Today is a special day for me. I am launching my new author website and WordPress blog for Gutsy Living.
To say that I’m a little nervous about this change makes me sound “Un-Gutsy” but it’s the truth. As some of my blogger friends know, I made it one of my goals for 2011 and after several months of researching and pondering about the investment and the need to take the plunge, I finally decided that I could not do it alone, but would hire a professional to help me.
I met Kirsten Wright at a local Bloggers meeting about two months ago. We sat down and after she handed me her business card, I said, “You know, I’ve been wanting to change from blogger to WordPress and have noticed how every professional blogger seems to use “Thesis.” Kirsten listened to me and started giving me a long explanation on how WordPress was definitely the way to go and how as an author, I needed to think about an author website as well. My initial thought was, “She seems to know a lot, she also talks a lot, and she’s mentioning a custom made website and blog, when all I want is Thesis. This is probably to get me to spend more money than I want to.”
After about twenty minutes, Kirsten could tell that I was getting a little overwhelmed with all the information about custom coding, etc., and she left to chat with some of the other bloggers. I sat there in a daze, and suddenly realized that I was all alone and most of the bloggers were much younger than me and knew one another.
I got up, headed to the table with appetizers and could not find anyone else alone to talk to, or a place to sit. That’s when Kirsten noticed me and said, “Come join us.” It was her act of kindness that made me look at her as a caring, young woman, rather than simply as someone trying to get my business.
Later that evening, I checked out her website, and was impressed with the ease of navigation on her site. I watched her videos and realized that she is an expert on social media, has been interviewed on local TV, and is a writer for OC Metro magazine. She offers free videos on her site to help people like myself learn more about how to use Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging tips and so much more.
The following day I called her to discuss the vision I had for my blog theme. We met at Starbucks and Kirsten pulled out some stock footage of tropical beaches as backgrounds for my website as well as fonts for logos. We connected and she understood the creative side that I was looking for as well as the coding side. “Sonia, you’re an author with an upcoming book. We need to focus on that aspect first.” I agreed with her as I have read how agents and publishers want aspiring authors to have a professional website prior to publication.
It’s now been six weeks since I started working with Kirsten and I am so happy with my new site. Several of my friends who used blogger and switched  to WordPress had major headaches transferring content and photos over. Don’t ask me how, but Kirsten said, “No problem,” one of her favorite phrases. I would love to hear what you think about my new Gutsy Living website.
I asked Kirsten if she would offer an incentive to those who might be looking for a new blog theme or an author website and she is offering a 10% coupon to anyone who contacts her through my new site. If you’re interested, I think she’s fabulous.

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