The Techy Stuff Tutorials

Notes On Getting Hosting

Getting hosting is the second thing you’ll need when creating your online business.

Hosting is what your server is and your server holds all the files for your website. Your domain name sites on your server and when people visit it they see your website.

So if a domain name is your house then hosting is like the land your house sits on so people can come visit you.

A little confusing I know, but once you understand a little how things work this stuff will become really easy. 🙂

I’ve decided to help you understand more about hosting, where to get it from, how to get it setup, etc. that I would create this post here on the blog so that I can answer your questions about hosting.

If you have questions about hosting make sure and leave them below. I’ll answer them here and create any tutorials that you may need to learn from.

I look forward to helping you with all your hosting questions. 🙂

Liz

Hosting Questions And Answers

Q1. I’m starting an online business. I have a domain name. Where should I get hosting for it?

A1: The one I’ve used for years is Liquid Web. I recommend that you spend the $50 (at the time of this being written) a month on the VPS 2GB Plan. This will give you a WHM (web host manager) where you can add as many domain names as you want. Yes, you can get cheaper hosting, but why build your business on something that may or may not work for you. It’s a business and you need to treat it like one.

NOTE: I’ve done a video tutorial showing you how my hosting works and why I recommend it. You REALLY need to get hosting that comes with a web host manager and in this video you’ll see why!

The Techy Stuff Tutorials

Sorry… Your Email Is Dead!

I made a discovery the other day about emails…

You know how sometimes you go to a page and it wont accept your email address or you never get an email after subscribing? Well it might not be an issue with the page or the email service they’re using.

It might be…

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!

Here’s what I’m talking about…

I recently created a squeeze page from something I’ll be telling you about soon 😉

I started sending some of my Facebook group people to it and people started having issues. Many couldn’t subscribe or if they could my confirmation message was going to their SPAM folder.

Initially we thought this was an issue with Optimize Press, but after some back in forth and looking at log files (yeah I had to get super techy with this issue) we found that Aweber was blocking certain email address.

Very few were for absolutely NO reason, but many were from what they call “role based emails”.

Note: Here’s the page from Aweber that talks about this https://help.aweber.com/hc/en-us/articles/204029356-Why-is-my-email-address-blocked-

Emails like this…

admin@
orders@
payments@
press@
sales@
support@
webmaster@

So, if you’re using an email address on your domain then many autoresponders are blocking these.

Now I know on my side there are many things I can do to ensure my emails end up in your inbox, but if you really want my emails or the emails of others that you subscribe to then you need to make sure you’re using a good email address.

AOL, hotmail, Outlook, and yahoo emails are also emails that are getting blocked by Aweber and other email services.

My best advice?

No clue as of right now. 🙂

I’m going back and forth with Aweber right now on figuring all of this out, and will update you as soon as I have a concrete answer, but I wanted to bring this information to you RIGHT NOW so you have a heads up of some problems that you might have in actually getting email. I know it’s a lot of you because you’re always on the helpdesk saying you didn’t get this email or that email.

Aweber is supposed to get back with me with an answer on Monday and then I can give you more details… Until then…

If you’re using domain name email make sure you’re not using one of the mentioned roles emails. Use something like YourName@YourDomain.com

If you use one of the mentiioned services then I recommend you stand by until Aweber tells me what to tell YOU guys. 😉

Talk soon!

Liz

Day 4 – 90 Day Facebook Live Challenge

On day 4 we took this show on the road, and I got mobile! One of the things I want to do in this Challenge is make sure that I’m totally mobile. Mainly so I have ZERO excuses to NOT make it my 90 days! 😉

Today we talked about focus! Specifically MAKING yourself do the work and staying focused on building your online business. JUST ONE to get you started. I gave some tips and even talked about my own struggle with focus and what I do to pull myself back in.

And here’s the replay of the Day 4!

