If you believe that your time is better spent in working with clients or networking with prospects, then a few dollars spent with a consultant that saves you hours of searching for answers is well worth it.  I’m also an expert in instruction online in using free and very low cost solutions to manage and market a small business.

There are business owners and managers who can tell you that the information I gave them saved them hundreds or thousands of dollars and a lot of time in getting their business operating efficiently and marketing on the Internet.

Email me now, or call me toll free at 866-289-8267 for help with your technology needs.  I’ll talk to you for 15 minutes at now charge to see if I can help you or steer you in the right direction.

Here’s how I charge for consulting, whether online collaboration or via telephone only.

My real estate WordPress blogging clients are quite happy with the fast-track startup of their WordPress blogs for real estate. They are working toward retiring old static websites that never performed as lead generators.

I’m not a programmer, coder, CSS manipulator, or any of those background software type consultants. I do sometimes dip into the code of WordPress for simple fixes or addons, but it is rare that it’s necessary.

WordPress, with thousands of themes and tens of thousands of plugins, is capable of doing just about anything you want with a website. And, it doesn’t have to look like a blog at all. However, taking advantage of the content management power of the WordPress platform, as well as the love of blogs that is demonstrated by the search engines, is why I believe it’s the only way to go for any consulting, real estate, mortgage or other professional.

My “WordPress How To” posts here will help anyone to get a great start on their blogging with WordPress. I consult for independence of my clients, using online screen collaboration and training so that they are able to chart their own course quickly, ending up with a highly successful blog in a few short months.

My main need was to be able to easily and quickly turn off time clocks for one client, while turning on another one for a different client.  Example:  I’m doing some WordPress setup work for a client, and another one calls me for a short consulting session.  With Platypus, I have an online screen with multiple clients all there.  It’s as easy as clicking the Stop button on one, while clicking the start button for another.  And, the clock is re-started when I hit Start again.

An added feature is that I can have multiple clocks (tasks) open for a client, so I can track different types of task times.  It’s a very simple program without the fancy billing and PayPal functions of the others, but it’s also only $5/month.  It will produce a simple invoice.  I just place a link in the invoice to a PayPal payment page on my business account.

This doesn’t work.  The power of blogging for attorneys, accountants, Realtors, and consultants of any kind is in the ability to show what you know by providing information your site visitors will value.  You position yourself as an expert in your subject matter by actually talking about it.  You don’t have to “give away the farm,” but you can give out a great deal of information that your visitors want and need.  And, they likely found you via a keyword search that brought them right to a blog post that answers their question.  You provided a service, and when they need more from you, you’ll hear from them.

So, what kind of content, or posts, do you want to write or commission for your blog?

• Take questions you get everyday from your customers or clients and make each question’s answer a specific blog post.  Again, you don’t need to give away your services, just give out information that will help them to realize that you know what you’re talking about.
• For attorneys, give basic broad answers to frequent questions you get in your area of specialty.  Do all the appropriate disclaimers and encourage the reader to contact you for more in-depth and personalized advice.
• For accountants, answer basic tax deduction questions broadly, explaining that most will vary depending on each person’s individual situation.  You’re giving them enough information to see that you are an expert, but encouraging direct contact for their specific situation.
• Real estate agents and brokers should write all about their area of practice.  Show that you know about the local neighborhoods.  Give a lot of statistical information and reports about market performance.  Don’t write the same old stuff seen on static websites, like how to make your kitchen show better.  You can do it if you want, but the statistics and pertinent information they won’t find just anywhere is better to illustrate your expertise.
• Consultants of any kind make their living giving advice and answering questions.  Do the same with your blog, and your site visitors will get a clear picture of your professional knowledge.  They will learn to respect your abilities, and will be more apt to contact you when they feel a need for your services.

In short, blogging for professionals is a bit like being published in trade or professional journals, only online and visible to the world.  Who knows, if you do it well, you may get mentioned in some of the presitgious print media’s online efforts.