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	<title>WP Valet</title>
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	<link>http://thewpvalet.com</link>
	<description>Management. Support. Peace of Mind.</description>
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		<title>It&#8217;s Been a Year&#8230;and We&#8217;re Improving!</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/05/16/its-been-a-year-and-were-improving/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=its-been-a-year-and-were-improving</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/05/16/its-been-a-year-and-were-improving/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 02:04:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Hoanshelt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=366</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>WP Valet loves our clients and because of all of you, we made it to a year in business! A lot has change since we first opened our doors and we have some exciting changes coming up in the next few weeks. Our Team Has Grown As many of you know, Mason and I we&#8217;re [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/05/16/its-been-a-year-and-were-improving/">It&#8217;s Been a Year&#8230;and We&#8217;re Improving!</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>WP Valet loves our clients and because of all of you, we made it to a year in business! A lot has change since we first opened our doors and we have some exciting changes coming up in the next few weeks.</p>
<h3>Our Team Has Grown</h3>
<p>As many of you know, Mason and I we&#8217;re the first Valets and we still play a very active role in the day to day duties of the company. But, there is only so much two people can do. So we have grown our team from 2 to 7 people. We have added Kim Lipari and Paul Barthmaier to our executive team along with additional help for support and migrations. To see our new team, check out our new<a title="About Us" href="http://thewpvalet.com/about-us/"> about us</a> page.</p>
<h3>New Support System</h3>
<p>We are moving! No not our headquarters but our support system! Currently we are on Zendesk. We are actively moving to desk.com now and you will see the new support system by midnight tonight. Why would you care what support system we are on? Here is why:</p>
<ul>
<li>Faster response times</li>
<li>Better non business hour responses</li>
<li>Better case analytic to improve support</li>
</ul>
<h4>Faster response times</h4>
<p>Trust me, I love when our support team responds fast as much as you do. This is one of the primary reasons for the move to desk.com. Let me share a stat with you.</p>
<p><a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/WP-valet-stats.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-367" alt="WP-valet-stats" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/WP-valet-stats.jpg" width="418" height="242" /></a></p>
<p>Although we are growing past out industry average, that is no excuse for our First Time Reply to be 26.20 hours. Now, the support analytics are not 100% accurate and we&#8217;ll discuss that more later in the article but still&#8230;.this is unacceptable for our clients.</p>
<p>How does the new support system help with this? After doing some tracking, we found that a majority of time is spent finding who is the right person for the ticket. This is cause by our rapid growth internally and needs to be solved. Desk.com allows us to setup our support system to get your requests to the right person right away, cutting back on the First Time Reply time. In a nutshell, we are creating a system to get your questions answered MUCH faster.</p>
<h4>Faster non business hour responses</h4>
<p>Like every business out there, we have closed hours. That doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean we are not around though. As our team members are at home on their computers after hours, we still have the tendency to jump on and answer a few tickets.</p>
<p>Our new system is setup to get you a answer faster during this off-time hours. We will have an automated response to first let you know that your request has been received. On top of that, after hour business request get top priority during the next business day. How does this all happen? Automatically of course!</p>
<h4>Better case analytic to improve support</h4>
<p>Lets refer back to the benchmark images from faster response times:</p>
<p><a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/WP-valet-stats.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-367" alt="WP-valet-stats" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/WP-valet-stats.jpg" width="418" height="242" /></a></p>
<p>This information really tells me nothing other than overall&#8230;.we need to speed up our responses. Does it tell me whether support tickets are being solved? Does it tell me what category (pre-sale, support, etc) of tickets are taking the longest? Does it even tell me which agent I need to hunt down to make sure they are more responsive? No! It doesn&#8217;t tell me anything. So how is that any help?</p>
<p>Our new support system lets me break down out stats to the before referenced variables. We can tailor our support needs and fine tune them down to the agent level. This means for you, an overall better support experience.</p>
<h3>So are you excited?</h3>
<p>You should be! You should start seeing a dramatic positive difference in how your support tickets are handled. We do however ask you to be patient with us for the first 2 weeks as we train the entire staff to use the new system. Today, our Valets will be battle ready and excited to start tackling your tickets.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/05/16/its-been-a-year-and-were-improving/">It&#8217;s Been a Year&#8230;and We&#8217;re Improving!</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>May Day, Mayday, M&#8217;aider!?!</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/04/23/may-day-mayday-maider/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=may-day-mayday-maider</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/04/23/may-day-mayday-maider/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:21:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Barthmaier</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=335</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>May Day as a celebration on May 1st has a long and varied history, with a surprising number of influences, each of which added color and texture to the fête we have today. Originally, a pagan festival in the Northern Europe worshiping the return of summer, after the advent of Christianity the holiday developed some religious [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/04/23/may-day-mayday-maider/">May Day, Mayday, M&#8217;aider!?!</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong><span style="color: #1b94c3">May Day </span></strong>as a celebration on May 1st has a long and varied history, with a surprising number of influences, each of which added color and texture to the fête we have today. Originally, a pagan festival in the Northern Europe worshiping the return of summer, after the advent of Christianity the holiday developed some religious overtones. May Day thrived in certain cultures, yet fell into disfavor in others, perhaps in part due to the conflicting sensibilities of its pagan and christian influences.</p>
