SocialMouths is turning one year and to celebrate, I’m launching my first product.

It’s called “Launch Your Awesomeness – Your own kick-ass blog in only 48 hours” and I would absolutely love it if you can take a couple of minutes to read this post to understand what it is, why I created it, for who and how you can hopefully benefit from it.

Also, I’m leaving the comments open if you want to give me feedback, if you have some ideas to improve it or to simply ask questions.

So What Is It?

It’s a packaged solution to speed up the process of launching your blog, a successful one, either for your business or for your own personal brand.

I figured that every new blogger needs 5 essential elements to have any chance to success:

• Full control. In other words, eliminate the webmaster
• A kick-ass first impression, which today means a few seconds
• Some SEO basics to be search engine friendly and don’t invisible
• Social media integration to amplify the message
• And traffic analysis for better performance

So I came up with a solution that provides all that by implementing the necessary tools. Your blog is ready to perform at its best and at the same time, I’m eliminating the learning curve. These tools I’m talking about include WordPress, Thesis, Disqus comments, Tweetmeme buttons, sharing systems like ShareThis, Facebook and Twitter widgets and others. These are the tools you have already seen being used by successful bloggers out there.

A true powerhouse, ready for you to come in and start dropping your awesome content.

Also, I have put together a couple of designs so you can pick your choice. The trick here was to create something that looks good and at the same time it’s simple enough to be usable in any kind of business or industry. You can’t just base your online presence on good design BUT (notice I used the big “but”…), don’t you agree that a decent design build that initial trust any website needs? I thought so, you have been in that situation when you hit the back button in a matter of seconds too, right?

What’s NOT

It’s not a WordPress “Premium Theme”. Period.

Who Is This For?

Well, being an entrepreneur myself, I understand beginnings are not easy specially in the financial department. This means that while we’re looking to launch something of quality, we don’t always have the necessary budgets and resources to build from scratch. I see this with some of my clients. Launch Your Awesomeness is a solution for those people.

The reason I didn’t conduct a survey to have a more crowdsourcing approach to the whole thing, which is something I plan to do in the future, is because I had already enough feedback from over a year of working with clients. I have listened carefully all this time to the needs and objectives of people launching their first blog, redesigning an existing one or even going for a second one.

This Is Your Chance

If you have been postponing the launch of your blog because you didn’t have enough money, you didn’t know how to implement all that technology or your cat is looking at you weird, this is your chance to stop those excuses that build up an unreal sense of fear in you and… Launch Your Awesomeness!

Go visit the site at LaunchYourAwesomeness.com

Thank you!

You still there? Go!

First, let me thank everybody that participated in the contest. I also want to say that we will continue to do stuff like this so keep your eyes open.

And the FREE Fully-Loaded Blog from SocialMouths goes to…

A very cool person that’s all about PR, Yoga, family, friends and healthy living. SHE’s peaceful, loving and grateful and she lives in To…

Yes! Toronto…

Congratulations to Jill (@Peacelily)

Jill: Shoot me an email at francisco[at]socialmouths.com or a tweet at @socialmouths so we can start jamming!

So… What’s Next?

If you have a cool idea for a new contest, let me know on the comment section of this post and maybe we’ll put it together…

Thanks everybody! I got to meet some very awesome people during the contest.

Enter our 1st. contest of 2010 and win a blog in exchange of a simple Tweet. Seriously.

But… aren’t there like a million free themes available everywhere? This is not a theme, this is your Ready-To-Rock, unique and fully-loaded blog.

So get all the details right here…

What Does “Fully-Loaded” Mean Anyways?

While it has a very simple design, this blog is loaded with all the tools you need. Here are the specs. Besides changing the logo and your pic, you get:

• It’s built over Thesis Workframe so the license is included (your welcome…)
• Your social profiles are linked to the blog and displayed on the sidebar
• Sharing options: Tweetmeme button and ShareThis System
• Disqus Commenting System (the default is just weak sauce)
• FeedBurner RSS & Email subscriptions
• Social feeds (Twitter and Facebook)
• I’ll setup and configure Google Analytics (I’m not kidding)

Seriously… Just A Tweet?

