» Creating A Blog

If you’ve recently moved to your first hosting package you may be struggling to get to grips with getting the files you want online. When using a web-based host, such as Wordpress.com, you don’t have access to your root domain but once you move over to Wordpress.org (or another self-hosted platform), you’ll need to learn how to properly use an FTP Client as it will be instrumental in the installation and maintenance of your blog.

First, the term “FTP” stands for File Transfer Protocol which in simple terms is the program you’ll use to transfer files from your computer to your website. Think of it as the car which will get you from home to work.

There are many places to download FTP clients and most are free. I personally suggest you visit a trusted website like Downloads.com (click here to visit) and download whatever FTP client you’d like. They’re sorted by popularity, so, pick one of the more popular ones in case you need some support.

Once you’ve installed the program after download, the next thing you’ll need to do is input the needed information which will be the “address”, “username”, and “password”…all information you’ll receive in an e-mail from your host once you’ve paid. There might be some additional fields that would like information, such as “description” or “name” and you can fill those out if you are so inclined. Once done, “connect” and you should be connected to your blogs root domain. One final tip you might want to look at however is the “Transfer File Type”. There will be an option for “auto”, “ASCII” or “binary”. You’ll want to leave this on “auto” unless told otherwise.

After you’ve completed these steps, the last thing you’ll need to do is transfer files. You should see the files and/or folders on your computer to your left and the directory of your blog/website on the right. Simply drag them over and they’ll then be begin  to transfer. That’s it! You’ve transferred files!

If you are setting up a Wordpress.org blog, once you’ve transferred over the folder/files that it tells you to do in the Wordpress instruction/readme file, you then will need to actually go to that directory (literally type it out in your web browser). For example, once the files have transferred over, you will need to type out “http://www.YOURSITENAMEHERE.com/wordpress/wp-admin” and let the script run, which will install your blog.

If you’re an experienced blogger, you might not have too many difficulties installing Wordpress. However, if you’re new to blogging you might run into trouble - and don’t feel bad, I was there as well.

There are a few ways to get around the manual instillation of Wordpress on your blog, one of which would be sign up with a website hosting company that offers “Fantastico”, which is a one click install of Wordpress. The most popular host that uses this service would be GoDaddy.com.

If you are not using a host that offers “Fantastico” though, there are other options that can be looked at, as explained by DailyBlogTips.com:

Not all hosting companies offer Fantastico, though, and maybe you already signed up on one and can’t change now. For those people there is a new tool called EasyWP Install. It is basically a PHP script that you need to upload to your server and execute by accessing www.yourdomain.com/easywp.php. The script will then download all the WordPress files automatically and put them on your server. After that you will just need to finish the installation by going through the WordPress setup.

To read the full article, click the following link - DailyBlogTips.com

As somebody who has installed the Wordpress software using all three of these methods, I would recommend using a host that uses a “Fantastico” script which will allow you to have a one click instillation of the software. If you do choose a host without the ability to use the “Fantastico” script, then using the EasyWP Install would be your next best option, especially if you’re new to the software.

You know, this might come off as the easiest thing to do when starting a blog, but, there is a lot that goes into a blog name that most do not realize. Check out DailyBlogTips.com and see what their thoughts are when it comes to giving your blog a name.

There are three simple rules to follow when choosing a blog name:

1) It must describe your blog: it is probable that lots of people will see a link to your blog before having the chance to actually read it (in search engines, for instance). Guess what, if just by looking at the name they can figure what the blog is about they will be more likely to visit it.

To see the rest of the article click the link below:

Resource: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/how-to-choose-a-blog-name/

I’ll be honest - if you’ve never started your own blog before, it can be quite a challenge as to where to start. What types of things should you do first? What are your first steps? One of the best 10-step methods I’ve found on the internet is from BusinessBloggingGuide.com. They’ve got a very detailed and easy 10-step method for new bloggers to follow, which I’ve put below:

When starting a blog for the first time you will want to do a bit of research to make sure to avoid some common mistakes - mistakes I made when I was new that I cannot correct now. I came up with these 10 steps to give you a basic outline of what I think you need to start a blog.

You could just go to Blogger or WordPress and within 5 minutes have a basic blog in place but preparing just a bit by using these steps will help you avoid mistakes in the future. Some mistakes like picking your topic, blog title or blog URL aren’t that easy to fix later.

If you are just setting up a blog for fun then just go ahead and throw it up because it doesn’t matter. You are doing it for fun. But if you want to start a blog to drive traffic to your business website or you want to start a blog so you can make the blog your business you will want to plan your blog carefully.

