This doesn’t seem to be a very common problem, but if it happens to you it can be very annoying!

Sometimes, when trying to upload an image to a WordPress post or page, you may get an error message that says, “Are you sure you want to do this? Please try again”.

If you click on the “Please try again” link you just get taken back to the main dashboard, but within the pop-up box where you would usually choose your image.

The most likely cause for this is an incompatible plug-in.

To find which one and correct this problem, first … did you recently upload or update a particular plug-in just before you starting seeing this error? If so, deactivate that plug-in and then try to upload an image again. If you can now upload images again, that plug-in was causing the problem.

However if you’re not sure which plug-in is at fault, deactivate all of your plug-ins. Now try to upload an image and you should find it uploads just fine.

So now go back to your plug-ins page and activate one plug-in. Try uploading an image again. Did it work?

If yes, that’s great. Now activate a second plug-in, then try uploading an image again.

Keep going through this process until all of your plug-ins that you want activated are active, except for at least one that, when activated again, will cause that image upload error. When you find that plug-in, either delete it or leave it deactivated.

You may find it helpful to have two tabs open in your web browser – one on the plug-ins page and another on a draft post/page where you can test uploading images.

I hope this fixes your images upload issue. 

Unable To Upload Image In WordPress is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Back when I was in my late teens – not all that long ago really – I vividly remember an occasion where I asked a simple question and didn’t get the answer I was expecting.

I was working in a licensing position where we regularly had to forward copies of permits to regional offices throughout the state and we would use post codes in order to determine which office to forward the documents to. It didn’t take long to learn most of the state’s post codes by heart, but whenever we didn’t know the post code for a particular area my co-workers and I would just ask out loud and someone else would surely know.

On this one occasion, I made the mistake of asking our supervisor for a post code. Her reply was a short, sharp, “Do I look like a post code booklet? Look it up!”

I was a little miffed at the time. After all, we were merely being efficient. Why waste an entire minute or so looking it up when someone could just tell you in a few seconds, while you continued working away?

However, miffed as I was, that was an incredibly powerful lesson for me. After that, I made it a policy to rarely ask for help unless I had first attempted to solve the problem myself.

This skill has served me well over the years, particularly when it comes to small business management skills.

There have been countless times when I didn’t know how to do something and could have phoned someone for help or submitted a support ticket. But by first striving to find the answer myself I have saved many, many hours of precious time by not having to submit the question and wait for a reply. More importantly, I have learnt so much more than I would have from just asking up front, not to mention understanding the process more by researching it myself.

And let’s face it, generally it can be a pretty good feeling when you’ve figured out how to do something for yourself.

So, what’s my favourite tool for problem solving these days?

Google!

(Or Yahoo or Bing or MSN)

While there are some areas where I probably wouldn’t trust information from the Internet, you can find answers to so much here, especially when it comes to business issues or how to do something with your computer or a specific software application.

Whenever I need to know how to do something now, I simply ‘Google it’.

Now, a handy hint here: it helps to be specific. I will generally type something like, “How do I do xyz in ABC?” In fact, it was by searching on, “How to add a custom header to WordPress Thesis theme” that I found this excellent blog post on how to add a banner image to your Thesis header – a post I’m so glad I found and have since recommended to others many times over.

If your original question brings up too many possible answers, try being more specific with what you search for. Or if you don’t get enough results, be a little broader in your search terms.

If you want something instructional, going direct to YouTube can be a good idea. Again, you can find out how to do so much by searching for it in YouTube.

Sometimes getting the best answers for problem solving comes down to asking the right questions. But then if all else fails … ask someone else for help

How A Valuable Lesson In Life Taught Me The Importance Of Research is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Lots of people have asked me how I manage to edit Go To Webinar and Go To Meeting recordings in Camtasia Studio … this is something that can be a challenge at first.

So I thought I’d make a video to show just how easy it is to do … when you know how 

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How To Edit Go To Webinar Recordings In Camtasia is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

I get a lot of people asking me how they can watch online videos without them stopping and starting all the time.

First, it helps to understand why they stop and start. Depending on various factors, including your internet speed, it can take a while for videos to download. Often you’ll start to watch a video but you’re viewing it quicker than it can download.

So … simply press ‘play’, then pause and give it a minute or two (longer for very long videos) while it downloads.

Then press ‘play’ again and you should be able to watch it nice and smoothly.

How To Watch Videos Online Without Them Stopping And Starting is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

If so, it’s time to organise your email system before it takes over your life!

Email is an extremely convenient mode of communication; perhaps too easy, as it seems to invite people to contact you for sometimes barely any reason at all.  With all that email coming in needing attention, it can be hard to get anything else done.  So how can you get a grip on your business emails before it gets its grip on you?

Gaining Control Of Email

Success in small business relies on discipline and good time management. Often, however, necessary tasks like checking, reading and responding to emails can start to overtake productive work time and decrease your productivity – and in turn, your profitability.  That is why it’s important for you to be managing emails, rather than letting emails manage you.  Here are some pointers from the experts:

• Schedule time for checking emails; this can be once, twice, or three times daily at times that fit into your schedule.  Block out time and when the time is up, move on to other pressing matters.
• Do not use email for emergency contacts; inform clients and business associates that you are not available immediately via email, and that they should phone or contact you via instant message, etc, for pressing matters.  This makes it possible for you to handle emails in chunks rather than constantly dealing with them throughout the day.  Be careful who you give emergency contact information to, though, so that it is used for its intended purpose.
• Turn off automatic alerts – both audio and visual – so that you are not tempted to immediately respond every time a new message comes in. This breaks into your productive work time.
• Deal with emails during your ‘down time’; do not schedule your most creative and productive times of day for organising emails.  Put email management into your schedule where it makes sense – those times of day when you need to slow down, or that do not take away from more complex activities.
• Use tools for organising emails; get to know the features of your email client and use them to prioritise emails.  For instance, use the ‘rules’ or ‘labels’ function to automatically separate emails into folders according to priority levels, clients, or subjects.
• Respond to emails when read; many people will read all emails before responding, and then go back and start with the most important ones. But this only multiplies the time it takes to get through the lot.  espond to emails as they are read, and you will not have to begin all over again sifting through them.
• Separate business and personal emails; do not give out business email addresses to friends and family that do not have a business reason to contact you.

