Contest is over. Congratulations Carlos!! (Entered on 10/24/2012 at 12:03am – had to clarify because there were two people named Carlos) Random.org chose your comment number and you won the contest! (For the record, I did not count multiple replies and those that did not follow the instructions. ) Thanks everyone for entering. 🙂
I love giveaways and promise to do more things like this on my blog in the near future.
As you may already know, I am using the Genesis Lifestyle Theme on this blog now.
I had been using it on other projects for awhile and was so happy with it, I decided to switch all my sites over to this theme.
Genesis is one of the most popular, premium themes today because it’s coded well (very clean), has a fair amount of customizations (including various column layouts), looks crisp and loads quickly.
The support is also superb, and they provide a useful getting-started guide if you’re new to WordPress and/or Genesis themes.
You can watch me customize the Genesis Lifestyle child theme in the video below…
Now, I’m going to give YOU the chance to win the Genesis theme and a child theme of your choice – an $80 value! (Of course, if you already own Genesis then you can still win a child theme of your choice.)
How to Win
Let’s make this easy. To enter, simply reply to this post. (If you’re reading this via email, click here to reply. Please do not reply via email.)
Tell me one thing you’d do differently if you could start your blog over today. And if you haven’t started your blog yet, tell me your biggest challenge with getting started so far.
I will use Random.org to choose a number. The comment number that corresponds to what I draw will be declared the winner. Be sure your email is correct (won’t be displayed) so I can send you the theme files if you win.
Contest ends Tuesday, October 30th at 11:59pm CT. Good luck!
Rules & Terms
- No purchase necessary to enter or win (I will purchase the theme for the winner)
- Only one entry per person (additional entries will be deleted and I will be checking emails and IP’s)
- One winner will be chosen using Random.org
- Contest ends Tuesday, October 30th at 11:59pm CT
- Entries that don’t follow the rules and requirements will be voided/removed
You should have another giveaway ASAP 🙂
I’m having one now. You must not have checked the latest posts. 🙂
Really Missed an awesome Giveaway! If i want to start a blog i will select a Great Domain and a Good Web Hosting Service because domain is the center of internet identity. Later on we can concentrate on design and other things 🙂
Although the time is over to reply this blog post, but I will do these two things differently:
1-I will chose blog name very carefully.
2-I will give considerable time to design a blog and try it to be completed at the time of launch.
Hello Lisa,
Thank you for allowing us to share what we would do differently.
1) I would have done more research on the differences between a static website vs. a blog. I did not understand the differences and when I designed my first web. I used the blogging format and I was confused when all of the new content I posted kept moving instead of staying in one place. It wasn’t until I watched your video on how to make the switch did I understand why I was having that problem.
2) I would have bought a book or a guide instead of solely relying on the internet. When people talk about WordPress they make it seem like it’s a magic wand and all you have to do is say poof and the site is done. There is a lot more to it than that.
3) My first site I tried to create using the free theme, but I wanted it to have a flashing header, pictures moving in and out and I didn’t understand how ANY of that worked. I thought you just plug and go. I spent almost a week trying to figure out how to make a header. I was doing it by going to forums but I didn’t realize it would take longer than a few days.
4) I would have planned my content more effectively. I would have tried to make sure that I set ups some type of free content so people would come to my site for more than just info about my summer camp.
5) I would have read the manual. I mean, I really didn’t read much of anything before I started.
6) I would have planned more time. I thought it was like a blog where you can just punch and go. I didn’t know that websites required time.
Thanks for your guides. If you look at my current site I am not using wordpress right now. I am still working behind the scenes with Instant WP. I just needed to keep something up so I can be presentable.
our offer is indeed a great bonus for some
I use the Thesis theme and find the Genesis Framework which I also have in my dashboard far more limited in its customisation possibilities
First you need to understand html far more with Genesis
Though I must admit it is better than a free WordPress tgheme
Hi Lisa,
I have been a big fan of your website, blog and forum. I would love to get this genesis forum on my website. Thanks for being so generous. And keep up the good work .