<p>A more recent incarnation of the holiday somewhat relates to a development project <strong><span style="color: #1b94c3">WP Valet</span></strong> has been working on. May 1st as International Workers’ Day,  may not be very popular in the United States, but it is embraced soundly by the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and countries with a strong socialist sensibility. In an odd twist of history, however, International Workers’ Day finds its origin in the United States! A demonstration in Chicago in 1886 supporting the concept of an eight-hour workday turned bloody when someone threw a bomb and police opened fire on the crowd, killing a number of demonstrators, and apparently, some police officers as well. The event, which became known as the <em>Haymarket Affair</em>, occurred on May 3rd and in the years that followed the holiday commemorating the event was shifted to May 1st.</p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-336 alignleft" alt="maider" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/maider-300x254.png" width="210" height="178" />The context of the Haymarket Affair was a period great change as immigration was on the rise as was the continued shift from the agrarian to the urban lifestyle. While working in factories was new for many, so, too, was the understanding of what constituted acceptable or appropriate working conditions. The workers at the time organized a peaceable protestation for the purpose of gaining a stronger unified voice, but things got out of hand. One of the leaders of the rally who was executed for his participation reportedly shouted as he approached the gallows, “The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!”</p>
<p>Oddly enough, <strong><span style="color: #1b94c3">WP Valet</span></strong> eagerly supports a revolution that began ten years ago. May 2013 is the month that<em><strong> WordPress</strong> </em>celebrates its 10th anniversary of its existence! As fate would have it, too,<span style="color: #1b94c3"> <strong>WP Valet</strong></span> has been working on a development project, slated for launch on May 1st, that ties in with International Workers’ Day. The concept for the site is to provide a way for users to document their life history. Think of all the effort that workers around the world expend, and now, if so inclined, they can record their experiences as they view them. The perfect way to celebrate your life’s work!</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/04/23/may-day-mayday-maider/">May Day, Mayday, M&#8217;aider!?!</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Time is Money</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/04/12/time-is-money/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=time-is-money</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/04/12/time-is-money/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:39:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Paul Barthmaier</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Migrations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WordPress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=327</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Growing a business is a challenge in any environment. Growing a business around a core that involves WordPress has specific challenges inherent to its fundamentals. WordPress, of course, is that popular platform which began its life as a way for individuals to blog, but its value and ease of entry quickly allowed it to evolve [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/04/12/time-is-money/">Time is Money</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Growing a business is a challenge in any environment. Growing a business around a core that involves WordPress has specific challenges inherent to its fundamentals. WordPress, of course, is that popular platform which began its life as a way for individuals to blog, but its value and ease of entry quickly allowed it to evolve into a Content Management System (CMS) that commands the attention of  businesses large and small. A representative sample, yet far from a complete listing, can be found at WordPress.org (<a href="http://wordpress.org/showcase/">http://wordpress.org/showcase/</a>).</p>
<p>Although WordPress is Open Source Software, which is free to download and use, the sites listed above could hardly have been created for free. Each of the sites have many hours invested in their development, and of course, time is money. To circumvent the time sink of creating functionality and avoid recreating the wheel, most developers prefer to pay for premium plugins and themes. These plugins are used alongside the myriad free plugins and themes available at WordPress.org.</p>
<p>Given that so much can be done with WordPress for free, this bias persists in the minds of many clients. The question is often why pay for something that is free? The answer is the same one that every marketplace has provided for millennia. When early hunter-gatherers wanted some grains to go along with their fish or berries, the answer from the guy who had the grains wasn&#8217;t how about I just give you what I got for nothing. The evolution of currency became useful for the grain guy who already had plenty of fish and berries, but was willing to part with some grains in exchange for some valuable placeholder in case the folks with meat or vegetables happened by.</p>
<p>And so it comes to be that I am very thankful to be a part of this micro-community where sharing is a very important underlying value, but there are also plenty of opportunities to trade your time and expertise for the placeholder we call, today, money. Sure there are times when a client may not understand the services of WP-Valet and their intention, but this becoming increasingly rare. Yesterday I had a conversation with a potential client who objected to an express service fee. His line of reasoning was:</p>
<blockquote><p>[M]ove to the front of the line for $100.  What? So you’re willing to sell-out the hard-working folks who have contracted your services for a measly hundred bucks?</p></blockquote>
<p>To be clear, our migration services are offered with a 10-day delivery. In most cases this is just fine for our clients, but under certain crisis situations, such as current hosting running out, a client may elect to have this process expedited to a 3-day delivery for a fee. Why would we charge this fee? I can assure you it has nothing to do with selling out hard-working folks. Rather, it entails a different delivery method from our 10-day system. Instead of dispersing the workload to five different Valets, each of whom have their own area of expertise, we assemble the crack team, usually two Valets, to see the whole process to completion. To embrace this disruption, we associate a fee with it. For further explanation, please consult the nearest FedEx representative.