Category Archives: How to…

Tips and more to help you when you’re using your computer and seeking to accomplish your computer-related project.

Amazing Job Helping Me Create My New Website

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I took several 1/2 day WordPress retreats with Joyce Kaye and would highly recommend working with her! She did an amazing job helping me create my new website, Climate Health and Wellness! I loved the collaboration that took place between us because we each got creative ideas working together to really make my website exactly what I had envisioned. And, she doesn’t deal with just the technical stuff of building a site! Joyce coached me through such considerations as: who was my audience, what was the purpose of the site, how did it relate to my other work, etc. We … Continue reading →

How to Turn Comments Off in WordPress

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Here’s how to turn comments off in WordPress for a specific page or post: 1. Log into the back end. 2. Click on the menu ALL PAGES (or ALL POSTS). 3. Lay your mouse on the page/post you want to change. 4. Under the title of the page, choose QUICK EDIT (NOT Edit). 5. You’ll see a screen similar to the one below… Click the check box once to remove the check mark for ALLOW COMMENTS. 6. Update (save) the Quick Edit. 7. Voila! … Continue reading →

Susan Simon Sez

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“I recently attended a hands-on workshop on the topic of Creating Your Constant Contact Newsletter. The 2 1/2 hr. workshop flew by. The class was small which gave the participants the opportunity to ask lots of questions and receive personal attention. The workshop was very practical and the content was immediately useful. I attended the workshop with specific goals in mind and most of them were realized. Joyce Kaye is a good teacher who is patient when it comes to helping participants over the bumps in the road. She has a great sense of humor and the work was fun. … Continue reading →

Exporting Contacts for Uploading Into Constant Contact

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How do you get the contacts in your email program or database into Constant Contact? Depending on where your contacts are, you can use a contact import tool, an API to sync your contacts with Constant Contact, or create a file to export them. For example, you can export contacts from ACT!, Earthlink, Gmail, Microsoft® Outlook, and Thunderbird. Particularly when you have recently opened a new Constant Contact account, you may want to grab your address book information directly from your email program – this will save you gobs of time :). Below are two popular email account providers with the steps on … Continue reading →

How to Approach Your Email Reports with Confidence

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[Excerpted from a blog post by Miranda Paquet] If you’re sending email out through Constant Contact, you have access to helpful email reports that show you how your emails are performing, what’s working for you, and where you can improve. Here are the five most important areas you should focus on: Opens: You can view the percentage of contacts that opened your email, as well as a specific list of everyone who opened each message. Click-through rate: Your click-through rate shows you how people are actually engaging with the content in your email. You can view which contacts clicked your … Continue reading →

Export a List from Constant Contact

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There are several reasons why you may wish to export a list from Constant Contact. Exporting your list doesn’t remove it from Constant Contact, but allows you to keep a back-up file on your computer and use spreadsheet programs to better analyze your data. Here’s how to export a list: 1. Log into your Constant Contact account. 2. Click Contacts. 3. In your left-hand menu, click the list you want to export or search for your contacts. 4. Select all of the email addresses that displayed by clicking the check box in the upper-left corner of your results. 5. Click “Export” in the menu.     … Continue reading →

Google Analytics Reports

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Google Analytics is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales. The basic service is free of charge and a premium version is available for a fee. Google Analytics can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines and social networks, direct visits and referring sites. It also tracks display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and digital collateral such as links within PDF documents. It’s really amazing what info gets tracked when you visit a website! The Audience section of Google Analytics reports is full of information … Continue reading →

Custom Menus in WordPress

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These days when building a website, I always use custom menus in WordPress to order my pages and to add a category(ies) to my navigation bar. You can do this by going to the main navigation menu APPEARANCE -> MENUS. Note: The availability of this option is dependent on the theme you are using. Sometimes you may want to add an item to the menu and have it open in a new window/tab (in code it shows as target=”_blank”). Here’s how to do it: After going to the APPEARANCE -> MENUS screen, click on the link for Screen Options in … Continue reading →

Theology and Technology

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I Couldn’t Resist! Since my life is very much about Spirit and computers, I couldn’t resist sharing this story with you. You may even find it provides a solution that works for you when having a challenging tech day! Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.”- Psalm 4:1 (NIV) My friend, who lives in another state, phoned me on the eve of her husband’s surgery. She was calling for prayer…for her computer! My friend works from home, and her computer kept freezing up, even though a technician had spent five hours installing a … Continue reading →

Tips for Safe Online Banking

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Here are some tips for conducting safe online banking: Monitor your accounts. Check your accounts regularly to make sure all transactions posted are ones you authorized. Report any fraudulent or suspicious activity to your bank. Avoid clicking through emails. Your bank or financial institution may send you email alerts and updates, but you don’t have to click through the links to access your account. It’s usually much safer to log in to the website manually to ensure you are entering a secure site. And, never respond to emails that ask to verify your identity by providing your username or password. … Continue reading →