What are WordPress Plugins and How Do They Work?

The concept of WordPress plugins was briefly discussed in an earlier article in this series, but they are definitely worth revisiting. Plugins serve as a critical part of your WordPress blog and so it is important that you recognize what they are, how you can get them, and what they can do for you.

Expanding and Customizing WordPress

The official definition coming from WordPress is that plugins “can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine.” In short, these are smaller software components that can add specific capabilities to a larger software application (like WordPress). They are not programs themselves, but they act as an add-on or expansion pack, so to speak.

WordPress plugins can affect just about every aspect of your WordPress blog. There are plugins to change how you interact with the administration control panel. There are plugins that help integrate your blog with your social networking profiles. There are plugins that change certain aspects of how your blog looks to readers. There are plugins that work behind the scenes to make for a better blog. They really can change just about anything.

A good analogy to consider would be car modifications. If you think of WordPress as your car, then plugins would be such things as car stereos, new paint jobs, new steering wheels, upgraded exhaust systems, rear spoilers, new tires, sportier suspension, and so forth. The car itself is still the same car, so to speak, but these accessories and upgrades can completely change not only how you interact with the car, but also the car’s performance and how it is viewed by people on the street.

Free and Paid Plugins

Just as there are both free and premium (paid) WordPress themes, the exact same thing can be found when it comes to WordPress plugins as well.

In addition to the free WordPress plugins that developers give away on their own websites, there is also the official Plugin Directory on WordPress.org. There are currently over 12,000 free plugins available there.

Premium plugins are sold through a number of different marketplaces, like Clickbank, as well as through the sites and online stores of the developers themselves. Pricing can range considerably with many of the most popular and most powerful WordPress plugins selling for hundreds of dollars. Some of these, for instance, are able to convert WordPress into a true e-commerce solution, complete with PayPal and Google Checkout integration.

How to Install and Activate

The process of installing a WordPress plugin is easier than ever.

Log into the WordPress control panel using your admin account. Click on the “Plugins” area in the sidebar to reach the main plugins screen. From there, you can see a button near the top that says “Add New.” From here, you can search for new plugins or upload one that you have already downloaded.

In the past, it was your responsibility to download the plugin, extract it from its compressed folder (if necessary), and upload it to the appropriate directory on your blog using an FTP program. That is no longer the case. Even if you don’t use the search function, you can upload a new plugin in its compressed .zip format directly from the WordPress control panel.

After the upload has completed, you activate the plugin through the main plugins screen. Depending on the WordPress plugin, you may then need to configure its options through the Tools or Settings sections in the control panel. Be sure to read the specific instructions (usually found on the plugin’s website or through a “readme” file) for further direction.

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What are WordPress Plugins and How Do They Work?

The concept of WordPress plugins was briefly discussed in an earlier article in this series, but they are definitely worth revisiting. Plugins serve as a critical part of your WordPress blog and so it is important that you recognize what they are, how you can get them, and what they can do for you.

Expanding and Customizing WordPress

The official definition coming from WordPress is that plugins “can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine.” In short, these are smaller software components that can add specific capabilities to a larger software application (like WordPress). They are not programs themselves, but they act as an add-on or expansion pack, so to speak.

WordPress plugins can affect just about every aspect of your WordPress blog. There are plugins to change how you interact with the administration control panel. There are plugins that help integrate your blog with your social networking profiles. There are plugins that change certain aspects of how your blog looks to readers. There are plugins that work behind the scenes to make for a better blog. They really can change just about anything.

A good analogy to consider would be car modifications. If you think of WordPress as your car, then plugins would be such things as car stereos, new paint jobs, new steering wheels, upgraded exhaust systems, rear spoilers, new tires, sportier suspension, and so forth. The car itself is still the same car, so to speak, but these accessories and upgrades can completely change not only how you interact with the car, but also the car’s performance and how it is viewed by people on the street.

Free and Paid Plugins

Just as there are both free and premium (paid) WordPress themes, the exact same thing can be found when it comes to WordPress plugins as well.

In addition to the free WordPress plugins that developers give away on their own websites, there is also the official Plugin Directory on WordPress.org. There are currently over 12,000 free plugins available there.

Premium plugins are sold through a number of different marketplaces, like Clickbank, as well as through the sites and online stores of the developers themselves. Pricing can range considerably with many of the most popular and most powerful WordPress plugins selling for hundreds of dollars. Some of these, for instance, are able to convert WordPress into a true e-commerce solution, complete with PayPal and Google Checkout integration.

How to Install and Activate

The process of installing a WordPress plugin is easier than ever.