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2013/04/12/time-is-money/">Time is Money</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>How to Get The Most Out of Twitter in Just Minutes Per Day</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/31/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-twitter-in-just-minutes-per-day/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=how-to-get-the-most-out-of-twitter-in-just-minutes-per-day</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/31/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-twitter-in-just-minutes-per-day/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:51:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Christina Gillick</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=188</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>The value of social media (especially Twitter) is debated a lot these days. Some businesses swear by it while others say it&#8217;s a waste of time. The truth is, Twitter can be a powerful free advertising platform and it can be a complete waste of your company&#8217;s time and resources. The difference is in how [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/31/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-twitter-in-just-minutes-per-day/">How to Get The Most Out of Twitter in Just Minutes Per Day</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/social-networking.jpg"><img src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/social-networking-300x210.jpg" alt="" title="Social networking" width="300" height="210" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-189" /></a>The value of social media (especially Twitter) is debated a lot these days. Some businesses swear by it while others say it&#8217;s a waste of time. The truth is, Twitter <em>can</em> be a powerful free advertising platform <em>and</em> it can be a complete waste of your company&#8217;s time and resources. The difference is in how you use it. </p>
<h2>To get the most out of Twitter (or any social media network) you need to understand three things: </h2>
<h3>1. There must be a reason for your social media efforts. </h3>
<p>The most common reason companies use social media is for traffic &#8211; or to get visitors to their website. You might also use it to create name recognition in your industry, handle customer support issues, or generate leads. But, don&#8217;t jump into tweeting without knowing why you&#8217;re doing it. You won’t see any results. </p>
<h3>2. Social media is relationship based. </h3>
<p>People connect with &#8211; and buy from &#8211; companies they know, like, trust. Social media is a great opportunity to connect with your customers and let them know you&#8217;re a real person who cares about them. </p>
<p>But, if you treat social media like a platform to peddle your products and services, people won&#8217;t feel connected to you. They&#8217;ll be less likely to visit your site or buy what you&#8217;re selling. </p>
<h3>3. You must provide value to your followers. </h3>
<p>If your main Twitter goal is to increase your company&#8217;s revenue, that&#8217;s okay. But, if all you do is talk about what you&#8217;re selling, you&#8217;ll come across as a spammer. Resist the urge to promote your product or service in every update and instead work on providing value to your followers. </p>
<p>The three things above might make Twitter seem like a time-consuming amount of work, but&#8230; </p>
<h2>Here&#8217;s how you can quickly grow your Twitter followers in less than 15 minutes per day: </h2>
<p><a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/timer.jpg"><img src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/timer.jpg" alt="" title="Get The Most Out of Twitter in Just Minutes Per Day" width="300" height="225" class="alignright size-full wp-image-190" /></a></p>
<h3>1. Set up a Twitter account if you haven&#8217;t already.</h3>
<p>Time investment: 5 minutes (one time)</p>
<p>Hopefully you know that in order to have Twitter followers, you have to have a Twitter account. If you don&#8217;t have an account, please <a href="https://twitter.com/" target="_blank">go here</a> and follow the steps to setting up your account. </p>
<h3>2. Optimize your Twitter account. </h3>
<p>Time investment: 10 minutes (one time)</p>
<p>To get the most out of Twitter be sure to fill out your profile completely.  If your account lacks a bio, image, website URL, or keywords, you should take care of that as soon as possible. Here are some tips: </p>
<p><strong>Bio:</strong> Use your keywords where you can so people who search for your service will find you. For example, WPValet wants to rank for the keywords &#8220;WordPress management&#8221; so they included that in their bio: WordPress management, support, and peace of mind.</p>
<p><strong>Image:</strong> If you are tweeting as a company, it&#8217;s okay to use a company logo, but people are going to connect with you more if you use a picture of your face. </p>
<p><strong>URL: </strong>Make sure to add your company website URL so people can visit your website from Twitter without searching. </p>
<p>I recommend creating a special page on your website just for Twitter users. Give away something of value (like a PDF, report, or infographic) on that page and then encourage them to share it with their followers. Immediately adding value to your followers&#8217; lives will position you to be shared and followed by others. </p>
<h3>3. Tweet something relevant to your audience. </h3>
<p><a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Twitter-Tweet.png"><img src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Twitter-Tweet-300x108.png" alt="" title="Twitter Tweet" width="300" height="108" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-191" /></a></p>
<p>Time investment: 2 minutes (per day)</p>
<p>Tweeting every day might seem like a lot of work, but it can be made faster and simpler with tools like <a href="https://hootsuite.com/" target="_blank">Hootsuite</a>. With Hootsuite, you can log in, create a week&#8217;s worth of Tweets, and schedule them to post to Twitter once per day. This should take less than 10 minutes per week if you batch it like this. If you&#8217;re having a hard time coming up with content to Tweet about, here are some ideas: </p>
<ul>
<li>Talk about a conference, webinar, or event you just attended and share something you learned. (Be sure to mention the speaker and you might get a retweet from them.) </li>
<li>Share a link to one of your favorite tools that your audience might also enjoy. </li>
<li>Link to an article you recently read and enjoyed &#8211; if it&#8217;s something your audience would find valuable. </li>
</ul>
<h3>4. Set up an auto direct message to welcome new followers. </h3>
<p>Time investment: 5 minutes (one time)</p>
<p>Using <a href="https://ifttt.com/" target="_blank">IFTTT.com</a>, you can create a recipe that will tell Twitter to send all your new followers a direct message. The trick here is to make your auto direct message seem like you personally wrote it to each new follower. </p>
<h4>Here are some ideas: </h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Ask a question</strong> so your new followers will start a conversation with you. If you were WPValet, you might ask, &#8220;What do you find most difficult about managing your WordPress site?&#8221; This message isn&#8217;t screaming &#8220;I have something to sell,&#8221; but it could open the conversation to talk about the service WPValet offers. </li>
<li><strong>Offer to do them a favor.</strong> I recently changed my auto direct message to say, &#8220;Let&#8217;s make a deal… If you retweet me, I&#8217;ll retweet you.&#8221; People love this and often write back to say they accept my &#8220;deal.&#8221; Plus, I receive daily retweets from this strategy. </li>
<li><strong>Give something away. </strong>If you created a special page just for your Twitter followers, use your auto direct message to tell them about it. To make it seem less like a marketing tactic, say something like, &#8220;Created just for my Twitter followers.&#8221; Or &#8220;No opt-in required.&#8221; </li>
</ul>
<h3>5. Follow back new followers.</h3>
<p>Time investment: 1-2 minutes (per day)</p>
<p>As new followers come in, follow them back. You can automate this process with <a href="https://www.socialoomph.com/" target="_blank">SocialOomph.com</a>, but I like to manually follow each new follower so I can keep track of Step 6… </p>
