Tips Tuesday – Networking Pays, AVIF Images, VPN and Dedicated IP

Happy birthday to me!!! Yes, it’s my birthday and I’m celebrating with you!!!

And, I’ve had a pretty exciting week leading up to today as well. Let me tell you what’s going on.

Tips this week include:

• The EZ Metrix webinar was a hit!
• Networking opportunities paying off
• Meeting people IRL is fun
• Meeting online is fun too
• Why I’m putting multiple business under one umbrella
• Making a new online profile page
• Second Facebook profile was a no-go
• Find a way to get active with people
• Be sure you keep getting Tips Tuesday reminders
• What’s new in WordPress 6.6
• AVIF image update
• Why to get a VPN and Dedicated IP and how to use it

This post may contain affiliate links. Thank you for using them to support the free and helpful info you get from BlogAid.

BlogAid Happenings

The EZ Metrix Webinar Was a Hit!

Thank you to everyone who registered for the EZ Metrix webinar last week.

And thanks for all the great questions from those who attended live too. We had a lot of fun.

I was delighted to see so many folks took advantage of the extremely discounted rate even before the webinar was over.

For folks who already look at their metrix regularly, it was super clear to them how much faster and easier they could do it. That means cutting down a 1-2 hour chore into 15 minutes they can do just once a week.

And for those who only look at their vanity metrics of top hits, they learned how those metrics are lying to them, and all the actual money they are missing out on.

The discount is still running and you can get in on the big savings too.

Visit eCreatorsHub and get EZ Metrix now.

Networking Opportunities Paying Off

A few Tips Tuesdays ago I asked you what you would do if Google didn’t exist.

Well, I’m doing it.

Last week I attended 2 networking events.

Meeting People IRL is Fun

The first event was local and it was a blast. I forgot how much I enjoyed being a mixer.

I could tell there were some folks who were out of their comfort zone there and I made a point to speak with them. Here’s the thing about just walking up to folks and speaking with them. Even if you don’t feel like you’re much of a conversationalist, just ask someone what they do. They’ll take it from there. Folks love talking about themselves.

I met so many interesting people that do such fun things here. And I delighted in doing for them what I do for my own clients – hooking them up with opportunities by introducing folks to one another at the event or giving them ideas for how to expand on what they do to reach more people.

I look forward to seeing these folks again next month and learning more about them and their business. And then getting to meet new folks that I didn’t get a chance to speak with in the time I had to spend there, or folks who were not able to attend.

Meeting Online is Fun Too

The second event was online, and of course that has to be more of a serial conversation instead of folks splitting off into little groups and then mixing around.

There were a bunch of great folks who mostly live within an hour around this area. I appreciated that we could meet without having to drive to a central location for everyone.

Two folks in the group were able to start chatting about a joint venture.

I also got some new ideas for my biz too. And it’s always invigorating to have fresh ideas.

Multiple Businesses Under One Umbrella

Attending these events made me aware that I need to make some changes with my own businesses and the way folks can connect with me given the variety of help I can provide.

One of the issues I faced when creating yet another business for eCreators Hub was that it will be an agency, and I won’t be the only one providing training, products, and services.

So I wanted to make it faceless.

However, I didn’t want to incur the extra expense of a separate phone line to get another PayPal account, or the expense of another Workspace account.

Each user on a Workspace account can only have one logo/avatar for all alias emails. I could get another User, but that is another expense.

Same with PayPal, each account can only have one business name and they require a different phone number where they can send a text message for verification. I could add a second number to my phone, but again, another expense.

I didn’t mind everything from AI Discover Hub being associated with BlogAid for those things, as I was the only person providing the info and training.

But with eCreators Hub, I really did want to keep it completely faceless.

So, I had to make a choice, and this is what I decided to do.

I’m making BlogAid a family of companies. 

On the other site’s purchase pages, I let folks know that their receipts would be coming from BlogAid. Plus I put info on the About pages of the other sites to clarify it too. 

But, I think my face on the email avatar would still be less confusing than a BlogAid logo for all those receipt emails and such.

Plus, it’s going to be a lot easier for me to get emails and payments in one place too.

What do you think? Would this setup confuse you if you came to eCreators Hub without knowing me first?

Making a New Online Profile Page

At the live events I alsoI discovered that most folks don’t do business cards anymore either. 

They prefer scanning a QR code that links to a webpage.

You don’t need a 3rd party service like LinkTree for this. 

On BlogAid, I decided to create a profile page that looks a lot like the kind you find on About.me.

And I made a QR code with Bit.ly for folks to scan and go to the link for it.

And let me tell you, I’m thrilled that I switched my sites to Kadence because they have so many built in page sizes and settings for them, plus Patterns to use, that I could make this new page look just how I wanted to, without a header or footer from the site, or much of anything that made it look like it was on BlogAid.

