Dennis J. Smith

Interested in Pinterest?

February 12, 2012

Are you in love with Pinterest? Wondering what the heck it is? My Pinterest Articles and Information Board on Pinterest will help you get the answer to your questions and help you get started. There is a collection I have pinned featuring great articles on how-to get start, marketing with Pinterest and WordPress plugins for the wildly hot social media site. Looking for an answer to a question you have about Pinterest? Leave it in the comments below and I will try and get you an answer. Now lets get pinning! Pinterest Articles and Information Board on Pinterest

WordPress 101–A Beginner’s Workshop

February 9, 2012

WordPress 101 – A Beginner’s Workshop Location: Meridian ETC, Meridian, Idaho 33 E. Idaho Ave., Meridian, ID 83642 Registration for this workshop is now just $25 (was $49.95) at the door. Learn how to create your own website for personal or business use. WordPress is easy to learn and easy to use! Bring your laptop to this hands on workshop at the Meridian ETC. Come join us at the new Meridian ETC and learn why WordPress is the best way to create a website for taking your business, thoughts or ideas online. Space is limited so reserve your seat today and save. This is a 3-week class beginning on 2/8/2012. Week 1 – 2/8/2012: What is WordPress? What is WordPress Codex? Installing WordPress The Dashboard WordPress Basic Settings Searching for, picking and installing a great theme Week 2 – 2/15/2012: Installing Plugins and Widgets Menu system Catagories and Tags Posting and Editing Adding images, video and files Week 3 – 2/22/2012: Add a Page/Delete a Page/Modify a Page WordPress and Plugins Updates Managing Comments and avoiding spam Share your post with Social Media SEO for WordPress Registration for this workshop is just $25 (was $49.95) at the door. Cash, check or credit card. Please RSVP on this page at the top right. Workshop includes 3-Months of free hosting so you don’t pay for hosting while you learn WordPress. Hosting is provided by GreenHostUSA and pricing varies according to type of website. http://www.greenhostusa.com/ Please note: Must have a laptop to attend this workshop as we will be installing and using WordPress.

Pinterest Pinboard Widget

February 6, 2012

Are you caught up in the Pinterest craze? Check out this awesome plugin for WordPress and add the Pinterest Pinboard to your WordPress site. It uses the thumbnails from Pinterest and updates as you “Pin” new items on the popular social media site. Settings of the widget under: Appearance > Widgets This is the Pinterest Pinboard widget in the sidebar of the Twenty Eleven WordPress theme Are you on Pinterest? Using any other cool Pinterest Plugins? Leave a comment below or a link if you would like others to follow you. Here’s my Social Media Board on Pinterest with lots of great information. Pin this to Pinterest using the “Pin It” button below. Download the Pinterest Pinboard here: Pinterest Pinboard Plugin

WordPress How-To Video Tutorial : Installing WordPress

January 26, 2012

Have you thought about starting your own self-hosted blog or a website for your small business? Surprisingly it is simple and more affordable then you think, so lets get started. In this WordPress video tutorial I’ll show you the process after you have your domain name and hosting set up. Visit GreenHostUSA.com to search for a domain name and pick out your hosting plan. WordPress hosting starts out at just $2.95 for those wanting a personal WordPress blog. Businesses pay a little more for their hosting but at affordable rates. The process of installing WordPress takes less than 5 minutes. Then the fun gets started and you can start creating the perfect website. The cPanel is where you will install WordPress from and have access to others areas of your hosting account. The QuickInstall button under Software/Services will take you to the screen below. The QuickInstall screen(see below) shows you a list of all the software available for installation to your website. Select “WordPress” under the Blog Software choices and you will see information on the version, install file size and the WordPress website. Click the “Continue” button to start the install process. This is where you choose how you want WordPress installed. Do you plan on having a separate website along with a blog? Do you want to use WordPress for your primary website? If you plan on using something different to create your website and just using WordPress as a blog you probably want to install it off the root directory. If you are using WordPress as your primary website or just to blog then do nothing and it will install to the root directory. Enter in your main e-mail address as the Admin email, a title for your blog (you can change this later), then your first and last name. Click the “Install Now!”button and WordPress should install within a few minutes or less. Write down your user name and password and keep it in a safe place. The same information should be e-mailed by your hosting provider to the Admin email you entered. Now that WordPress is installed all you have to do is take your user name and password. Follow the link provided by your hosting provider and login to the WordPress Dashboard and get started. Stay tuned for more WordPress Tutorial videos from GreenHostUSA. Dennis J. Smith is the author of “Promote Your Business or Cause Using Social Media – The Beginner’s Handbook” and owner of GreenHostUSA.