<h3>6. Retweet your new followers. </h3>
<p>Time investment: 5 minutes (per day)</p>
<p>I consider this step to be the one main thing that is causing new people to follow me left and right. Once a day I log in to Twitter and follow all my new followers. Then, <em>if</em> they have any tweets that I think will add value to my followers, I retweet them. (The majority of my followers have a lot of stuff worth retweeting.) </p>
<h3>7. Say &#8220;Thank you&#8221; for retweets and mentions. </h3>
<p>Time investment: 5 minutes (per day)</p>
<p>If someone has mentioned me or retweeted something I tweeted, I thank them two ways. First, I reply and say, &#8220;Thank you!&#8221; Then, I retweet something they tweeted. If you take notice of the people who retweet you, they will continue to do so and your influence will spread. </p>
<h3>8. Create a list. </h3>
<p><a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Twitter-List.png"><img src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Twitter-List-300x158.png" alt="" title="Twitter List" width="300" height="158" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-192" /></a>Time investment: 5 minutes (one time)</p>
<p>Twitter is a great place to network with influential people and get them to notice you. But, once you have thousands of Twitter followers, it will be difficult to read their tweets and keep up with them. One way to fix this is to create a Twitter list. (When you&#8217;re logged into Twitter, go to your profile. Then, click on &#8220;Lists&#8221; on the left hand side. Then, click on &#8220;Create list&#8221; on the right.) </p>
<p>I prefer to call my list &#8220;Power Network&#8221; and I make it a private list. Privacy isn&#8217;t required, but if you have a public list, people you add to the list can see the name of the list and others can see who&#8217;s on it. </p>
<h3>8. Add people to your &#8220;Power Network&#8221; list. </h3>
<p>Time investment: 5 minutes (per week)</p>
<p>You probably already have a list of people you would like to network with. If so, add those people to your new list. Then, do a search on Twitter to find more people in your industry to add to your list. Look for people who are influential in your industry and have thousands of followers. Also, check to see how many people they are following back. If they aren&#8217;t following many, they&#8217;re not likely to follow you.  </p>
<h3>9. Retweet your &#8220;Power Network.&#8221;</h3>
<p>Time investment: 2 minutes (per day)</p>
<p>Try to engage with someone in your &#8220;Power Network&#8221; at least once per day. (Remember, you can schedule these posts with Hootsuite.) Here are some ideas for engaging with them: </p>
<ul>
<li>Retweet something they tweeted. </li>
<li>Respond to their questions. </li>
<li>Visit their website or blog and share their posts. </li>
<li>Promote their product or service, if you use it and find value in it. </li>
</ul>
<p>By following this strategy, I&#8217;ve had quite a few influential people in my industry mention me and retweet my stuff in return. If the people on your list have a lot of followers, this can be a great way to get exposure to those followers. </p>
<p>Using the tips above, you can easily grow a Twitter following without spending much time. Just remember to provide value to your followers and you&#8217;ll do just fine. A good mix is sharing valuable content in 80-90 percent of your posts. The remaining 10-20 percent can be used to promote your products or services. </p>
<p>When you provide value to your followers people will naturally share what you shared. Plus, they&#8217;ll want more where that came from and they&#8217;ll probably visit your website to see what you have to offer. Sharing valuable content will also position you as an expert in your niche. People who learn valuable things from you are more likely to buy your products and services and refer you to others. </p>
<p>So how about you? What tips do you have for quickly growing an army of loyal fans on Twitter? </p>
<p style="font-size:90%; line-height: 1.4em; font-style:italic; background: none; border: 1px solid #333333; padding: 15px; ">Christina Gillick is a <a href="http://www.christinagillick.com/" target="_blank">direct-response copywriter</a> who specializes in web copy, emails and autoresponders. (She&#8217;s also an entrepreneur and marketing consultant.) Her clients range from small businesses to big companies like American Writers &#038; Artists Inc. (AWAI) and Nightingale-Conant. If you need a copywriter, marketing consultant, or a million dollar idea, please <a href="http://www.christinagillick.com/contact" target="_blank">get in touch</a>. You can follow her on Twitter here: <a href="http://twitter.com/ChrisGillick" target="_blank">@ChrisGillick</a></p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/31/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-twitter-in-just-minutes-per-day/">How to Get The Most Out of Twitter in Just Minutes Per Day</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<title>Here’s a Quick Way to Search and Replace Your WordPress Database</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/16/heres-a-quick-way-to-search-and-replace-your-database-after-migration/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=heres-a-quick-way-to-search-and-replace-your-database-after-migration</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/16/heres-a-quick-way-to-search-and-replace-your-database-after-migration/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:35:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Hoanshelt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tutorial]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=160</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Today, I&#8217;m going to let you in on a little trick that cuts my time in half when doing migrations. The handy tool that I use is a Search and Replace script. This can help search and replace your WordPress database when migrating from one domain to another. If you do not have a clue [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/16/heres-a-quick-way-to-search-and-replace-your-database-after-migration/">Here’s a Quick Way to Search and Replace Your WordPress Database</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Today, I&#8217;m going to let you in on a little trick that cuts my time in half when doing migrations. The handy tool that I use is a Search and Replace script. This can help search and replace your WordPress database when migrating from one domain to another. If you do not have a clue what I&#8217;m talking about, first download the <a title="Search and Replace Script for WordPress" href="http://interconnectit.com/124/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases/" target="_blank">Search and Replace Script for WordPress</a> and read on to learn more about how to use this great tool.</p>
<h3>What is this script?</h3>
<p>First off, it&#8217;s main function is to do what it says, SEARCH and REPLACE something. This is similar to the functionality you use in your favorite text editor when needing to replace a word with something else. However, this does that same task but for your WordPress database.</p>
<h3>Why do I need it?</h3>
<p>As mentioned previously, the most common use for this script is when you migrate your site from one domain to another. Your domain in referenced all over your WordPress site within the database. For example, in the wp_options table under the siteurl and home option_name. Also, in posts that link to internal pages or images, your old domain will be in the image source or link href. So you will need a way to replace all those references to your old domain to your new domain.</p>
