How to setup blog for the long run…?
Wouldn’t it be great if you could start something knowing that you couldn’t fail?
When you first get into blogging, you’re faced with a dilemma: the more you learn, the less likely it is you’ll get going and commit. The less you learn, the more likely it is you’re going to just take the plunge–but you’ll make a bunch of mistakes you might regret later.
I addressed this issue way back in my post about throw-away “starter” blogs, called The Starter Blog: How to Really Get Started Blogging. But, long-story-short, here’s the deal. If you want to get started blogging (or even start a second or third blog), do NOT overthink it and feel like you have to learn the Ten Thousand Things About Blogging. Just freakin’ start a blog on a free service like Blogger, Tumblr, or WordPress.com. In other words, “go Nike,” and Just Do It.
But… do it knowing that you’re only testing, and that you’re going to throw the blog away and start a “real” blog.
That’s the “starter blog” idea.
What I want to talk about here is how to set up a blog successfully for the long haul. This involves holistic systems-wide thinking, which I’m very good at. I also have a shitload of experience with this, too, so that helps.
So, once you’re past the “newbie” stage of blogging and it’s time to get serious, here’s what you do.
Research the Market
If nobody wants to hear what you have to say, you’re going to have a tough time of it. Part of the reason for creating a “starter blog” is so that you can judge the response of a potential audience and topic.
You might think it’s the coolest thing in the world to have a blog about beauty marks on celebrities’ faces, but the dead silence with which your posts and tweets are greeted will quickly tell you otherwise.
Throw that one away and try again!
Life-saving market research tip #1: Use social media sites as a guage. Let me give you a tip that will save the day (and tons of time): go to a social media site you really enjoy using and that “clicks” with you. Find a category (or people) you really like and identify with and check out the content you see posted there. Notice what kind of content is consistently at the top positions. That should inspire and inform you on your own blog content strategy (link).
Life-saving market research tip #2: Use Google. If you do a search for the biggest keyword for your potential blog topic, you want to see lots of organic results and sponsored sponsored results. You especially want to see sponsored results if you want to have any hope of making money with your blog.
The presence of sponsored results means there’s action in the marketplace over traffic and dollars. No action means there’s no money to be made. Traffic and search volume alone are not good enough, because some markets are “freebie” markets. Freebie markets consist of tons of free information, which means nobody will pay for that information. You don’t want to come in selling what everyone else is getting for nothing.
Research Keywords
You would think the first step is to just go get a domain and hosting, but nope! How do you know what domain to buy? If you’ve researched your market, you will have the general direction. Now that you’re past the “Gee, look, I’m blogging!” stage, a serious blog topic begins with keyword research. Keywords are what people type into a the box at a search engine.
If you’re thinking about starting a blog around a particular topic, you want to know what kinds of major keywords exist around the topic. For example, if I wanted to start a blog about playing guitar, keywords might be chords, progressions, tuning, learn to play {genre}, learn to play {song name}, and so forth.
Major keywords will likely become the categories for your blog.
There are a great many free keyword tools on the web. A quick search will turn them up. However, you can’t go wrong using the following:
- Google External Keyword Tool
- Wordtracker Free Keywords Tool
- SpyFu
- eBay categories
- What consistently makes the front page of any major social media site, like Digg
Buy a Domain and Hosting
If you’re going to have a serious blog (especially if you plan to monetize content or front a business), you must own your domain name and have your own “house” on the web. Domain and hosting are dirt cheap, anymore. If you’re setting up a business, then this is a very small part of the cost of doing business.
For domains, there really is none other than GoDaddy, and for hosting, many people are happy with Bluehost.
Set Up Your WordPress Database
Although some hosting companies provide “one-click installs” of WordPress, I just can’t ever trust ‘em. Too many people have had problems with them. They are often not the most recent version of WordPress. You don’t have the same degree of control over your blog as when you do things “the hard way.”
Database success tip #1: Use a password generator to generate a strong password that is nearly impossible to break.
Database success tip #2: When you set up your WordPress database, make sure you understand where the database is located. For most hosting companies, it is localhost, but for others, there is a different system that is safer and more secure and which provides a unique URL for your database. Write down all the login information for your database and keep it in a safe place.
Database setups are different on different hosting company control panels, so make sure you check with your hosting provider on the steps needed to create a MySQL database.
Install WordPress
Installing WordPress is not that big of a deal. You need to be familiar with FTP and have an FTP Client (I recommend FileZilla). You also need to have a text editor program. On Windows, you could use Notepad, but I use a code editor called Notepad++.
The rough steps in a WordPress installation go like this:
- Download WordPress from wordpress.org and unzip it to the folder on your computer you want to keep your local blog files in.
- Modify the wp-config-sample.php to enter your database login information and save it as wp-config.php. Part of doing this will require you to “salt” the information in the file to make it more secure. Use the URL provided in the instructions to get your long radom codes for this. You want to do this for security reasons.
- Rename or delete the old wp-config-sample.php file.
- Upload the whole shebang to your server via FTP. Make sure you place the files where you want the blog to be (main folder or another folder, such as /blog/). I don’t recommend you upload the wordpress folder unless you’re going to put the blog in a folder on your site. In that case, just upload the wordpress folder but rename it to something like blog.