Yes, all you need to do is:

1. Follow @SocialMouths on Twitter and…
2. Tweet this message exactly as it reads here (just copy and paste and you’ll be good):

“Follow @socialmouths and Retweet to WIN the FREE Fully-Loaded Blog contest – http://bit.ly/ceS384“

Important: Do not change the URL. The tweet must be exactly like that.

How Is The Winner Announced?

The last day to enter is Monday February 22nd and the winner will be announced on a post at SocialMouths on Friday February 26th. Don’t forget.

Just Making Clear That…

• I’ll be cool and work with you to get setup, but this offer doesn’t include customer service, customization or tech support. You can hire me for a couple of hours if you like.
• You need to have a domain and a hosting package, if you don’t I suggest you get everything from GoDaddy.
• This is WordPress self-hosted version.
• I’ll leave everything ready so you can input your content. I do NOT put in the content for you.

You still here? Go Tweet…

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Is it possible to generate business through blogging? You bet.

One of the best things you can do online for your business or your freelance services is to start a blog. A blog will allow to attract very targeted prospects by providing content but just as any other marketing approach, it can also damage your business if not done correctly.

Here is a basic list to help you consider a few things before you jump in the water:

1. The Goal Behind The Goal

Before thinking about what you’re going to do online there is a general objective for your business. If you’re an independent consultant then you are looking into selling your services, if you’re an author your main objective might be to sell books. Establishing this from the beginning will help you stay focused and not lose sight of why you’re doing this.

2. Online Goals

What you’re trying to achieve online might be a small list of sub-goals working towards your main business goal. I recently had a conversation with a published author that told me she needed to increase her subscriptions to show her publisher. That is a great online goal, while she also needs to sell books, she’s already trying to improve her chances for a new deal.

3. Observe The Ninjas In Your Industry

Most likely there are a few individuals already kicking ass in your field and most likely you already know who they are but if you don’t, identify them and pay attention to everything they do from the design to content to every single element on the sidebar. I’m not trying to encourage you to “copy and paste”, that’s not cool, but to learn from them, get inspired and trigger your own ideas.

4. Plan To Leverage The Real Estate On Your Site

Now that you know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, plan how your elements are going to be displayed on the site. If you are selling an ebook, perhaps it should be at the top of the sidebar. Make sure whatever is secondary goes below the fold in case people don’t scroll down. People will very easily fail to see your offer and that my friend… will be your fault.

5. Simplicity

Simplify, simplify, simplify. The more information on the screen, the more chances your visitor will miss what the point of your blog is. Eliminate the clutter and make sure your primary message is very obvious. Take a look at every single element on your site and question everything. How is the Twitter Counter helping you improve conversion? If this gives you some kind of authority fine but if there is no real reason other than feeding your ego, kill it.

6. Call To Action

Tell your visitor what to do. Don’t be afraid to say it because if you don’t the user is going to bounce around the screen for a few seconds and will probably do… nothing. You can have more than one call to action, for example “Order our eBook” and then “Subscribe to our RSS”. Be very clear, having just the RSS icon will probably do the trick with some people but why risk it.

7. Design

Design for many of us is not important, if you think like that let me tell you that you are wrong. When I land on a website with poor design I get a bad first impression. I can assure you my next click will be on the back button. Having a good outside perception is as important as having a good inside reality. You can have a remarkable product or service but a bad first impression and people will not even consider giving you a shot.

8. The Platform

This is not a matter of having the budget or not, pretty much all the platforms are free. While Blogger or WordPress (.com version) are good ways to get started, today they are considered more of a personal solution. If you are serious about blogging for your business, you should consider the self-hosted version of WordPress (.org version) which will allow you to work on your own customization.

9. Content (But Not Just Any Content)

Content is still king, no doubt about that, but just saying that doesn’t really change anything. I will say this, take the focus out of yourself, nobody cares about you or your product (sorry). Instead focus on how to cover a need, how you can benefit your prospect. Aim to turn yourself into a leader by helping your tribe.

Become a resource for your public rather than trying to get direct sales. Forget the sale and let it come to you.