<p>Also, this script fixes any serialized data entries to your new domain name. Updating the serialized data will prevent missing widgets and settings being lost.</p>
<div class="tip">Nerd Talk: What is serialized data? Serialized data is a way to store arrays in a database. Typical databases can only store strings, int, and datetime. Serialized data is a string representation of an array that allows developers to store multiple values in one database record. The issue comes in when you change domains in serialized data, the serialized data&#8217;s length is effected. You would need to also fix the length declared for the serialized data. This scripts takes care of that.</div>
<h3>You&#8217;ve convinced me. Now, how do I use it?</h3>
<p>Very simply actually. If you haven&#8217;t already, download the <a title="Search and Replace Script for WordPress" href="http://interconnectit.com/124/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases/" target="_blank">Search and Replace Script for WordPress</a>. You should have downloaded a file name searchreplacedb2.php. If it is different then this, it may be because the file name has been changed since the writing of this article. Here is a step by step tutorial on how to change your domain name in your database.</p>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>BACK UP CURRENT DATABASE!</strong></span> By the way, be sure to <span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>BACK UP CURRENT DATABASE!</strong></span></li>
<li>Upload the Search and Replace Script to the folder that your wp-config.php file is located.</li>
<li>Go to http://yourdomain.com/searchreplacedb2.php.</li>
<li>You should now see the homepage of the script. Make sure to have &#8220;Pre-populate the DB values form with the ones used in wp-config? It is possible to edit them later.&#8221; checked and press &#8220;Submit&#8221;.<br />
<a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Search-and-replace-wordpress-script-step-1.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-177" title="Search-and-replace-wordpress-script-step-1" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Search-and-replace-wordpress-script-step-1.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="217" /></a></li>
<li>At the Database details page, you should see your database credentials pre-populated from your wp-config.php file. If not, fill in your database credentials now. Click &#8220;Submit DB details&#8221;.</li>
<li>Now you can choose table to search and replace through. I normally do all tables for single WordPress installs but if you are on WPMU, then you may want to choose the correct site id tables to go through. Read the warning about the GUID columns in the posts table. If that is something you want to leave out, you have that option.<br />
<a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Search-and-replace-wordpress-script-step-2.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-178" title="Search-and-replace-wordpress-script-step-2" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Search-and-replace-wordpress-script-step-2.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="317" /></a></li>
<li>This is where things get scary but luckily if something goes wrong, you already did a <span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>BACK UP OF YOUR CURRENT DATABASE!</strong></span> Now is the time to tell the script what to search for and what to replace it with. Once you tell the search and replace terms, click Submit Search String and let it do it&#8217;s thing. It&#8217;s normally pretty fast!
<div class="tip">TIP: For domains, I recommend starting the search and replace string with an http://. For example, use http://yourdomain.com and not yourdomain.com. This will leave out email addresses in your database from being replaced. Don&#8217;t forget to put http:// in the replace box too!</div>
</li>
<li>The script will now give you some stats on the changes it accomplished. Check your data and see if everything is working correctly and visit your site. Test Test Test is the key at this point!</li>
<li>Finally, remember to remove the script from your server. This is a security measure so that no one can change your database through the script. Also, it will keep you off this <a href="https://www.google.com/#hl=en&amp;safe=off&amp;sclient=psy-ab&amp;q=inurl:searchreplacedb2.php&amp;oq=inurl:searchreplacedb2.php&amp;gs_l=hp.3...490.8189.0.8449.26.26.0.0.0.0.190.2472.16j10.26.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.n9eiIJfDoUU&amp;pbx=1&amp;bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&amp;fp=fe25eec3fd641297&amp;biw=1920&amp;bih=814" target="_blank">list</a>.</li>
</ol>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>This is one of my favorite and most time saving tip I like to to use on all my migration that require some sort of search and replace. I hope this helps you in the future as well! IF you have found more uses or another tool that helps you with your search and replace tasks, I would love to hear about them in the comments.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/16/heres-a-quick-way-to-search-and-replace-your-database-after-migration/">Here’s a Quick Way to Search and Replace Your WordPress Database</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Migration Nightmares: Caching</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/14/migration-nightmares-caching/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=migration-nightmares-caching</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/14/migration-nightmares-caching/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:26:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Hoanshelt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Migration Nightmares]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=144</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>I love caching. I really do! But man can it give me a headache when doing migrations. Maybe you have experienced this also perhaps? This is a short article but provides a quick tip on how to avoid this nightmare and make your migrations much easier. Issue Unexplainable issues. I know&#8230;.sounds like a load of [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/14/migration-nightmares-caching/">Migration Nightmares: Caching</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img alt="" src="http://www.funny-potato.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/scary-attraction.jpg" title="Scary Face" class="alignright" width="275" height="308" />I love caching. I really do! But man can it give me a headache when doing migrations. Maybe you have experienced this also perhaps?</p>
<p>This is a short article but provides a quick tip on how to avoid this nightmare and make your migrations much easier.</p>
<h3>Issue</h3>
<p>Unexplainable issues. I know&#8230;.sounds like a load of crap but that is the best way I can think of phrasing it and is why this became a Migration Nightmare article. Here are some examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>Theme options not being saved</li>
<li>Theme option being saved to database but pulled information from database is incorrect.</li>
<li>Plugins not pulling in correct data</li>
<li>Staging site works perfectly but production (cached site) is breaking.</li>
</ul>
<p>All of these situations, we have run into personally and found it to be all caching related.</p>