Step 1: Pick your blog’s topic - what is your blog about?

Multiple Topics
If you are starting a blog for fun then your blog could be about a variety of topics. You may attract readers for various reasons because you will be writing about various topics. In time, however, you may upset some readers each time you change a topic. They found you because of a specific thing you were writing about and then you change in a totally different direction. Other readers may not mind.

Single Theme
If you are setting up a blog for business purposes then your blog should have one overall theme or topic. This way you can optimize the posts and keywords you want to rank for on the SERPs (search engine results pages). Your readers will be much happier because you won’t be all over the place. They come to your blog for a specific reason - because you are an expert, or are at least knowledgeable, about certain things. They search for a topic, they find you, you give them answers on their topic, everyone is happy!

This doesn’t mean that you have to write about one thing every time you write a blog post. It means that the topics all fit within a common theme. Think of your posts like a book. The book is about one specific theme but each chapter in that book is about slightly different topics that all fit together nicely within the book’s theme. Of course, we hope your book will be about one subject and not a novel (personal blog).

I wrote a long post on picking your blog’s topic you might want to read.

Step 2: What kind of blog will you run? Social? Search Engine?

There are really 2 very distinct types of blogs - social blogs and search engine blogs. However, that doesn’t mean that a blog can’t be both.

A social blog is a blog that attracts readers that make comments and stick around to see what you will say next. You are writing content that solves a problem for your reader, makes them laugh, encourages them to be social or maybe creates a sense of community. You will spend a lot of time writing to make your readers happy, using social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter to get more people to read your blog, commenting on other blogs to leave a trail for people to follow back to your blog, and generally interacting with your readers. You are the expert and your readers are coming to you for various reasons.

A search engine blog is a blog that is written to attract search engine visitors and not loyal readers. People who use search engines are looking to solve a problem. They ask the search engine a question and it comes back with results. When they visit a blog or website they are hoping to solve their problem by reading the information that is found on that blog or website. The best thing you can do is to NOT solve their problem. You should give them good information but let the ads you place on your site solve the problem. They will click the ads and are on their merry way, leaving you with a nice fat paycheck at the end of the month.

I will have to thank Grizzly for teaching me this little gem. It really does make sense if you are trying to make money with your blog and want to attract search engine visitors to let the advertisements solve your visitor’s problems.

Social and Search Engine blog
You attract readers who like what you say and stick around to read more. They come all of the time and hang on your every word (one can hope can’t they?). Every once and awhile they click on an ad that is relevant to them.

You also attract people who have no use for what you write about, don’t like your “butt ugly” blog design, maybe are offended by what you say and leave by clicking on your ads, thus helping you to earn some money. This is an example of a social blog that also can be a search engine blog. It attracts search engine visitors because you are ranking for specific keywords, those visitors don’t find the answer they need and they move on to the next site, hopefully through your ads.

I think most blogs are a combination of both social and search engine.

Step 3: Pick a Blogging System

When starting a blog you will want to figure out what blogging system best suits your personality. Do you want to use Blogger which is owned by Google, hosts all of your blog files and domain name for free? Do you want to use WordPress and pay for monthly hosting and have better template options? Then there is also TypePad, Drupal, and many more. Each blogging system has something different to offer so you should do some research to figure out which system has what you need.

Step 4: Pick your Blog’s URL

Even though this is step 4 in starting your blog it really should be step 2 because after picking your topic this is the next most important part of starting a blog. And, if you pick the wrong URL you can’t change it. You can setup a new blog and start over but why not put some thought in what your URL should be and get it right the first time.

Your URL (Universal Resource Locator) is the address people will use to find your blog. In previous articles I talked about the difference in using a free blog URL or buying your own domain name. I said that most of the time people probably don’t type your domain name into the browser’s address bar. One of my other blogs is getting quite popular and I have been watching the statistics along the way to find out how people are getting to my blog. I was totally surprised to find that 30% of them are actually typing the URL in the browser’s address bar. That means that owning a domain name is more important than I originally thought.

So, because of this, you need to think long and hard about the right domain name for your blog. Your blog’s domain name should be easy to remember and it also should have your blog’s topic or main keyword in it. The topic of your blog, the domain name for your blog, and the keywords you use when you write posts will all work together to help drive traffic from search engines. These 3 components are the most important factors when starting a blog if you want to get it right the first time.

To see the rest of the article click the link below:

Resource: http://www.businessbloggingguide.com/2009/02/10-steps-to-start-blog-right-way.html