Welcome to the world of Artificial Intelligence! AI is a rapidly growing field of technology, with more and more applications being found in our everyday lives.
AI uses advanced algorithms and automated processes to study and interpret data, enabling machines, devices and software to perform complex tasks that have traditionally been carried out by humans.
Artificial Intelligence will never replace human intelligence.
AI is about solving problems and making decisions. It eases the burden of data collection and analysis, especially in highly complex tasks. AI-powered software and machines can now recognize patterns, understand natural language, learn as they go and evolve over time, making them useful in a wide range of applications. From self-driving cars, to virtual assistants, to automated customer support systems. An AI-powered solution cannot match the skill of a human.
AI is programmed by an algorithm created by human beings. AI cannot think, it can only pull from a programmed database, and information already existing on the web.
Writing copy as a copywriter has a technique. Writing content begins with research about the topic. Then comes the compilation and arrangement of the content. This takes time it’s a fact. But if you want to reach an audience you will need to take the time to write personally.
The artificially generated writing style is without substance. The whole ‘voice’ behind the text is missing. When this kind of content is generated it is dismissed by the intelligent human reading it. The problem is simple; human beings are lazy and want something else to do the work for them.
The Chat GPT artificial intelligent content generator is a bot that can generate the content in a shorter time than a human would to take the time to do the research for that content. Providing you ask the right questions, Chat GPT will produce a desired result. The content then needs to be edited and placed into the writing. This is where the artificial content needs to be integrated into the content. The content in this article is written by a human. The content is based on the initial content delivered by the aritfical intelligence which could be described as preliminary research.
By now everyone has heard of Chat GPT. The problem with Chat GPT; the content generated is generic.
Generic content does not emulate content written by a human being. The content will need to be rewritten and edited. The main use of Chat GPT is the generation of initial research and this is the time saver.
You can go onto a website and ask the Chat Bot questions. The answers will be links and articles that may not answer the question. The Chat Bot cannot think. It can only pull from a programmed database of frequently asked questions. After giving generic answers to the question, the bot may have an algorithm that gives an option to chat with a live person to get the question answered.
If there is a human being that is online to answer questions then you do save time to get the information you need specific to the question you asked.
AI can help automate tasks that are repetitive. It can analyze large amounts of data and provide predictions that will assist people to make decisions. For example, in healthcare, finance, and transportation. AI does contribute to the accuracy and it can help personalize experience for users with ecommerce, advertising, and entertainment. It’s main function is analyzing data. AI also assists services and technology to be more accessible to people with disabilities.
But it still requires a human being to process the information. One of the other main issues with AI is the manner in which it is produced. It has to be ethical.
The development of AI must include transparency. The AI should be transparent and explainable and avoid bias and discrimination. AI should be developed in compliance with privacy laws and regulation. An organization that developes an AI system should be accountable for its effect on people and prepared to address any consequences that might arise.
AI systems should be designed not to replace humans. We should be able to override and intervene in any AI system if neessary.
Some of the content in this article was generated using Chat GPT the free version. The process of writing this blog post took less time than it does without the AI assistance.
Chat GPT and Bard generate the content based on my question. It is an excellent way to curate information but be prepared to repurpose and edit the content for it to be relevant to the reader.
With the help of Chat GPT this article was written in a shorter amount of time that it would ordinarily take.
You’ve watched tutorials. YouTube Videos. Clicked on links to how-to articles. Joined Facebook groups. Memberships. Every resource you can think of is available. Then how come you still have the problem?
Your website isn’t working.
Exclusive help specific to your need. You ask the questions and get the answers in real time. Specific to your need. It’s a unique concept today. Someone to show you how it’s done.
We have believed the advertising copy.
It’s convincing. You’re persuaded. Creating a website using a ready made template is easy. After attempting to use it, the truth comes out. It’s not easy to use. Edits and content creation slows to grinding halt. And, the template has a license to renew each year.
When you can have a website that doesn’t dissappoint.
