Google Analytics workshop will be Wednesday, September 29 at 6-8 pm at the Maine Grind. Amy Tellier-Briggs is our guest presenter talking Google Analytics.

To register: www.downeastlearning.evenbrite.com

You may now return to your regularly scheduled day, and sorry about the mix-up!

- Nicole

Google Analytics is a free (!) tool to track your website statistics. You can tell all kinds of cool things like where your website visitor is (well, more or less), how long they stay on your site, what they look at, and enough other information to make your head spin. But don’t worry, we’ll help you make all that data work for you! We may even have fun doing it.

This month’s guest presenter is Amy Tellier-Briggs. Amy has worked in online retail and web communications for over ten years, and is a current Google Analytics user. She recently attended a training session by a certified Google Analytics partner in Philadelphia, and is eager to share what she’s learned.  And here’s Amy’s workshop description:

“This is mainly a beginner’s class, covering setup, implementation, and a review of the various reports available from Google Analytics – that’s the “how.”

We’ll also delve a bit deeper into the “why,” through discussions on ways to use GA to benefit your business, insights on what to report on (and what not to), and what all that data can and should mean to you.

You’ll leave the session with a good amount of knowledge, and a whole lot of questions, but that’s what analytics is all about – asking the right questions and making sense of their answers. You’ll also be given a list of great analytics resources for further study.”

Sounds great to me, Amy. I’d be there even if I wasn’t helping run the show!

To sign up, visit www.downeastlearning.eventbrite.com. 25 slots only so register early!

If you’ve been meaning to learn a little more about email marketing, tomorrow night’s workshop is for you. We’re going to use the free web-based service MailChimp to create an online center for email sends. We’ll not only go over best practices but actually help you set things up so you are ready to go. Yup, we like to be helpful like that.

Wednesday, August 25, 6-8 pm
Maine Grind, Ellsworth Maine (upstairs- bring your own coffee/snacks as downstairs closes at 5:30)
Sign up at www.downeastlearning.eventbrite.com.

Hope to see you there!

Using the fantastic software MailChimp, learn how to import your contacts from your current email client (Gmail, Outlook, etc.), create an email template, create and send an email marketing campaign, and measuring the success of your campaign. Including how to integrate email newsletter setup into your website and social media accounts and how to create incentives for people to sign up.

Intro To Email Marketing
Wednesday, August 25
6-8 pm, Maine Grind, Ellsworth, ME

To sign up:

http://downeastlearning.eventbrite.com

Early Bird tickets available for a discount. Limited quantity so sign up soon!

Most of the time, our workshops are on a Wednesday night but sometimes, you just need a three hour chunk of time on a weekend to tackle a big topic.

Matt and I taught our very first class about using WordPress and we’ve decided to do it again since we got asked about it so much.

Saturday, July 24, 1-4 pm, Maine Grind in Ellsworth, Maine

Before the workshop, Matt and I will get WordPress installed on the domain of your choice. This way, the day of the workshop, we can concentrate on building the website you want.

(Matt’s company Svaha is offering a domain name and year of web hosting for $50 for workshop participants. We’ll send you the code when you register… in other words, $100 and an afternoon of work and you can have a website. No excuses now!)

The main goal of this workshop is to help participants create a website or blog using the free & open source website management software WordPress. (www.wordpress.org) We like WordPress because it’s got a lot of functionality built in, is customizable, and can grow as your website grows.

The first two hours will give an introduction to the software, including installation and using basic plug-ins to create the website you want. We each have our favorite plugins and we’ll show you where you can find many more to help make your website work for you.

The third hour will be free time to work on your website. This time will also be used to address specific questions from participants, including how to create content and promote your site using internet marketing (social media, blogging, etc.)

Now you don’t get to sit back and relax. This is a work session (but, you know, a fun one.) It is recommended that participants come to the workshop with:

1) Content for their website (text, photos, video, etc.). Trust me, you’ll be taking in so much technology information at the workshop that the last thing you’ll feel like doing is generating an FAQ or writing employee bios on the spot.

2) Registered domain name and website hosting so their website. Cost for the workshop does not including the purchase of your domain name and web hosting. Special package through Svaha LLC will be $50 which includes domain name registration and web hosting for one year.*

3) A laptop/computer (Please let us know if you don’t have one and we’ll try to provide one.)

To register: www.downeastlearning.eventbrite.com

*Once users sign up for the workshop, they’ll receive an email with instructions on how to redeem their domain name and web hosting for one year with Svaha LLC.

Matt and I hope to see you there! And if you have questions, please leave a comment below, because I bet other people have your exact same question!

-Nicole

You know your business can benefit from Facebook. It’s easy to set up a basic page but now what?

In this workshop, learn how to:

- post content so it’s eye-catching (you can customize the thumbnails and writing displayed when you post a web link for example)
- engage your visitors
- change display settings and personalize the look of the page (get rid of those tabs you don’t use, etc.)
- use FBML to add a bit of HTML code to a page, like subscribing to an email newsletter or adding an image
- use “Insights” (Facebook stats) to learn about your fans
- add functionality with applications

and more!

If you have any topics or Facebook questions you want us to cover, comment below or contact us. You can also register for the workshop by clicking here. Only 25 slots so register now if you want to go!

