The iAssistant is an AssistU trained virtual assistant who also writes instructional ebooks about WordPress plugins.
Archive for subscribers
The Easiest Way To Move A Blog
Posted by: | CommentsWhen I first started thinking about moving this blog to a new domain, I was really dreading it. I’m not that tech savvy, and in the past, moving my WordPress blogs have caused my sites to be down for several days. Since I sell two ebooks about plugins, Contact Form 7 and Subscribe2, on this site, I certainly didn’t want it to go down at all!
So, I started doing all the research ahead of time to ensure a smooth move. After purchasing Thesis and realizing it had quite a learning curve, I went to the DIY forum. I thought that migrating this blog to My WP Works, a Thesis site, might be harder than I thought.
Within a few minutes, pbarron on this thread, had answered my question. It was unbelievably easy! Just a few simple steps and all my blog posts and images were in place on the new domain.
To move the plugins, I went into my cpanel’s File Manager and copied and pasted them to the new domain. Many of them needed no setup at all, a few did. And some still don’t work. More on that later. I’m not sure how many of them I’ll need because Thesis has so many gadgets built into it.
My new site was up in seconds. I’m still amazed. There were a few glitches, like the permalinks. I couldn’t get them to work, but it was my own dizziness. I had set the permalink to custom: /%post-name%/. It should have been: /%postname%/. Once I did that, everything worked exactly as it should.
Don’t forget to go into Dashboard/Settings and change the General, Writing, Reading, and anything else that would be set up with a first-time installation. Otherwise, the information for the new blog will read for the previous one.
I’ve discovered my Contact Form 7 forms don’t work, but haven’t had time to investigate why. It seems that every Thesis page is a blog page with a place for comments. Maybe that’s why. I’ll get back to you on that.
My list of email subscribers in Subscribe2 didn’t move to the new domain, but there weren’t that many so I’ll transfer them manually. Any of you want to sign up? 
Bye for now, talk with you soon!
WP Plugins-How to Choose?
Posted by: | Comments
WordPress is a great CMS and enables newbies to have their own website with a few simple clicks. Then it gets complicated, because we always want to change and tweak and put our own unique style to our very own website. We change the theme and lose all our content. Or maybe it’s not lost, just misplaced, so we have to find it and put it where it’s supposed to be.
Anyone ever been there? That’s why I use WP themes from iThemes, their great tech support! I haven’t lost as much content since I’ve used their templates. And when I do, someone’s there to help me quickly find it and get my website back up.
But the biggy, the one WP modification we make, that can do more damage than anything else is a plugin installation. That’s because plugins are pieces of code, and once installed, they can “break” the code in your template. The only way to save your website is to delete the offending plugin. Some plugins are malicious and leave code on your website that can only be deleted by a professional.
Over the next year, I’m doing a series of blog posts about some of the more popular WordPress plugins, and I’ll include screen shots. One of the problems I’ve encountered with installing WP plugins is that after putting hours of research into getting the plugin installed and working correctly, it’s just not what I need, or it doesn’t fit well with the rest of my site, or it is just more trouble than it’s worth. So, I delete it and go looking for another.
With that in mind, my blog posts will be designed to ease your pain in your quest for that perfect WordPress plugin that will work symbiotically with your website and give you a site that builds your following and promotes your business!
Is there a WP plugin you’d like to know more about? Please leave that information in a comment on this post.
Stay tuned!
Can Subscribe2 format email newsletter templates?
Posted by: | CommentsThe mystery continues:
Can the Subscribe2 WordPress plugin be used to create custom newsletter templates?
Well, this is a hard question for me to answer because I’m not that good at code and I don’t understand much how things fit together. But maybe I can explain it in a way that other WordPress users on my level can understand the answer.
First, I’ll post what Matt, the plugin developer, had to say about the email newsletter templates:
Matt said, “If HTML tags are entered into the template and
‘’styled’ inline this will be included in the HTML emails.
So then, I asked, “Is this something that is done completely outside the plugin?”
His reply? “Yes and no!! I’ll bet that doesn’t help!”
He continues, “Styling is all about CSS or cascading style sheets. The W3Schools site is great at explaining it – far better than I’d manage but there are 3 ways you can incorporate styling:
It can be entered into the Subscribe2 templates but that is as far as support in Subscribe2 goes.”
So, I hope that helped all the non-nerd or the semi-nerds to understand how to create custom newsletter templates to use with the Subscribe2 WordPress email plugin. If you need help understanding the plugin, this comprehensive guide might help.
Subscribe2-One Time Email
Posted by: | CommentsA really great function of the Subscribe2 WordPress plugin is the ability to keep in touch with your subscribers by sending an occasional email full of useful, specific, targeted information they will use. Please don’t bombard them with emails that clutter their Inbox and offer nothing in return, they’ll unsubscribe!
This screenshot shows how easy it is to select all your subscribers or to target those who have subscribed to a specific category. For example, if I knew a nifty new way to use Subscribe2 to increase your membership lists, I could send an email to just my Subscribe2 email group. Or, if I wanted to send an idea for a new form to Contact Form 7 subscribers, I could select that email group.
For a simple, easy to use WordPress email subscription plugin, Subscribe2 is the best! And, if you have problems with the installation or configuration, take a look at the Subscribe2 Comprehensive Guide I wrote.
Coming Soon: I’m working on a video that will review several of the most popular WordPress social media plugins that will give you ideas how to use them on your website. I’ll keep you posted!
Subscribe2 WordPress Plugin
Posted by: | CommentsAbout a month ago, I wrote a 40 page guide to the Subscribe2 WordPress plugin, and I certainly learned a lot! They say that you never really know something until you can teach it to someone else. So true. As I explored Subscrib2, I discovered that the plugin can send a reminder email to any unconfirmed subscription requests. It can be used to send a one-time email to any and all of your subscribers.
Look how easy it is to manage your subscribers. 
You can enter new email addresses manually or import them from a .csv file. You can search all subscribers or just one category. The original date of signup is listed beside each subscriber, and you can bulk manage subscribers. All this on just one page!
If you want to learn more about the Subscribe2 plugin, visit Matt’s site. If you need help using the plugin, my handy guide can gives you everything you need to get it up and running.