Keeps pace with technology changes and upgrades.
Doesn’t have an annual license.
Operates without added expense and the endless search for answers.
You get the help you need to show you how. I did it with my websites and I do it for my clients’ websites.
One-on-one tuition. Learn first hand how it works so you can work it. Then your website will work and you’ll know how to operate it.
There will always be problems to solve with website technology and updates. But if you know how to address the problem; change a setting, add or delete a plugin, create content, style and organize the blog.
You will be able to manage your business because your website works.
All these things are just a matter being shown how.
The real problem with having no time isn’t time. It’s that websites and technology are intimidating. And, we don’t want anyone to know that we don’t know.
But, the fact is you need a professional website. One that works. And, you need the website now.
Setting up a website is overwehleming. Even if you have someone do it for you. You still have to manage the website.
This is why it’s a best practice to have someone show you how.
Your alternative is to hire someone to build the website for you with a maintenance plan. If you’re too involved in managing your business.
As a business owner you’re still responsible for what you publish on the web on your website. You need to be hands on with your website so you know how it works. Even if someone manages it for you.
Restricted use. Upgrade to use additional features.
Difficult to manage. Limited tech support. Annual licence fee.
Hosting sever insufficient. Cannot upgrade software. Website malfunctions.
If you have the time and want to learn. Not enough tech support.
The truth about websites is this. There is a learning curve. There’s no way around this.
If you work in a website daily, then it’s no problem.
But not everyone works daily on their website. This is what I do. If you want a website we can build it together, or I can build it for you.
Contact Me and let’s get your website built, and live on the web.
Use a 3rd party email service and create a personal email. Never let the person know they’re one of many on a list. Always personalize the email.
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We hear about this all the time. So what’s the deal with email? It’s a chore to go through the volume of emails. They’re all the same asking you to do something. Sign up or get the latest deal. Nothing of real value. Time is wasted reading them.
Why on earth did you subscribe to this in the first place?
At first email was manageable and interesting, now it’s too much information and it never seems to relate to you and what you’re doing. Unsubscribe immediately. Anything to stop the constant emails. No sooner have you cleared your inbox then another bunch of emails arrive. All day every day.
If this describes how you feel about email then how will you send an email to someone who won’t have the same reaction. Think about the emails you do open. Why do you open them? Because they are relevant to what you want to know about their product or service.
When you compose an email write to a person as you would if you were having an in-person conversation. Always give your emails that personal touch.
People want to know that you acknowledge them.
If you address the email to their first and last name this immeditaely signals they’re one of many on one of your lists.
No one likes to be addressed as; Hi Newsletter Readers, or Hello Listies, or Hello First and Last name, this is a turn off. And no, it isn’t the new way to do it for 2020.
Email isn’t dead. The “Dead” idea is a clickbait trick to get you to read an article thinking you’ve been doing something and you shouldn’t be doing it now because it’s supposedly ‘dead’.
In fact email is the one way to communicate directly that does get results if you do it right with a personal touch. There’s a human being on the receiving end of your email.
There are so many to choose from. Each one with different configurations and set up. It would take all day to list them but how to find the right one will depend on the kind of emails you want to send.
In 2003 Congress enacted the CAN SPAM Act implemented a law covering all commercial messages. Email is an electronic commercial advertisement promoting a product or service.
Anytime you send an email to someone to solicit your business or service, and this includes a single email, the email must conform to the specific requirements. Otherwise it’s spam.
Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity.
Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you.
Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days.
You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request.
Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list.
The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law.
Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.
Never abuse the privelege granted to you by someone when they give you their email address.
Not an easy setup.
Out of all the services to choose this is my choice.
Using a 3rd Party Email Client is a good idea when you want to grow an email list to existing customers, or new customers.
Email Marketing is cost effective.
Your customers do want communication. Especially if they subscribe to your services.
If you have a daily or monthly Newsletter this is a powerful information tool to keep your customer informed.
Before jumping into the deal look carefully at the cost factor. How often will you send out an email? How large is your list?
