Blogging Plan - Day 3

On the second day we signed up f web hosting and created our blog using cPanel.

Day 3 – Configuring Wordpress

Objective: To make your blog search-engine friendly, and to give it the look and feel you want.

Open your FTP program and connect to your web hosting. To do this, enter the FTP details (refer to setup email sent by your hosting company) into Filezilla or any other FTP program, and click on connect. You’ll then see a list of folders, look for the folder called “www” or “public_html” and get into that.

You should see all your Wordpress files here, and do a CHMOD 755 to these files:
Your .htaccess file
Your wp-content folder

Using the FTP, upload all the plugins we’ve provided to your wp-content/plugins folder. Make sure you upload the folder contents only (not the ZIP file). Refer to our video tutorials if you’re not too sure how to do this. Check if these plugins appear under the Plugins menu, but
activate any yet.

Login to your Wordpress, and go to Options > General. Give your blog a “Weblog Title” and “Tagline”. Cross check with your list of keywords to determine how to do this right. Then go to Options > Permalinks and modify this to be more search-engine friendly.

Next, activate the “All-In-One SEO” plugin from your plugins page.

Using your FTP program, upload all the provided Wordpress themes into the wp-content/themes folder.

Among the important things you need to do:

• Upload to the correct folder, and upload only the folders containing the actual PHP files. Do not upload ZIP files here, you’ll need to unzip it first on your PC
• Set the correct CHMOD of 755 to the selected theme files according to the theme instruction files
• Enter your Clickbank ID, Google Adsense ID, and MyBlogLog ID to customize the theme

Note: If you don’t already have an Adsense account, you can ignore the field for Adsense ID till you’ve created an account. Remember you’ll need to add a few solid pages of content first, and then you can apply for an Adsense account.

You’ll need to modify the design of your theme header to match the topic of your site. You can do this either by:

1. Editing the source PHD file in Adobe Photoshop
2. Creating a brand new one, 960 pixels wide and 100 pixels high, with a free tool called Gimp
   
3. Posting your requirement in our forum. Ask someone to help you modify the design in return for a small fee

You may want to create a “Contact Us” page. To do that, first activate the “Contact Form” plugin in your Wordpress, and then create a new page. In the new page, just put in the codes that will automatically generate your contact form.

Congratulations! You have successfully created a “search-engine-optimized” and “adsense-ready” blog. Take a break and give yourself a pat on the back. Call a friend and brag about your site.

Note: If anything goes wrong while editing themes and templates, just upload the same file again to your hosting account with FTP and re-do the process. If there is an option in your FTP to upload using “Binary” mode, use it. Uploading in this mode is ideal for Wordpress files.

Next Day...

Blogging Plan - Day 2

On the first day we decided the niche and the domain we want.

Day 2 – Get Wordpress Set-up

Objective: To get a hosting account and set-up your Wordpress blog. Then, write a post to introduce it to the world.


Now it’s time to get web hosting. Since this is your first site, go to Hostgator or any other webhosting company you like and choose the most affordable hosting package. You can always upgrade later. Pay for the hosting on a half-yearly or yearly basis to save cost.

Your hosting company will send you an email containing details on how to access you account which included information on a primary and secondary nameserver, which may look like this:

ns1.hostingpremium.net
ns2.hostingpremiun.net

Just search your emails for the words “ns1” and “ns2” and you should be able to find this.

Login to your domain registrar and click on your domain name. On the right will be a section for DNS settings. Enter your DNS address here and save it. This is done to point your address (domain name) to your home (hosting).

Login to your hosting account’s Cpanel and click around the various buttons just to see what they’re about.

Now look for the “Fantastico” function, and use it to set-up your blog. You can either set up your Wordpress on the main domain itself, or on a subfolder if you want to use the main page for something else.

Login to your Wordpress account. You can do this by going to yourdomain.com/wp-admin. If you installed WP on a subfolder, go to yourdomain.com/foldername/wp-admin

You will see a default post and comment and you can delete both. Next, go to your Blogroll, and you can also delete all the default links that appear there.

Go to Write > Post and create your first post in WP. Just say something about the topic you’re going to write about. Click on “Publish” to make the post go live on your blog. Explore the other function on your blog. Just click around to get familiar with Wordpress.

Put everything aside and take a rest.

Next Day...

New Blogging Plan

Day 1 – Prepare a Plan

Objective: Decide on a topic you want to write about, and get a domain name.

If you want, subscribe to NicheADay to get more ideas on good niche markets and niche keywords you can use to build Adsense sites. Readmore about keywords and how to select good keywords.

Go to the Yahoo search tool and type in a few keywords. Spend some time exploring this tool, and see how each keyword is represented here. Try to see the relationship between the main keyword you typed in, and all the other keywords given by the software. After exploring different keywords, decide on 3-5 main keywords in different markets and write them down.

Think about which topic would be the easiest for you to start on NOW, without any additional research. Eliminate the rest and choose only one topic. Identify your main keyword that will be used on your site.

Download Good Keywords and using your 3 main keywords, try to get a list of as many other related keywords. Arrange these by groups in an Excel sheet, putting all related keywords
into a group, forming 3 separate Excel sheets. The data should contain the keyword name, and right next to it the amount of searches last month.

Choose ONE group of keywords, Make sure this group has enough smaller keywords within it (at least 30), and this will form the topic of your first Adsense site. Identify your primary keyword (can only be one), and also your secondary and long tail keywords. Rearrange these keywords in 3 separate columns to make it more meaningful.

Now go at GoDaddy or any other site you want and search for a domain name. A domain name is the “address” of your new website. Without an address no one will find you on the Internet. Make sure your domain name contains the keywords you’ve chosen earlier.

Did you find a .com domain name for the keyword? Register this domain name. Choose a one-year registration for now. Make a payment, and keep the email receipt for your business / tax purposes. Your domain will take a few hours to be fully registered.

Take a rest and do something you like. Read a book on the topic you’ve just decided on, or watch a TV program about it. You can also just go to sleep.

Next Day...