Email is a very useful and important business tool, but if you don’t learn how to efficiently manage your emails they will begin to take over your life.

Of course, everyone’s situation is going to be different and it may take a little while to find what works best for you, but if you start putting some of these tips into practise you’ll soon get control over your email. If not, perhaps it’s time to consider getting an assistant to help you respond to emails.

Are You Drowning In A Sea Of Never-Ending Emails? is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Why is it that some people can set goals and achieve them while others keep setting goals time and time again, but never seem to get any closer to reaching them?

There are many reasons for this, including lack of self-belief, setting goals that aren’t actually in line with your values or setting goals that are too unrealistic.

Andrea Jordan writes about breaking bad habits and her recent post about setting S.M.A.R.T. goals is worth reading, especially if you’re one of those who seems to have trouble reaching your goals.

The Formula For Setting Achievable Goals is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

A lot of people ask me for tips on how I manage to get so much done all the time. I’m more than happy to share my strategies, tips and ideas, but I thought it might make it easier for everyone if I wrote a guide about this very topic and gave it away freely.

So… introducing… Multi-Tasking Sucks! The High-Achiever’s Guide To Squeezing The Most Out Of Every Second.

I’ve also included lots of resources and tools that help me run my business efficiently.

If you’d like your copy of this brand new guide, go to Multi-Tasking Sucks! and simply enter your name and email address.  Once you’ve verified that you’d like a copy of this, you’ll receive an email giving you the link to download it.

Multi-Tasking Sucks! is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Do you know what words people are using to find your website? If not, I encourage you to find out.

The easiest way to do this is by using tracking software such as Google Analytics which is free and fairly easy to install on your website. If you’re using WordPress software you can simply install and activate the Google Analytics plug-in.

Then simply log into your Google Analytics account every now and then and go through the various reports.

You’ll see one that shows what keywords were used by people who visited your site. Are there lots of searches on a particular word or phrase that you hadn’t considered before? If it’s relevant to your site, perhaps it’s worth adding this to your existing keywords.

I say ‘if it’s relevant’ because you’ll no doubt find some pretty weird and wacky keywords too.

For example, the most searched for phrase that one of my sites was being found for was ‘mcdonalds victoria point’. I had directions to a meeting venue on that site and it referred to the Victoria Point McDonalds as a nearby landmark. But would it be relevant for me to focus on that as a keyword?

No. People searching on ‘mcdonalds victoria point’ would no doubt be looking for information relating to that particular McDonalds, not details about small business brain-storming sessions.

However, I also discovered that a large number of people were searching on another term that WAS relevant and so I tweaked my site a little to optimise it for that keyword too. The result? Even more traffic now finds me for that keyword – and this is targetted traffic that is interested in the information I’m offering.

If you go through the process of checking your search stats regularly you’ll no doubt have a laugh at some of the weird search terms that come up. In fact, I’d love to hear some of them. Please check your site report and leave a comment below to share the strangest search term that your site was found for.

What Keywords Are People Searching For To Find Your Site? is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

Sometimes when you’re searching for specific information in Google you might be particularly looking for videos, forums or just trying to dig deeper into your niche research. To make this easier, did you know that Google has a range of specific search options that can simplify this search process?

If you’re not familiar with the range of Google search options, have a look at this short video. I particularly love Google’s Wonder Wheel (this bit starts at around the 1.30 minute mark).

Google Search Options And Wonder Wheel is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins

A few people have asked me recently how to add an image to their sidebar in WordPress.

For example, in the sidebar of this site there’s a square banner ad for a free audio of mine. How did I add that to the sidebar?

Basically, you follow these steps:

1. From your WP Dashboard, click on the Widgets link (on the left, under Appearance)
2. Add a Text widget by dragging the Text button from the left over to the right of your screen, then position it where you’d like it displayed
3. Click on Edit (bottom right of that Text widget)
4. The Text widget expands and you can paste your *HTML code for your image in there then click on Done on the bottom left of that Text box
5. Remember to click on the Save button, at the bottom of the sidebar widgets

*Now I know I probably lost a few people when I said to paste the HTML code for your image, right? You probably don’t have HTML code for it, right? You’ve just got a .jpg image sitting on your hard drive.

You can do this by various techniques, but the easiest way, especially if you’re not that clued up on your FTP processes, is to do this:

• BEFORE you start to add the image to your sidebar, create a new post and add your image to it, as though you were simply including your image in a blog post.
• Then click on the HTML tab and copy all the text (Control + A will copy all) You can paste this into a text document for now if you like, just so you’ve got a copy of it.
• Then you can delete this post – you don’t need it any more.
• Now, follow the steps above and when it says to paste your HTML code, you’ve got yours all ready to go 

Simple!

The Simple Way To Add An Image To Your WordPress Sidebar is a post from: Donna-Marie Coggins