When will you do next contest?
Hey Lisa and her readers,
I just recently started blogging about my experiences building niche websites. From building these site, I would have to conclude that wishing to have done things differently in the past is denying the fact that every mistake and every piece of bad judgment are part of something bigger. The time it took me to get my first three sites ready to generate steady income was about half a year, while the last site was making sales within two weeks. There is only one way to find out what works, and what doesn’t. That way is trying everything.
Only recently I have given up spending my time on building static websites and now I only write articles for living discussions, blogs and informative purposes. My goal isn’t to have my blog looking neat or making money anytime soon, and I don’t intend to read about what sells or what SEO works and what doesn’t. I know that starting from scratch and looking at the reaction you get from every action you take will teach me how manage a stable and interactive blog on the long term.
Please tell me what you think about this, and if you think there is a way to incorporate other peoples methods (which can be the only way to go if you resent your own methods in the past) without losing authenticity that you need to be able to run your OWN blog or site.
Yours,
René
Hi all,
Talking about Studiopress Child Themes – I have a question. Can anyone who has a lot of experience with their child themes help me please? Studiopress support may be very good if you are an experienced developer. I own the Lifestyle, Associate and Agency themes. Can anybody who has experience with their range of themes advise me which would be – in general – more “user friendly” for absolute newbies like me? Studiopress used to be very good a year ago as their moderators would actually tell you and send you a copy and paste of how to fix anything. Nowdays they don’t and it seems as though they have decided to give cryptic answers and make you go and look for the info.
Maybe they dont want to grow their market of newbies? Wish I had that luxury. Sorry Lisa – just venting – youre the best!:-)
My choice is Lifestyle 🙂 It’s more friendly and much easy to use. But it depends on your niche too. If you are running a health website, Lifestyle is definitely my top recommendation. However, if you want to build a business website, I suggest using Agency.
I own Lifestyle, Agency and Associate. I like Lifestyle too but I think that some of the newer child themes might be slightly easier to customize. Someone told me that Agency was difficult to customize:-)
My problem is that I don’t know enough to know what to look for and I’m still trying to “digest” the basics of HTML and CSS!
This i8s going to be a site marketing hiking/walking tours in Europe.
Hi Lisa and thanks for this contest that I hope to win!
I work on website for over 10 years and today I discovered your site that I liked a lot and definitely will visit often. In the life never stop learning and on the web this is very true!
Hi Rino
As stated at the top, the contest is over. Hopefully you can enter next time! 🙂
I was sure that I would win this one 😉
Congratulation to Carlos
Thomas if you was sure you would win, me, I thought I had won…
Anyways, that’s the way it is….
Congrats namesake !!
You came close. You had the right name, wrong comment number. LOL!
LOL, maybe next time. 🙂
I bought the whole suite of themes for their bundled price and I am very happy with them. I do actually use 4-5 different ones on various project sites right now but I will probably do the same thing as you, which makes it a bit faster to set up and admin because they are, well all the same.
I do recommend anyone looking for a high quality theme to check it out!
I think i will first keep it down on the craze to get things up and running online without the necessary sensibilities because i have realised that content and traffic for profitability is very important. It is also good to have a mentor like you too to help one bypass some foolish things. My frustration at the moment is that i want to learn how to build my site from scratch but it has been very encumbering. Not giving up though
If I would start my blog all over again I would buy a domain name from another site but will still use HostGator as my web host. Then I would get all the tips from you Lisa to guide me in my quest to be a famous blogger just like you!
I would start with a design I love, on WordPress, with some knowledge of SEO.
if i could start my blog over today, i would start it with the “wordpress” platform, instead of “blogger”. wordpress is more customizable and lookes more professional.