Log into the WordPress control panel using your admin account. Click on the “Plugins” area in the sidebar to reach the main plugins screen. From there, you can see a button near the top that says “Add New.” From here, you can search for new plugins or upload one that you have already downloaded.

In the past, it was your responsibility to download the plugin, extract it from its compressed folder (if necessary), and upload it to the appropriate directory on your blog using an FTP program. That is no longer the case. Even if you don’t use the search function, you can upload a new plugin in its compressed .zip format directly from the WordPress control panel.

After the upload has completed, you activate the plugin through the main plugins screen. Depending on the WordPress plugin, you may then need to configure its options through the Tools or Settings sections in the control panel. Be sure to read the specific instructions (usually found on the plugin’s website or through a “readme” file) for further direction.

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What Are You Going to Blog About

Blogging is a very worthwhile endeavor, but even before you dive into a conversation of finding the right web hosts or how you will go about monetizing your site, there is one very important question that needs to be addressed: Why are you going to blog and what are you going to blog about? You need answers to these before you can even start blogging in the first place.
Sure, asking what you’re going to blog about seems like simple enough of a question, but depending on your answer, the goals for your blog can swing heavily. Your blog can become a very different kind of website and your strategies can be vastly different too.
Blogging for Fun
If you are going to blog simply for the fun of blogging, you really can choose any topic that you’d like for your blog. The majority of people who start their first blog are creating personal blogs. With these kinds of sites, the blogger usually discusses personal interests or offers an online diary of sorts.
These kinds of blogs are great for learning how to blog, making new friends online that might share the same interests. For example, you might be a big fan of the Vancouver Canucks and you start a hockey blog. The goal is to have a good time, just because you want to have a proper venue for voicing your opinions. You might then get in contact with other Canucks fans around the city.
When you’re blogging for fun, just about any topic will do. This is because you are likely less concerned with profitability and other metrics. It’s more about making friends, having a proper venue to have your voice heard, and learning about the different technologies and innovations that are available to bloggers today.
Blogging for Business
If you are going to blog as a branding exercise for your company, your goals can be very different from a personal blog. Corporate blogs and official company blogs are an entirely different animal from the blog of a regular individual.
With business blogs, two main trends seem to emerge. On the one hand, some companies will only blog about company business. They may offer customers and partners an “insider’s look” into the company, showing them what happens behind the scenes. This is the case with the Disney Parks blog, for instance. They can also use the blog to highlight new products and other company announcements.
Alternatively, some companies use their blogs as a way to establish themselves as experts in their field. While some posts relate directly back to the company itself, many blog posts are simply about that particular industry. A financial services firm, for example, may offer posts that discuss the current economy, setting up your accounting books, and so forth.
Blogging for Money
More and more people are getting into blogging with the sole purpose of making money from them. They see larger sites like Engadget and TMZ making substantial amounts of money and they want to get in on the action. This is perfectly understandable.
If you are thinking about starting a blog with the goal of turning it into a viable business on its own, then you will have to take a completely different approach than you would with a personal blog or a corporate blog.
In the next chapter, we will discuss in detail how you can go about finding the right and profitable niche for you to start blogging about. Choosing the right subject matter can mean the difference between making thousands of dollars a month or barely being able to afford the hosting costs.

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Connecting Your Blog With RSS, Social Media and Email

Before you start creating a ton of content for your blog, just hoping for random people to start stumbling upon your site, it’s important to put the right tools in place to get it noticed. A big part of this is working to connect your blog to the major social networks, as well as a better way to connect with your readers through e-mail and RSS.

Don’t know how to do this? Don’t know the deal with RSS and why it matters? Don’t worry: we’re here to help you out with that too.

RSS and E-Mail Subscriptions

What is RSS and what is with all this talk of feed readers? RSS, most commonly understood as Really Simple Syndication, is a family of web formats that are used to publish frequently updated work, as would be the case with blog entries. By offering an RSS feed, readers are notified when there are new posts on your blog and they are able to read these new articles through services like Google Reader.

The good news is that WordPress will automatically generate an RSS feed for your blog and this can be accessed at http://yourblogdomain.com/feed. The bad news is that this feed can be somewhat limited in its functionality and that’s why we recommend that you sign up for a free account with Feedburner.

By allowing Feedburner to manage the RSS feed on your blog, you are able to know exactly how many people are subscribed to your feed, as well as other useful tidbits of information. You should promote your RSS feed on your blog as it helps to grow a loyal readership.

Even for people who don’t use feed readers (also known as aggregators) like Google Reader, RSS has immense value. That’s because Feedburner also allows you to offer e-mail subscriptions. When someone signs up for your e-mail updates, he or she will get an e-mail message when you have a new blog post. This encourages repeat readership and brand loyalty.

