Setting up your Blog – Hosting and Domain Name

Personalising your Blog – Graphics and Style – Templates

Choosing the right theme

Choosing the right graphics

Plug ins to make your Blog Interactive

Posting to your Blog

Monetising your Blog

Could you become an Expert Blogger to other Blogs

 

Setting Up Your Blog

 

In order for your blog to be taken seriously, you should consider hosting it yourself on your own website domain name and hosting. This is really easy to set up and it will set you apart from those who use free services such as blogger.com

 

One of the things blogger.com doesn't like so much is advertising on their blogs, if you use blogger.com and they dislike your blog, they will disable it and all your hard work will be gone with the click of their mouse.

 

The best hosting to host a blog is one that has “cpanel” and “fantastico” features, there are so many hosting providers that you will not have any problem finding one that you can afford. For less than $5 a month for hosting, you could be earning more $ per month back. It is easier to host a blog on Linux hosting than it is on Windows hosting.

 

Before we delve into hosting – we'd better get a domain name registered.

Think very carefully about what best describes what your blog is going to be about. A relevant name targeted to your specific niche will an advantage.

 

For example my friend Pete loves fishing now if he wanted to start a blog about his hobby if he went and registered petelovesfishing.com he wouldn't stand a chance in the search engines, his traffic to his site would be dire.

 

One important thing to remember is that a blog is a personal site, so try to get your name and hobby into the domain name you are going to register.

 

Let's look at my friend Pete again, his full name is Pete Clapton, so his best site name would be peteclapton.com or peteclapton.co.uk depending on where he lives. Pete's one lucky dude, his name is available to register, but what if it wasn't? Well then he'd have to brainstorm a little and find the nearest ideal name available.

 

Let's think about what he's going to blog about, his love of fishing, so we'll add those into the mix too, we'll search again and find that peteclaptonsfishingtips.com is available.

 

That is even better because not only have we got his full name in the URL we also have the description of what his site is going to be about “his fishing tips”. It doesn't matter too much that is is a long URL to remember, if people like his site, they will bookmark it and add it to their favourites.

 

 

Personalising Your Blog

 

You can have a custom header created for your theme (or make one yourself in any graphics editor) Just upload it into the appropriate place on your website usually wp_content / themes / theme folder/ images.

 

You may have to hunt around your server a little bit to find the right header graphic to replace, it could be called anything from “header.png” “header.jpg”, “header.gif” or “Logo.gif” or “Logo.jpg”. Just make sure your new header is exactly the same size as the one you are going to replace.

 

The default header in the default Wordpress installation is 760 x 200 pixels, other templates have different size header graphic files.

      

Do not steal other peoples graphics. Yes it is easy to do, but it is not legal and you could get into serious trouble. If you do find a picture on someone else's site don't steal it, ask permission to use it. Or better yet, make your own.

 

Any graphics editor can be used to make your own unique header, from photoshop to paint.net. There are even free header programs available on the web. One really good free one is xheaderxheader free header maker

 

I have listed some great resources for you on the resources page.

For free to use graphics, here are one or two sites to get you started.

 

1. Free web graphics http://www.freeimages.co.uk/

2. Free web icons and templates http://www.freegraphicsworld.com/ 

3. Public image archive http://www.morguefile.com/

 

When using images that you have not taken yourself, always check out the licence terms and comply with them

 

And much more...

 

Master Resell Rights License

 

[YES] Can sell and keep 100% of the sales.

[YES] Can edit the sales letter and graphics.

[YES] Can be bundled into another paid package and sell at a higher price. 

[YES] Can be used as a bonus to another product you are selling.

[YES] Can be added into a membership site.

[YES] Can pass on the Resell Rights privilege to your customers.

[YES] Can pass on the Master Resell Rights privilege to your customers. [YES] Can be given away for free.

[NO] Contents of the product can be edited, modified or altered.

[NO] CANNOT be sold with private label rights