WordPress Memory Size Error Message

“WordPress Memory Size Error Message”
Ever tried installing a plugin only to be faced with message or similar

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20 bytes) in /—/—-/—-/yourblogtools.com/—-/wp-admin/menu.php on line 142 (more…)

How I Developed My First e-Book

Creating your first e-book can be a very daunting task – and rightly so.
But with a bit of structure and a clear approach it’s not so bad.
I would start off by identifying your purpose. Why are you creating an e-Book?
I decided to create one for two reasons;

1. To inform my readers about blogging from a business standpoint.
2. To create my first information product.

Originally, the content of the e-book was meant to be a series of guest posts on other blogs, but decided package it as my first product. As a result my email subscriber opt-in rate exploded.

The Story

Since the e-book was blogging based, I needed to have a story. People generally relate well to stories and practical examples.
I simply incorporated my interest which was music to the everyday blogging practices. This brought about Build a superstar blog.

The book looks at blogging from a music angle and they are some great analogies in this book – That was my story.
I was not interested in putting out regurgitated stuff. I wanted to do something different.

The Approach

I approached this e-book by jotting down all my ideas on papers. At the end I ended up with a story board that illustrated flow of events.

From this exercise, I drew up chapter titles that relates to the story, action points, backstage access for further learning e.t.c.

Start Writing

They best way to start is in small chucks.
I broke the story down to chapters, so in a given day, I would tackle a chapter.
I used voice recognition software to help transcribe my voice into words, a product called Dragon Naturally Speaking.

In each chapter, I spoke from three different angles, from the bloggers, Musician and a Superstar angle. This meant recording three times.

Since this isn’t a blog post but a takeaway e-book, I adjusted my writing approach slightly.
Although I wanted to maintain a conversational style of writing, I felt it needed to be less chatty and a little bit polished – only slightly.

Flow of events

It’s important to keep the reader interested. I tried to make the chapters interesting and progressive.

I was also keen on keep the book short and to the point. Based on my initial survey a larger majority of readers would be reading from screen – I didn’t want to bore them.

Based on the number of pages I had initially I was quite impressed to have brought it down to 25 pages, there many pages and chapters that I had to sacrifice.

Proof reading

Make sure the material you are putting out is of good quality. It may seem good in your eyes but probably not in the eyes of others.
In my case, I gave it to a few people to proof read – It was the best move ever. They were able to point out things I had missed and gave me new ideas too.

Time taken:

It took  just over a month to put together after the idea was given birth to four months prior– procrastination is a killer
The book was in a half complete state for a long time, moving further and further down my priority list.

I finally took action by setting myself a deadline, which I announce publicly on the blog.
I even installed a countdown for all to see and it worked – I got it done

Story and Concept: On going

Book Design: 0.5 days

Writing: 3 weeks

Proof Reading: 5 days

Micro-site and Aweber configuration: 2 days

Tools I used:

Book Design: Adobe InDesign

Transcribers tool: Dragon Naturally speaking

Micro-site Design: Click covers

Google Docs used for proof reading collaboration

Reasons Why Many Blogs Fail

Blogs can be a great medium to express and share views to the big world.
They are also a fantastic platform for building and assisting online businesses.
However, due to several reasons many blogs fail to take off.
In this post, I will be highlighting some of the reasons and how to steer clear of them.

Bad content

First up is Bad content. This is usually information or service you are offering.
If the information inaccurate or poorly presented, this could be a big turn off.

You can improve your writing skills by researching, reading or even getting someone to proof read your stuff.
You may wish to read my post on this subject. (more…)

I present to you…Build a Superstar Blog e-book

The wait is finally over and the long awaited e-book is here. Yay!!

You can now download now this fantastic e-book Build a Superstar Blog

Build a superstar blog is a clever concept of introducing the business model in the music industry and re-applying it to blogging world.

Being a huge music lover, and knowledge of the industry, I simply brought the two worlds together this my e-book. The world of a music artists meeting the world of bloggers.

The same way a music artist goes through the hustle of getting discovered, signing a record deal, developing a fan base and aspiring for superstar status likewise a blogger builds credibility, exposure, a community and ends up being a leader or authority in his/her niche.

Whether you’re a blogging pro or a complete newbie, this e-book throws a fresh approach on blogging from a business standpoint.
I am very confident you will like it.

www.buildasuperstarblog.com

I also look forward to hearing your feedback.

Enjoy

3 Things That Scares Me About WordPress

(1) When you select “Save Draft” and the “Publish” button appears to be loading…

“what the deuce!!” – Stewie
This is sometimes uncomfortable to watch, especially if your content isn’t ready for public viewing. I’m getting used to it now, but I still watch it just to make sure.

(2) When presented with a white screen right upgrading WordPress

“errm, what do I do now??”
From experience, a simple page refresh normally brings things back to normal again.

(3) Dodgy WordPress plugins that breaks everything on your blog.

“arghh”
In some cases, it takes a while to identify the culprit plugin.
Before installing a plugin, I normal check its compatibility status . This can be found at wordpress.org/extend

Do you have any moments to share?

Social Media Strategies

One of my clients plans to use social media to reach new customers as the current style of weekly tweets isn’t effective.

For this to happen, there needs to be a social media strategy in place with clear objectives.

A few things came to mind whilst having this discussion.

- Identify who your customers are.
- Identify where they are hanging out.
- Engage with them – participate.
- Find out how you can help them.
- Give it to them – (help them)
- Repeat and rinse.

Social media can beneficial to your business, it all depends on how you use them.