Personal Office Hour: Tech help customized for you! (One week only)

December 20, 2010 By

Every Thursday, I do this thing called Open Office Hour (which I’ve taken to calling Office Happy Hour, because really, everything goes better when you’ve got a half-price drink in your hand — especially knotty tech problems).

People call me and I answer their tech questions, give them advice on online business, and chat about how things are going for them (and for me). I love it. I adore all the fabulous people who call me. Office Happy Hour started as an experiment, and I’ve been doing it for more than a year now. The experiment was a roaring success, right from the beginning.

So I’m going to keep doing Office Happy Hour. And I’m going to try a new experiment: Personal Office Hours. If you want a full hour of my focused attention, you can now make an appointment for your own personal office hour!

This is an experiment, so I’m trying it for a limited time. You can buy a Personal Office Hour until December 24. That doesn’t mean you have to make time for your hour this week — we can schedule our appointment for anytime in the next 60 days (I’ll round up and just say “until the end of February 2011″).

This is a great way to kick off your New Year with some friendly tech help!

Your own personal office hour

Here’s how it works:

  1. You purchase a unit of Basic Tech Help for $159 before December 24. (keep reading to find out how you can save $60 and get your office hour for only $99!)
  2. I’ll email you to set up a time during the next 60 days that’s convenient for both of us to talk by phone or Skype.
  3. You can use your hour however you like!
  4. You get an audio recording of our call and a followup email from me summarizing what we talked about.

How could you use your own office hour? Lots of ways. You can even give them as a gift!

For example, I can answer your questions, make recommendations for your online business, set up and configure website stuff for you, show you how to do something (like set up a product in E-Junkie, send a blog broadcast email in AWeber, or change your WordPress theme, just to name a few examples…I’m sure you can come up with your own tech questions that have been bugging you for-freaking-ever!).

I can even share my computer screen with you so I can walk you through steps visually.

Office Hour combo packs: Save big!

As part of the experiment, I’m offering a discounted rate of $99 for one Personal Office Hour (a $60 savings), when you buy in combination with any of these four services:

  1. WordPress Swimming Lessons + 1 Personal Office Hour: $198 (normally $258). Sign up here.
  2. WordPress Installation + 1 Personal Office Hour: $198 – $998 (depending on whether you choose the Basic, Bonus, or Bonanza package — normally $99-$899). Choose your package here.
  3. Love Your List + 1 Personal Office Hour: $216 or $246 (depending on whether you buy the Core or Premium version of this home-study workshop — normally $117 or $147). Buy your combo here.
  4. Peace of Mind Program for WordPress backups/upgrades + 1 Personal Office Hour: $188 (normally $248). Snag one of the remaining slots here.

Remember, this is an experiment, so Personal Office Hours will only be available for sale until December 24. However, you can use them anytime in the next 60 days.

My next WordPress Swimming Lessons class starts on January 24, so it falls neatly within this period. You could use your hour after the class is over, to ask questions or have me set up specific WordPress plugins for you.

And if you choose the Peace of Mind Program, your WordPress site will be backed up and upgraded through March 2011, and you can use your hour for anything you like before the end of February.

Also, any of my services can be bought as gifts, including these combo packs. Just let me know after you buy (you can reply to the thank-you email) and I’ll set up your gift recipient with some friendly tech help!

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All aboard the SOBCon Express

April 28, 2010 By

Here’s a decidedly un-random selection of news tidbits that I’m publishing before I leave (less than 24 hours!) for SOBCon.

I’m going to SOBCon!

Chicago, here I come! Although I haven’t accomplished a fraction of my pre-conference to-do lists, I’ve got my boarding pass printed out, my hotel reservation confirmed, and my TSA-approved carry-on luggage almost-packed. This is a chance for me to step outside my small home-office world for a weekend, just like I tried out driving a truck last weekend (hey, it makes sense to me).

Last year I went to this conference thanks to serendipity and a last-minute giveaway from Naomi. This year I’m traveling under my own steam (is that the expression? That doesn’t sound quite right. Ah, whatever) and I have every hope that SOBCon 2010 will rock my socks as much as SOBCon 2009 did.

No Open Office Hour this week (April 29)

See the part where I’m going to SOBCon? That means that I’m actually going to be on a plane (or being x-rayed by airport security, which is equally bad when it comes to trying to use a cell phone) during my regular Thursday Open Office Hour timeslot.

