Want to Start Blogging but DON'T want to spend the Money? Try these 11 Free Hosting Services

One thing I learned back in 2011 is there is always a FREE way to do things, especially when it comes to blogging. I ran across this blog that actually offers more ways to get a free blog started, minus the fact if you want to create a more professional look. If you're planning on branding your overall online image, You will have to purchase a custom domain name, but you don't have to. That's something you can purchase from anywhere such as Godaddy, Bluehost, HostGator and more.

Click here to view the direct links on iwantmyname.com

Things You Need to Start Your Own Beauty/Makeup YouTube Channel

I discuss everything from background options, lighting, camera, tripods, cheap alternatives and more.

How to Start a Beauty Blog - Domain name, Blogger Free Hosting, Free Graphics Tool, Setting up Social Media & More!

For those who have never ventured down this road and are unsure of where to start, it's not that difficult. At least in my eyes. All you need is the time, patience to read, follow the directions, have content with images, and last but not least, find and test the blog theme you want to use.

In order to test, you will need to create some content post with images. I normally recommend at least 2 paragraphs, depending on the subject, but try not to make it too wordy, otherwise you tend to loose your audience. Pictures are EVERYTHING! Make sure to have a camera that produces great quality images of your own to avoid copyright infringement, unless you have permission to use images. Yes, even blogs are no exception to this law, in which you could be fined up to $1000 per image, and adding where you got the image from is not enough. There are also sites you can download free images as long as you follow their guide lines. Google free stock images.

I normally recommend blogger.com because it's FREE. You don't get any better than this unless you are planning to create a business website and NOT A BLOG. This eliminates one additional cost of having to purchase hosting. Now if you're seeking a different kind of look for a blog such as a magazine style, than you might want to consider a content management system, such as a wordpress site, not the free version, since there are major limitations, which is a whole lot easier to maintain and more functional. Once again, this is when a web designer will come into play.

Places to find FREE BLOGGER THEMES

Here are a few links to find the right blog to suit your style. Now keep in mind, if you're looking to customize color and layout in which the "customize" feature does not edit, that is when you might want to seek out a web designer, unless you are familiar with editing css. Adding a logo to the header, as long as you can design your own logo and it is the appropriate height and width, will give your blog a professional look. Keep in mind, you don't have to use any of these free themes. You can always use the classic themes that blogger comes with and set it up. I personally use their classic themes because I'm proficient with editing the css. 

Here are some links to find a theme:

• http://falconhive.com/30-beautiful-blogger-templates-for-fashion-blogs/
• http://designscrazed.org/best-free-blogger-templates/
• http://www.cssauthor.com/free-responsive-blogger-templates/
• http://btemplates.com/tag/fashion/

Create your own graphics with picmonkey.com

This is the easiest solution I can recommend for anyone to use to create graphics for their blog. Standard look to fill the top of blog is 960px (width) x 150px (height). Ex. is what you see at the top of my blog. Mine is wider due to the width of my blog, which can also be customized on blogger.com. Google how to change layout adjustment on blogger and I'm sure you'll find loads of information. Here is a video link on "how to use picmonkey". While you're at it, don't forget to design a matching business card to hand out when you're at social gatherings.

Another great tool to create graphics for your custom youtube video images is www.apps.pixlr.com/express. 

Go to "collage" and select the "layout" that you'll like to use. You can adjust width, height, effects and all on the program. Here is a video link on "how to use pixlr express".

How to create & schedule post in Blogger.com

Here's an easy tutorial on how to create a post and schedule it so you don't have to login on a daily just to create a post. This is a major time saver!

Here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbbsYL6vvIY

Easy way to add social media icons so your viewers can follow you online.

Go to http://addthis.com/

Get a custom url for your blog

This is very important and easy to do. Blogger makes it easy to configure your blog with Godaddy domains. You definitely want a custom url so you don't have to tell people every single time my blog is blah blah blah.blogspot.com. That is just too long for anyone to remember. Not to mention, how do you expect people to take you seriously if you didn't even make it a priority to purchase a domain name. Here's a video on "how to link blogger to godaddy".