You can start a Newsletter with only 5 people in your list.
Most of the 3rd party email services have a free plan based on the amount of emails you send on a monthly basis.
We’ve heard this before how you need to organize information so you can get it out at the right time to the right people about the right information. This sounds really good but it is easier said than done.
Your first campaign is going to take some work on your part. First you need to start out with a plan. Not a calendar with proposed dates but a plan that starts with how you are going to deal with the subscribers, now that you have integrated your website with email.
To communicate and engage with an existing customer base.
To promote information about a product.
Provide training.
Welcome new customers.
What you are doing is called Digital Marketing. This is a combination of setting up an email newsletter and then managing the campaign that corresponds with the above list.
Here’s an excellent workbook about the process; The Digital Acquisition Cycle by Scott Winterroth. The book takes you through the necessary thought structure based on the author’s real time experience.
“The key ingredient to almost any digital marketing campaign is commitment. You need to sustain your online marketing strategy, even when it is difficult.” Scott Winterroth.
The inbox is where you have an opportunity to speak directly to the person. Now it’s time to stop and figure out why you want to send emails. Is it because it’s what you’re supposed to do? If it is this won’t work.
The person you’re emailing is intelligent and they can figure it out from the subject line of the email, to the greeting, and the first sentence.
Integrating your website with Email Marketing will require effort. It’s no use outsourcing the project, you’ll never be satisfied with how it’s done by someone else. Only you can do it because you’re the person behind the email offering your service or product.
Always remember, there is an intelligent human being on the receiving end of your email.
Welcome to the world of Artificial Intelligence! AI is a rapidly growing field of technology, with more and more applications being found in our everyday lives. AI uses advanced algorithms and automated processes to study and interpret data, enabling machines,...
Why don't we do it right the first time? Because we don't have the right information. The right information only comes from someone who has made the mistakes themselves and is willing to share their experience so you can do it right the first time.The First Mistake...
Yes! How so? The Divi Theme Builder will come out October 17, 2019. Something we always associated with a designer or a developer is now going to be available for us users. The long awaited Divi 4.0 is about to launch. It will change the way you think about...
Build a Style Guide
Change the color scheme
Set the color palette
Chose the font pairing
Deal with Accessibility
The Style Guide should be the first consideration when you’re going to redo a website. Even if you’re not redoing a website and you’re starting from scratch, you should create a Style Guide. This takes into consideration all the elements that will give you the effect you wish to have for the website.
There is no perfect style, there’s only the style based on preference.
As you start the process you’ll be able to figure out what you like and what you don’t like.
There isn’t one that is better than another. Styles come and go. What doesn’t change is the way the style should not interfere with the content.
In the Design section of every module in the Divi Theme there are options to create good styles. It’s a matter of balance when it comes to styles. If there’s too much style it’s a distraction. With all the design elements built into the Divi Theme, and other Themes, you can overdo styling.
Colors have meaning and when they’re combined with other colors they either clash or match. Colors also bring an emotional response. Think about how some colors are soothing and other colors provoke action.
Interesting Fact:
“Research reveals people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone. “Source: CCICOLOR – Institute for Color Research
Color communicates and is an important element throughout the style of the website. If there is an existing color incorporate the same logo colors. Unless you want to redesign the logo. Depending on how well your company is known by it’s logo will help you make this decision.
Color helps focus attention but it should never be distracting or too bright as to hurt the eyes. Many people are color blind and don’t see true colors.
There is no perfect color that will be good for everything. Using only one color is uninteresting and the content will be ignored.
Most useful tool to use when making sure you get just the right kind of color tone and hue. The software used for this process is Affinity Designer. All of the softwares have the color wheel tool. You will find color charts built into note taking applications. All the time on a website you are looking at a combination of text and color.
What I like about a color wheel is when you drag the small circle and you will see the color change in the selected image or shape.
The Divi Theme comes with the ability to change the Default Color Palette and is located in the Theme Options area. Here you can set the colors. When you set this Color Palette those colors will be used throughout the site.
