New Personal Branding Video Courses Available

Looking to learn more about personal branding, but prefer the video learning format over articles and ebooks? The video tutorial experts at Lynda.com may have what you're looking for with a new personal branding video course that launched this month.

Personal Branding Basics by Lorrie Thomas Ross on Lynda.com

The Personal Branding Basics course is hosted by Lorrie Thomas Ross, a web marketing expert, author and speaker from California, and goes into three main areas of personal branding advice:

• Understanding personal branding - Learn about the keys to a personal brand and how to determine personal branding objectives
• Establishing your brand - Learn how to develop your voice of authority, your online style and your online identity.
• Growing your brand - Learn how to define your niche, connect within your community, and then create content.

Of course, my best tips for establishing and growing your brand would be to claim a domain and start to build out your personal brand on your own easy-to-manage website. So many people try to skate by on a Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn profile alone, but the reality is that nothing beats having your own domain. 

Check out the personal branding video courses on Lynda.com and then go build yourself a website. 

Squarespace 6 Review: Multiple Viewpoints on Moving to the New Platform [VIDEO]

Squarespace 6 has only been out for a few weeks, and curious Squarespace v5 users and potential new Squarespace converts alike are wondering if the next-generation web publishing platform is worth the hype.

Recently three friends/Squarespace users and I sat down to review Squarespace 6, its 50+ new and planned features, migration strategies, and more via a Google+ Hangout on Air I like to call Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace. Read the details or watch the entire episode to judge for yourself whether Squarespace 6 is right for you.

Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace: Squarespace 6 Reviewed

Squarespace 6 First Impressions

Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace is a Google+ Hangout series organized by Big Picture Web and hosted by ​yours truly. Guests of mine on July 31 included Alan Houser of Squareflair, photographer Nathan Smith, and Peter Slapnicher from Local Pigeon.

In the first part of the discussion, the group reviewed Squarespace 6 and gave their first impressions. As someone who uses Squarespace mostly as a consumer, Nathan and I voiced our strong approval for LayoutEngine and the 50+ other amazing new features. Peter designs Squarespace websites that typically leverage existing templates​, and he tended to agree. The increased smoothness and sophistication of Squarespace 6 provide the ability to publish with greater ease than ever before.

Squarespace 6 and Developers

While Nathan, Peter, and I have been pleased with Squarespace 6 so far, Alan has had a slightly different experience as a developer of Squarespace websites. Alan creates completely custom Squarespace websites, and Squarespace is still in the beta testing stages of its developer platform. That said, Alan shared that he had yet to form an opinion on Squarespace 6 because the developer tools are still coming together.

Migrating from Squarespace v5 to Squarespace 6

For the most part, migration from Squarespace v5 to Squarespace 6 has been painless for those who have moved, but there is a big caveat in place. It seems like sites with the most amount of customization on v5 have the most difficulty importing to Squarespace 6.

Developers fall into this category as well. Alan shared that he'll be slowly migrating as developer tools become available. ​

Note: be sure to check out this handy guide if you're planning on moving from v5 to Squarespace 6.​

A strategic move from Squarespace v5 to Squarespace 6 is best.​

The Future of Squarespace 6

So what does the future of Squarespace 6 involve? Our panel thinks two things: increased customization and rapid feature additions.​

For customization, Alan theorized that developers will be able to customize every aspect of the Squarespace websites they build for their customers, including content types (e.g., photo gallery entries) and the types of add-ons you can use (e.g., ecommerce).​

Squarespace 6 also promises to launch new features at a pace much faster than anything its customers have seen before. Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena has pointed to the platform's amazing new infrastructure as a major contributing factor to Squarespace 6's two-plus year development cycle and a source of great leverage going into the future.

“You’re seeing the full engineering effort
of the org behind the live product. It’s a different world for us.”

— Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena

Just how popular is Squarespace 6 so far? The search term has seen a 400%+ increase in popularity in Google in the few weeks since its release. Those numbers no doubt bode well for a company that has already been profitable since its first day in business.​

​Squarespace 6 has been trending as a very popular search in Google this summer.

​What's your review of Squarespace 6? Have you had a chance to move to the new web publishing platform? Be sure to share your thoughts about Squarespace 6 with  me in the comments or on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Also, contact me to be a part of the next Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace.

Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace

A few weeks ago I received an email from Carlus Gupton asking for some advice about search engine optimization (SEO) on Squarespace. Since I don't have much extra time for consulting these days, I told Carlus that I wanted to figure out how to help him out while not letting any of my other responsibilities slip. Turns out, Google had the answer in their new Google+ Hangouts. Hang out with me while I cover Carlus's SEO questions, and let's chat about Squarespace, online marketing, and SEO.

A Google+ Hangout About Squarespace

On Thursday, June 28 at 7pm CDT (8pm EDT/6pm PDT) we'll be hosting our first ever Google+ Hangout, and you're invited to participate. We're calling it Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace, and it might just turn into an ongoing series about online marketing with Squarespace.

The topic of this first show will be Squarespace and SEO. We'll be exploring the best way to organize your website, how to perform keyword research for your website, and the do's and don't's of SEO on Squarespace.

Google+ Hangout Features

Up to nine people can be a part of a Google+ Hangout at any one time. That's 3/4 dozen people asking questions, sharing knowledge and showing off their Squarespace websites. Claim your spot in the Hangout early by dropping me a line and telling me that you're interested.

What do you need to hang out with us? A computer with a microphone, webcam, and Internet connectivity is required. It also helps to have interest in how to market your Squarespace website online, but not necessarily any direct knowledge.

We'll also be inviting people via Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Plus, we'll be streaming live on YouTube, thanks to the new Hangouts on Air functionality Google released in May. Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace will be published on our currently sparse YouTube channel after the live event has concluded for those who can't attend in person. 

Don't miss your chance to be a part of the first Google+ Hangout about Squarespace with our Hanging Out and Talking Squarespace series starting on June 28. Drop me a line now to secure your spot during the live event. You can also submit your ideas for future show topics too!