The one thing I would do differently is to host my blog not use the “free” hosting services of Blogger and WordPress.com . That’s because as great as it sounds to have everything for free somethings are just worth paying for and a host account is one of those things. The freedom you have to promote your blog as well as the ability to use any add ins you may want to are both possible when you host your blog on a paid provider. So considering the low cost of many of the hosting providers out there don’t try to save those few dollars and you won’t be sorry.
I would love to have a big list of good blogs to get started.
But one of the most important things to do, is just to start writing.
You will learn by writing. You’re content will get better with time.
I would focus on getting the blog going on WordPress before integrating it with other systems. And have plenty of posts before moving on.
In the process of switching this older wp version to studiopress / agentpress theme (just have to import my existing pages/posts to http://bocaratonrealestate.isabellascott.com), and add some more to content (my problem is I don’t post consistently and make them too long (which is why I am not consistent :). So far this is luxury market focused but I know I should set up niches, – so I guess that is what I need to focus on after I get this one running, and therefore set up some more sites! I also did like the lifestyle theme when I was reviewing the child themes.
I haven’t started a blog yet.
I”m still having a hard time choosing a topic and sticking with it.
I keep deciding, writing posts, and thinking it’s not good enough and trying again.
Trying a lot of SEO stuff and link building to get my website visits higher. However, the site pages are not 100 percent finished yet.
I’ll choose a different cms, and a more serious hosting company!!
Good Afternon Lisa!
What I would do differently is to take my time about learning how to design various WordPress sites. Listen to great gurus such as you Lisa. Make it a point to put my work site out there so people will know about it.
Hi Lovely Lisa,
My first website blog is still under construction.
I could be a bit more patient, realise I do not need to get it right straight away.
Watch, read, learn make mistakes (the best way to learn). And enjoy the Learning curve.
Spend some time to find out what I really enjoy doing – cos it not just about the money
have just discovered your vid with the Letter form JR- hit home, good timing for me.
Fingers Crossed….
Hi Lisa,
I don’t have any website yet but of course, I’m planning to have one in the not so far future…
Hmmm… I think the biggest challenge that I will have is to know how to create great contents that would provide the correct value for people. Because I always believe that if the value that you present to people is equal to the value that they’re looking for, you can make them do anything… you don’t have to constantly push them in your Most Wanted Response 🙂
Great contest, Lisa
I think my reason for start my blog is i feel interest about passive income. I am focusing on affiliate marketing, and result is good 🙂
Great question and contest Lisa,
I am actually just about to start my blog so this couldn’t have come at a better time. Focusing on a tight niche is what I intend to do differently this time around. We all have this fear that if we niche too tightly, we won’t have anything to talk about it. It’s ironic that a tight niche is what actually gives you the opportunity to branch out down the road…
I would probably have more static info from the word go (isuue just addressed:) ).
Probably I would go for a mostly static home page as well, as opposed to the standard blogging homepage I have now.
I would have spend more time on the design and content strategy of my website. I am planning a major redesign in th enext few months that will address that issue.
Hey Lisa, I am officially addicted to the Lifestyle theme, you know it, girl 🙂
What would I do differently?! I would focus more on step by step basics without trying too many new things at the same time. I wasted a lot of time in the process because of that (although I blame the fact that I am totally ADHD). I would focus on what I know works (and I knew it then, I just could not focus on anything). Starting from zero, following steps that we know work, focusing on one niche at the time – that is what I would do differently!
Hi Lisa
I low contests too and will love to win the Genesis theme. If I should start my blog over today I would get a better domain name with some good keywords and I would get a .net or a .com domain. Today I have a .dk (Denmark) domain and that is not the smartest thing when I want global traffic. I know I can still make the change, but it seems a bit scary to make the move for a new domain.
cool twiter links as well
I would love to have a copy of genesis to work woth. Like it and nice layouts as well
Thanks for this great contest Lisa!