A Facebook Fan Page

Every blog should have a Facebook fan page. Note that this is distinctly different from your standard Facebook profile page, because a fan page is not associated with a person; it’s associated with a brand or product. In this case, that would be your blog.

While you are limited to the number of friends you can have on Facebook, you are not limited to the number of fans you can have on a Facebook page. It also helps to separate your personal life from material that is directly (and only) related to your blog.

You can even syndicate the RSS feed from your blog through your Facebook fan page. Check out Facebook applications like Social RSS and RSS Graffiti to do that.

A Blog’s Twitter Account

Twitter is a great way to stay connected and engaged with the readers on your blog. Every blog should have a Twitter account. This way, readers can interact with you in real-time, helping you “retweet” your blog posts, promote your contests, and all sorts of other wonderful things.

Just as you can syndicate your blog’s RSS feed through e-mail and Facebook, you can also do this with Twitter. There are many different ways to do this. There are WordPress plugins, like WordTwit, that offer this functionality, as well as online services like SocialOomph and Hootsuite.

Other Networks and Services

As much as we love our own blogs, not everyone has the time to visit each blog they enjoy every day to find the latest content. That’s why RSS, Facebook, and Twitter are such powerful channels for staying connected with your readership.

Depending on the nature of your blog, it may also be worthwhile to connect your blog with other social networks too. Flickr is great for images, YouTube for videos, and so on.

Be sure to do “cross promotion” with these accounts too. Actively promote your Facebook and Twitter profiles on your blog, and actively promote your blog on your Facebook pages and Twitter accounts too. This greatly helps to strengthen and reinforce your blog’s brand, lending itself to greater success.

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Customizing Blog Theme Layouts and WordPress Options

When it comes to your home computer, you may have taken the time to choose a new wallpaper, install your favorite applications, and do other customizations so that it works just the way you want it to work. Your blog should be no different. In fact, it’s even more important that you take the time to customize your blog, because you’re sharing it with everyone on the Internet!

Thankfully, customizing the various options and features in WordPress is a very straightforward and easy-to-understand process. You could stick with the default settings, if you’d like, but you can do so much more by adjusting a few options here and there.

New Layouts, Themes, and Templates

Under the “Appearance” section in the WordPress administration panel, you’ll find the ability to customize the layout and general “look” of your blog. This starts by choosing a theme.

We’ll be going into further detail in future chapters, but the gist of it is that you can download and install different themes for your blog. This defines the layout, color scheme of links, and other features that are pertinent to the look and feel of your blog. There are many free themes available on the Internet, as well as premium paid themes and the ability to get custom themes too.

Most contemporary WordPress themes, which are sometimes called templates, provide what is known as widget support. This means that you can customize the content located in the sidebar of your blog without having to go into the actual “code” of your blog. Widgets can easily be moved, rearranged, and changed. Common widgets include category listings, search bars, and recent comments.

Installing WordPress Plugins

Another great way to customize your WordPress blog is through what are known as plugins. Just like the themes described above, there are both free and paid plugins available on the Internet.

Plugins serve a variety of different functions, limited only by imagination of the plugin developers. The idea is that they can add to or alter the functionality of WordPress to best suit the needs of each particular blogger.

There are plugins that aid in reducing spam, improving search engine optimization, creating useful contact forms, showing related posts, automatically backing up the WordPress database, and more. Some are more useful than others and, thanks to the newer WordPress versions, installing and activating plugins is easier than ever.

We’ll be describing some of the best plugins (and how to use them) a little later on.

User Profile Options

Whether you are the only writer on your site or if you manage a staff of several writers, each contributor is given his or her own user profile. There are options for turning the visual editor on and off, for instance.

Perhaps more importantly, you should take the time to fill out your user profile with your name, your preferred display name, your e-mail address, website, and biography. Depending on your chosen theme and layout, these may or may not be displayed.

You’ll notice at the end of each post on Blogging Tips, for example, the author is given a brief “author box” that includes his or her name and a link to his or her website. This adds to the connectivity and community that your blog can offer. It provides context.

WordPress Settings and Options

As you install more plugins on your WordPress blog, you may encounter more settings and options pages. Even at its default “bare” installation, though, WordPress has many key settings and options that you should know about.

Among the “General” settings, for example, are fields to define the site title, tagline, timezone, date format, and time format. Under the “Writing” settings section, you’ll see the size of the post box, whether emoticons should be automatically converted to graphics, and whether you allow for posting via e-mail.

Take some time to go through the various settings pages — like Reading, Discussion, Media, and Permalinks — and see what other changes you would like to make. All of these can have a rather important impact on how your blog is read, displayed, and enjoyed by your site visitors.

