Because I am out of town over the weekend I am extending the registration deadline for the shorter summer session of the WordPress 101 webinar to today (Monday), 5pm EST.  You can choose a package and register from here.  The price allows you to repeat the webinar as many times as you want, including the next full session in September.

If you are interested but have questions, feel free to call Monday afternoon.

To your success,

Marc Beneteau
Websites, blogging, video, social media for ordinary people
http://WordpressAcademy.biz
W: (215) 376-4345
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mbeneteau

The next WordPress 101 webinar (a shortened summer session as at a very special price) starts Monday night July 26.  If you are curious what is going to be covered, and you want to see a demonstration of building an attractive WordPress site in half an hour, there will be two free, hour-long intro calls next week:

1. Call 1: Monday July 19, 7-8:00pm EST
2. Call 2: Thursday July 22, 3-4:00pm EST

Webconference info below: just point your browser, sign-in as guest and enter your name, and turn on your speakers.  If you can’t make it I will be publishing the recording. 

These calls are not commercials.  As I do throughout the course, I promise to either give you the information you need to get started putting your business on the web and getting clients, OR I tell you where to go to get the information.  Also, I will develop an actual website of a class participant in the last half-hour (please reply to this mail if you would like to be guinea-pig for the class).  Complete course curriculum here. 

Webonference info

Web: http://wordpressacademy.biz/c  (Sign-in as Guest and enter your name)
Phone: 712 432 1601, code 252959#.  (Optional – only if you want to ask questions by voice.  You can ask questions by chat on the call as well). 

To your success,

Marc Beneteau
Websites, blogging, video, social media for ordinary people
http://WordpressAcademy.biz
W: (215) 376-4345
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mbeneteau

This is a reminder of our free monthly webconference for July:

WordPress membership sites

I will show you a few very good free options, along with the popular and powerful Wishlist Member.

Reminder also to mark your calendars for WordPress 101 summer session that begins Monday July 26 and carries a very special price. 

Webconference information for WordPress Membership sites

When: Tuesday July 6 at 7pm EST.
Web: http://wordpressacademy.biz/c
Phone: 712-432-1601, Code 252959# (or else just listen on your speakers).

The summer schedule is now set (and a very beautiful summer we are having here in Philadelphia – I wish you all the same).

1. The free monthly call for July is on WordPress membership sites and will be this coming Tuesday July 6 at 7pm EST.  There is no charge to attend, and I will publish the replay afterwards for 48 hours (but better to attend live and have all your questions answered!).  See below for webconference information.
2. There will be a shorter (4 week) summer session of the WordPress 101 webinar starting Monday July 26.  Complete schedule info (including two free intro calls) on our home page.

The shorter summer program will be at a (very special) discounted price of $250 (half the normal rate), since it’s only 4 sessions as compared to the usual 8, however, you can repeat the full 8-session webinar in September if you register for this one (and of course, you can access the videos at any time). 

I struggle with the pricing issue and here is my thinking (if you will bear with me for a moment).  I feel very passionately about training prospective entrepreneurs, self-employed people and world-changers to monetize their passion and spread their message; and I feel strongly that internet marketing information should not be only the property of the already-wealthy (which would be too sad), and also that it should be delivered in a simple, no-pressure, matter-of-fact way.  So I want to keep your costs low, and remember also that my competitors charge between $800 and $1700 for 8-10 week WordPress webinars with content identical to mine (and even, perhaps, not as good ;).  Even so, I need to raise the prices a bit to keep doing what I love, and so I want to eventually stabilize the price of the 8-week webinar around the $500-600 range.  This is still close to $10 per training hour.

But here is the good news. 

If you register for the short summer session at the discounted price, I will allow you (as I do for all webinar participants) to repeat the full course in September.  You don’t even have to come  to the July/August sessions. Just show up in September, if you want.

If you have any questions, simply reply to this email.  And if you already know that you want to do this, why not purchase the package right away.  There will never again be another opportunity to get in at this price. 

And remember of course, our 100% money-back guarantee until the beginning of session #2. 

Webconference info for the WordPress Membership Sites free webinar

Date: Tuesday July 6 at 7pm EST.
Web: http://wordpressacademy.biz/c
Phone: 712-432-1601, Code 252959# (or else just listen on your speakers).

I will demonstrate building a membership site using the very powerful Wishlist Member software, and also discuss design issues with membership sites in general.

I apologize for the late notice, but a shortened (3-session) WordPress 101 is being offered at the leBow School of Business of Drexel University starting this Wedneday June 9.  Details and registration information here:

http://www.lebow.drexel.edu/Event/2955

Best,

Marc
215 376-4345

Session content

• Introduction to Social Media
• Very complex field – I am just starting out myself
• My story: how I started two businesses with social media
• What you can do that won’t take too much time
• Major sites to know: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Meetup.com
• Know your audience and where they hangout: professional associations (post to their forums), and special-interest groups
• Putting it all together: Facebook tour
• Linkedin tour
• Twitter tour

Introduction to Social Media

• Social media use in business is exploding
• Social media is different from other marketing techniques (direct mail, email) in that it is a conversation.  It’s free but it does take some time.
• There are people who make 6 figures and more just by blogging, either about personal productivity and lifestyle (ZenHabits, Steve Pavlina) or business topics (Problogger, Copyblogger). And there are many others with online businesses that are primarily driven by social media.
  • Traditional ways of online marketing:
  • Newsletters & Affiliate marketing
  • Organic traffic
  • Pay-per-click
  • And now, social media
• Most experts agree that you need a blog and to try and drive traffic to your blog
• All blogs offer RSS feed but always offer an email subscription to your blog as well (this costs nothing – see Feedburner)

Facebook

• The leading personal networking site – 200 members
• Legitimate privacy concerns – if you use it for business, ‘”don’t put anything there you don’t want on the front page of the New York Times”.
• You must approve friend requests
• You can get a home page under your name ie http://facebook.com/marcbeneteau 
• You can create an event and email people (max 100 at a time)

Linkedin

• The leading business networking site.  Great way to find someone through the “6 degrees of separation” theory
• Many people build their business on it
• You can recommend other people or solicit recommendations
• You can also create events and email people (max 50 at a time)

Twitter

• The leading “micro-blogging” site (posts limited to 140 characters, typically containing a link to longer content –  i.e. to the blog post)
• You do not need to approve “friend requests” (that are called “follows”).  Follows are unidirectional, but it is considered a courtesy (and good business) to follow those who follow you
• The “tweets” of the people you follow come up in your Twitter home page
• You can “Direct Message” any of your followers (sends an email)
• There are a number of desktop and online applications (Tweetdeck, Tweetlater, that bring tweets to your desktop and provide additional services, such as searches, keyword alerts etc. 
• Tweets have an optional “Hashtag” that pertains to a content area – for example you can easily find and segregate tweets by all attendees at a conference that you are at – mixes online and in-person networking (especially interesting)
• You need to have a website to use Twitter effectively