Last, but not least, MAKE SOME FRIENDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

Now, if you want people to find you, like I tell my clients, your website is you and your social media are your friends or customers. If no one knows who you are or doesn't refer you, your website won't get found. So, don't be afraid, put what you do out there along with other content such as motivational quotes, something someone else posted and tag them in it. Don't forget to also chat with other social media comrades, it's not only easy but fun and rewarding. If you want to get noticed, make friends, comment on other bloggers, pretty much, whatever you'll like to have done unto you, do it first.



If all else fails, check out this audio book by Dale Carnegie.
There is too much information out there in the world for anyone to lack in anything. Make the effort and it will pay off! 

How To Win Friends And Influence People

Here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4R2p9WnzAo

I hope this helps.

Take care,

Bye Loves!

Square Invoices Tips - How to add LOGO to Square Invoice Receipts

This video shows you how to easily add your logo to personalize your receipts sent to customers.

Need to process online Payments or Invoices? Click here

Square Invoices Tip: How to add Taxes to invoice

This video shows you how to easily add taxes to your invoice from the Square Dashboard.

Need to process online Payments or Invoices? Click here

Square Invoices Tip: How to create and send an invoice

In this video, learn how to create an invoice and send via Square online. This is a great option if you don't want to use PayPal.

Need to process online Payments or Invoices? Click here

How to schedule outgoing emails in Gmail with Boomeranggmail

Go to www.boomeranggmail.com and click "Add this to your Gmail!"

As a business owner, I love to make my life easy with certain things since time is very precious. I was wondering if gmail had a way to schedule emails to go out at a certain time so I can stop replying to emails on the weekend and make them appear that they were sent the next business day. I ran across they app called Boomerang, the most awesome app ever. It's also available as a phone app. No more replying at inconvenient late hours or forgetting to reply to an email on Monday from Friday.

It's super easy to install. Go to their site Boomerang while you're logged in to your gmail account.

Click "Compose" to create an email. Click "Send Later" to schedule the time. Boomerang will request for you to "accept". Click "accept".

Click on the calendar to the right in the text field to change the date or place the cursor on the time to manually input time. There are other options on the top to select when you'll like it to go out. Tomorrow morning, in 2 days and so forth.

Click "Confirm" to schedule email.

To view or change scheduled email, click on the boomerang icon in the top right corner and click "Manage scheduled messages".

You can click on "Messages to Send" to view and edit. Enjoy!

How to add Instagram or any mobile app on your PC or Mac

Now this has to be one of the most useful tools out there, since using Instagram has been restricted to mobile use only, that is, until now. Bluestacks.com allows you to download the Instagram app to your computer and use it like you would on an Android phone. For business purposes, this is awesome to be able to update my account from dropbox folders or a digital camera.

Dropbox now has an android app!

If you don't already know about dropbox, it's an easy way to share large files via folders with one or more emails at a time. Others can input files into the same folder. It's a great way to send numerous files, while staying organized. And now with the android app, it makes life even easier.

I have to say that this app is a life saver! We utilize our cell phones so much as a personal camera, it only makes sense that they developed this app. If you have to switch phones, you can easily upload all your images from your old phone and download the app onto the new phone. Once you sign in, you can easily access all your old photos or you can sign in on your computer and have direct access to all your photos.

https://www.dropbox.com/android

Send & share large files with Dropbox for FREE

Dropbox has become my second best friend next to my macbook. It's an easy way to upload and share files directly on your computer, instead of emailing file by file, due to the file size limitation. Of course they do have their free space limitation, but if you constantly have to share large files with new clients or others, they will keep adding free space to your account. Check Dropbox out!

FREE way to create mobile site for basic wordpress websites.

Now I ran into this Uppsite plugin while I was creating a website for a client. It was a great and FREE way to make her wordpress website mobile friendly. Now if you're creating an ecommerce store, there will be fees invovled to create an online version.

5 Easy Ways to Promote Your Business

- Do something for FREE to get your business jump started for someone you know to build your portfolio and skill.

- Tell a friend, coworker and family members what you do so they can help get the word out. A closed mouth will not get you more business.

- Get business cards. This is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get your business out there. Make sure it's clean and your business is easily understood by the name, slogan and services you offer. Consider adding a special on the opposite side of the card to give people an incentive to use your services. Keep them on hand and give them out when you can.

