I’m back. I took a four month break from blogging. I didn’t plan it that way but it happened anyway. All said, it wasn’t bad to have one less thing on my list to worry about for a while. During that period, I used my Facebook Page as a quick substitute, and that worked well.
What’s new?
My website has been rebuilt and relaunched. It may look similar to my old website (which — if you want to compare — still lives for now at technicalprojectservices.wordpress.com).
However, underneath the hood, saraisenberg.com is all new and is now based on the Thesis Theme for WordPress.
Why did I do it? I wanted…
- my website to live at my new domain, saraisenberg.com, rather than my old domain, http://technicalprojectservices.com (which now redirects to saraisenberg.com).
- more control over my SEO, which I’m still working on.
- to have a more robust theme. I had heard great things about Thesis.
- to move beyond hosting at wordpress.com, which I had outgrown. wordpress.com was great when I was getting started, great for learning wordpress, and FREE! Indeed, I still strongly recommend hosting at wordpress.com for many bloggers, especially newbies who want life/hosting to be as simple & free as possible.
Special Thanks to Melissa Smith, my special consultant and personal guru during this relaunch onto Thesis! Melissa, by the way, works at Equity Marketing Solutions.
Tagged as:
Equity Marketing Solutions,
Santa Cruz,
Sara Isenberg,
Thesis Theme for WordPress,
WordPress
The location has been set and this event is a go!
The Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce has a very popular new speaking series for Women in Business called Caffeineighted.
On Nov 5, 7:30-9 AM, I’ll be giving a presentation called Create a Free WordPress Blog in 1 Hour at the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce, Women in Business, Caffeineighted Series.
[Click here to Register]
Full Details:
Women in Business will host its small-meeting networking series, Caffeineighted, Thursday, November 5, 7:30-9 AM
Location: New Leaf Community Markets
1101 Fair Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
“Create a Free WordPress Blog in 1 Hour”
We continue with Web 2.0 Marketing tools with Sara Isenberg who will show us how to create a blog.
Sara Isenberg, principal consultant at Sara Isenberg Web Consulting & Project Management, has extensive experience in the corporate software industry, much of that as a technical account manager where she managed technical relationships between software engineering teams and strategic partners and clients.
Sara began working as an independent project manager in 2005, serving web producers and small businesses.In addition to working as a web consultant and project manager, Sara is a Technology Advisor with the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center’s Technology Advisory Program.
Sara has a B.A. in Computer Science from University of California Santa Cruz and a B.S. in Sociology from the University of Oregon. She is listed by We Magazine for Women in “101 Women Bloggers to Watch for 2009″.
For more about Sara:
twitter: @saraisenberg
website: http://www.saraisenberg.com
blog: http://www.saraisenberg.com/blog
linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/saraisenberg
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/saraisenbergconsulting
Limited to 30 participants, the session will also include introductions and conversation. A light breakfast will be served. The cost is $15 for SC Chamber members and $25 for non-members.
Caffeineighted is held the first Thursday of each month. Caffeineighted is an outgrowth of the Chamber’s Women in Business programs, designed to create a more intimate atmosphere and an opportunity for teaching and learning.
Tagged as:
Chamber of Commerce,
Santa Cruz,
Sara Isenberg,
Web Consulting & Project Management,
WordPress
From time to time I have clients who think WordPress is only for blogging, not for “regular” websites. Yes, WordPress is great for creating a nice looking and easy to maintain blog. However, WordPress is also a great CMS (Content Management System) that can be used to create a regular non-blog-looking website. And, because WordPress is a CMS, the website can be updated easily by people who aren’t web developers.
(Credit to Pro Blog Design)
http://www.problogdesign.com/inspiration/30-great-sites-using-wordpress-as-a-cms/
Tagged as:
CMS,
Sara Isenberg,
WordPress
After attending the Santa Cruz WordPress Meetup and crossing paths with Chris Burbridge several times a week, WordPress is a topic that’s been coming up more in the conversation these days. From attending the Nextspace WordPress brown bag lunch, to comparing WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal, to discussing what makes a quality theme, best practices, I’ve been telling folks about WP Remix, and just wanted to post this link as a resource and reminder:
WP Remix 3.0 is
…the only theme that offers WYSIWYG page template editing. Over 50 page templates to choose from. Web Stanards, Color schemes, Usability, grid, typography…
Tagged as:
Sara Isenberg,
WordPress,
WP Remix
From time to time, someone will ask me … Which is better: WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal?
