I have used webinars for several years now and I love them.  

I don’t like organizing in-person events because of all the logstics, people involved and cost. So whenever possible, we’ve scheduled webinars to showcase our products, do advanced training and offer practical content.

In fact, we built an entire training division using them. (At WebDesign.com we stream 15-20 hours of new content every month using webinars. And at iThemesTV, another 1 hour or so training a week.)

Along the way, we’ve picked up some best practices from just doing them week in and week out and seeing how others do them.

So I gathered these up and put them into a free ebook titled 15 Best Practices for Rockin’ Webinars. 

In this ebook, you’ll learn:

• What is a webinar anyway
• 6 benefits for using webinars in your business
• How to make the most out of your webinars (and your attendees happy)
• Recommended resources for webinars
• How to record your webinar
• 5 tips to remember during your webinar presentation and more

For the past 6+ years, I’ve been using WordPress in a number of ways to make money personally and build my personal brand and an audience. Of course, the last four years we’ve been building an entire company based on it — with over 180+ professional themes and plugins and over 350+ hours of on-demand WordPress web design training.

I recently gave a talk to a local group on this subject and wanted to share it also for the benefit of our community via a free webinar on Wednesday, May 23 at noon central standard time.

In this webinar, I will talk about the four categories of making money with WordPress and offer 5 tips for making money with it from my experience working in the community as well as starting iThemes.

What’s the first impression you give to prospective employers?

Hint: It’s a piece of paper.

Another hint: It probably sucks.

The newest addition to the iThemes eBook library has just arrived — right on time to help rescue your resume.

In “I Want To Hire You But Your Resume Sucks,” Cory shares 30+ tips for how to start doing the things that will make you an attractive free agent to prospective employers.

Your resume is just piece of paper, but it’s also a brochure that sells your services to employers. But the fact is: Most resumes suck. Not because of the paper or even format, but because you haven’t done the work building the key areas employers look for to make it rock.

The statistics about those who are underemployed or unemployed are depressing. I have some theories on why those stats exist. Namely, you aren’t ready for a real job. You haven’t done the work to GET hired. But I want to help.

—Cory Miller, I Want to Hire You But Your Resume Sucks

In I Want to Hire You But Your Resume Sucks, Cory shares how to:

• understand who you are fundamentally
• discover and follow your passions to find what drives you
• get the experiences and expertise you need to do what you love
• start connecting with the right people to land that dream job
• become a true professional and free agent that is in high demand

So that …

• you will be more capable to change the world by applying your skills, talents and time in your work
• your “resume” will stand out above the crowd
• and, more importantly, in the process …. a lot of other people who have more positions and money will want to hire you!

Warning: These things will cost you mostly time and energy. But you might already have a lot of that on your hands…

Download your copy of I Want to Hire You But Your Resume Sucks

]]> http://ithemes.com/2012/05/14/free-ebook-i-want-to-hire-you-but-your-resume-sucks/feed/ 0 http://ithemes.com/2012/05/07/friends-of-ithemes-james-frazier/ http://ithemes.com/2012/05/07/friends-of-ithemes-james-frazier/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 20:30:30 +0000 Kristen Wright http://ithemes.com/?p=10629 Earlier this year we launched the Friends of iThemes to our customer community as a way to connect our customers with the “inside scoop” about everything going on at iThemes.

The Friends of iThemes graciously gave us their photos to help decorate our office walls (you may have already seen the installation of the “Friends of iThemes” wall on the blog) and we thought it would also be cool to celebrate some of their amazing stories. From finally opening their own businesses or launching their first website to other unexpected accomplishments that have totally inspired us, we’ve been really proud to have helped partner in their success. They’ve inspired us, so we know they’ll inspire you, too.

So, here’s the next installment of Friends of iThemes Stories. Enjoy!

This month’s Friend of iThemes is the super-cool James Frazier. We’d heard that James was a big Builder fan, so we were glad to hear his story and how Builder has helped him start his own company.

James started with a dream and an idea. He came to Oklahoma City a few years ago to follow his passion of marketing. Along with the encouragement of a few friends, James began researching what it would take to start his own company.

So James bought iThemes Builder for his first website. ”Along the path I have been able to grow my company because of my quick turn-around time and cool designs, all done through Builder,” James told us. ”I started with a dream and an idea and iThemes has helped me refine that dream and have fun while doing it. So now, 2 years later, I have helped over 30 companies get online and start growing. I love to see these companies experience success. It doesn’t get any better than Builder.”

What’s James message?

If you can not get excited about what you are doing, do something else.

Thanks, James! We’re really proud to have helped.

Visit James’ site: http://jfdoes.com
Jfdoes is a web design firm that services small businesses in the OKC area and beyond.

Have a story you’d like to share with us? Let us know!

Easily manage events with the new Builder Events Block

We’re really proud to announce the official release of the new Builder Events Block — the new event management plugin for iThemes Builder!

Features

Earlier this month we previewed some of the Builder Events Block features that will make adding events to your WordPress site quick and easy. After some internal testing, we updated a few details that provide optimal customization.

Here’s a quick Builder Events Block feature recap:

1. Add events straight from the WordPress dashboard. 
Since Builder Blocks operate as a plugin, once uploaded, the Block unpacks an “Events” menu within the WordPress dashboard. Simply expand the menu and click “Add New.”

2. Add all of your event details from one single page.
Builder’s Event Block generates a single page for event details to be added such as event title, description, date and location. Even add event notifications (such as “event postponed” or “event cancelled”).

3. *New* – Create multiple event venues.
Venues are an easy way of creating default locations to set for your events.