- Create social media pages for your business. More people you don't know will see your business and portfolio for FREE. You can promote discounts, sales, services and images of your work online for FREE. Curiosity draws in potential customers.

- Try posting your business on groupon, Locilly or half off depot and take advantage of their large email database. It it may be at a discount to them but more people get to view your business in your email and that is FREE ADVERTISMENT that you won't be able to get anywhere else.

Once you have successfully begun to promote your business, then you can start to think about taking it to the next level with a website, advertising and more. Good Luck & Success!

How to upload images to Flickr. (FOR ALL YOU INSTAGRAM FANATICS THAT OWN BUSINESSES!)

Flickr is not new to the scene. Currently, it now links to both instagram and pinterest, which makes life even easier with it comes to updating your social media. It's also a great way to get exposure online of your business portfolio that can be linked from your website. The great part is it's easy to use!

Enjoy the video.

 

Is your business on youtube? You might wanna make sure you are!

Youtube is one of the easiest ways to get online exposure to what you do; your portfolio; the interior of your business location; an event and more! The other thing people neglect with youtube videos is the codes can be easily placed on your website, facebook, twitter or blogger and it's a great way to get featured/listed on google search engines when people are searching for a specific business in an area. Of course, your video will popup based on the title of your video, so select your name wisely.

See what pops up when you do a search for your city/business industry and look for youtube videos. Ex. Atlanta Makeup Artist. You'll find both websites and youtube videos popping up in the search. If there aren't any in your business category, I suggest you create some as soon as possible to help you in search engine rankings. Enjoy!

List your business online for FREE on these popular Search Engine Directories

People are always wondering how to give more exposure to their businesses online. Well, it definitely takes some work on your part or you can hire any number of SEO companies out there to get your business and website more visibility.

Here is a great list to start with. Enjoy!

yelp
yahoo
yellowbook
foursquare
navmii
best&web
patch
localpages
fave
superpages.com
whitepages
yellowbot
hopstop
copilotlive
ziplocal
topix
showmelocal
local
citysearch
mapquest

Easy & FREE way to create Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions for a website!

I ran across this and couldn't believe it! An easy and FREE way to create Terms and conditions/Privacy Policy. I know there are plenty of people that could find this useful and just add their additional information to it, create by Ben Nadal.

Easy & FREE way to create Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions for a website!

List your event for FREE on Linkedin.

Here's an easy way to gain more exposure to an event. Sign in to your Linkedin account and go to the "More" tab and select "Events".

List your event for FREE on Linkedin.

Click on the yellow "Create an Event" button.

List your event for FREE on Linkedin.

Fill out the next 3 pages to complete the steps. The 2nd page will need a description of your event. On the 3rd page, it will allow you to post your event to twitter and facebook. It's pretty simple.

List your event for FREE on Linkedin.

You have the option to also share something about yourself or share the link provided on the right on your facebook, twitter and even on your linkedin page.

List your event for FREE on Linkedin.

Create a free Podcast with PodOmatic.

I ran across this the other day and could think of the many ways to make this useful on a blog, website, facebook and more. This is a great tool for those in the music, ministry, coaching, health, mediation business and more. PodOmatic offers both a basic (free) and pro package for those who want to test the waters. The pro is priced at $9.99/month, which is pretty reasonable.

Create a free Podcast with PodOmatic.

Create a free Podcast with PodOmatic.

Get a Free Yellow Pages Listing for Your Business!

Here is another way to promote your business online for free. We've definitely gotten calls from our listing on yellow pages.com and I recommend that anyone who runs a business and wants more exposure, take advantage of this opportunity. There are 2 listings available: 1. Free ad for businesses with a physical address (which is a GREAT DEAL!) & 2. Free business listing. It all depends on the type of business you run, whether from home or a physical business location. These offers are both great deals. Sometimes, the good things in life are free, you just have to do some research.

Get Free Yellow Pages business listing

Get Free Yellow Pages ad for businesses with a physical address

 

Get Your Business On Google Places Free Listing.

If you own a business, whether with a physical location, mobile or just online, I recommend setting up a FREE Google Places account. It's free exposure and a great way to get ranked towards the front page of any google search for a particular service. Visit Google Places to start the free process that takes less then 5 minutes to setup. Start generating more business today by setting up your free Google Places account.

Get a Free Business listing on Google Places.