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Adding Images, Links and Categories to Your Blog

The most successful blogs in the world are the ones that provide the best information, link to outside sources and have great images throughout their respective sites. These can sound like daunting tasks for people new to blogging, but WordPress makes it extremely easy to add these types of features to your blog. In this article, we will show you exactly how to do it.

Adding Images to Blog Posts

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. A relevant image that adds something to the article can be worth much more than that. Whether you need to illustrate a point or you simply want a picture to draw attention to your post, having an image (or more) attached to your post can be very helpful.

So, how do you do it? First, go into the area in the WordPress administration panel when you can write a new blog post. This can be accessed by the button near the top-right corner or via the navigational links in the sidebar.

When you are in the “Write Post” area, you’ll notice that there are a series of icons located between the title text area and the body text areas. When you hover over the first of these, you’ll discover that it is used to upload and insert images. Click on this icon.

In doing so, you’ll see a new dialog box appear on the screen with three tabs at the top: from computer, from URL, and media library. The first of these allows you to upload an image file (JPGs and PNGs are usually best) from your computer. You can then go through some of the available options for sizes, alternate text, alignment, and so on.

The “From URL” tab allows you to embed an image that is already located somewhere else on the Internet and the “Media Library” tab lets you choose images that have already been uploaded and associated with the blog post.

Linking to Internal and External Sources

A blog post never really exists in isolation, so it is important for a myriad of reasons to link to both your own articles and to resources outside of your website. This helps to give context to your articles, as well as supporting materials and related reading.

There are several different ways for creating these links. If you are familiar with HTML, then you will likely want to deactivate the “visual editor” in WordPress (you can do that in the user profile options). You can then use basic HTML tags for creating your links.

If you are not as familiar with HTML, that’s okay too. WordPress has been designed to be as approachable and easy to use as possible. Going back to the area where you can write a new blog post, you’ll notice a “link” button above the main body text area.

Clicking on this will create a pop-up window asking for the URL that you’d like to link to. Copy the URL in there and click OK. Type in the “anchor text” (the actual text in the area that will be linked to the URL), then click in the “/link” button to “close” the tag. That’s one way to do it.

Another way to do it is to highlight the text in your article that you would like to be linked, then click on the same “link” button. You once again enter the target URL and click OK. This creates the same result as the method described above.

Organizing Content with Tags and Categories

Just as you have folders on your computer to help organize all your different files, you can create a similar type of organization in your blog to manage all your different blog posts.

There are two systems that are built into every WordPress installation: categories and tags. These work in a similar fashion, but you’ll likely want to use both for optimal performance. Categories act like folders on your computer, while post tags are like keywords related to your post.

Along the right side of the area where you can write (and edit) your blog posts, you’ll see fields for choosing your post categories and post tags. For most sites, you’ll want to keep the number of categories relatively low (less than 20), but you can usually use more tags, assigning several to every blog post.

In doing so, it is easier for readers of your blog to find related content. If you wrote on your experience with your new iPhone, for example, it might fall under your Technology category and it could be associated with tags like Apple, AT&T, and smartphone. Visitors can then look up other posts using the same tags or categories to find related content on your blog.

Providing the Best Information

This is perhaps the hardest part of blogging! With so many blogs on the Internet, it can sometimes be difficult to get noticed. That’s why it’s so important to provide the best possible content that you can, giving value to your readers that they won’t find anywhere else.

How can you help your content get noticed? We’ll go over some possibilities in the next few sections.

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Creating Your First Blog Posts and Pages