Adding A Facebook Event To Your Google Calendar and iCal

December 15, 2011

Adding A Facebook Event To Your Google Calendar and iCal In my last post and Facebook Tip – Adding A Facebook Event To Outlook on YouTube, I showed you how to add a Facebook Event to your Outlook Calendar. It is a fairly easy process once you do it a few times. If you don’t have Outlook you can still add a Facebook Event to your favorite calendar such as Google Calendar and Apple’s iCal. Follow the same instructions I laid out in Adding A Facebook Event To Your Outlook Calendar and download the .ics file to your desktop. Locate the file you have downloaded and follow the instructions I’ve listed below depending on the calendar you use. Google Calendar Import events from iCalendar or CSV files To import events from iCalendar or CSV files, just follow these steps: Click the down-arrow next to Other calendars Select Import calendar Click Choose file and find the file that contains your events, then click Open. Select the Google Calendar where you’d like to import events, then click Import. Apple iCal Exporting and importing iCal information If you want to move a copy of all the events on one calendar to a calendar on another computer, you can export the calendar information, and then import it into iCal on the other computer. You might want to do this if you want to archive a calendar or if you want to edit the calendar on another computer. To transfer calendar information between computers, do one of the following: â– To export the events on a calendar, select the name of the calendar in the Calendars list, and then choose File > Export. The events are exported as a “.ics” file. â– To import calendar events, choose File > Import, locate the calendar (.ics file) you want to import, and then choose the calendar you want to add the events to. You can also drag a .ics file from your desktop to iCal. If you follow the steps above your Facebook Event will be saved to your favorite calendar so you won’t miss that next Facebook Event. If you are using another calendar application check that calendar’s Help menu for information on importing .ics files or search Google for information.

Adding A Facebook Event To Your Outlook Calendar

December 14, 2011

Adding A Facebook Event To Your Outlook Calendar Have you ever confirmed yourself for an event posted on Facebook but forgot to to attend or add it to your calendar? There is actually a real easy way to add any Facebook Event to your Outlook Calendar. In the video I explain how it is done with Outlook. But you can also download the information for the event and then import it into Google Calendar. When you are looking at your Facebook Profile page there are 2 ways you can view events. One is on the left-hand menu from the Events link and the right-hand side of the page you should see the Birthdays of your friends and and how many events you have in the current week. Click on the link on the left-hand side to see all your upcoming events and birthdays. If there is a number next to the link it means you have new events you can join. You can “Join” or “Decline” to the right the event information or clicking the event title will give you more information on that event. If you scroll to the bottom of your events list page you’ll see links to view past events, declined events, birthdays and a link to export all events to your calendar. You can export all events if you want. However I recommend you only export the events you plan to attend. Lets scroll back up to the top of your events page and look at an event. You have to “Join” an event or be a “Maybe” in order to “Export Event” to your calendar. Once you do that the button will change to “Going” and allow you to change it to maybe or not going. Notice the button to the left of the “Going” button below. Here is where you can “Share Event” with your other friends or “Export Event” to your calendar. Pick “Export Event” to start the export process to your Outlook Calendar. It should only take a few moments for the .ics file to download to your PC. If you click on the file it will launch Outlook so you can save the event. You can also save this file to your PC and then import it into your calendar. Most calendars will have information on how to do that. Notice how the information from the Facebook event is carried over to Outlook. Here is where you can make any need changes, add a reminder, set a category and then save the event to your calendar. It is pretty easy to do after you understand the process and you will never miss an important event with your social media friends. I will talk about how to import your Facebook events into Google Calendar in a few days. Please feel free to leave a comment below or let me know if you have any questions.

Author: Dennis J. Smith