The answer is… it depends.
- What is the project? How simple or robust? What features?
- Who is the developer? What are their skills?
- Who will be the site administrator? How friendly does the CMS editor need to be?
According to Bruce Byfield at linux.com:
Consistently, Drupal offered more fine-tuning and tools for managing multiple blogs, while WordPress, although less configurable than Drupal, proved easier to use and navigate.
Here are some resource summaries on this topic of comparing WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. Voila!
- Article mentioned above, by Bruce Byfield at Linux.com
- Article with CMS feature comparison chart, by Dan Knauss
- Article comparing just WordPress VS Drupal comparison, by Todd Zeigler
I put this information together yesterday to share with my cousin — he works for a Community Sponsored Radio Station — and then decided to share here, as well. Thanks, Norman, you inspired this post.
Tagged as:
CMS,
Drupal,
Joomla,
Sara Isenberg,
WordPress
I’ve been putting together a list of resources for a client (who has a client wanting to upgrade their blog). This got me thinking… Who are my favorite bloggers these days?
** David Pogue, New York Times (@pogue and @nytimespogue on Twitter)
** Kirsti Scott (@kirstiscott and @hotdesign on Twitter)
http://blog.hotdesign.com/
** Nina K. Simon (@ninaksimon on Twitter)
http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/
** Sarah Lacy, TechCrunch (@sarahcuda on Twitter)
http://www.techcrunch.com/author/sarah-lacy/
** WordPress
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/
** My blog (of course)
http://saraisenberg.com/blog
Tagged as:
david pogue,
favorite blogs,
hotdesign,
Kirsti Scott,
kirstiscott,
Nina K. Simon,
ninaksimon,
pogue,
raq33,
Sara Isenberg,
Sarah Lacy,
sarahcuda,
WordPress
Somebody asked me recently: Who is your ideal client?
A great question, I thought. It left me feeling that the asker was genuinely interested in hearing from me and in helping me find appropriate clients.
My ideal client — actually, I have three “types”:
1. Web developers or web production/application shops that need help:
- Vetting — actually “interviewing” — their potential/new clients.
- Teaching their new clients about the process of web development.
- Maintaining and tracking technical activities/requests/handoffs between their clients and programmers.
- Teaching their less technical clients how to use a CMS, how to create an eNewsletter, how to set up and use a WordPress blog, etc. Or perhaps, just doing those things for them.
- Facilitating client meetings, or development/production meetings. Standing at the white board, picking brains, and asking questions to get the nuggets out.
2. Small businesses that need:
- Feedback about what’s great and not-so-great about their website.
- Help finding resources for web updates, including design, development, writing, and SEO.
- Organization (project management) for their web updates. Figuring out what they want, and noting risks and interdependencies.
- Someone (me) to create and send their eNewsletter or other email marketing. Someone to set up and maintain their blog.
- Someone to help them learn how to do some of those things themselves, for example, how to use the CMS, how to do the email marketing, how to set up and use a WordPress blog.
3. Software Development organizations that need:
- Someone who understands the software development life cycle.
- A single point of focus to manage the project including facilitating weekly status meetings, possibly by teleconf, possibly with remote developers.
- A great communicator, internally and externally.
- Someone who can engage directly with strategic partners and clients.
So, who is your ideal client?
Tagged as:
Constant Contact,
email marketing,
eNewsletters,
evaluating websites,
getting started on wordpress,
helping non-technical small business clients,
ideal client,
Project Management,
Santa Cruz,
Sara Isenberg,
small businesses,
Software Project Management,
Technical Account Management,
web developers,
Web Development,
WordPress,
wordpress for non-technical folks
Sara Isenberg
Sara Isenberg
Sara Isenberg
Subscribe Via RSS to receive Blog updates.