10. Schedule Everything

One of the most important things on your blog is to be consistent with your content and everything you do. Schedule everything, how many posts per week you are publishing, when and how to promote that content, how are you going to respond to comments. It is very easy to fall behind and a blog that’s not updated regularly can only damage you. That doesn’t mean you should post every day either. Have a balanced approach and a plan to execute it.

11. Support Your Content

It is very hard to make your blog known if you don’t get out of it. Think of platforms that can help you take that content out of your blog, you can use social media for example and use your blog as a hub. Make your blog the final destination, once the user arrives to your blog you can worry about conversion from reader to prospect and client.

12. Make Yourself Known

Give your blog some personality, make yourself present with a photo and a bio. There is something about seeing your face there that makes your prospect more comfortable, after all, you are the main ingredient in your business. Most of the time people make a decision over the relationship rather than how good your service is. Be active as an individual, mixing your business brand with your personal brand is proven to get you better results.

Final Thought

I’ll give you one more because I see a lot of this. Plugins are like toys, just make sure you don’t get too excited and install a bunch of unnecessary features that will only make your blog look like a flea market and slow it down.

Overall, this is not rocket science at all and making a few mistakes is probably not a big deal, what’s important is that you reach your goals.

Feel free to add your own in the comments…

Image courtesy of Dry Icons.

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I’m not talking about turning your blog into an iPhone application but rather making it more friendly for the iPhone browser. In other words, when a user is visiting your blog from the device.

This is done for WordPress blogs with a very simple and free plugin called WPTouch (created by Brave New Code) that you can install and configure yourself in just a few minutes. There is nothing else to it, you do everything from your WordPress dashboard.

You can also download the plugin here.

If you are looking into having an actual application built out of your blog, there are services like MotherApp or iSites that can do that for less than $100/year.

I’m sharing some images here so you can get a better idea of how it looks and works. The first image shows the homepage (left) and how it actually looks like an app. To the right is the post, it displays all images and… yes, the tweetmeme button works!

Yes, this is all happening in the browser. Other features that are very useful are the access to the RSS and the menus, in the next image (right), I’m showing how “Categories” are displayed.

The commenting system, Disqus in this case, is fully functional.

Final Thought

What is the point of all this? We are moving into making ourselves available in different forms, if you can turn your blog into a more user-friendly format for your readers AND for free… why not?

Share your thoughts.

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Embeding video into your site or blog is easier than you think and provides your visitor with a much richer experience. Here is the screencast and the step-by-step action on how to do it in a few minutes…

These instructions are based on YouTube because is the most popular site, but you can use video from any source that provides you with the embed code.

Step 1: Go To YouTube And Find Your Video

Step 2: Get Your Code

Look for box that includes the URL and Embed, usually to the right side of the video player. Do not get the URL, instead place your cursor inside the Embed box to select it. Copy (Cmd+C on Mac or Ctr-C on PC).

Step 3: Back To Your WordPress Dashboard

Go back to your WordPress dashboard where you are editing your post. You have 2 tabs on your body window, “Visual” and “HTML”, select the HTML tab.

Step 4: Paste Your Code

Once you are on the HTML view of your post, locate the cursor exactly where you want to place the video and paste the code (Cmd+V on Mac or Ctr-V on PC).

When you go back to the “Visual” tab, you will only see a yellow box. You will not be able to see the video from the editor.

Step 5: Preview, Test And Publish

Before you publish your new post you need to test the video and look at the size on preview mode, make sure everything is right and you’re happy with the results.

Hope you like it and if you have any ideas for future tutorials, let us know in the comments of this post…

Also, you can see all the Mini-Tutorials in one place on my Screenr page. Visit, comment and share the love.

It created a revolution a few years ago but today, the WordPress platform has been downloaded more that 5.5 million times and it is rapidly growing. If you are looking into having a website for either your company or yourself, I suggest you take it in consideration. I have been on both sides on this one, I have owned traditional websites before, I’ve had webmasters and designers build a site for me in the past and I can tell you that having your own site has never been as easy as it is today. One of the reasons is WordPress.