The next workshop will be about how to get your website to be more search engine friendly.

Search Engine Optimization, Wednesday, May 26, 6-8 pm, Maine Grind

Participants will learn how to:

• get inbound links to their website
• do keyword research to improve website copy
• aspects of a website design that can make it more search engine friendly
• evaluate how/if search engine strategies are working once implemented

Matt and Nicole have quite a rocking agenda. To register, visit: http://onedayworkshop.eventbrite.com/

Thank you so much for coming to our first workshop on Saturday. We had a good time and are just sorry we ran out of it!

This is a monster email. Here is it divided into three parts:

1) Overview of what we didn’t get into at the Workshop
2) Support after the workshop
3) Upcoming Workshops

1) Things we didn’t get to.

Here are the major things we wanted you to know before you left. We just decided to make blog posts so we could put in as many screen shots, etc. as we wanted:

• Making one of your pages the front page of your site – http://downeastlearning.com/wordpress/setting-one-of-your-wordpress-pages-as-your-front-page/
• Using Widgets to Display Content- http://downeastlearning.com/wordpress/using-widgets-on-your-site/
• Putting Google Analytics On Your Website - http://downeastlearning.com/wordpress/adding-google-analytics-to-the-google-analytics-for-wordpress-plugin/
• Backups – http://downeastlearning.com/wordpress/wordpress-database-backup-plugin/

Upcoming topics we will address include:

• Backup Part 2 – Backing up your site file
• Making your contact form even cooler
• Security
• Other cool plugins
• and more! (We just wanted to make sure we emailed you the major stuff right now.)

2) Support after the workshop

Matt and I want to make sure you get your website off the ground. We are offering you one free hour of tech support with either of us. We can do this in person (if you happen to get to Bar Harbor or Ellsworth), over the phone, or over the computer. Just contact us when you are ready to schedule your hour:

As far as personal availability:

You also (if you haven’t already) will recieve an invitation to the Downeast WordPress Users Group mailing list. You can also sign up via our site at http://downeastlearning.com/downeast-wordpress-users-group/. If you have a question, ask the group. Think of it as free tech support and a way to keep in touch; no doubt we’ve all bonded after having to learn website software together.

Matt and I will also try to keep the workshop website up-to-date on new stuff we find: downeastlearning.com.

In short, we’re not leaving you high and dry but instead, hope we’ve empowered you to work on your site and help each other out.

3) Upcoming Workshops

A few people have expressed an interest in additional workshops. The good news is Matt and I are both committed to doing this regularly, though we both have other skills and interests besides WordPress. Really.

The next workshop will be about how to get your website to be more search engine friendly. We are also taking requests; if you have a topic that you want to learn more about, email Matt or Nicole and we’ll put it on the list. (Thanks to those of you who turned in evaluations after the workshop – they really help.)

Search Engine Optimization, Wednesday, May 12, 6-8 pm, Location TBA

This workshop will help you earn about how you can make your site more search friendly. We will show you how to create inbound links, find good keywords to use on your website, and use social media and your other online presences to get traffic to your site. Bring your computers as this will be both a learning seminar and a work session.

Matt and I are going to create a ‘Downeast Learning’ contacts mailing list that we will be adding you to it for occasional announcements etc. If you want to opt out, just let us know.

Again thank you so much for coming to our workshop. It was nice to meet you, and as your building your sites, don’t forget to share your links so we can all check out your good work.

Talk to you soon,
Nicole & Matt

Here’s how you can do it. It involves two steps: 1) Getting the code. and 2) Adding the code to the plugin.

1) Instructions for Getting The Google Analytics Code

Go to Google Analytics. http://www.google.com/analytics
If you do not have a Google account, click Sign Up Now, to the left of the sign-in box. This will take you to a page where you can sign up for a Google account. If you have a Google account, use your email address and password to sign in.
Click the Sign Up button to continue.
In the next window, provide Google with the URL of the site you wish to analyze. (www.yourdomain.com)
Give the site an account name that is easy to remember. (For example, Your Website Name)
Select your country then select your time zone.
Click Continue.
In the next window, provide your contact information.
Click Continue.
In the next window, read the Google Analytics terms of service. If you agree with them, click the Yes box.
Click Create New Account.
Google will provide you with a block of code and a number. Save that number, you’ll need it in a bit!

2) Adding the code to the plug-in.

Click on Plugins, then when you see “Google Analytics for WordPress”, click ‘Settings’:

Put your number in here. The plugin adds the code to your pages. This may seem like no big deal now but when you have all this juicy data in a few months, you'll be a happy camper.

Put the number Google gave you in that box and click ‘Save’.

Once on your website, Google Analytics will provide you with a lot of information. To have a short guided tour, http://www.google.com/analytics/tour.html or there are lots of Youtube videos about how to use/read Google Analytics.

If you click on Widgets, you can literally drag the elements you want into your sidebar:

Almost like magic, you can click on the widget and move it into the sidebar.

Look at your page. There it is!

Tada!

You can remove them just as easily. Just drag back into the box of widgets:

Drag the widget you no longer want back into the main pile of other unplaced widgets...

And look, it’s gone:

Like magic, you have made them disappear.

You can drag elements also above or below each other on the sidebar and see how they look on your site.