Congratulations! You are well on your way to having your very own blog on the Internet. Youv’e already purchased your domain name, you’ve set up your web hosting account, and you’ve installed WordPress. Now, let’s start creating some terrific content for your blog. After all, what’s the point of having a blog if you don’t have any articles on there for people to read?
When you first log into your blog’s WordPress user dashboard — which you can access by adding “/wp-admin” to the end of your domain (i.e., http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin) — you will see that three default test areas are already created for your blog. These help to demonstrate the very basic functionality of WordPress as a content management system. The three test areas are a blog post (“Hello World”), a blog page (“About”), and a blog comment.
What do these terms mean and how are they different from one another?
What Is a Blog Post?
Blog posts are the main articles that serve as the main content of your blog. This is where you will update the blog with new content on a regular basis. Most of the articles that you see on other blogs, like BloggingTips.com, are considered blog posts. Each time that you create a new article for your website, it is a new blog post.
With most of the themes and layouts for blogs, the latest post is seen as the newest content on your site and it is usually shown at the top of your blog. This goes with the reverse chronological configuration that has become the primary standard for blogging. Some blogs use a “magazine style” layout that is a little different, but we’ll get into that a little later on.
Blog posts are also used to interact with your readers, providing a commenting system at the bottom of every article. It’s up to you how you want to moderate the comments and how you want the comments to be displayed, but it is generally with the blog posts that you will be sparking the conversation.
Your first blog post can typically be used to introduce your blog to your new readers, but it’s completely up to you how you want to “launch” the site to the awaiting Internet audience.
What Is a Blog Page?
While blog posts are largely viewed as the “dynamic” content of your blog that gets updated on a regular basis, a blog page is a static page for a blog. Common blog pages include About Me, Contact, and Advertising. Blog pages are usually used for information about the blog that is needed, but is not updated nearly as often.
For example, the test article set up with every new WordPress installation is an example of an “About” page. This is where you might give some brief background information on who you are as a blogger, what you’ll be blogging about on the site, and why you should be viewed as a respected authority in that field.
What Is a Blog Comment
You may have encountered other blog comments over the course of your Internet journeys. They’re in place on BloggingTips, for example.
Basically, it is a system built into WordPress that allows visitors to the site to comment on specific blog posts. They may offer feedback and insight into the topic or they might have a question related to the material being presented. The comments can also have multiple tiers, allowing visitors to post comments in a discussion-based format on top of other comments. Generally, comments are associated with posts, but you may use them with pages too.
Depending on the subject matter, you may opt to disable comments on certain posts or across your site as a whole. I recommend that you keep comments open, however, as it facilitates more communication with your visitors and they can feel like they are a part of your online community rather than simply an outsider passively reading your articles.

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Finding the Right Niche for Your Blog

In the last article, we discussed the difference between blogging for fun, blogging for business, and blogging for profit. While these endeavors may exist in the same galaxy, the concepts and blueprints behind each are entirely different worlds.

Even so, there are a few common factors that should go into finding the right niche for your blog. These not apply to every scenario and every given circumstance, but these are factors that you should think about when you start looking for the right topic for your blog.

Blog About What You Know

It doesn’t matter if you’re blogging for the sake of blogging or you’re trying to make a profit, you should be writing about a topic that you know fairly well. After all, you can’t really claim to be an expert in a field when you really know nothing about it.

This doesn’t mean that you have to know everything about the subject, but you should know more than the average website visitor. This way, you can speak with a certain level of authority. Also, it means that you don’t have to spend a lot of time looking up background material and fact-checking; you’ll already know it.

Even when you do need to look up an importance piece of information, when you are familiar with the subject matter, there are two key advantages. First, you’ll know about the right places to look up that information. Second, you’ll have an easier time understanding the source material, because you’ll already be familiar with the terminology and lingo.

Blog About What You Like

Second, it’s important to have an interest in the topic that you choose. Otherwise, you will be a couple weeks into the course of your blog and then you’ll start losing interest. You won’t feel motivated to keep the site updated, you’ll have nothing to write about, and you might even start to hate the very thought of working on your blog.

When you are passionate about your chosen niche, on the other hand, you’ll find the drive to keep on trucking. This is true whether you’re blogging for fun or you’re blogging for money, because it is a topic that you enjoy. There is an inherent reward to very act of blogging about that niche.

If you like it, you’ll stick to it.

Blog About What Makes Money

If you’re blogging for fun, then this section doesn’t really apply. If you want to make some decent money from your blog, however, this becomes almost an important a consideration as finding a topic that you know and love.

It can be challenging to know exactly which niche is the most profitable, because people’s (and advertisers’) preferences can change over time. Even so, there are some useful tools on the Internet that can help you determine whether one topic has greater money-making potential than another.

For example, if you have a Google AdWords account, you can check on the bid prices for certain keywords. If you’re debating between blogging about Android smartphones and catnip toys (vastly different topics, to be sure), you can see which set of ads from Google would likely earn you more money. Try a few different keyword combinations.

Basing the subject of your blog solely on its money-making potential is not really the best practice, but it is an area that you will need to consider if you want to consider its viability both in terms of traffic and revenue.

An Eye on the Competition

There are highly successful and profitable blogs in just about every niche imaginable. The key is finding the niche that best suits your knowledge base and your current interests. To get a better idea of how to make the most money from these niches, though, it helps to “spy” on other sites that blog on related topics.

This way, you can get a better idea of what kinds of ads are going to be served through ad networks, what affiliate deals may be applicable, the kinds of readers that frequent the site, and other useful tidbits of information. This isn’t to say you should be a copycat, but you can be sure that Burger King keeps an eye on McDonald’s activities!