All colors come with a specific RGB, or CYMK, or #and a number setting. You can put your curser anywhere in the square and the color setting will change giving you the number of that color.
Which font is the right font? There isn’t one. There are six-hundred Google Fonts to choose from so how do you know which one you should use.
Fonts are tricky. They need to be readable. Sounds obvious, but when you look at the many styles of Fonts available you find some are much easier to read than others.
Chose an easy to read Font. You do not want to give the person visiting your website eye fatigue.
You want to be sure you have clean open spaces and readable content. We do so much more reading than we used to do. We are constantly reading text on different sized screens.
For a comparison of how a font looks with color this article The Ultimate Collection of Google Font Pairing gives examples and shows the different sets of font pairing. You do not have to use those exact font pairings.
The choice of fonts is a matter of preference. You will find some fonts appeal to you and others don’t.
Your website must be accessible to someone with a disability. We don’t always remember there are people that are color blind, or handicapped in some way. Their online interaction is going to be different and it’s necessary to take into consideration accessibility.
In this blog post Quickly Build a Website in Divi on my other website RealTime Paradigm, I show an example of how using a flip module is a great effect, but it’s not obvious you need to mouse over the text to see the other side. This could be faulted as being inaccessible.
Animation and moving parts on a web page is now “in style.”
The best practice with animation; use it sparingly. You want to eliminate any barriers to prevent interaction.
The World Wide Web Consortium has an Introduction to Web Accessibility article for further reading.
One common error is an overly complicated navigation system with too many items in a menu that folds out into a sub menu. This can cause confusion as to where you are in the website.
People have visual disabilities. Make sure the text size is not too small, or too light. It’s the perfect way to get someone off your website if they can’t read the text.
A website has to be functional, accessible, operable, and this takes thinking through how you are going to redo the website.
You don’t have to have the website done by a designer. In fact, the best person to design a website is you. Of course you might need some help to do this as website software is now more sophisticated.
The Divi Theme is a robust theme with all the options available including AI generation for images and text.
Build a Style Guide
Change the Color Scheme
Set the Color Palette
Choose the Font Pairing
Deal with Accessibility
All of these steps will take you on a journey to redo your website. The context of a website is complex but when you approach it from this angle you’ll get the results you want when you redo a website in Divi.
What the sales copy doesn’t tell you.
The inside of a website isn’t mysterious, it’s just an organized content management system that operates when you know the commands. All software works this way. Once you know how to operate it, the mystique disappears.
The problem with creating a website; the initial information before setup.
It’s true anyone can create a website. This is usually the developer or the designer’s territory. Now Website software includes the user. There are two ways to go about creating a website, have someone create the website for you, or create it yourself.
Now not everyone likes to do it themselves. Whichever way you want to create your website you still need the foundational knowledge before the website is created. The foundational knowledge is the inside view, it’s not the sales view, but the information you wish you’d had before the startup that you now have to undo.
If you haven’t started a website don’t jump into the first easy-to-use, free, website… here’s the foundational knowledge based on my experience buildling websites since 2006.
The foundational knowledge is the know-how-it-works. This is what the advertising doesn’t tell you, and what you find out after you’ve bought into the freebie website with ads. Or worse still, your website just crashed because there’s insufficient memory to properly display the website.
This website is powered by WordPress. You’ve no doubt heard about other software for a website, Wix or Squarespace. Wix is a free software with ads, but if you need your own domain name or want to do business online, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the plans. The least expensive plan without any ads is $13 per month. This plan gives the website 3GB storage. This isn’t enough memory space for a website.
The same is true for a WordPress website hosted on WordPress.com. WordPress.com also requires an upgrade to remove ads from the website. You don’t want to have ads on your website.
The problem with free, it means use someone else’s platform and live with features not needed. Why would you advertise your competition? They pay for their advertisement to be on your website because it’s a relevant match advertisement.
