2014 ANNUAL REPORT ON ACTIVITY OF KIMCLODFELTER.COM: I was shocked at how many countries had visitors to this site.

I started kimclodfelter.com on WORDPRESS.ORG in March of last year primarily to promote the forthcoming biography “CLODDY.”

One of the plugins on my site is called JETPACK. This plugin records data on how many people visit this site, where they came from, and other data such as how they connected to this site (E.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.)

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I accidentally stumbled across this report and was shocked to discover how many countries were represented in the data showing the number of visitors. This website was up and running for about ten months in 2014 with a total number of visitors of 2700 which translates to 270 per month or 9 per day. These are modest numbers, but it’s a start at building a platform to launch the book.

Countries (# of visitors)

United States (2340), Mexico (15), Canada (5), Dominican Republic (1), Costa Rica (2), Panama (2), El Salvador (1), Brazil (180), Columbia (7), Venezuela (2), Ecuador (6), Peru (3),  Chile (5), Argentina (8), Paraguay (2), Ethiopia (1), Morocco (1), Algeria (2), Israel (1), Pakistan (3), India (2), United Arab Emirates (1), Bangladesh (1), Indonesia (3), Philippines (4), Thailand (2), Malaysia (2), Taiwan (1), Turkey (3), Greece (8), Italy (24), Spain (14), Bulgaria (1), Romania (1), Croatia (1), Hungary (1), Poland (1), United Kingdom (1), Portugal (9), Switzerland (1), Germany (3), Netherlands (9), Latvia (1), Belgium (2).

49 countries in all according to Jetpack stats. 

I don’t know how or why visitors from so many far away countries came to visit this website, but I hope it bodes well for the book when it is published.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all those visiting this site! And thanks for your interest. Let your friends know about this project “CLODDY.”

Kim

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Mugshots, Gravatars, and JC Penney

Michael Hyatt, in his book “Platform,” strongly recommends getting a good headshot to use as your gravatar. A “gravatar” is a “globaly recognized avatar.” An avatar is the photo that shows up on your Facebook page, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.

In building my platform to promote the “Cloddy”book, I knew I needed to get a better photo than the one I was using. Hyatt thinks a good head shot is so important that you should hire the best photographer in town to do it. But I didn’t want to spend a lot. So I considered doing it myself. That would have been a mistake considering my limited photography skills.

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Hyatt also strongly recommends not using a “portrait factory” as he calls it – like one at a JC Penney store. In contemplating what I should do, I thought, “At least JC Penney will have a better camera than I have and hopefully a better photographer than myself.” So I went to JC Penney and checked out pricing. I could get a headshot for $50.

Hyatt in “Platform” gives several tips on getting a good headshot:

1. Don’t take the photo in a studio at a portrait factory. Instead, take the photo at home or office or outdoors – somewhere on your natural turf. This will make the photo more natural and interesting. I ignored this advice. Trust me. There is nothing natural or interesting about the studio in a JC Penney store. But the photographer suggested a brownish background and it worked out.

2. Hyatt suggests smiling with your whole face – including smiling with your eyes and mouth – a natural smile. A likable smile.

3. Hyatt recommends taking a lot of photos. My photographer took ten, but would have taken more. We looked at the photos and selected the one we thought was best. Not all of them were good. But thankfully, it only takes one.

4. Then I had some ideas of my own. I asked the photographer if I could stand while she took the photos. That was ok with her. I don’t like sitting stiff on a stool. It just does not seem natural to me. Prior to going to my appointment, I also went to the mirror to find my better side if their is one – and then I smiled a few times to see what was goofy and what was not. I also told the photographer to not highlight the thinning hair section on the top of my head.

CAVEAT: I was fortunate to have an able and experienced JC Penney photographer take the photo. I might have just gotten lucky. Some photographers at portrait factories may not be the most skillful or experienced. I’d suggest asking some questions and making sure you get the photographer that you believe will do the best job.

Do you need to update your headshot?

Sometimes Ya Gotta Ask For Help

I’ve been slowly learning certain tasks needed to build a website. Most of the time, I can figure it out myself – or with the help of resources such as “WordPress For Dummies.” But sometimes either I can’t figure it out myself or it is taking way too much time to accomplish. So it’s then I turn to people smarter than me.