I can think of many reasons why you should use WordPress to build your site but my intention is to provide you with a quick and useful read, so here are the main 5:

I should also make clear that I’m talking about WordPress.org (self-hosted) and not WordPress.com

No Need To Start From Scratch

WordPress provides you with a pre-built platform, there is no need to start coding from scratch or to hire a company to build something custom-made. Forget about spending thousands of dollars. Of course there are exceptions, if you are building something that includes some unique features then you should still go that way. If you are assuming that this is only a blogging platform, think again, you’ll be surprised of how many sites out there have been built without even using the blogging feature and you don’t even realize it’s a WordPress site…

The “Webmaster” Is Dead

Webmaster? Monthly maintenance fees? It’s all in the past. Once your WordPress site is finished, you have full control of the content including all kinds of media like photos and even videos. You own it, no need to call your webmaster to make changes to your content. The other alternative to have full control of your site is developing a CMS (Content Management System), which usually represents another substantial investment.

So Easy A Caveman Can Do It

Nothing is more user-friendly than the control panel, once you get familiar with all the sections you will be able to manage everything on your site. Publishing a new post or making changes to a page is as easy as working on a basic word document. There is no need to touch any code here. Other features include managing widgets on your sidebar, plugins and even change the theme of your site. Also, the amount of documentation and tutorials at the WordPress website is enough to set you free from any external help when maintaining your site.

The Beauty Of Open-Source Pricing: FREE

Yes, WordPress is an open-source software and it is web-based, nothing to buy and nothing to install on your computer. In my case, this is one of the great benefits I offer my clients. Obviously there is a cost on hosting your site but this represents an expense that anybody can afford. Today, companies like GoDaddy are offering hosting packages for less than $5/month.

Plug-in Whatever You Want

Everything you need on your site that it’s not already included is free or close to free. Thousands of independent developers around the globe build plugins specifically for this platform everyday, ready for installation and configuration. From Twitter feeds to social media sharing capabilities or traffic analytics, it’s all available as open-source.

Universal

If you never had to replace your webmaster once the site was already finished, you’re lucky. Two reasons why this is a nightmare, because every single developer has its own tricks when it comes to writing code and because nobody wants to touch or be responsible for code somebody else wrote. While it is true that code behind WordPress is tweaked every day, it will never be the same as when you’re developing something custom-made. This platform is very friendly even for developers and this makes it easier for you to find someone else in case your guy moves to Madagascar.

Building a website should be fun, I try to keep it that way. WordPress makes it very easy to that and get everything you want, or better said, you can have your cake and eat it too.

Contact me to learn more, I’m always happy to answer questions…

Automattic has launched BuddyPress 1.0 and it is officially available to the public. What is that mean? Yes, go get your own social network.

BuddyPress used to be a developer of widgets for WordPress themes when Automattic, creator of the blogging platform, acquired it about a year ago. Today, the company is adding yet another variation to this whole social thing. Now you can have your own private social network.

BuddyPress can be downloaded for free and installed within the WordPress MU admin area. WordPress MU (Multi-User) is the platform that allows you to host several blogs.

Is this mean that everybody and their grandmas will start a private social site and quit Facebook? And we’ll have 10 million networks? Of course not, and according to Matt Wullenweg, creator of WordPress, this is a solution for people looking to gain more control over the site or customize it, but it doesn’t mean people will stop using the popular networks.

Some of the main features the platform offers today are profiles, private messaging, groups, blog tracking and activity streams, but it has been already announced to include status updates and photo albums later in the year.

Of course there have been other options out there such as Elgg or Ning, but what I like about WordPress is the simplicity and how easy it is to manipulate for the non-technical user. After all, not everybody is a programmer. Automattic has created a great formula that allowed it to dominate the blogsphere and now they intend to the same with BuddyPress.

This is a great tool for businesses to keep fighting to engage customers and have them come back for more, especially for companies that have already developed a significant number of followers. On the other hand, if you or company is still young in this process, I recommend building your fan base to a decent number first. Nobody wants to sign up on a network with 3 users…

What’s next? This is the tip of the iceberg and now themes, widgets and plugins are going to start coming from developers all over the planet to take this baby to the next step.

For now you can download the demo provided at BuddyPress, install it on your WordPress MU and start playing with it.

You can also follow the latest events @ http://twitter.com/buddypressdev