You’ve got something to say. Or to offer. Maybe it’s even burning a little inside, because it’s wanting so eagerly to be expressed. Or you’ve realized that having a blog is a great way to augment what you’re already offering in other ways.
But the “nuts and bolts” part of starting a blog is intimidating. You’re worried that your writing isn’t good enough, and that you don’t know the technicalities involved in setting everything up.
However, you’re also choosy. You’ve seen the free blog templates that are available online, and you want something more customizable. Something that’s not just another prefab dwelling, but a unique home that fits you and what you want to do on the Internet. And you certainly don’t have the thousands of dollars it would take to have a professional web designer custom-build a site for you.
You would absolutely do this blogging thing if someone would just set up a fully-functional website for you that did what you needed it to, and proofread your initial pages so that they sounded good and error-free. You know you could take it from there.
We’d like to help get your blog to the starting block.
Wendy Cholbi and Michelle Russell have joined forces (Wonder Twin powers, activate!) to take the worry out of getting your WordPress blog up and running. Think of us as the architect, builders, and movers, all rolled into one. We’ll use our expertise to construct the webhome that’s right for you, make sure the foundation, walls and roof are all stable, install the major appliances so that they’re working properly, then move all the boxes inside and set up the furniture.
Wendy Cholbi
Wendy Cholbi‘s experience as a web architect goes back to 1993, when she created The Charlottesville Pizza Page, an ambitious attempt to provide a comprehensive local dining guide dedicated to one of the world’s greatest foods. She’s since moved to California, produced two tiny minions children, and converted to the Cult of WordPress. She delights in exploring and explaining technological tangles that strike fear into the hearts of mere mortals. And she’s confident that yes, with a little boost at the beginning, you can do it yourself. Yes, you.
Michelle Russell
Michelle Russell has been proofreading and copyediting for over 20 years, and her work experience includes everything from book manuscripts to complex legal documents to grocery packaging. She somehow managed to retain her sanity through the latter two, and now enjoys working on websites. She publishes her own blog at PracticeMakesImperfect.com and is also a contributor to Copyblogger, where she was recently included in The Best of Copyblogger 2009 with her article “How to Write with a Knife.”
The Blog Move-In Special includes two phases: Planning and Building, and Moving In and Setting Up.
Planning and Building
- The special introductory price is only for new bloggers who use this affiliate link to sign up for hosting with DreamHost (our recommended host).
- As soon as your purchase is completed, Wendy will request your DreamHost username and password so she can start the installation process.
- As soon as we receive your login information, you’ll be slotted into our Move-In calendar, and you’ll get an email confirmation of your install date.
- Wendy will install the latest version of WordPress, a free customizable theme, and 10 recommended plugins:
- All-in-One SEO Pack (helps you get found on Google)
- Broken Link Checker (saves you from embarrassing broken links)
- Contact Form 7 (use to create any type of contact form, survey, etc.)
- Exclude Pages from Navigation (lets you customize your navigation links)
- FD Feedburner (seamlessly integrates your RSS feed into Feedburner)
- Google XML Sitemaps (submits your content to Google each time you add a post)
- Simple Tags (advanced management for post tags)
- Sociable (adds buttons to each post so readers can tweet, email, and share your posts)
- WordPress Backup (automatic backup of your theme, images, and plugins)
- WP-DB Backup (schedules automatic database backups)
- Also, she’ll tweak a handful of settings to make WordPress more friendly (to you and to the search engines).
Moving In and Setting Up
- Michelle will email you to request your web page text (up to five Microsoft Word or equivalent pages with 1″ margins, double-spaced and in a standard 12-point font such as Times New Roman or Arial). This content might include:
- Your first blog post
- An “about” page
- Product or service descriptions
- Resources
- A contact page
- Anything else you want to add to your site
- She will proofread the text, editing for any grammatical, syntactical, or mechanical errors, infelicities of expression (basically just a fancy-schmancy way of saying “anything that sounds a little odd”), and asking questions about any content-based decisions which require your input.
- Michelle will make her edits using Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” function and include any queries to you using the “Insert Comment” function.
- She will then, according to your preference:
- Email you the edited Word document with tracked changes and comments for your review; or
- Scan the edited document so that all changes and comments are visible, and email it to you in PDF format.
- Once you’ve received the edited document you will, of course, have final control over whether or not to implement each individual edit. It’s your house, after all
- This package includes one proofreading pass of your submitted text. However, Michelle can be contacted if you’d like to purchase additional proofreading and editing services.
We’re pleased to be offering the Blog Move-In Special at the special price of $199:
available for the month of September.
Order now to secure your move-in date.
Some detail-type stuff:
We are scheduling only two move-ins per week. Check the red box above to see the soonest available move-in date.
The move-in date guarantee assumes that you supply us with your information (DreamHost login and web copy) within 24 hours of purchasing the Move-In Special. If you don’t have your web copy finished yet (hey, it’s OK, it happens to the best of us!), we’ll complete the “Planning and Building” phase by your move-in date, and slot you into our editorial calendar after the copy is delivered.
This special falls under the Place of Safety Guarantee.
Questions? Just use our handy-dandy question form. (We’ll make sure your question gets to Wendy, Michelle, or both, as appropriate.)