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Selecting a Great Domain Name for Your Blog

A domain, as you may already know, is a set of characters that maps a website to a particular Internet address. The domain for Google is Google.com. The domain for the New York Times is NYTimes.com. Having a great domain name is very important for any website or blog, but it is not completely necessary for success.
There are several websites out there that are very successful, even with less than perfect domain names. On the flip side, there are countless websites with fantastic domains that are anything but successful. A domain name is only one part of the equation, but it can be a very important part.
Choosing the Domain Extension
You have a lot of different choices when it comes to creating a domain name for your blog. You can get varations of .com, .net and .org domains, as well as domain extensions (also known as TLDs or top-level domains) that are based on your country or specific type of business. Canadian sites, for example, can end in a .ca extension.
While it is perfectly possible to include dashes and numbers in your domain name, these are usually less desirable. You will also likely want to stick to the main .com, .net or .org models whenever possible, as other domain extensions can be less than optimal for a myriad of reasons. Unless your site is country-specific, you may not want a country-specific TLD.
A Simple and Descriptive Domain Name
A great domain name is something that describes your blog without having to go into much explanation. If you had dictionary.com as your domain name, for example, it would be pretty obvious that your blog was based on the concept of a dictionary. Keep this concept in mind when choosing your domain name.
This doesn’t mean that you need to necessarily stick with real words that someone could find in a dictionary, but it helps when the name is as descriptive as possible. Groupon, for instance, is a portmanteau of group and coupon. Engadget, as an another exmaple, has the word “gadget” in it. These relate to the core subject matter on both sites, even though both domains by themselves are not real words.
Registering YourName.com
If you are going to create a personal blog and just wated to write about your own interests and what is going on in your life, you may want to try and secure yourname.com.
I’m sure you are not going to be the only person in the world with exactly your name, so if it’s available, I would grab your name as a .com domain. If that is not available (or even if it is), it could be a good idea to try for the .net or .org version of your name. This helps to secure your online identity and it’s easy enough to set up links to other online profiles through this domain.
For instance, ZacJohnson.com/Facebook redirects to Zac’s Facebook page and MichaelKwan.com/Flickr redirects to Michael’s Flickr photostream. This can be very useful for branding and ease of access purposes. If you don’t buy your name as a domain, someone else who shares the same name might snatch it out from under you.
Do You Want to Sell Your Site?
When you are first starting out with your blog, perhaps the furthest thought from your mind is the possibility of selling your blog. However, this is something that you will want to think about when selecting your domain name.
For this reason, having the domain name for your blog as your real name is that you should then never try and build your blog into a business that you might want to sell one day. If you have the slightest inclination that you will want to grow out your blog into a sellable business, stay away from using your personal name.
A Blog as a Business
If this is the case, it helps if you can have a relevant keyword as part of the domain instead. Let’s say that you are personally interested in science fiction movies. If you may want to sell the blog one day, you may not want to call it JoeAnybody.com. It may be more appropriate to get SciFiMovies.com if you can.
Finding the right domain name for your business-based blog is just as important, if not more important, than your personal blog. The way you select your domain name for your blog can have a dramatic effect on your search engine rankings. It should be related to your topic and it is better if it is shorter.
If you stick to domains that are no more than three words, ideally with no numbers or dashes, you lend yourself to the greatest possibility at success. For search engine optimization purposes, the more generic (but targeted) domain name is best. BloggingTips.com, for example, ranks first for the search term “blogging tips.”
Where Can I Buy Domain Names?
I current purchase most of my domain names through GoDaddy.com and NameCheap.com. You can register your domain name through either of these companies. Alternatively, web hosting providers, which we will discuss in the next article, mostly also offer domain registration as one of their services.

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Finding a Quality Blog Hosting Service