Content Marketing, The Techy Stuff Tutorials, Website Traffic

How I Post To ALL My Social Media Accounts

The other day I did a video showing you my first step on my journey to automate my social media posting.

Until the last few months I’ve been VERY anti social media software. I still am for the most part, but there are a few tools out there that are reputable and actually work.

Listen… You’ve got to be super careful what software you’re using to post to your social media accounts. If the developer/owner isn’t 100% following the rules for EACH of the social media sites they post to your posts may never get seen and you could even lose your account.

So I’ve preached and preached to stay away from them… PERIOD!

However I know a few that have great relationships with these social media companies and are following all the rules and regulations to a T!

If you missed that video you can see it at https://youtu.be/Rzo2Yv2hszk

In that video I told you guys I would do a bonus video if you wanted me to showing exactly how I use these two tools to make posts. You can use them for scheduling and everything. Imagine being able to sit down in ONE day and schedule ALL of your social media posts. You can. 🙂

You guys asked that I do this follow up video, so here it is!

>>>https://youtu.be/HLLhYp09hPY

I’m showing you my social media posting ritual for one off promotional posting. You can also schedule too, but in this video specifically I’m just showing how I post to all my social media channels for ONE niche.

Check it out, and if you have questions on how to do this please leave them in the comments at https://youtu.be/HLLhYp09hPY

There’s nothing for sale here. I’m just educating you guys on my NEW social media journey. To help me out on YouTube please like the video, subscribe to my channel, and/or share the videos for me. I’d REALLY appreciate it. Most of you stay pretty quiet, and it helps me be a better teacher when I hear from you, so let’s get more social. 🙂

Okay… That’s it for today. I’m working on a new “ready to go” tool for you guys, AND I have a new workshop I’ll be launching, so keep your eye on your email. We’re 10 days from the end of the first month of 2021 and there’s still so much to come!

Talk soon!

Liz

Building An Online Business, The Techy Stuff Tutorials

How To Setup Your Blog For Marketing And Making Sales In 2021

This is a follow up video to my last Techy Stuff Tutorial. You’ll want to watch that before watching this one.

It’s at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKyBXL1D9TQ

In this video I’ll show you how to setup a blog to use in your marketing.

I’m starting all the way from installing it and covering how to pick a theme and plugins and getting it looking just the way you want! I’ve done a video like this before, but with all the new updates and changes I have done this one brand new for 2021.

Here is a link to the page that has all the resources I was pointing to in it http://imwithliz.com/online-business-resources-by-topic/blogging-resources

If you have comments or questions just leave them in the comments below…

The Techy Stuff Tutorials

Getting Started With Optimize Press 3

So many of you have no idea how to buy a domain name and hook it up to your hosting so you can have a website. 😳

Even more of you have no idea how to use a page builder to build the pages you need. 😳😳😳

So I’m showing up with this video to teach you both things 🙂

I have been using Optimize Press since V1.

I’ll admit Version 1 wasn’t the best, but when my long time webpage builder became deprecated, I had to find a new solution and at the time Optimize Press was the best option. And… It still is!

I use Optimize Press to build squeeze pages, sales page, bonus pages, membership pages, etc. Basically all the pages I use in my marketing I use Optimize Press.

WARNING: You will find SEVERAL page builders and funnel builders out there, but they either don’t work or they’re stupid expensive. Optimize Press does EVERYTHING I need and it’s super easy to use.

If you are one of my students you’ll definitely want to use it too because it’s ALL I teach with. In this tutorial I show you how to get a domain name, how to get hosting, how to hook your domain name to your hosting, and how to install Optimize Press 3.

So, watch this video and if you have questions just let me know if the comments below or inside the #TeamTomey Facebook group at http://www.TeamTomey.com

Get Optimize Press 3 at http://www.LizTomey.com/OptimizePress

Get LiquidWeb Hosting at http://www.LizTomey.com/LiquidWeb

Building An Online Business, Notes From Liz, The Techy Stuff Tutorials

The PayPal Goodbye Wrap Up!