So if you were planning on calling, try next week, or send me an email (although, what with all the conferencing this weekend, I may not answer before next week anyway).

WordPress teleclass recording is available!

I just emailed out the recording of Monday’s free teleclass, Why WordPress? You can get your free copy by signing up here, and hear why I recommend WordPress. It was pretty fun, and I got to answer some good WordPress questions.

Of course, you can always join me during my Open Office Hour (except tomorrow, remember the part where I’m leavin’ on a jet plane?) to ask your own question, or email me and I might post an answer here on the blog.

Webinar starts May 10!

I ran a class called WordPress Swimming Lessons back in February, and people seemed to like it. So I’m doing it again in May. There will be two one-hour webinars, two Q&A calls, email support, and lots of easing of your technology fears. And you can get a secret discount code to save $20 if you sign up for the free teleclass recording (plus listening to that recording will give you a good idea of what my Q&A sessions will be like).

Cool new stuff coming sometime soon!

I’ve got a handful of nifty joint ventures and non-joint ventures coming soon. Like a course on email marketing, a new service to help teleclass leaders, a free monthly call for graduates of my classes, and new WordPress installation packages that include actual graphic design by an actual graphic designer. If you want to find out when these things are going to happen, plus read more about my adventures in pickup-driving and cooking, you should subscribe to this blog. Seriously.

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Update on Open Office Hours

December 10, 2009 By

It’s been nearly three months (my, how time does fly when you’re havin’ fun) since I first announced I would be experimenting with Open Office Hours, and I thought I’d report on how it’s going.

Here’s how it works: Once a week, on Thursday between 10am and 11am (Pacific time), I have my phone turned on and will answer whoever calls me (the number is 909-240-7647).

This is the only way to get free advice from me by phone. It’s first-come, first-served, I don’t make appointments during this time, and I will talk to whoever calls for as long as they need.

Of course, you are free to call that number anytime, but the chances are almost zero that I’ll answer if it’s not Open Office Hour (unless I recognize your number and feel like talking and have time, which is pretty much the Trifecta of Impossibility). And I pretty much don’t return phone messages, ever. Well, unless you’re someone I have an existing relationship with. Then, maybe. Or I might just send you an email.

What I was afraid of

Basically, it felt like a big risk to say I’d be taking calls from random anybodies during a specific period of time.

Also, I thought I might get negative reactions from people who thought that I should be a) answering my phone all the time (or at least during some kind of “business hours”), b) doing more Open Office Hours, or c) setting up free phone calls with them on their schedule because that’s “good customer service.”

It boiled down to a fear that I wasn’t going to be doing enough, serving enough people, meeting enough of their needs.

What really happened

I forgot that the only people who would really be drawn to calling me would automatically be cool. You are My Right People! Everyone who has called has been nice, not at all demanding, and genuinely grateful for my help.

Callers: You have been awesome. You have not only thanked me, but you’ve publicly tweeted your thanks and recommended my Open Office Hours to others. What more could I ask for?

A few examples

For anyone who’s wondering about the kinds of things that are great to ask me, here’s a sampling.

Caller’s question: How hard is it, really, to upgrade WordPress?
My answer: See that link at the top of your Dashboard? Just click it. (I did explain about backing up, and stayed on the phone with her while she did the upgrade, and that conversation inspired my post about How to Upgrade WordPress).

Caller’s question: How do I find out who’s visiting my site and where they’re coming from?
My answer: Google Analytics is awesome and free, but if that’s too scary, you can install WordPress.com Stats (yes, WordPress self-hosted blogs can use this plugin, I should really post about this) and see your statistics right from your dashboard.

Caller’s question: Would you ever do a webinar tutorial on Google Docs?
My answer: Sure, if there’s enough interest. I can see how the whole Google Docs thing could be a bit intimidating for newcomers. In fact, that’s a really good idea. If I start up a free class series, that will definitely be on the list. (If anyone is interested, be sure to leave a comment or send me an email — otherwise I’ll never know!)

And there have been more. And it’s been fun. And I’ve been really glad to give my help, and my callers have been excited and grateful to get it.

So I’m calling the experiment an official success, and I’m going to be doing Open Office Hours for the forseeable future. (I didn’t do them on Thanksgiving, and this year both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are Thursdays, so really there are only two more weeks of Open Office Hours in 2009! Whoa!)

Talk to you some Thursday soon…
Wendy Cholbi

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