power up your blog

It seems everyone has a blog these days: Journalists who want to share the story beyond the story; teenagers who want to share the details of their lives with their friends and families; and businesses that want to establish a loyal customer base.

A blog is an essential marketing tool for all internet marketers and online business owners. Fortunately, learning how to set up a blog is actually quite simple.

Decide on a domain name. The first step in learning how to set up a blog is to decide on a domain name for your blog. You can set up a blog for free at such sites as Blogger.com. However, if you want to present yourself and your business professionally, it’s better to purchase your own domain name. Additionally, make sure that when you register a domain name that you are the owner of the domain name rather than the domain registrant company holding ownership.

Purchase Web hosting. Once you have a domain name, you’ll be able to purchase Web hosting. The good news is Web hosting is relatively affordable, and you can find hosting for as little as seven dollars a month. Purchasing Web hosting is essential in learning how to set up a blog.

Use Word Press. Word Press is the most popular blogging platform. Many Web hosts make setting up a Word Press blog simple. If your Web host offers Fantastico, you simply need to log in to your control panel, click on Fantastico, click on Word Press, and follow the simple steps.

If you really want to know how to set up a blog yourself, however, you can manually install Word Press by going to http://www.wordpress.com and downloading Word Press. Follow the instructions and within five minutes, you’ll be ready to go.

Choose a theme for your blog. Word Press allows you to choose from one of hundreds of themes for your blog. The best news is Word Press themes are free. Choose a theme that meshes with your blog’s topic. If you’re computer-savvy, you can design your own blog theme.

Customize your blog’s theme. Customizing your blog’s theme isn’t essential, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. But, if you do have the skills to customize your blog, do it. Even a few subtle changes to the theme will help you set your blog apart from anyone else with a blog that has the same theme.

Write and publish your first blog entry.

Once your theme is finished, you’re ready to write your first blog entry. The most successful blog [http://www.rockettheprofit.com/blogging2.htm] entries are those that are timely and newsworthy.

If you follow the preceding steps, you’ll now know how to set up a blog with ease. Remember, the key to your blogging success is to aggressively market your blog and post newsworthy, thought-provoking entries on a regular basis.

You’ve created your blog.

Now you need a blog design that will make it look good for your viewers.

The easiest way to do this is by using a free blog template.

Amazingly, there are lots of people out there who are very happy to create blog templates that you can use for free.

I guess that’s why there are so many starving artists. But, hey, why not take advantage and use a free blog template.

Incidentally, if you’re using WordPress, my favorite blog platform, you need to remember that they call a blog template a blog theme. So you may need to expand your search to include free blog theme.

Actually, with WordPress it’s really easy to find a free blog template.

Go into the presentation section of your blog’s control panel.

Scroll down the page.

You’ll see a section that says “Get more themes”.

Click on the link that is in that section and you’ll get a screen with more free blog templates than you’ll get to use in this lifetime.

In fact, if this is the first time you’ve used this screen to find your free blog template, it can be a bit daunting.

They almost all look good.

But which one to use?

Start by deciding how many columns you want your free blog template to have. Personally, I tend to use two columns but it’s completely your choice.

Then narrow your choice down by color scheme. A bright red blog template isn’t likely to work with a blog that encourages people to relax. But there are instances where it would be ok.

After that, assuming you’ve chosen a two column blog template, decide whether you want the sidebar on the left or the right. The sidebar is the narrower column and usually contains links to your blog’s articles. A lot of people also use it to monetize their blog with things like Google Adsense.

Click the “show” button and the screen will refresh to reflect your choices.

Then it’s a matter of looking at the thumbnail images that appear. If any of these free blog templates looks good, click the “test run” button to double check it full screen.

If it still looks good, download it to your hard drive and then upload it to your web hosting, following the simple instructions on your WordPress control panel.

Then press “refresh” on your control panel screen and select the new theme.

Congratulations, you’ve just installed a new free blog template.
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Are you ready to start a website? Have you been wondering what format your site should be set up in, with all the choices there are out there? Then you really should consider using WordPress.

You likely know WordPress as one of the most popular blogging platforms available but it can do so much more then use let you post a few entries to your blog. Using WordPress as a Website or CMS (Content Management System) has many advantages, here are some to consider:

- Easy Setup:
Setting up WordPress is easy. If you have fantastico in your domain’s control panel then in a few clicks you’ll have WordPress up and running. If you don’t have fantastico then you can do a manual install, which takes a little more time but isn’t complicated if you follow the directions. If you are uncomfortable with either of those options you can always hire someone to do it for you. It won’t be pricey to do this as it doesn’t take a long time for someone who knows what their doing.

- User Updates:
Updating a traditional website that was built by someone else can be costly to the site owner because you have to pay a designer, you also have the wait while they get back to you and actually get it done for you. Using a system like WordPress is much more user-friendly and easier to learn. You can be updating your own site in no time and changes are instant – you don’t have to wait for a designer to have time to do the edits for you!

- Easily Outsourced:
Another great advantage to using WordPress for your website is that you can easily outsource website updates and changes. You can set your virtual assistant up with their own username and password and all she’ll need to do is log in online to work on your site. No making sure you have the most recent version of a website or making sure you don’t overwrite someone else’s work.

- Management of Content:
A great thing about using WordPress as a website is the use of the Categories and Archives that are built into the program. You can categorize your content into different sections and WordPress will automatically sort it for you.

- Search Engine Friendly:
Search engines love websites that are frequently updated. Because of the nature of blogs and WordPress you’ll likely be updating very frequently and this is good news for your search engine rankings. You’ll also be found in the blog search engines which can also give your site a boost.

- RSS Feed Subscriptions:
When you use create a website using WordPress you also get a RSS feed. Now readers of your site can subscribe to your RSS feed and be notified every time you add new content to the site. This is a great way to keep your website ‘sticky’ and have people coming back for more information.

That should give you just a few ideas on how you can start using WordPress to create a website that draws in more traffic and makes your life easier.
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