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If you have been following this blog, its no secret that I have been helping people and companies with customizing their blogs and with social media optimization (SMO) for a while now. Today, I made it official with a press release entitled “nextSTEPH Launches Blog Business Services for Every Stage of Blogging.

I was cleaning out my refrigerator over the weekend. Realizing that some items have gone bad is always disappointing. One is then faced the reality of having to throw out the bad items.

Those of you may remember the previous post I did regarding pay-per-click campaigns. This post is a follow up.

The same thing applies with pay-per-click keywords. If people have been clicking on an ad for a particular keyword and there are no conversions (leads, sign-ups, sales, downloads) does that mean that that keyword has gone bad?

It depends ultimately on the client goals. If they are aiming for visibility in the search engines, the focus is on click and click-through rates (CTR). If the focus is on conversions , then its about how much did that lead cost.

If there is a particular keyword that costs over a certain amount for a given period of time, you can either pause the keyword or delete it. This also applies for ads as well.

No matter what method one chooses for reviewing paid search campaigns, it is always important to review your campaigns regularly.

My website color changes once again for Halloween. So while this site has it’s pumpkin costume on already, I have to get ready to put on mine. 2 Halloween parties tonight. Hee, hee, hee (Witches laugh.)

I normally don’t blog about the entertainment world, but this just happened. Rachael Ray’s announced on her Talk show this morning that her magazine, “Everyday with Rachel Ray” went green with the November 2007 issue.

The talk show and FoodTV network star stated that the magazine used 85% recycled fibers during a “Hollywood Buzz” segment with Lara Spencer of “The Insider”. This is a good move for both the environment and the magazine.

What does this move mean for other magazines that are not celebrity driven? I already know of several that have been green already, offering electronic, (PDF) subscriptions such as the WHIR (Web Hosting Industry Review) and Website Magazine that are encouraging subscribers to go green by going electronic to receive the magazine.

We’ll keep an eye out to see how the magazine industry reacts to this.

This lesson literally hit me earlier this evening at a networking event. There were so many interesting people, some familiar faces and some new faces. I was utterly embarrassed fumbling through my bag to find no business cards, which I mistakenly left at home.

Luckily, I have a company name (next STEPH) that people will hopefully not forget. It just goes to show that in this world of LinkedIn and Facebook, that old reliable is still a basic business card.

If you don’t have business cards, take a look at VistaPrint. Get FREE business cards for your business or personal use—an $85 FREE gift. Top quality! Full color!

Saying “Thank You” is not only for reaching your goals. Its important to acknowledge gratitude during the journey.

Its no secret that I have turned down full-time positions due to my elder care situation. So recently when a lead for a telecommuting opportunity was referred to me from a contact from Facebook, I jumped at it. Unfortunately during the interview process which lasted about a week, a family crisis emerged. I felt overwhelmed and didn’t know if I could be “on-point” to continue on. So I declined.

I graciously said “Thank You” not only to my interviewer, but also to the people who referred me. Hopefully, I will be able to return the favor one day. If not, at least they know that I am appreciative of them keeping me in mind.

Recently , when I gave my talk at Mediabistro, the quote “Technorati is to Blogs as Google is to Webpages” just came out of me. The reason I stated it was even with Digg gaining popularity, blogs still want to be loved on Technorati. I am going to give some tips as to how to get your blog noticed.

1. Claim your Blog - When you open an account on Technorati, you claim your blog by posting a small amount of code in the “Code” section of the post, then you publish it.

2. Make it easy for people to fave your blog. In your blog’s profile you can get the buttons you need to place on your blog.

3. If you have WordPress, install Bunny’s Technorati Tags Plugin, so that you can tag your posts based on the content.

With the tips listed , this is a good foundation to get an audience on Technorati.

For people that are concerned about Google, set-up a Google Alert, so when anyone writes or references your blog name, or web address you will get an alert.

If you found these tips to be useful, please help me out and fave this blog or ping me back.

I’ve been tagged by Shannon Cherry to participate in a b5media’s meme about 7 things you may not know about me. So here it goes.

1. When I was born, I lived a block away from an elevated train station.


2. I am lucky to have known my great-grandmother.


3. I grew up in a Brooklyn housing project.


4. I studied architecture in college and was an architecture intern for 3 months.


5. I am a member of a sorority.


6. I am big subway buff. Click here to view my subway blog.


7. I traveled to only 5 other countries so far.

I have tagged 7 other people to participate:

Stephanie Agresta

Lori Davis

Stephanie Fierman

Dina Giolitto

Lynne d Johnson

Adrian Miller

Karen Salmansohn

Lately the buzz in the blogosphere has been about upgrading to WordPress 2.3. Since I have been through several upgrades for clients in the past couple of weeks, I am going to provide some tips and strategies needed to survive the upgrade.

1. 
   

   Backup everything. – This includes custom templates, existing plugins and the database.

   
   


2. 
   

   Items may have shifted during the course of the upgrade. – Be prepared to re-install everything after the upgrade, including the items listed in point #1

   
   


3. 
   

   Be prepared the the blog may not look exactly the same as it did before – I upgraded this blog to Version 2.3 using one of the automatic WordPress Install Hosts. The categories were listed alphabetically instead of by category hierarchy. How did I get it back? Just publish a new blog post (ahem..) and the dashboard as well as your blog categories will refresh itself with it original hierarchy.

   
   


4. 
   

   What’s with the widgets? – Widgets are small lines of code that you can move into the sidebar with ease. For a simple way to install widgets on your existing WordPress Blog template , check out this resource.

   
   

and to be in charge of my own destiny. Today is Boss Day. I decided to be my own boss for personal reasons.

Here are a few resources I read that help me continue to the the boss:

Freelance Switch – Inspiration, Coaching
Freelancers Union – Community
Web Worker Daily – Resources and tips. Here is a good post from a few days ago.
Wild Women Entrepreneurs – (I’m the webmaster, so I can’t help but to read it:)
Startup Nation – Every boss has to return back to basics.
Even if you are not your own boss (yet), there are some insights about bosses. Some can be challenging (to put it nicely), some push you so hard that it hurts, but in the end there is always a lesson to be learned. Not all bosses are bad, some of whom can end up becoming your next client or a good friend.