<h2>Solution</h2>
<p><strong>Turn Off Caching BEFORE Migrating</strong></p>
<p>The best solution is to disable caching before doing any migration tasks. For example, with WPEngine, be sure to login to your dashboard, go to WPEngine plugin menu and disable the caching there. This will ensure that any changes you make after the data is migrated over won&#8217;t run into any caching issues. If you forgot to do this and find yourself running into unexplainable issues, I found it much easier to just start the migration over and turn the caching off before migrating again.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/14/migration-nightmares-caching/">Migration Nightmares: Caching</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>How to Increase Profits by Hiring</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/09/how-to-increase-profits-by-hiring/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=how-to-increase-profits-by-hiring</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/09/how-to-increase-profits-by-hiring/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:00:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Hoanshelt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=143</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Who doesn&#8217;t want to increase profits by 50 percent? I will be the first to tell you, I&#8217;m not the next big entrepreneur out there, and if I knew half the things the big guys know, I&#8217;m sure I could increase profits by 300 percent. But sadly, I&#8217;m not, so 50 percent is what I&#8217;ll [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/09/how-to-increase-profits-by-hiring/">How to Increase Profits by Hiring</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-154" title="Increase Profits" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/growth.jpg" alt="Increase Profits" width="242" height="300" />Who doesn&#8217;t want to increase profits by 50 percent?</p>
<p>I will be the first to tell you, I&#8217;m not the next big entrepreneur out there, and if I knew half the things the big guys know, I&#8217;m sure I could increase profits by 300 percent. But sadly, I&#8217;m not, so 50 percent is what I&#8217;ll settle for… for now. <img src='http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>However, I&#8217;m sure any business owner would love to figure out how I increased our profits by 50 percent. First let me ask you a question:</p>
<blockquote>
<h3><em>How many jobs do you do for you business?</em></h3>
</blockquote>
<p>Are you the CEO, marketer, accountant, administrator, webmaster, and everything else in the business? If so, you’re losing money at an alarming rate. You may ask yourself:</p>
<blockquote>
<h3><em>How am I losing money if I&#8217;m not spending money?</em></h3>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, consider how much you cost per hour? Do you charge $50, $75, $100, or more hourly?</p>
<p>This is what you’re worth for what you’re good at. If you’re good at being a CEO or marketer, then put your time towards that. Don&#8217;t spend $100 per hour by doing administrative work, like filing checks and picking up phone calls. You can pay someone $10 per hour for that instead. This will free up time for you to do what you’re good at&#8230; like getting more customers.</p>
<h2>Let’s break this down.</h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-156" title="Calculator" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/calculator.jpg" alt="Calculator" width="300" height="201" />If you work 40 hours a week, this means you spend <strong>2080 (40 hours x 52 weeks) hours per year</strong> working. Let’s take out <strong>2 weeks for vacation (80 hours)</strong> and <strong>1 week of sick days (40 hours)</strong>. Now we have <strong> 1960 hours per year</strong> of work.</p>
<p>A realistic amount of time for <strong>administrative work is 10 percent of your time</strong>. This includes making sure bills are paid, paying yourself, filing papers and all that good stuff.</p>
<p>Ten percent of your yearly work is <strong>196 hours</strong>. If you&#8217;re being paid $100 per hour, this amounts to<strong> $19,600 of your time spent</strong>.</p>
<p>If we compare that to hiring out an administrative assistant for $10 per hour, you would only spend <strong>$1,960</strong> and get back 196 hours to do the things you&#8217;re good at. <strong>That&#8217;s a savings of $17,640!</strong></p>
<p>Let&#8217;s do the same thing with a <strong>webmaster</strong>…</p>
<p>We spend about five hours a month on a site making sure it&#8217;s running properly and running at peek performance and charge $150 per month for it. Yearly, this comes out to be $1,800.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s compare this to your time, if you’re doing the tasks and it takes you an equal amount of time. You will spend <strong>60 hours a year</strong> on webmaster work which comes out to <strong>$6,000</strong>. So hiring a webmaster will <strong>save you $4,200</strong>.</p>
<p>On those two jobs alone, you would save a total of <strong>$21,840 per year</strong>. It gets even bigger if you keep going!</p>
<h2>Saving Money is Great, But There is More!</h2>
<p>When you’re able to free up more time for yourself, you can increase your profits more. As the business owner, you&#8217;re the number one selling force for your business. You are finding clients and getting them on board. With the two examples above, you have opened up <strong>256 additional hours</strong> for you to get more clients.</p>
<blockquote>
<h3>Clients = Money</h3>
</blockquote>
<p>With that additional time, at a 5 percent conversion rate, you just gained <strong>12.8 new customers</strong>.<em> </em>To put this in perspective:</p>
<p><a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/money.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-155" title="Money" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/money.jpg" alt="Money" width="192" height="300" /></a>If all those clients signed up on our LOWEST package, that would be an additional <strong>$23,040 per year.</strong></p>
<p>This is a whopping <strong>$44,880 per year</strong> that we have earned back… just by hiring a few people to help us run our business.</p>
<p>So what about you? Are you losing money by doing all the jobs in your business? Or have you hired a few key people to help you out?</p>
<p>If you’re looking to hire a webmaster to save $4,200 per year (like the example in this article), <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/contact-us/">get in touch</a> with us today to talk about your needs.</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/09/how-to-increase-profits-by-hiring/">How to Increase Profits by Hiring</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>7 Ways to Build a Business Around WordPress</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/06/7-ways-to-build-a-business-around-wordpress/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=7-ways-to-build-a-business-around-wordpress</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/06/7-ways-to-build-a-business-around-wordpress/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:00:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Hoanshelt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=140</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Last week, we discussed 5 Reasons to Build your Business Around WordPress. Hopefully, that article got you pumped to get out of your cubical and into your own business. The next question you may be asking yourself is, &#8220;How should my business be built around WordPress?&#8221; Good question, but the real question should be, &#8220;What [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/06/7-ways-to-build-a-business-around-wordpress/">7 Ways to Build a Business Around WordPress</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-150" title="Build a Business Around WordPress" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/lamp-head-businessman-small-272x300.png" alt="WordPress" width="272" height="300" />Last week, we discussed <a title="5 Reasons to Build your Business Around WordPress" href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/07/09/5-reasons-to-build-your-business-around-wordpress/">5 Reasons to Build your Business Around WordPress</a>. Hopefully, that article got you pumped to get out of your cubical and into your own business.</p>