Here we go… The final update on what I’ve been calling “The PayPal Issue”.

I am officially away from PayPal as my payment processor. Not because my account was shut down. I still (at this time) have a PayPal account, but I’m choosing to walk away from them before they choose to walk away from ME!

Side Note: If you’ve missed what’s going on see my Facebook posts on the issues at…

Post 1: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2277548948935058&id=100000399258867

Post 2: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2282629025093717&id=100000399258867

Post 3: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2376849392338346&id=100000399258867

I have a blog post where I sum these up at http://liztomey.com/blog/saying-goodbye-to-paypal

Okay on to the goods here…

I started this journey in April of 2019 and it’s now the middle of August 2019. Almost 4 months of research, reaching out to people, back and forths with merchant accounts, and the list goes on and on.

I kept hitting “walls” and I didn’t stop until I got through them. That’s how you have to be with EVERYTHING when it comes to creating an online business. You do everything you can to get through anything that tries to stop you from reaching your goals.

That’s not what this is about though so I’ll save my “Tony Robbins speech” for another day. 😉

This post is to help those of you who are looking to get away from PayPal and who are using JV Zoo and/or WarriorPlus as a vendor or as an affiliate.

First off, you’ve got to look at this from two different sides.

If you’re an affiliate and you want to get away from PayPal it’s pretty simple. A few settings and you’re done.

If you’re a vendor though there are a few things you need to do.

I want to talk about these things separately in this post to help your brain keep them separate. If not you’ll get super confused. I’m both an affiliate and a vendor and my biggest problem I had with understanding all of this was keeping those two things separate.

So let’s start with…

Getting Away From PayPal As An Affiliate Marketer On JVZoo and/or WarriorPlus

This was a WAY easier process for me compared to what I thought it would be.

With JVZoo you need to make sure you have a JV Zoo Pay account setup properly. When you want to promote a product make sure that the vendor is using JV Zoo Pay to pay you your commissions. This will be listed on the Affiliate Details Page where you get your affiliate link.

When you promote the product and make sales all commissions instantly go to your JV Zoo Pay account. You can then withdraw your commissions into your bank account or Payoneer account. You can also withdraw into your PayPal account, but the whole point of this is to get AWAY from PayPal. 🙂

I have my JV Zoo Pay account setup so that when I have $500 in commissions they are automatically deposited into my bank account.

A little note here… Some vendors use Stripe to process their payments on JV Zoo. They have to pay you manually. This will be noted on the Affiliate Details Page too. (See the second circle above.) I ONLY promote vendors I personally know if they are going this route. I don’t like having to figure out who owes me money with affiliate programs. That’s why my main rule with promoting something on JV Zoo is that if they aren’t paying via JV Zoo Pay I’m not promoting their product.

Here’s the short of it… The only way you can get your commissions into your JV Zoo Pay account is if the vendor processes payments via PayPal or Bluesnap (which is a merchant account). You then withdraw your commissions in your chosen way. To your bank account or Payoneer account.

Now with Warrior Plus it’s simply going in and changing a setting in your account so everything is sent to your Warrior Plus Wallet. Then you can withdraw into your bank account. Again you can also withdraw into your PayPal account, but uh… We’re getting away from PayPal here. 🙂

The setting for this is hard to find…

Upper right hand corner from the drop down menu select My Account, then Merchant Accounts, then go to Settings and turn ON Force Wallet (Affiliate/Partner).

I can withdraw my available affiliate commissions from my Warrior Plus Wallet into my bank account.

So that has me totally away from PayPal being an affiliate on Warrior Plus and JV Zoo.

Now for those of you who are vendors. Hang on to your hats! 🙂

Getting Away From PayPal As A Vendor On JVZoo and/or WarriorPlus

Again, we will start with JV Zoo.

Your options with JV Zoo are to get a merchant account with Bluesnap or Stripe in order to get away from PayPal.

