Good news to your 1ShoppingCart.com users! You can now download from your 1Shoppingcart account, a WordPress plugin that will allow you to create a signup form right from your WordPress site dashboard.

Here are the key features to this new plugin:

• Easy Install and setup
• Full design flexability with HTML enabled text areas
• Display standard of custom fields
• Ability to offer multiple signup lists
• Control the flow and specify your thank you page

Easy enough installation:

Goto ‘Appearance >> Widgets’ and add the ’1SC Custom Forms’ widget to the sidebar.

Then goto ‘Signup Form’ in the Admin sidbar to setup the form.

Here’s a screenshot of the plugin admin area:

You can download the 1SC plugin from here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/1shoppingcartcom-wordpress-signup-forms/

What is link building?

Link Building is the process of creating inbound links to ones own website. This can be done by reciprocal links, being listed in e-zines, newsletters, directories, search engines, etc. Link building is one of the best ways to make your site visitor-popular.

There are few types of linking one of which is reciprocal links.

Reciprocal links or link exchanges is the process where two webmasters agree to show the other’s link on their website. After link building, when the number of sites which link to a particular site is known as link popularity which helps in the search engine ranking of a website.

There are many advantages of link building:

1. Link building helps in getting quality traffic from relevant sites which increases sales.
2. Also when there will be high quality incoming links the site will also be seen as a valuable resource.
3. Link building helps in creating awareness, visibility and credibility of your site.
4. The site also obtains wider search engine exposure.
5. It also helps the website get indexed by search engines.

Overall, link building is one of the most important steps in building a site, getting quality links improves your PR and it excites the search engines. There is also the big possibility of gaining traffic to your site. It has been said that link building is dying out but the facts are simple; you build a site and build links and traffic will come!

It’s not too late to register for my upcoming 60-minute, free webinar called Social Media Connection…Even For Your Blog! It’s scheduled for Wednesday, November 4, 2009 from 1:00 PM ET to 2:00 PM ET. This is something you don’t want to miss if you are looking for simple ways to maximize your visibility of your WordPress blog or website.

Here are just some of the topics that will be covered on this webinar call:

• Which popular social media plugins are available for download to your WordPress blogsite

• What the definition of social bookmarking is and how you can apply it to your own blogsite to increase traffic

• How to get clients to stay on your blog site once they have come to you via social media

• How article marketing can also connect you with social media marketing

I wouldn’t pass up this opportunity as I reveal what tools you need to connect your social media marketing and see how these tools increase your site traffic.

So reserve your spot now for this *FREE* info webinar!

Click here to register.

For those of you who are looking for a premium theme at a very reasonable price AND has a brand new ePanel feature, then you need to take a look at ElegantThemes. You can find them at http://www.elegantthemes.com/.

The ePanel feature is simply this:

It’s a sharp-looking admin panel that will allow you to customize your Elegant Theme without having to wade through all the custom CSS code (which most of you probably don’t want to fool with), plus you can manage your navigation bar with just a couple of clicks of your mouse. Oh, and did I mention that you can better manage your SEO configuration in the ePanel? Yep, it does all that! Check it out for yourself:

http://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/theme-changesbug-fixes/epanel-released-batch-1/

Have you ever found yourself stuck on what to write for your blog or someone else’s blog for that matter? That’s a challenge I face all the time and it’s the reason why I do not post more often. And it’s because I honestly do not have a plan of action on what I want to write about.

So I have come up with some tips that I think will help you and me get past the “writer’s block” and have a plan of action AND a blog post schedule that will put you on the right track to becoming a successful blogger.

1. Create a topic series or a tip series and schedule the posts on a daily basis or a weekly basis. For one topic, you could interview other experts in your industry and get some really good content to post.
2. Create and send out a survey to your industry and see what kind of topics of interest your audience would like to hear more about. This could be a goldmine for you! I recommend SurveyMonkey to create and distribute your survey.
3. Repurpose your old newsletter articles or reports you have written in the past. They make for great blog articles!
4. If you are an avid Twitter user, round up your best “tweets” and formulate blog articles from those. You would be surprised what you wrote a week ago could be your best article yet!
5. Devise a simple blog posting calendar in Outlook or Google and set reminders so you can remember that you have a blog article due.

Lastly, if you do not already use WordPress for your blog (and/or website), consider switching to their platform. I am a huge advocate of the WP product and I will be offering training to those interested in learning the system from top to bottom. If this is something that interests you, email me at aletha(at)wordpresstowebsite(dot)com and I will inform you of the training dates when they become available.

Go Back To School To Be Your Own
WordPress Expert!

Who says you cannot go back to school and learn a new skill, especially if that skill is a well sought after content management system and self-hosted program known
as WordPress?

You NO LONGER have to be intimidated by the thought of using WordPress for your website or blog.

You can now be your own WordPress Expert!

Join me, Aletha McManama, your WordPress Expert and Website Builder, and I will demonstrate to you via a live webinar presentation a sample training topic from a beginner’s standpoint, all the way to an advanced WordPress user level.

As a lot of us are visual learners, and we don’t learn a thing by listening to hours and hours of boring audio recordings that we purchased (HUGE WASTE of MONEY!), then being a part of this webinar would be perfect for you!

I will cover on this webinar call the following topics:

• Benefits of using WordPress for your blogsite or your client’s blogsite (for those who just don’t know)

• A brief tour of the WordPress dashboard (beginner level)

• Creating additional users in your WordPress dashboard (intermediate and advanced level)

• Downloading and installing a plugin (intermediate and advanced level)

So don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about WordPress training opportunities during and after the call. If you do, the call will be recorded and videotaped so you can download and listen to the presentation later on, but it would be so much better if you can be there “live” and on the phone with me!

So reserve your spot now for this *FREE* training webinar call on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 3:00 PM EST (12 noon PST)

Click here to register.

If after you have reviewed this website, WordPress to Website, and you are not sure if WordPress is the right CMS system for your business, do not hesitate to contact me for a 15-minute complimentary consultation to have your burning questions answered about the dynamic WordPress platform.

You can visit my call calendar here to schedule a time that fits your own schedule!

I’ve been asked to share with my reader audience the top WordPress theme sites that I recommend when you are searching for a customizable free or premium theme. I also recommend premium themes over free ones simply because you get support with a theme that you have questions or problems with. It’s well worth the few dollars out of your pocket for a great premium theme site. A good example of one is my Virtual Assistant website, DC Virtual Office Solutions.

So here’s my top list of WordPress theme sites:

Woo Themes – http://www.woothemes.com/
DIY Themes – Thesis – http://diythemes.com/
WP remix – http://wpremix.com/
iThemes – Flexx – http://ithemes.com/
StudioPress (formerly Revolution) – http://www.studiopress.com/
Simple Themes – http://www.simplethemes.net/
Theme Forest – http://themeforest.net/
Theme Spinner – http://www.themespinner.com/
Elegant Themes – http://www.elegantthemes.com/
ColorLabs Project – http://colorlabsproject.com/themes/
Gabfire Themes – http://www.gabfirethemes.com/category/themes/
Solostream – http://www.solostream.com/

Thank you for visiting the WordPress to Website blog!

Look for future posts soon as I continue to develop this website and blog.