<p>The next question you may be asking yourself is, &#8220;How should my business be built around WordPress?&#8221; Good question, but the real question should be, &#8220;What do I want to do for WordPress?&#8221;</p>
<p>Building a business takes dedication and passion. So make sure you find a fit you enjoy doing. That way, making money is just a bonus!</p>
<p>This article is going to go into the different types of business opportunities built around WordPress – and it will explain what you <em>should</em> enjoy doing to succeed in that niche.</p>
<h2>Web Services Specializing in WordPress</h2>
<p>The most popular way to create a business around WordPress is to offer web services that have a WordPress niche. This would be designing and developing websites using WordPress and marketing yourself as a WordPress specific company.</p>
<p><em>What you should enjoy:</em></p>
<p>You should enjoy being a one-stop shop. At first, it will be just you working on the project. You should be able to handle the WordPress setup, theme customization, plugin configurations, and migration tasks that need to be done. Also, you should have excellent writing and speaking skills because you’ll need to interact with potential and current clients.</p>
<h2>Consultation</h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-152" title="WordPress Problem Solving" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/question.jpg" alt="WordPress Problem Solving" width="300" height="225" />Consultation is an upcoming business opportunity. Yes, you offer consultations to all clients when you run a web services business, but this type of consultation is a bit different – basically, you’ll specialize in consulting only for WordPress.</p>
<p><em>What you should enjoy:</em></p>
<p>You should enjoy problem solving and communicating with others. As a consultant, you will rarely find a project that doesn&#8217;t have some sort of problem that needs resolving.</p>
<p>You have to be highly organized and able to juggle multiple projects at once. You won&#8217;t do the actual development or design, but you will take on more of a project manager role.</p>
<h2>Theme Design/Development</h2>
<p>This is an opportunity to make big bucks. Companies like <a title="WooThemes" href="http://woothemes.com">WooThemes</a> and <a title="StudioPress" href="http://studiopress.com">StudioPress</a> come to mind in this niche.</p>
<p>You have the ability to create a loyal fan base willing to pay you monthly for your new designs. This means you get to spend time doing what you love while having a steady income.</p>
<p><em>What you should enjoy:</em></p>
<p>You should enjoy being elbows deep in code and having your clothes covered in Photoshop Color Palettes. You should also enjoy communicating with others about your product because you’ll need to find loyal fans and customers.</p>
<h2>Plugin Development</h2>
<p>Plugin development is a great way to create a booming business. From SEO to maintenance tasks, plugins are the heart and soul of WordPress.</p>
<p><em>What you should enjoy:</em></p>
<p>You should enjoy the same things as a Theme Designer/Developer. But, on top of that, you should have a unending drive to make your product better and stay on top of your plugin niche.</p>
<h2>Support</h2>
<p>Supporting WordPress websites can be a rewarding challenge. You’ll be in the front lines helping WordPress sites achieve greatness. At <a title="WordPress Support" href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a> we find ourselves in this business opportunity.</p>
<p><em>What you should enjoy:</em></p>
<p>This role is like a consultant, but now you’re tackling problems as they come – rather than predicting them. You have to love helping people and be passionate about WordPress to take on this kind of job.</p>
<h2>Content Creation</h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-153" title="Words For WordPress" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/WordsForWP.png" alt="Words For WordPress" width="300" height="219" /><a title="Words For WordPress" href="http://wordsforwp.com/">Words For WordPress</a> capitalized on this market as specialists in content for WordPress websites. Content creation can range from documentation for plugins to post and page content.</p>
<p><em>What you should enjoy:</em></p>
<p>Naturally, you should love to write! You should also love to do research and help people spread their message.</p>
<h2>WordPress Hosting</h2>
<p>With Managed WordPress hosting, you’ll exclusively host WordPress based websites, manage WordPress upgrades, and oversee a WordPress support team. You’ve probably noticed that businesses like <a title="WordPress managed hosting provider" href="http://wpengine.com">WPEngine</a> and <a title="WordPress managed hosting provider Page.ly" href="http://page.ly">Page.ly</a> look very profitable.</p>
<p><em>What you should enjoy:</em></p>
<p>Do the words &#8220;Server Crash&#8221; make you shake in your little space boots? If so, WordPress hosting is not for you. You need to enjoy standing (either physically or remotely) in server rooms and pushing your servers to peek performance.</p>
<p>So what about you? Which of these WordPress business opportunities are a good fit for you?</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/08/06/7-ways-to-build-a-business-around-wordpress/">7 Ways to Build a Business Around WordPress</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>5 Reasons to Build your Business Around WordPress</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/07/09/5-reasons-to-build-your-business-around-wordpress/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=5-reasons-to-build-your-business-around-wordpress</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/07/09/5-reasons-to-build-your-business-around-wordpress/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Hoanshelt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=131</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Before I was eyeball deep in WordPress projects, I was a humble Web Developer working 40 hours a week at a job I hated. Maybe you can relate to this and is why you are here reading this article. Lets talk about getting you out of that office and into your new business that is [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/07/09/5-reasons-to-build-your-business-around-wordpress/">5 Reasons to Build your Business Around WordPress</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignright" src="http://s.wordpress.org/about/images/logos/wordpress-logo-stacked-rgb.png" alt="WordPress" width="239" height="149" />Before I was eyeball deep in WordPress projects, I was a humble Web Developer working 40 hours a week at a job I hated. Maybe you can relate to this and is why you are here reading this article. Lets talk about getting you out of that office and into your new business that is built around WordPress and why it&#8217;s a no brainier to do so.</p>