The things that I would do differently if starting over would definitely be to use wordpress.org rather than .com It is actually really frustrating because I did lots of research and I paid for my domain name, but I hadn’t realised that there were two different companies. I am now in the process of transferring. But this was mainly a test blog so it’s a great learning curve. This also had an adverse affect on my consistency when I realized my mistake, I lost interest slightly and began focusing on my new site that I am building with SBI (thank you again Lisa!) but all is well.
Good luck everyone!
😉
Hi,
Its a win win contest and i love the theme concept that you are going to provide. Its so much fun being a part of it. Its innovative to know about it.:)
If i had to start today I would like to design a copyright theme for my blog and use it differently for different posts. It would be so different in my opinion. I would even sell it to the people who add maximum to my traffic. 🙂
I’m an absolute novice at coding with next to no knowledge of HTML at all. Your video presents a fairly simply process on how I can use Genesis. Will you do more in the future or is this a one-off? Either way, I’m bookmarking your page and maybe try to win that Genesis theme. 🙂
I’m in the process of (re)starting my personal blog. I’ve been using Thesis theme for years, but with the 2.0 version I’m really disappointed. Might give Genesis a go. Anyhow, what I’d change or will change is better permalink structure and better usage of keywords.
Thank you a ton !
Hmm – can’t resist entering – there are a number of things I’d change if I could start over.
For starters, I wish I hadn’t started off in the “link building” and article-spinning circles like I did (though it worked, it was temporary thanks to Penguin); I still have a load of content out there promoting methods that Google has adapted to and would like to start “clean.”
Another thing I’d do much differently: focus on lead capture and email marketing. It’s Google-proof and I still don’t do that very well – mostly because of the changes in Google and what my content in my auto-responder was promoting (old SEO methods that could cause penalties): so now I’m at a stand-still with my list.
Since I’m bad at math, I’ll add a third point of what I’d change: the SEO on my blog. It’s terrible, ironically – but I learned a ton being in this industry. Now I’m too lazy to change it (shame on me).
Can I add a 4th? I’d switch to the Genesis theme in a heartbeat – but again here it’s hard to change, the theme I’m using has a lot of style code that wouldn’t render in any other theme: so changing is daunting.
I would add a 5th along the lines of “keeping a B2B service” running, because generating leads doesn’t happen overnight – but I won’t do that. 🙂
I have not started a blog yet. The biggest challenge is creating my website.
I would have done more planning. I would have carefully decided exactly what audience I would be targeting, why that audience wants to read my blog and how my blog is different from every other blog out there on the internet. I would have also defined a clear picture of what I wanted my site to grow into, and defined my blog based on an AUDIENCE, not a TOPIC. If I had defined all this beforehand, I wouldn’t have had to waste time developing it as I went along.
I would use a quality theme and write quality articles about my passion using a combination of static and blog pages/posts.
That FIRST step, That GIANT step, that DECIDING leap into ACTION ! That is what bothers me. You know, I own 17 domains, both general and product specific (killed now by Google EMD), which still lie ‘undeveloped’ or ‘under developed’. My pocket has a hole, LOL !
I would not have tried to build traffic and content for both a blog AND a static website…at the same time.
Quite simple,
I would have used the Genesis theme from day one..Doh
If I could start over one of my other blogs (htcwildfiresblog) I would have built an email list, not just a feedburner list…I got hit by the Google EMD update although I have backlinks from amazon, youtube, wikipedia etc. and my traffic has dropped significantly although my feedburner subscriber list is helping me generate a small revenue still.
Hello Lisa
Thank you for such a generous offer. I have a site, but I am not happy with it. There are some errors that I made on it and I do not know how to fix them. I would love a site like yours, but of course what we write is totally different. I should hire someone to help me…
Again, Lisa thank you for your kind heart.
My biggest challenge, which I’m still struggling with, is figuring out a clear branding for my blog that isn’t the same as so many others and still addresses the needs of my market. I can’t really focus on blogging if I don’t have my target market and their needs pinned down.