Source: W3Techs, 2023
835 million websites use WordPress
43% of all websites use WordPress
Before you take the time to read make sure the information is current. Check the date, last year’s information is considered current. If you can’t find a date the information is most probably ‘evergreen’ meaning it might be factual and doesn’t go out of date. But even the ‘evergreen’ article will at some point be outdated.
Tech information on the Internet isn’t always updated and revised, unless the owner of the website is meticulous and cares enough about the content on their website to be current and not outdated.
The fast pace of uploading and publishing content is always going to be at top speed. Don’t be in a hurry to jump at the nearest cheap bottom line price.
The website you create should be long-term. You want your presence on the web to generate business. For this you need a professional website that will accommodate the growth you envision for your company, or as an individual practitioner.
The truth of this is in the usage.
The best website software to use is WordPress, this is based on my experience using the Blogger software, the Microsoft Small Business Software (now discontinued).
WordPress came out the winner having the most flexible layout and I didn’t need to know code to use it. The WordPress core software is provided by a reputable Hosting Company.
WordPress is the remarkable invention of co-founders Matt Mullenweg and David Little. WordPress started as a fork from b2cafelog a blogging software that needed improving. They modified the software so well that it grew to become the most used software for a blog and a website worldwide.
The WordPress core is open source software. Developers from all over the world contribute to the code. The result is a versatile software with the flexibility to add functions as needed.
WordPress has created a higher standard for websites. This is good news because this is exactly what you want for your website. Longevity and flexibility. WordPress is not going to suddenly be discontinued and they won’t raise the price and make it proprietary code.
When a software creates an environment where everyone benefits from it’s use, the developer, the designer, and the user, then it stands out and this is why 64.1% of websites are powered by WordPress as opposed to 3.7% by Wix.
Large Corporations, Governments, Educational Institutions, Schools, Restaurants, Individuals, Businesses, Entrepreneurs, Individuals, all use WordPress for their website.
Adding to the excellence of WordPress is the availability of Plugins. A plugin is designed by a 3rd party developer and if it passes the grade is offered in the WordPress Plugin Repository. If you’re serious about doing business online you will need a profressional website.
Designers and Developers use this Theme. Anyone can create a website using this theme. You don’t have to know how to code to create your website.
There are 125+ Premade Theme Layouts designed by Elegant Themes designers. Using these layouts is like hiring a professional designer. Even if you’re a total beginner you can create a professional website.
The Divi Theme is the world’s most used Theme, and has the flexibility to style a website to suit the subject without emptying your wallet.
The WordPress core software is the shell onto which a Theme is built. The Theme is the decoration or style relating to a subject or topic. Today the WordPress Theme market is saturated with every kind of theme you can think of. The technology of website styles changes all the time. What was used in the 1990’s isn’t used today. Styles change.
WordPress recently rocked the boat and introduced a new Classic Editor. The section where you input the content that goes onto the web page.
The introduction of the Gutenberg Block Editor is the biggest change WordPress has made since it was launched in 2003. The result is a Block Editor, to help you put content onto the page.
Themes styled with the earlier Classic Editor are now outdated and will cause the website to operate on an older version of WordPress. Theme developers will need to update their themes or discontinue that theme. This is a definite consideration before you use the inexpensive theme that you found on the web. Is it compatible with the most current version of WordPress 5.3.2? Updates to the WordPress core softwear happen regularly. In a few months WordPress will be up to 5.3.3 and is now at 6.3.
There will always be an updated or improved version particularly with a website. Always make sure you can update the Theme and WordPress when needed. An outdated website will be hacked and this is what you don’t want to experience. Once a website is hacked, it’s dropped from the search engine. The website will then take a long time to get back into the good graces of the search engine.
Best Practice: always use an updated version of WordPress and WordPress Theme.
You want a theme that keeps pace with WordPress. The Divi Theme keeps pace with WordPress and integrated their unique Page Builder into the Gutenberg Block system.