<h3>1. WordPress is Free</h3>
<p>How often do you come by a free, well-built product? Not very often! WordPress core system is completely free for you to use and do whatever your heart desires. Free means that your business now has a lower margin to make up for allowing you to offer a great product to your customers while keeping the price low.</p>
<h3>2. Large Community</h3>
<p><a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/image-for-blog1.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-138 aligncenter" title="image-for-blog" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/image-for-blog1.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="138" /></a></p>
<p>The large community is one of the best reasons to move to a WordPress based business. With this  community, you have access to an endless supply of plugins and themes which can cut your work time in half. Also, with large communities comes an endless amount of WordPress businesses that can help you. A perfect example of this is the <del>emerging</del> WordPress managed hosting empire, <a title="WordPress managed hosting provider" href="http://www.wpengine.com">WPEngine</a>. These guys host .06% of the 50 million WordPress sites out there. Other notable mentions are premium WordPress theme provider <a title="Premium WordPress theme provider" href="http://woothemes.com">WooThemes</a> and WPMU plugin extraordinaire <a title="WPMU plugin provider" href="http://wpmudev.com">WPMU Dev</a>. These companies offer great products that can help take your business to the next level by providing you and in turn your customers great service.</p>
<h3>3. Great Support</h3>
<p>Mentioned previously, WordPress has a very large community. With this large community come experts that are willing to help. <a title="WordPress" href="http://wordpress.org">WordPress.org</a> provides a forum where you can post your questions and get answer pretty quickly. Their also companies like us that provide dedicated support to their clients. This means your business is never alone when a problem arises.</p>
<h3>4. Large Audience</h3>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/largecrowd-e1341763994406.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-139" title="largecrowd" src="http://thewpvalet.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/largecrowd-e1341763994406.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="255" /></a></p>
<p>Business 101 states to validate your business idea and check to see if you have an audience to buy your product or service. Now, I can&#8217;t tell you that your business idea is great and validated but I can assure you that if built around WordPress, you have an audience for sure. Actually, you have about 50 million sites worth of audience to go for. With those kinds of numbers, a multimillion dollar business is not to far-fetched.</p>
<h3>5. Scalable</h3>
<p>WordPress has been around for 9 years and shows no sign of letting up. Every time a new technology is introduced to the web world, WordPress finds a way to implement it into the system. So has technology changes, so does WordPress which in turn means your business. You can have confidence that when you build your business on WordPress, your business will have a life long partnership with a stable system.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>WordPress is an awesome platform to build your business around. Looking through the 5 points above, I hope you&#8217;re jumping out of your seat wanting to get out of that tiny cubical of an office. Now that you have seen why WordPress is a good platform to build your business around, you may be asking yourself &#8216;What business opportunities are out their for WordPress?&#8217;. Next week, we&#8217;ll discuss what business opportunities you can take advantage of in the WordPress Eco-system.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/07/09/5-reasons-to-build-your-business-around-wordpress/">5 Reasons to Build your Business Around WordPress</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>WordPress Plugin: Maintenance Checklist</title>
		<link>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/06/25/wordpress-plugin-maintenance-checklist/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=wordpress-plugin-maintenance-checklist</link>
		<comments>http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/06/25/wordpress-plugin-maintenance-checklist/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:13:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Hoanshelt</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Plugin]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thewpvalet.com/?p=123</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>When supporting WordPress websites, a necessary evil is the tedious tasks of on-going maintenance. Tasks that fall under on-going maintenance are backups, spam &#38; trash comment removal, database optimization, and much more. Maintenance Checklist is a new plugin that provides is an easy-to-understand checklist for things that need to be completed on your WordPress site. [...]</p><p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/06/25/wordpress-plugin-maintenance-checklist/">WordPress Plugin: Maintenance Checklist</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When supporting WordPress websites, a necessary evil is the tedious tasks of on-going maintenance. Tasks that fall under on-going maintenance are backups, spam &amp; trash comment removal, database optimization, and much more.</p>
<p>Maintenance Checklist is a new plugin that provides is an easy-to-understand checklist for things that need to be completed on your WordPress site. These tasks will keep your WordPress website running at optimal performance.</p>
<h3>Who can benefit from this plugin:</h3>
<p><strong>Bloggers</strong>:</p>
<p>With the default installation providing you a checklist of crucial tasks, you can see what needs to be done for your blog to keep it running perfectly. All you need to do is check off the task once you completed it.</p>
<p><strong>Developers:</strong></p>
<p>With the &#8220;Add Task&#8221; feature, you can add tasks for tracking. You may have tons of sites to maintain with each site having special maintenance needs. Just add the task to that site, choose how often it needs to be done, and the Maintenance Checklist Plugin will remind you to do it.</p>
<h3>Features:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Track tasks and check them off when completed.</li>
<li>Automatic un-check when task needs to be completed.</li>
<li>Add custom tasks for tracking.</li>
<li>Delete any tasks.</li>
<li>The &#8220;Feel Good Engine&#8221;. When all tasks have been completed, we make you feel good for all your hard work!</li>
</ul>
<h3>Download link</h3>
<p>You can download the plugin here:</p>
<p><a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maintenance-checklist/">http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maintenance-checklist/</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The post <a href="http://thewpvalet.com/blog/2012/06/25/wordpress-plugin-maintenance-checklist/">WordPress Plugin: Maintenance Checklist</a> appeared first on <a href="http://thewpvalet.com">WP Valet</a>.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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