Giveaway with Lisa Boyd :-) (Also Known as The Tech Dudette)
MONDAY MORNING NOTE:I am going to need to ask for patience and grace from you all. I am still reading and praying through the She Speaks scholarship finalist’s entries that my panel of judges has chosen. I’m headed to Detroit for the day where part of the time I’ll be at a coffee shop finishing up this difficult task and then announcing the selection. Look for it between 1:00-2:00 pm EST. :-)
In the mean time, make sure if you’d like to win a free website set-up package or cool laptop bag that you read the post below. I am extending that giveaway until Wednesday.
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Could I ask you to pray for me this weekend? I’m headed to speak in Georgia alongside my fabulous and talented friend Cheri Keaggy.
I also, along with some of my P31 speaker team buddies, am still reading (and crying) through the entries for the Cecil Murphy speaker scholarship to She Speaks. You aren’t making this easy girls!!! Winner will be announced Monday.
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Have we got a FABULOUS giveaway this weekend!!!! (Especially if you’ve ever dreamed of writing a blog and have simply no clue where to begin!)
Around Proverbs 31, we have many women who use their God-given talents to further His kingdom.
Some speak.
Some write.
Some work use their administrative gifts in the office.
Some pray with women on the phone or answer emails from those who are lonely, hurting and in need.
And some lend their expertise at all things techy.
Today the P31 Queen of techy is joining us with a seriously INCREDIBLE giveaway for one of you. Read on:
Lisa Boyd started her love affair with computers in the early 80s. Upon receiving a Commodore 64, she proceeded to sit down and read the manual cover to cover.
No longer reading printed manuals, she devours digital manuals instead. Clients rely on Lisa for all their technical needs including training them on software (computer-based or web-based) and recommending and implementing technical solutions tailored to their needs.
Since 2003, she’s been setting up and customizing sites using WordPress. Her business site is http://lisaboyd.com
She is a child of God who hates titles and all the preconceptions that come with those titles; a stay-at-home mom who takes her only daughter to public school; the tuneless wife of a man who sings boldly for God; a tech geek who has been accused of having an affair with her laptop; a home executive who doesn’t have a cooking or decorating bone in her body.
Her hospitality includes a big “hey ya’ll” at the door, lots of hugs, and a cold can of Coke. Most days you can find her in old softball t-shirts, hair scrunchies and no makeup or she might be out riding her Harley. Occasionally she blogs at simply His [http://simplyhis.org]
Lisa, how did you first become interested in techy-things like websites and such?
My Dad brought a Commodore 64 home one day in the early 80s. I was so fascinated with the machine, I sat down and read the manual cover to cover.
I wrote my first script that made a message repeat down the screen and then quit. There was no hard drive saving the script. No pretty graphics and such. My love affair with computers began.
I can’t remember exactly when I first got into websites and all things Internet related. I think it’s just become so integrated in my life, it’s hard to remember a time when I wasn’t on the internet.
In 2000, I got started with blogs learning Greymatter software. In 2003, I switched to WordPress and haven’t looked back. Of course I tend to get caught up in the code and how things are setup. Most of the time I forget to just sit and write!
Let’s say a woman out there is interested is beginning a blog but has no clue where to start. What advice would you give her?
If you are not sure you are going to stick with this blogging thing or want to test it out before you put a little money behind it, I recommend setting up a free blog at WordPress.com. You’ll get a url that looks like yourname.wordpress.com and it’s a good place to start.
You can get used to using the WordPress software and when you are ready for more, you can get a hosting package.WordPress can do much more than just blogging – it can control your whole website.
You can change text around without having to know html (html is the code that makes a website display in your browser all pretty). It gives you a great foundation to build your website should you want to add things later, like a contact form or a forum.
When you are ready for more customization and ready to grow, you can get a hosting account for about $5/month, free WordPress.org software, and a custom domain name for about $10/year.
Here around Proverbs 31, you are known as the Tech Dudette. What are the main ways you help people with their cyber needs?
I do all my work based on WordPress. I help people transfer all their posts and comments from Blogger into WordPress. I also develop custom themes.
Themes are the files that make WordPress display your site the way you want it – 1 sidebar over here, content there, custom header graphic at the top, special header graphics in the sidebar, etc.
There are several things that you may want to tie into your WordPress site as well. I help set those things up as well from setting up a subscription box for people to subscribe to your updates, to adding a Facebook updates box in the sidebar. I also help setup forums, directories, and shopping carts so you can sell things through your site.
You are offering two wonderful giveaways to our cyber sisters out there. Tell us about them!
For first place, I’m giving away a hosting package. :-)
I’ll register a domain name for you (if available) or use one you have now. I’ll host your web site for 1 year and get you setup with a basic WordPress install so you can play around with the awesomeness that is WordPress.
I’ll also provide you with a copy of Genesis + Prose. Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means right now. It’s a really cool premium theme package that will allow you to change colors, fonts and sizes as well as other customizations.
The value of all this is about $250.
As a second prize, I’m giving away a laptop bag [http://www.shopgussy.com/category/laptop-work-bags] from one of my clients[http://www.gussysews.com/].
Last year I virtually met Gussy as we were going to be roommates at a blogging conference for women. I didn’t make it to the conference, but we kept in touch and Gussy is now one of my clients!
Wow Lisa!!! Thanks so much for the generous prizes!!!
Okay gals, if you’d like to have your name thrown into the hat for either one of these prizes, leave a comment on this post. Let us know why you’d like the hosting package or the laptop bag. If time is tight, simply say I’m in. (But please let us know which prize you are interested in.)
Oh, and if you have never blogged and want to get started, tell us, what would your blog be about?
Have a great weekend. See you back here on Monday when I’ll have lots of winners to announce!
Blessings,