The Divi Theme is your creative partner working by your side as you come to know how the sections, rows, and modules work. You are using one of the most used themes in the world. Even the designers and developers use this theme. The Divi Theme has built-in styling features and you can add content directly onto the page using the advanced Visual Builder.
Whenever there is an excellent product there are always those that will downgrade the product, claiming it’s slow and has too many things wrong with it. This is professional jealousy. The person, feeling the competition, criticizes the product with the intent to purposefully misinform you, so you’ll buy their product instead.
As the owner of a website you need to decide how hands on you want to be with the website.
You might not have the time to do this yourself, in that case you should have your site managed by someone, and be prepared to pay them for this service. The back end site management is called site maintenance. The front end of the site management is called front end where you add content to the site. This is the part you should operate as the owner of a website.
The front end has a learning curve, as with anything we use, we have to learn how it works first. With the Divi Theme you have full control over the front end and you’ll be able to change an image, add content, and change a style.
Not having to use code is the best way to create a website. Website code runs in the background while you’re using it on the front end. If there’s a problem with the code, you initiate the built-in support ticket and the tech support developers fix it for you. This is how it should be.
Code is complicated, and unless it is your passion… don’t mess with it.
No one likes learning something by themselves. This is why YouTube is so popular. Whenever we want to know how to do something, we search for a video on YouTube.
But you can’t ask the video questions. You can ask questions if you have someone teach you.
You can have one-on-one training with a Divi enthusiast, and learn to create a website using Divi.
The answer to this question depends on who you talk to.
The Hosting Company is one of the most important choices you will need to make. It’s the second most important thing next to the domain name of the website.
This is where you will manage your website. Not the WordPress login to the live site but the back end of the website where it sits on the Hosting Company servers. Your website will be on a shared server, unless you’re a large operation and have a dedicated server for the website.
The Back End or cPanel, as it is named by some Hosting Companies, is not complex, but it is unfamiliar. Developers are at home in the cPanel because they deal with the FTP (file transfer protocol) and generally manage the back end of the website.
If you’re not familiar with FTP protocol, subdomain management, memory upgrade, and SSL certificate instillation… then you will need tech support.
If you like doing this yourself, you will be able to find your way around the Back End. Some Hosting Companies have customized this area and it is now easier to use to manage your website. If you run into a problem you don’t want to change or delete files in the database.
What you need is a Hosting Company with reliable tech support, and at all hours of the day and night. When something goes wrong you need to fix it as soon as possible. Downtime means loss of business and reputation. If you’re operating an online business this is what you don’t need.
How much web space does the Hosting Company provide? This ranges from 3 GB to 10 GB. Obviously 3 is less than 10, you do not want to be limited in the amount of web space and 3 GB is not sufficient space.
Website software is continuously upgraded, improved, and debugged. No software works perfectly all the time. But when you need to press the Update button you don’t want a server error message telling you there is insufficient memory to support the update of the Theme.
An outdated Theme and WordPress version is a website ready to be hacked!
Depending on the Hosting Company you’ll get variations. In some cases there will be an extra charge for tech support. In most cases though the tech support is built into the monthly amount with Hosting fees.
How do you know if the tech support is any good?
Ask around and people will tell you of their experience. Since Hosting Companies are essential to having a website, you’ll get instant feedback.
My recommendation is based on my use of their services. I’m so satisfied, I am part of their Affiliate program.
Excellent all round. If you need tech support, it’s there. Well designed back end easy to manage and access every aspect of your website. This is my affiliate link.
Website Software – WordPress
Professional Website – Premade Layout Pack
Website Theme Choice – the Divi Theme
Website Hosting – SiteGround
The website journey is like a roadmap, you have to follow the road to reach your destination. You can go cross-country, but the terrain is more difficult and you might not reach the desired destination. In this case your destination is a website. Soome of the links on this webpage are my affiliate links. I use their services and have no problem recommending them to you.
No one ever got anywhere without knowing where they were going. With the inside view, you’re now able to decide how you’re going to create your website.