Now that you have an idea of what type of domain name you’d like to have for your blog, you need to find a web hosting provider. A web host is a service that allows you to post your blog and other content on the Internet for other people to see. Every website that you see on the Internet is hosted somewhere, whether it’s a small blog in rural Kentucky or a massive website like Facebook. The hosting costs for these two sites, understandably, is vastly different.
There are literally thousands, if not millions of web hosting providers for you to choose from. This can be an incredibly daunting task for people who are new to blogging and it can be very intimidating choosing between all these providers, let alone the various hosting plans that they offer. Just like car manufacturers and boutique hotels, not all hosting providers are made alike. This article will help you decide on the best web host for you.
Hosting Considerations
When you go out to buy a car, you might be thinking about fuel economy. You might consider cargo space, ride comfort, and included accessories and features. You might think about reliability and horsepower. Just like buying a car, there are many things you have to consider when choosing a web hosting provider too.
First, you’ll want a web host that is reliable. That means that your site will experience minimal downtime. You’ll also want a web host that is reasonably fast. This will allow your web site to load more quickly, making for a better reader experience. Other considerations include bandwidth allowances, storage allowances, customer service, technical support, and supported features and standards.
Without getting too technical, you’ll need to keep the minimum requirements for WordPress in mind when choosing a web host. Generally, most web hosts today support the latest standards for PHP and mySQL.
Who We Use to Host Our Sites
Currently, I’m using HostGator to host a large selection of my blogs and web sites. Within my network of sites, I have many low traffic sites and many high traffic sites. HostGator suits my particular needs and the prices are reasonable. Your needs may differ. Just as there is no perfect car for everyone, there is no perfect web host for everyone. Depending on the host that you choose, you may be limited on the support, bandwidth or options that you can have with your hosting.
That said, if you are new to the world of blogging, I highly recommend that you use HostGator to host your websites. In short, their prices are among the lowest in the web hosting market. There may be some cheaper alternatives, but they can also be cheaper in terms of quality, reliability, and service.
For as low as $4.95 a month, you can be set up and live with your blog hosted on HostGator. Better still, your blog can be “live” on the Internet in a matter of minutes. That’s because HostGator offers a number of “one-click install” solutions, which includes WordPress. For other kinds of sites and other content management systems, HostGator has solutions too.
If you want to take a baby step up from the least expensive plan, I also highly recommend going with the HostGator “Baby Plan.” This package costs $7.95 a month and it allows you to add an unlimited number of domains, websites, and blogs to your hosting account. This adds a great deal of versatility in case you choose to launch other blogs. No need to buy more hosting, because you’re already covered.
VPS Hosting and Dedicated Servers
When you first start out with blogging, you likely will not need to take this bigger step just yet. However, these two other kinds of hosting plans are something that you may want to consider in the future as your blog(s) continue to grow and mature.
VPS stands for virtual private server. This acts as a “bridge” product between the standard “shared” hosting plans described above and a true dedicated server. With VPS, you get full root access and access to a “virtual” dedicated server. Plans in this range start in the $19.95 range.
If you have even greater traffic, you may step up to a dedicated server. This means that HostGator will manage a specific server that is used only by you. Its resources are not shared with other customers and this is ideal for larger websites. Dedicated servers are much more costly, however, starting at $174 per month.
In the beginning, you’ll likely want to stick with shared hosting. It’s the least expensive and it will likely suit most of your requirements.

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The Power of Blogging and Where It’s Headed

In the early days of Internet marketing, companies scoffed at the potential of the so-called world wide web. They cast the concept of bloggers even further into the shadows, thinking that they weren’t relevant to their customers. My, how times have changed! These days, blogs are not only mainstream, but they have become even bigger than their traditional media counterparts!
More and more people are turning to TMZ and Perez Hilton for their celebrity gossip. Tech enthusiasts point their browsers at Engadget and Gizmodo instead of waiting for a magazine to hit the racks. After all, that magazine will be reporting on news that is already a month old by the time it hits stores. Blogs, on the other hand, are quite literally on the pulse of the industry, quite literally being up to the minute with their relevance.
The major blogs have very much become massive communities on their own and they are no longer in the shadows of traditional outlets like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Blogs are big business and are worth millions of dollars, getting thousands, even millions of visitors on a very regular basis. Even celebrities are recognizing the importance of blogging, keeping their names at the top of the public’s mind at all times. People want to know and they want to know right now.
Blogging is a very powerful tool and popular blogs are being sold for millions of dollars. What started out as independent ventures have quickly become parts of major media empires. Take a look at Gawker Media, for example, a conglomerate that runs such popular blogs as Kotaku, Lifehacker, and Jalopnik. These sites are huge with monumental followings. This is powerful for branding and powerful for audiences.
Moving forward, personal blogs will surely still exist, but professional blogs are very much not only the future, but they’re already the present. Blogs are big business. This cannot be re-iterated enough. With multiple updates each day and loyal fan followings, blogs represent huge opportunities for advertising revenue. And for the businesses who choose to launch their own corporate blogs, even if no advertising is involved at all, the blogs represent a very powerful marketing and branding tool.
Blogs may have once existed on the fringe of the Internet, only read and used by those “in the know,” but blogs today carry huge mainstream appeal. Better still, there is still so much more potential yet untapped. Going back to Gawker Media, for example, they’re recognizing the importance of multimedia and its prominent role in blogging in the future. The sites are almost becoming like TV channels that are completely on demand. Users can choose exactly the programming they’d like, interacting with the authors and building that community even further.
Gawker competitor Weblogs, Inc. runs such sites as The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Download Squad, Joystiq, and TV Squad. It is a subsidiary of AOL, a company that may have otherwise fallen into Internet obscurity in recent years if it were not for this blog network of about 90 blogs. The key to success on the Internet is staying up with the times and AOL recognized the opportunity when it came to professional blogs. These make money and they have increasingly large audiences.
And the same can be said about Blogging Tips. I can’t say for sure what blogs will look like ten years from now, but one thing is for sure: blogs are here to stay and they’ve still got a lot of room for even greater growth.

