How to Blog: a step by step guide to create and market your blog
HOW TO BLOG: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO CREATE AND MARKET YOUR BLOG
What is A Blog?
A blog is a type of website or part of a website. A bog is often maintained by someone making regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Most Blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format forms a large part of a blog.
The most important part of any blog is what you have to say and how you say it. People will inevitably return to your blog if the subject you write about and the style in which you write it appeals to them. With that in mind, your blog should be written in a tone appropriate to your blog topic. Keep it personable so as to invite interaction through blog comments and links back to your blog from other Bloggers who like what you write.
Choose a Niche Market and Domain Name
If you’re Setting Up A Blog with the intention of making money, you need to find a profitable niche. Let’s assume that selling hair care products is a potentially profitable niche. A possible search term that someone might use for a hair care product might be “hair care shampoo,” so an appropriate domain name would be haircareshampoo.com. You can check domain name availability at Hostgator.com, and you can also purchase your domain name there.
Which Blog Software to Use?
There are a number of popular Blogging software around, including Blogger and WordPress. My favorite is WordPress – in fact I created this blog using WordPress, and that’s the one I’m going to use to help you setup your blog – it’s very simple to use, and it has many powerful features including plug-ins and a web template system that uses a template processor.
Steps to Install WordPress on BlueHost:
- Go to your New Blog website. (http://www.yourDomain.com)
- Click on “cpanel login.” If you don’t see this then go to “www.yourDomainNameHere.com/cpanel.”
- Type in your username and password that you chose when you bought the web hosting. Should be in your BLOG FILE.
- Scroll down to “Software/Services.”
- Click on “Simple Scripts.”
- Click on the WordPress Icon.
- Choose the latest version of WordPress. (The highest number is the latest.)
- Click “Install Now.”
- Select your domain name.
- Leave the “subfolder” box empty.
- Give your site a name. This is the name of your blog, i.e. “My Hair Care Blog.” Usually the same name as your domain name.
- Enter a tagline – caption catchphrase. This would be like your branding, i.e. “The Place Where You Learn All About Ducks.” (You can modify this very easily later so don’t worry about it being perfect now.)
- Uncheck the check box next to “Generate Admin Login.” This way you can choose your own.
- Choose your Admin user name and password. This is for logging into your WordPress Dashboard for writing your posts and setting up your blog. It’s best if this is different from your cpanel username and password.
- Leave “Automatically create a new database” checked.
- Check the legal agreement.
- Click “Complete.”
You will then receive a confirmation email from BlueHost (your web host) with the username and password you chose, plus any other information you might need.
Login to Your WordPress Dashboard.
The WordPress Dashboard is where you control everything about your blog including writing posts and customizing the look of your blog.
- To login, go to: “YourDomain.com/wp-admin” in your browser.
- Enter your WordPress Dashboard Login username and passsword that you set up in Step#5.
Create a Blog Design That Reflects Your Blog’s Image.
It’s important that you create a design that reflects the content and image of your blog – from your font to your color choices, make sure each element of your blog’s overall design is consistent with your blog’s image. For example, a blog about marketing would be confusing in readers’ minds if the blog design included clipart, balloon fonts and glitter effects.
In WordPress, the overall appearance of your blog can be determined by the Theme you choose. There are many free themes from which you can make a selection. Other elements that often make up a blog are:
- About Me
- Categories
- Posts
- Contact
Install a Theme
Under appearance, click on Themes and then Install Themes. From here, you can browse through a number of different themes from which you can select one you’re happy with.
How to Install Plugins
- Download plugin and save it on your computer.
- Open the zipped folder.
- Click “extract all files”
- Upload files or folder to “wp-content/plugins” on your “remote server” via FTP on FileZilla.
- On your WordPress Dashboard, click on “Plugins”
- Click on “Activate” to enable each plugin.
- Follow any specific instructions on how to use each plugin.
The following are some of the plugins that I recommend. Obviously, as you get to use WordPress, you’ll find there are numerous plugins you can use to optimize your blog:
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is one of the best ways to monetize your blog.
All in One SEO Pack
Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog.
StumbleUpon It!0.1
A plugin that allows your visitors to submit your Blog Posts to StumbleUpon.com.
Subscribe To Comments2.1.2
This plugin allows your readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.
WP-Amazon2.0 Beta 1.1
WP-Amazon adds the ability to search and include items from Amazon to your entries.
WP-ContactForm1.5.1
WP Contact Form is a drop in form for users to contact you. It can be implemented on a page or a post.
Writing Blog Posts
Writing blog posts that people want to read is a matter of speaking honestly and openly about a subject you’re passionate about. The more you Promote Your Blog, the more people will find it, and the greater likelihood that some of those people will read what you have to say, and like it.
Strategies to Drive Traffic to your blog
- Email Marketing: send emails to your contacts who might be interested in your blog and suggest that they forward your link to their contacts.
- Participate in blog carnivals. Search online for them or check out BlogCarnival.com.
- SEO: Optimize your site for search engines. One software I recommend is WebCEO, and there is a free version of it.
- Write posts on other blogs for exposure to new readers.
- Build links to your blog by commenting on blogs that have “dofollow” links which means that search engines will see those links. That helps to improve your exposure.
- Video Marketing – Creating a video for marketing is much easier than you think. The best software used for making a video is Animoto.
- Blog Promotion – Yahoo Answer is another great idea of how to utilize the Yahoo! Answer facility to drive traffic to your blog.
Social Networking Basics
The following are just some of the social networking sites that I suggest you check out to help drive more traffic to your blog:
- StumbleUpon
- Digg
- BlogCatalog
Learn More About Blogging and WordPress
All these steps take time, but if you are persistent and write good content, you will have success. And once you have the basics down you’ll probably want to learn more.
Here are some basic articles from WordPress.org on getting started with their blogging platform:
- New To WordPress – Where to Start
- More WordPress Beginner Lessons
And finally…
“Blogging All the Way to the Bank” – is an excellent ebook that teaches you some advanced techniques for growing your blog and making money and it is highly recommended.
Wishing you every success!
Blog: http://planforinternetbusiness.com
About the Author
My name is Pope Moore, I am an analyst and entrepreneur, and I live in Sutton in the UK. Away from work and business, I have a varied interests, including listening to music, reading (mostly biographies), watching movies, walking, sports (passionate about golf these day), and I enjoy going to the theatre and museums.
My blog is: http://planforinternetbusiness.com
I run a business called Internet Commerce and I have been operating in the internet industry for over 5 years.
Pope H. Moore
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