I have learned how to upload a photo to my Dashboard Media Library and insert the photo onto a page of the website. However, I wanted to insert links to some newspaper articles and a couple of radio interviews onto the “Cloddy Book” page of my website. And I could not figure it out!

While at the library, I saw my friend Neal and we started talking. I told him of my frustrations trying to accomplish this task. Turns out, he knew how to do it. He taught me how to perform the task in about three minutes. I then went to my dashboard and went to work. I could not believe it worked and I was capable of such advanced geek work. Ha! It was one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me.

The day before, I joined LinkedIn – as Michael Hyatt, the “Platform” author and blogger – highly recommends doing this in building a platform.

I know how to insert photos onto websites like this, but when I tried to upload my profile photo onto the LinkedIn site, the size of the photo was too big. LinkedIn limits the size to 4MB and my photo was 5.6MB. I don’t know much about photo shopping photos and manipulating size, etc. So I asked my friend, Mark, about it and he volunteered to help. I emailed the photo to him and he downsized it and I finally was able to upload it to LinkedIn. Whew!

I’m going to need to learn about photo shopping so I can do it myself – maybe “Photoshop for Dummies.”

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Widgets, Plugins, and the Dashboard

I’m learning the website development lingo and getting more comfortable with it the more I use it. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

The dashboard is where you learn to do all kinds of tasks – like writing a new post. Like the one I’m doing right now.

On the dashboard is a link called “Plugins.” Plugins are actually pretty useful things. “WordPress for Dummies” recommends certain popular plugins.

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Example: One plugin called Jetpack allows you to track the number of people that view your blog/website. It’s kind of fun seeing the numbers or “stats.”

Jetpack also allows you to put in a “Subscribe to My Blog” area on the website pages along with a “Comment” section for visitors to give their input.

For a non-IT guy like me, developing a website/blog is learning one new task at a time. And once you have done it – and you perform the task regularly, it becomes pretty fast and easy.

Another link on the dashboard is for “widgets.” Widgets are tools that help you put stuff on the sidebar of your website home page. (And maybe your other pages? I have yet to learn that task.)

Anyway, widgets are wonderful things which enable you to put your picture on the sidebar with biographical information. You can also put “Recent Posts” and “Recent Comments” and have an “Archives” section with categories.

Starting a blog/website is intimidating at first and can be very frustrating. I said a bad word out loud at a coffee shop recently. It startled me – and a young lady 10 feet away. I don’t ordinarily say bad words at coffee shops and startle young women.

However, starting a website can also be a lot of fun and it provides the blogger/creator with a creative outlet.

Have you considered starting a website or blog?

“PLATFORM” by Michael Hyatt

For those of you wanting to promote a book or your business or organization or anything else, consider reading Michael Hyatt’s book “PLATFORM: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.”

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This has been another invaluable resource for me in building a blog/website. Hyatt is the former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and is one of the top bloggers in the country. He writes about how to use social media to build a platform for whatever you are trying to promote. He gives a lot of practical advice. I’ve already used some of his suggestions.

Buy it or check it out at your local library.

Do you have a good resource you’d like to share? A book? Website?

If you do, I’d invite you to share it below in the “Comments” section.

Google vs. WordPress for Dummies

In my last blog, I touted the virtues of “WordPress for Dummies” – and it has been a very good resource. However, in attempting to figure out how get the “Share”, “Facebook”, and other icons up and running on my blog, this book wasn’t helping me.

Then I thought of typing in a question in the Google search engine. And Voila! I got the icons up and running in 15 minutes. I had spent two hours reading the Dummie book to no avail.

Lessons learned:

1. The Google search engine is a powerful and versatile tool, and
2. An aspiring blogger needs more than one tool to get a blog up and running.

If you know of any other tools for dummies like me, feel free to comment!

Starting a Website with the Help of “WordPress for Dummies”

The idea of starting a website myself never occurred to me. I always thought I would need a couple of thousand dollars to pay a web design professional to do it for me. But thanks to WordPress.org, even amateurs like me can do it.

I purchased my domain name through Network Solutions. If I had to do it over again, I would probably use Bluehost as my hosting provider. The cost of the package I bought was around $120. I installed WordPress.org with the assistance of Network Solution’s support staff.

Two weeks ago, I bought “WordPress for Dummies” by Lisa Sabin-Wilson. It has been an invaluable resource for a dummie like me. And I’m not as dumb as I was two weeks ago – though I have much to learn.