- Run the installation script.
- Login with the admin username and random password given to you after installing.
The above is a very rough guide to the process. You should read through the entire installation sequence at the WordPress Codex before you do a single thing. Seriously.
WordPress Installation Success Tip #1: Print out the installation instructions and have them handy.
WordPress Installation Success Tip #2: A little research goes a long way. Search online for the kinds of problems users of your hosting service commonly run into so they don’t happen to you.
WordPress Installation Success Tip #3: Change the prefix to the database tables in your wp-config.php file. The less standard your information, the more secure your blog will be.
Configure Your WordPress Blog
There is a lot about blog configuration that is simply personal choice. However, there are also configuration choices you can make that will make your blog more secure and give you greater WordPress SEO strength. For example, I always make sure I activate pretty permalinks in WordPress. That way, the URLs (web addresses) for each blog post are people- and search engine-friendly.
Important WordPress configuration/settings tips:
- Create a new user for yourself that does not use the “admin” username. This is a security move, since it’s harder to break into a blog when both the username and the password have to be cracked.
- Set the author name WordPress uses to something other than your username. This is obvious when the posts are by “admin,” but it looks much more professional to see a first and last name.
- Set your time zone so that post and comment times are correct for your time zone (or the time zone of the bulk of your audience).
- Get and enter your WordPress.com API key for the Akismet spam-fighting plugin (and of course, activate the plugin). This is so vital and important that you need to do this even if you use no other plugins. That’s why I’m placing this under configure and not plugins.
- Decide what you want for comment moderation. Frankly, I can’t be bothered with it, but I also have my settings so that even one link in a comment forces it into moderation. You can use the comment blacklist feature in WordPress, but a plugin like Bannage is the way to go.
- Go to Settings > Writing and set your default post category to something other than “Uncategorized.” You may need to create categories first, but if you’re not sure what you want yet for these, I’m sure you can at least decide on something besides uncategorized.
- Go to Settings > Reading and set the number of posts to show on the home page, and whether or not you want to show full RSS feeds or summaries (I recommend full).
Install Plugins
Plugins are what really give WordPress its flexibility and power. Too many plugins can slow down the performance of your blog, however, so only use the minimum necessary. Using a robust theme which contains its own code functions such as Thesis eliminates the need for some plugins (themes are next).
How to Install Plugins in WordPress 2.7+
- Got to Plugins > Add New and search for a plugin you want using keywords related to its function, such as spam, comments, or seo.
- Explore the results list for the best plugin (hint: check the ratings and the reviews/comments). Right-click on a plugin and open links about it in a new tab or window so you don’t get lost.
- When you find a plugin that you want to install, click the “install” link which appears at the right in your search results.
- Make sure the plugin is activated in the main Plugins list.
- Make sure you’ve read and understand all configuration instructions for the plugin.
- Configure plugin settings if necessary.
Suggested “Starter” Plugins
Here’s a list of plugins I wouldn’t want to be without on a new blog:
- Bannage
- Yet Another Related Posts plugin
- All-in-One SEO Pack (Unless you’re using Thesis)
- Cforms
- Google Sitemaps
- Login Lockdown
- Subscribe to Comments
Remember, this is meant to be a “starter” list, not a complete list. Don’t be yelling at me in the comments saying I “forgot” a plugin. 
Install a Theme
Heh… really I should’ve just said “Install Thesis.” Yes, I know, everyone’s using Thesis. There’s a reason for that: it’s freakin’ amazing. It’s not because we’re all just sheep trying to keep up with the Cool Kids. Yes, Thesis costs money, but this is so important to the long-term health and success of your blog that if you’re going to spend a few bucks on anything, it should be Thesis.
However, if you just can’t swing the price or you don’t like having the ultimate code framework theme powering your blog’s design, there are plenty (OK, actually an insane amount) of choices out there.
Basically, the less tech-y you are, the harder this is going to be (sorry, but it’s true). You have to upload a theme via FTP (described above) and then activate it. Learn more at the WordPress Codex. Once it’s up and activated, you might be able to change the way it looks. But you’ll probably have to write code and design it. If you got a theme that lets you change settings in it, great! But most themes don’t have the capability for this (except Thesis, which has it in spades).
Where to Get Themes
The total list of WordPress theme sites would probably encircle the Earth several times. But here are a few top places to look:
- WordPress Theme Directory
- Smashing Magazine’s 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes
- Weblog Tools Collection
Long-Run Tips for Choosing a Theme
- Pick a theme by a designer/developer who does themes for a living so you have reasonable assurance there will be updates/bugfixes.
- Avoid sponsored themes that have a link in the footer to some site that’s completely unrelated to the theme or to your blog’s subject.
- Avoid most “magazine” style themes unless you’re technically-oriented and are willing to do a lot of work on your blog whenever you want to modify the home page.
- Pick something that matches your personality and branding, not something that follows the latest web design trend (ooh, boy! cut-out text is the new black!).
Thinking for the Long Run Means Planning
The best way to set up your blog for the long run is to plan what you want to accomplish with it. The difference between a successful blog and an abandoned blog is often the difference in how much thinking and planning went into its creation.
