This month I will show you how to set up an autoresponder in MailChimp.

To view the video click on the image below.

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Unfortunately a small number of people do back up their websites. There have been quite a few cases recently where people have lost their entire website with no back up.

So I wanted to provide you with instructions on how to do this to prevent or minimise the damage if something goes wrong.

There are two steps to backing up your site;

1.  Copying your wordpress files (this means your theme, uploaded media files and plugins)
2.  Backing up your database (which includes all of your page and blog post content)

NOTE: These instructions are only for those who are using cpanel webhosting.

Backing Up Your WordPress Files

To do this you will need an FTP client (I highly recommend FileZilla which is free to download).

• Open up File Zilla and enter in your FTP details (your webhost should provide these to you) but as a rule they are generally the same password for your cpanel access.  On the right side of the FTP client you will see all files live in your website and on the left are files that are stored on your PC.
• Create a file on your PC (called backup). This is where you will copy your files to.  Be sure that you select this file within the left hand side of your page
• Your website is usually hosted under the folder Public HTML so all the files that are relevant to your site are stored under this.
• If you files are saved in the root directory of your website – you can just download all files underneath Public HTML.  Or if your files are saved under a sub-directory such as Blog then you would just download all files under that directory.
• To download highlight all files and then right click. Select the download option.
• The FTP client will then start downloading all your files to your PC.
• Once that is completed you can go onto the next step of Backing up your Database.

FTP Backup

Backing up you database

For this section you will need to login to your website’s cpanel area.

1.  Go to the myPHP option

2.  Select Database from the main options

3.  Then from here you select the database you want to back up. For example “test_wordpress”

4.  This will bring up a lot of different files that are in the database.
Click  the Export tab, generally the 5th tab across.

5. In the Export box you will need to select all of the files that are to be copied.
(NB: If you have other programs that use the same database please unselect these files).  All files to do with wordpress files should be wp_file name.

6. Ensure that SQL is checked!

The SQL section – Tick the following boxes:

• Structure
• ‘Add DROP TABLE / VIEW / PROCEDURE / FUNCTION’
• ‘Add IF NOT EXISTS”Add AUTO_INCREMENT’ and
• ‘Enclose table and field names with backquotes’

7. The DATA section
Leave the boxes inside this section unticked, but make sure to keep the checkbox next to the “DATA” heading checked.

8. Tick the ‘Save as file’ option, and leave the template name as is.

9. Now click ‘Go’ and you should be prompted for a file to download. Save the file to your computer. Depending on the database size, this may take a few moments.

If you don’t want to risk doing this yourself ask Little Miss Useful how we can help you. We can back up and store a copy of your website in case of emergency.

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Powerpoint 2007 comes with built-in templates and themes however, as a small business you really should create your own template.

So where do you start?

A template should always be created/edited using your slide master, so that when you open and edit it as a presentation the basic elements (such as your logo) of your template can’t be edited.

Creating your new template

Open a new presentation, to get into the slide master view select the VIEW tab and select Slide Master option. (see Fig 1.)

Figure 1. Select Slide Master

To make changes to the template you just edit the main slide (which is the default view).  Here you can select your page orientation, colour palette, add your business logo, edit the title sizes, change the font to suit your brand, change the background and so on.

Tip: I am a big believer that less is more, so try to stick with the one colour background (white is easiest) and its best to use easy to read fonts such as Arial, Tahoma or Verdana.   You can jazz up your presentation when you add the content and animations.

Creating a new colour palette that mirrors your brand

Select the colour button, and scroll down to the bottom of the list and select the Create New Theme Colours (see Fig 2.)

Figure 2. Select Create New Theme Colours

This will bring up the New Colour Theme option, you can add in the different text/background colours, 6 different colour accents, hyperlink and followed hyperlink colours (See Fig 3.)

All you do is select the colours you would like to add into the template that match your branding.  To match your logo colours exactly select the ‘More colours’ option (you will need to know your colour breakdowns in either RGB or HSL format – a great tool to find this out is www.palettebuilder.com)

Name your colour palette and select Save.  Your colour palette theme will now show up in the drop down menu which you can select this at anytime using Powerpoint.

Figure 3. Create New Theme Colours

Tip: You can also create your own colour palette in Word and Excel.

Editing the different slide layouts

Another great feature of Powerpoint 2007 is the different Slide Layouts, E.g. your basic title slide, content slide, title only slide, picture slides etc.

If you would like to make your title only slide different to your content slide you can edit the slide layouts via the navigation pane on the left hand side of your presentation.  (See fig 4)

All you need to do is select which slide you would like to edit, make the relevant changes and that will update that slide layout.

Figure 4. Slide Layouts

Creating a custom Slide Layout

If you find that you woud like to add more slide layouts to your presentation, you can do that easily.

Select Insert layout which will insert a new slide, then to add different content (Eg. Smart Art, Image, Video, bullet list) select Insert Placeholders (See Fig 5.).  You can then design your slide layout to how you please.

Figure 5. Custom Layouts

Tip: Once you design your slide, you will need to rename it.  Select the slide in the navigation pane, right click and select rename slide.

Finishing off your template

That is basically it your template is now nearly done!

Select Close Master View

Save your document as a 2007 presentation and there you have your own business template  and are free to add content and animations as you please.

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Twtvite assists you to promote your event, allow others to retweet the event, and also manages the RSVP’s. You can even create a hash tag for the event which is posted whenever you tweet or retweet the event.

I use Twtvite for the monthly networking lunches that I organise and just love it!  It has made organising the event much easier I am able to track RSVP’s and also see who is retweeting about the event.  Twtvite even provides attendees with a map for the venue and allows you to input the event into Outlook.

I would love to hear about more Twitter tools, particulalry for managing events.

Cheers
Nicole

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