Stripe doesn’t work with JV Zoo Pay though so you have to manually pay your affiliates. I’m not willing to do that. I want to automatically pay my affiliates.

So, I am using Bluesnap so commissions are automatically put into the JV Zoo Pay accounts of my affiliates. I really wish I could use Stripe over here. I DO like it better than Bluesnap. I get my money quicker and the reporting is better.

When the customer buys via a JVZoo button, Bluesnap and JVZoo work together (with some unicorn magic or technology or whatever) and put the affiliate’s commission into THEIR JVZoo Pay account, gives JVZoo their fees, and leaves my profits in my Bluesnap account.

This is all done automatically…

Note: See JVZoo’s documentation on selling on their platform at https://jvzoo.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/200334067-Sellers

No money comes into my PayPal account. It’s all processed by Bluesnap and they automatically deposit my profits into my bank account.

Once you have your Bluesnap account setup and your JV Zoo Pay account then when you setup a product you simply select Bluesnap to process your payments and to pay affiliates with JV Zoo Pay.

So make sure that you get the accounts setup before setting up your product. The initial account setups is what takes the most time. Once you have them setup you just select what you want to use to process payments when you create products moving forward.

On the vendor side of Warrior Plus…

They only allow you to process payments through PayPal or Stripe. Bluesnap isn’t an option over there.

Over there I’m processing payments with Stripe and affiliate commissions are paid into the affiliates Warrior Plus Wallet. Then they can withdraw in their chosen way.

Like with JV Zoo you have to get your accounts setup. I had to setup my Stripe account in there, and then when I setup the product I have to select that I’m processing via Stripe.

So when a customer purchases through a Warrior Plus button Stripe and Warrior Plus work together (again with unicorn magic I think) and aput the affiliate’s commission into THEIR Warrior Plus Wallet, gives Warrior Plus their fees, and leaves my profits in my Stripe account.

Stripe deposits my profits into my bank account daily.

And again… This is all done automatically.

Note: See Warrior Plus’s documentation on selling on their platform at https://help.warriorplus.com/en/collections/170745-selling-on-warriorplus

The big take away here with BOTH of these is that you have to get your “processing” accounts setup first, and then when you setup your product to get your buy buttons is when you select what you use to process payments and pay affiliate commissions.

The Wrap Up

I have now done FOUR launches using BOTH JVZoo and WarriorPlus and many have asked me which one I prefer.

Warrior Plus or JVZoo?

I’ve thought long and hard about what I would say here, and even if I would even say anything at all.

Why?

Well it goes back to the old saying…

“You don’t poo where you eat.”

I no longer “eat” at PayPal so I’ll “poo” all over them. I wont however speak ill of either JV Zoo or Warrior Plus because I “eat” at both of these places. Both have their pros and cons.

Let me say that one more time…

Both. Have. Their. Pros. And. Cons.

Like I hate how “clunky” and confusing WarriorPlus can be.

I also hate that I can’t easily tell who pays how and what without some digging on JV Zoo.

I do have a favorite and it’s JVZoo.

There are many reasons and some of those reasons I wont discuss. 😉

Both have their pros/cons (as I said), but what makes me say JVZoo is hands down the best is…

1. I personally know the CEO of JVZoo. Laura Cassleman!

NEVER has a CEO ever reached out to me personally to help me with my business. Laura cares about her JVZoo affiliates and it shows. Not only did she go to battle for me with issues with merchant accounts, but has done so for others. Laura is a shining example of what a true CEO is. I can’t thank her enough for her help through all of this.

2. The Support team is phenomenal.

I also know several people from the support team personally. 🙂

JVZoo has a support desk and a Facebook group. I think I used the support desk a very long time ago, but I always use the Facebook group and have an answer within 24 hours to my endless questions. Usually in MOMENTS! That’s important when you’re trying to get a product launched. I need answers and solutions NOW and I get them.