Second Facebook Profile Was a No-Go

I also learned that many of the folks like following you on social media, namely Facebook because these events came out of Facebook groups.

I keep most posts on my personal profile just for friends to see.

But, I’m in all these groups under that profile.

So, I tried to create a second profile to use just for business related things, like groups, especially since most groups don’t allow Pages to join.

But, I discovered that not everyone’s account has the ability to create additional profiles. I could understand that if they were just now rolling out that option, but it’s been nearly a year, I think. So, I’m guessing I’ll never get it.

Darn! That would have been helpful.

I thought about making a page for myself, but a lot of groups don’t allow pages to join. And I already have pages for my businesses and I don’t want to replicate content to another page that would have a mix of stuff on it.

I’m all ears if you have any ideas on how to best do this.

Got Some Gigs

At the live event I connected with the person in charge of outreach and media for the local Chamber of Commerce.

She wants me to speak to them about some of the things I do, like AI and cyber security for sites.

A realtor I met is super interested in another thing I dove into a bit when I was doing AI video, but stopped to let the tech catch up with the full range of what I had in mind. It’s there now and she is all ears.

At the online event, the host was having technical issues, which I was able to help her fix. And I got 3 more connections of folks who need help from that event too.

I wasn’t pitching. I was just being helpful. And when you have answers and ideas that people need, they tend to come for more.

Find a Way to Get Active with People

I’m not kidding when I said to forget Google and seek other ways to connect.

Look for opportunities to engage with people directly.

That can be through your own newsletter list, Facebook groups, Reddit, live networking, MeetUps, and more.

I met several folks in both events last week that said they pushed themselves to get out of their comfort zone and do the event. 

They did great!!!!!!!

You can too!!!!

Ensure You Keep Getting Tips Tuesday Reminders

Before we move into this week’s tips, I want to clear up something for everyone.

As I mentioned last month, I’ll be halting the paid Plus version of Tips Tuesday later this fall.

I sent all members an email reminder about it last week too.

But the regular Tips Tuesday will keep going.

Be sure that you’re subscribed via BlogAid News to get a reminder email sent every week with a link to the post.

And I also send important news tips, like security news, or special discounts to that list as well.

WordPress Tips

What’s New in WordPress 6.6

NOTE: We will not be updating to WP 6.6 yet. But you can get your sneak peek at what’s new now.

I’m tickled about several of the new features that will be available in WP 6.6, especially the Synced Patterns Override feature.

Negative Margins are going to give us some super snazzy layout choices too.

And finally, there is an easy way to move a bunch of blocks into a Group block.

And there are several important core code changes that will impact devs and designers too.

See What’s New in WordPress 6.6 for all exciting features.

I’ll be sending special update instructions to my site audit Hub clients and Webmaster Training members when I feel it is safe for us to update.

Image Tips

AVIF Image Update

I was very excited to see WP 6.5 support the AVIF image format.

It’s the crispiest optimization yet, and boy, does it ever reduce the file size!

But, there are a couple of gotchas that are cropping up with it.

Google Search may or may not support AVIF. I’ve seen folks say that it doesn’t, but I’ve also seen folks say they have started to see them crop up on Search in the last few months.

But, we do know for sure that Pinterest is mostly not supporting the AVIF format.

I say mostly because just clicking an image to share it, or clicking its pin share button will result in an error. But, if you right click the image, you can share it to Pinterest. 

I don’t think we can count on site visitors doing all of that, though.

So, my recommendation is to use MozJpeg or OxiPNG from Squoosh for your main image, including your Featured Image and tower image for Pinterest sharing, if they are not the same image.

And then use AVIF for the rest of your images, which you can also make in Squoosh or the Pixillion image optimizer software from NCH if you want to do bulk image optimization locally.

Security Tips

VPN and Dedicated IP

In a recent Tips Tuesday I mentioned why you need to whitelist your IP at Cloudflare and exclude it in GA4.

I also mentioned why you will want to get a VPN with a Dedicated/Static IP if yours rotates all the time. This is especially true if you’re using wifi.

And I mentioned that you only want to use your Dedicated/Static IP when logging into your site, but I didn’t explain why.

There is a reason your home router’s IP changes now and then – it’s for better security.

Your IP is recorded on every site you visit, even if you reject cookie tracking. So, having your IP rotate gives you some security protection, among other things.

And that’s also why you need to reserve your Dedicated/Static IP for only your site.

You can use the VPN’s other IPs for regular browsing, if you like, especially if you are traveling as you don’t want to use free wifi from anywhere other than your home.

I select one of the IPs on my VPN to see sites I’m working on as if I’m in other parts of the country. That allows me to pull the site from a different Cloudflare mirrored location so I can if it has fully purged, and so that I don’t get a cached version.

I’ve also updated my post on How to Find and Whitelist Your IP in Cloudflare with this info as well as a link to the VPN that my clients and I use, which is Private Internet Access.