Once you get past your “gee, I’m blogging!” stage, and you’ve thrown your starter blog away, use this post as a guide and a broad checklist to plan your “real” blog.
if you are interested in checking it out, click here to find out more
How To Start a Blog?
The number one consideration before you start a blog is this: what is your goal? Are you looking for a way to share your knowledge and expertise on a subject that’s close to your heart? Are you looking to earn quick money? Are you looking for a way to practise your writing skills? Are you looking to compile all these blog posts later into something you can publish or print as a memoir?
The second consideration is: do you have time to blog? Like our first toy, we get excited for the first week when we first get our blog up and running. But blogging for fun and serious blogging are two different animals.
Fun blogging doesn’t care much for anything else – the blogger just blogs because he wants to write what he feels like writing. Serious blogging, on the other hand, can be about marketing one’s business, earning money from adsense or pay per review, spreading one’s ideas and lots more.
If you are into serious blogging, it will eat into your time. You may need to plonk yourself right in front of the PC and blog away. We often tell friends that serious bloggers take a lot of time in creating blog posts for their audience. It’s not something you can type up in 5 minutes. And factor in too the time you need to resize photos or Photoshop them properly before you add them to your blog. So all in all, it’s not that easy or simple to be a serious blogger (or one that makes moolah from blogging).
It’s not rocket science if you start with a simple blog solution like Blogger.com. The advantages? It is free and easy to start. It doesn’t need much technical knowledge (unlike other blog solutions such as WordPress). WordPress however is fairly popular and has lots of expansion potential and flexibility and is great for those who want to totally personalise their blogs.
To start your blog, just go to http://www.blogger.com. You must first have an account with Blogger (Blogger has been bought over by Google so if you have a Gmail account, signing up is even easier!).
The cool thing is, they’ve got new features which allow you to drag and drop features so you can in a way ‘design’ how you want your blog to look like. You can even change colours of the background and text quickly to reflect the kind of theme you want.
They’ve even thought about privacy. Let’s say you want to create a blog just to update family and friends about your life (which saves you the trouble of repeating yourself in your emails anyway) – well, you can set permissions within Blogger and only those you allow will be able to view your blog.
Or say you want to have a community blog where you and your friends/colleagues take turns to write about matters close to your hearts. You can have multiple authors in Blogger so everyone gets a chance to blog as and when they wish, from wherever they are.
Like Blogger says, you only have 3 simple steps to follow:
1. Create an account
2. Name your blog
3. Choose a blog template
When you are at http://www.Blogger.com, click on the orange arrow which says “Create your blog now”. You will be taken to a page which asks you to create a Google/Gmail account if you don’t already have one.
Next, you will be asked to name your blog. This will identify your blog from the gazillions of blogs out on the web. Remember, your blogname will be followed by blogspot.com (unless you buy a domain name of your own and use it to mask the blogspot URL). For instance, if the blog name is AuntieMargaretStories then the blog will be AuntieMargaretStories.blogspot.com when it is created. But before that name can be yours, you need to check its availability. So think of more creative names (well, it also helps you stand out anyway).
If you wish to host your blog somewhere other than Blogger, you can do that too. If you choose this option (under Advanced Blog Setup), you need to fill in your web server details.
After that, you are almost done. The next step is to choose how you want your blog to look like to the world by choosing the blog template you like. And that’s it – once that’s done, you can start posting!
And if you ever get stuck, you can refer to the Blogger Help Resources section at http://help.blogger.com which really is quite helpful with its tips, tricks and additional information.
if you are interested in checking it out, click here to find out more
Here’s to Happy Blogging!
Blog for make money..Why?
Blogging has become the choice of website for many people including online business owners. There are millions of blogs on the internet today with an estimated 46,000 being started each day. These blogs are range anywhere from personal diaries, corporate press release outlets, and places to showcase art and photography. That list also includes affiliates. Why? Why should you, as an affiliate marketer, have a blog?
1. Credibility
The way people buy things on the internet is changing. People want to see that they get their money’s worth. A blog will help bridge the gap between anonymous and personal. That sets a person at ease and gives them a more comfortable feeling.
2. Content
The affiliate marketer’s lifeblood is in content. A blog gives you the freedom to produce that content free from an rules or restrictions. Podcasts, videos, and articles can all be showcased for readers to look through.
3. Search Engine Power
Search engines love blogs. They are always updated and keep a fresh supply of content for the search engine spiders to feed on. Some of the top results in search engines are blogs.
4. Consolidation
A blog will help you consolidate all your social marketing efforts into one single place. This way you can have one profile page to send visitors to.
5. Interaction
Blogs have an awesome feature built into them called comments. The comment section allows your visitors to leave comments about your blog post and even interact with each other. This is a great way for reviews of a product or to answer questions.
6. Ease of Use
HTML requires a learning curve. Blogging doesn’t. You can even get started blogging for free with an account at BloggerDotCom. Sure, you can get pretty sophisticated with the design, and if you want to learn PHP or CSS programming it will add to your blogging, but for the most part you can blog stress free.
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