4. Easily generate an event location map and address.
Add your event address to the “Event Map” section. Builder’s Event Block map can be used for displaying the exact location of your event and allows users to find directions to this location by entering their current location on the event page. Customize how your map appears on your site by dragging or clicking on the map to adjust the location marker.

5. Sync with Gravity Forms or Eventbrite.
Again, Builder’s Event Block works seamlessly with Gravity Forms to provide a simple and organized method of registering for events and managing attendees—even processing registration payments via Paypal. If you’re a current user of Eventbrite, enter your API and User Key to select your Eventbrite Event or add Eventbrite Widgets (Button, Ticket, Calendar, Countdown) to be displayed on the page.

Getting started

To get started using Builder Events Block, visit the “Start Here” section located in the Events dashboard menu:

Visit the "Start Here" Section from the Events dashboard menu.

From the “Start Here” section, you’ll  get instructions for: 

• Creating a New Event
• Creating a New Venue
• Locating your Events
• Adding Events Archive to the Menu

The best part? It’s FREE with iThemes Builder

Because this plugin took well over a month of expensive development time, we initially thought about charging for it … but Builder Events Block is included FREE with every Builder theme purchase including stand-alone child themes, Builder Foundation, Builder Dev Pack and of course the All Access Theme Pass.

Current Builder theme members: you’ll find the Builder Events Block file added to your membership after logging into the iThemes Member Panel.

So start scheduling those events! And keep us posted on what you think of Builder Events Block.

And we haven’t stopped there.

Each week we continue to add more and more educators to this program that gives educators access and support to our entire WordPress inventory — our WordPress Web Designer’s Toolkit — for free.

(By the way, if you’re a teacher and haven’t applied, go submit your application here.)

Then, we rolled out the Student Toolkit, which includes our entire inventory, just minus the support (i.e. like Adobe does for its academic discounts). And most recently an ebook on Best Practices for Web Development Instruction that was a hit in our classroom.

Today, I’m delighted to announce our new Education Pricing for qualified schools, career techs, colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. Many of our educators have asked for discounts on our resources to offer in their classrooms. 

Check out the iThemes Education Pricing and Discounts here

This is our way to offer a complete library of WordPress web design tools — along with over 350+ hours of web design training — for schools, educators and students at a significantly discounted price.

We envision this being used like textbooks (only its software and online content). We can either work out the details for your entire classroom or campus … or you can ask your students to purchase separately from us (if we have a list of your students, we can streamline the sales process).

To get started with Education Pricing Discounts in your classroom, hit our Education contact form, tell us what all you need or are considering (and how we can help) and we can get the process rolling along. If you need to order with a check or purchase order, please let us know and we can work that out.

We at iThemes want to be your education partner!

We’re expecting our first “iThemes baby” this summer (congrats Cody and Callie!), so it was only fitting to add a “baby announcement” child theme to celebrate.

Here’s a sneak peek of next week’s the Builder child theme Arrival – in pink and blue:

Arrival features simple styling in either blue or pink for creating a baby announcement site to share with family and friends.

Chronicle the whole story on the blog and add a photo page of your new bundle of joy:

Photo page in Arrival

Arrival's blog styling

Stay tuned for Arrival next week! Follow us on Twitter @ithemes and watch the blog for updates to be the first to know when Arrival is released.

]]> http://ithemes.com/2012/04/27/due-next-week-new-child-theme-arrival/feed/ 0 http://ithemes.com/2012/04/26/lockdown-wordpress-security-tips-from-the-pros-webinar-replay/ http://ithemes.com/2012/04/26/lockdown-wordpress-security-tips-from-the-pros-webinar-replay/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:38:31 +0000 Elise Alley http://ithemes.com/?p=10377 Yesterday’s LockDown WordPress: Security Tips from Sucuri was an incredibly eye-opening time with Sucuri CEO and Co-Founder Dre Armeda and his awesome team.

The reasons WHY you need to do this should be pretty obvious (you don’t want people thinking you sell Viagra, do you?).  It is, however, important to know HOW hackers manage to attack your site.

Malware (short for “malicious software”) is a major security issues for website owners, with WordPress sites being especially targeted.

According to Dre, Malware is a software designed to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information or gain unauthorized access to computer systems. Staggering malware statistics have been reported including “over 2 million new malware strings reported monthly (McAfee)” and “a cost to US consumers over 2.3 billion in 2012 (Consumer Reports).”

According to Dre, there are a number of ways hackers get into your site, including:  

Presentation Slides:  http://sucuri.net/WP-End-User-Security.pdf

Covell’s Projects are great for showing off content images (like portfolio items), since the Projects page has been designed to only show featured images from Projects posts (like this):

Since today is the deadline to file taxes in the United States, we thought we’d extend some savings for your (hopefully very large) rebate. Save 30% on everything at iThemes with coupon code REBATE30 — from now until midnight CDT, April 30, 2012.

This deal includes (just to name a few):

• The Builder Developer Pack (reg. $197) — Includes Builder Theme Core + 64 child themes (and counting!) + the soon-to-be-released Builder Events Block

• Our All Access Theme Pass (reg. $387) — Includes:
• Builder Theme Core + 64 child themes  ($197 value)
• 18 FlexxThemes ($97 value)
• 6 Essense Themes ($199.95 value)
• 70 other classic themes (seriously: $4000+ value at $57 each)
• Loopbuddy ($45 value)
• Billboard and Rotating Images Plugins (usually only included in DisplayBuddy, a $150 value)
• PluginBuddy Mobile ($45 value)

• The 3-in-1 WordPress Web Designer’s Toolkit (reg. $997) — It’s the whole enchilada. Includes all of our themes and all of our plugins at PluginBuddy.com, plus a premium annual membership at WebDesign.com.

So grab your savings, spend your rebate and make the most of tax day by treating yourself to some WordPress awesomeness.