september 2015 — September 2015

It’s never too late to think about Christmas! Yes, you heard right. Summer is still in full swing. Vacations were great and now you’re working on saving your images to a photo album. The first day of autumn is September 23, 2015. Autumn is a beautiful time of year for family pictures. Check your calendar and if you haven’t done so already, book a photography session. Christmas cards featuring you and your family are cherished memories friends and family enjoy receiving!

Shoutout- Now that it’s September there are only 16 Friday’s until Christmas! The 16th being Christmas day.

There are several online printing labs that offer great ideas for the Christmas season. Here are just a few:

Wolfe’s Camera Shop

Snapfish

TinyPrints

Have fun thinking Christmas in September!

Best Wishes,