3. It’s easier to use.

As a vendor the JV Zoo system is easier to use in my opinion.

Once you have your merchant account and you’ve gone through all the settings to get it hooked up, using JVZoo to get your funnel setup is easier to use than Warrior Plus. Maybe that’s because I’ve used them for so many years and just get their system or maybe it’s because it is in fact just easier to use. *shrugs*

What I do like about Warrior Plus BETTER though is that I can use Stripe over there and it automatically pays my affiliates over there into their wallets. I like Stripe better than Bluesnap. From the ease of using it to the reports to them paying out faster than Bluesnap. I just like Stripe better.

So there you go… That’s how I’ve gotten away from using PayPal as an affiliate and a vendor on both JVZoo and WarriorPlus.

It’s been a heck of a journey, but I’m really liking running my business without the fear of losing my PayPal account.

Putting all your eggs in one basket is a HORRIBLE idea. I should have NEVER had only one way to accept payments, and I'll never do that again.Click To Tweet

I currently have 4 ways to take payments. PayPal (I refuse to use that one though) , Bluesnap, Stripe, and Cash App.

Cash App? What, Liz?

I’ll be talking about that one in the future. 😉

My next one I’m looking to use is ClickBank, but that probably wont happen until early 2020, so stay tuned.

Until then… Thoughts? Opinions? Questions? Feedback? Let me know in the comments below…

The Techy Stuff Tutorials

How To Add Videos To Your Websites

I see a lot of people having issues with how to add videos to their websites. Of course you can upload them to YouTube and just copy and past the code on your site, but if you don’t want them listed on YouTube and have YouTube’s branding on your video it can be quite a task.

So I created this video to show you exactly how to do it and the cheap tool I use to make it all look great! Watch the short tutorial below and be sure to leave your comments, feedback, and/or questions in the comments section below…

The Techy Stuff Tutorials

Notes On Getting An Autoresponder

An autoresponder is vital to any online business. You absolutely MUST have one to be able to have prospects to market your online business to.

For example…

I run an online income coaching business. I have setup LizTomey.com to collect leads to market my products and services to. My autoresponder gives me a form that I can put on my website, collect the name and email address of leads, and then it puts them on my “list”.

As soon as someone joins my list my autoresponder automatically sends them a welcome message. I then have several other messages “loaded” into my autoresponder that are automatically delivered to the leads that are added to my list. You can have these messages sent out at any time you determine.

So if “Bob” joins my list today he will immediately get a welcome message. 24 hours later he will get another one. 48 hours after that he will get another one, and so on and so forth. This is all automatically setup and done by my autoresponder.

I can also log in to my autoresponder at anytime, select my list, and email everyone on the list at one time.

Hopefully you see how powerful this is! 🙂

It adds some serious automation to your marketing efforts!

Now I want you to listen very closely because picking an autoresponder service/solution can literally make or break you. There are solutions out there that you can purchase install on your own domain name and be off and running. However that is NOT what you should do.

There are a million reasons you don’t want to do this but the main reason being your deliverability rate. Imagine sending an email out to 1000 prospects and only 700 or even less of them getting it. You’re leaving money on the table! You want to ensure you’re using a reputable service that can get your emails delivered.

The only two I recommend are…

1. Aweber
2. GetResponse

I actually use both, but that’s kind of an advanced technique I will leave for another tutorial. 🙂

Use one of those for now, ensure your emails actually get delivered, and save yourself lots of headaches and lots of money!

Now I’ve created this post to explain autoresponders to you, tell you which ones to use, AND to answer any questions you have about autoresponders and/or how to use them.

If you have questions about using/getting an autoresponder make sure and leave them below. I’ll answer them here and create any tutorials that you may need to learn from.

I look forward to helping you with all your autoresponder questions. 🙂

Liz

UPDATE:

Above I stated that I used both Aweber and GetResponse. I’ve done an update video that explains why. 🙂 You can see it below.