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How You Can Benefit from Having Your Own Blog

Blogs are only for people who are technically inclined, right? Blogs are nothing more than online diaries where people can vent their feelings, right?
Not at all! In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
The very concept of blogging has come a very long way since its early days as the online journals of web developers. Whether you are thinking about adding a blog to your company’s overall marketing and public relations plan or you are an entrepreneur looking to improve your reach in the online marketplace, a blog can be a fantastic strategy that comes with a great deal of incredible benefits.
Thanks to incredibly advanced yet remarkably simple blogging software, anyone can have a blog. There’s no need for technical expertise, so anyone can reap the benefits of having their own blog. It’s not necessarily about having a place on the Internet to vent your frustrations; it’s much more about building your brand and marketing yourself accordingly.

So, how can you benefit from having your own blog?

One of the greatest benefits is the ability to have your own voice. You can try to do this 140 characters at a time on Twitter, but it is with a blog that you have much more versatility and adaptability, granting you the extra space you need to say what you need to say. In the context of a business, you can address subject matter that may not warrant a press release. You can talk about more casual topics that don’t belong in the main “product page” area on your site. For an entrepreneur, it’s a more personal way to connect with your colleagues and clients.
Perhaps even more importantly, a blog helps you build a following of loyal fans. When you have a static company website, there really is little motivation for someone to visit your website on a regular basis. The web user will only head in your direction when he or she is looking for a specific piece of information, like your business hours. This kind of web traffic is helpful, to be sure, but it’s sporadic at best.
When you have a blog that is updated regularly and frequently, people will feel compelled to come back time and time again to read your latest updates. They say that content is king and they say this for good reason; if you have compelling content on your blog — and there are all sorts of different blog posts that can draw in the readers — then these people will come back. They’ll become loyal to your brand, you’ll increase your overall site traffic, and you keep your brand at the forefront of their minds.
In the past, companies have had to spend thousands or even millions of dollars in an attempt to increase brand presence. They’d expand their advertising budgets to promote their brand and products in newspapers, on the radio, and on television. Thanks to the Internet, the rise of blogging, and the increasing popularity of social media, companies are much better equipped to take these kinds of matters in their own hands and at a fraction of the cost.
And you know how else you can benefit from blogging? It gives you a personal connection to your customers, business associates, and other contacts. They’re people, just like you, and a blog allows you to make that connection.

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Why Blogging is the Future of Branding

The Internet is not a static space. It is a dynamic space filled with dynamic people who have dynamic viewpoints. It is constantly evolving and growing. As such, the old “broadcaster” model of business simply does not fit with today’s generation. And that is why blogging has become so important. People don’t want to passively absorb the content on the Internet; they want to interact with it. They want to engage with the blogger. They want a much richer experience.

In the early days of blogging, the articles were very personal and very casual. Even so, it represented a huge revolution in the way that information was not only consumed, but how it was produced. The average Joe and Jane could stake their claim on the web and make their mark on the world. It paved the way for more mass communication and a true voice “from the streets” and from real people. Anyone can start a blog and the barriers to entry are lower than ever.

But what is a blog exactly? Short for web log, it is a shared online journal that is typically presented in reverse chronological order. That is to say that the newest blog entries are displayed at the top of the page and older ones follow beneath it. They started as online diaries with personal experiences and stories, but blogs have quickly evolved into much more than that.

Companies use them to better expand their brands. Indeed, blogs themselves have become a very viable business, powered and funded by major media conglomerates. Blogs can be more than text. They can include video, pictures, and more. The most important thing is that the blog is updated frequently and regularly.

From Blogspot to WordPress, blogging can truly be a free endeavor. Even those who want a more professional appearance need only a very small investment: the cost of a domain. Whereas these costs could be out of reach for the average citizen in days past, they are literally pennies on the day today. Anyone can start a blog. Anyone can have their voice heard on the Internet.

Companies are really starting to understand the value of blogging. The press release still has its place, but people want to know more about the companies, the people working there, and the products being sold. There’s so much more than simple feature comparison or price checks; from socially-conscious consumers to interested investors, people only want to do business with companies that they really know.

That’s why blogging is positively critical for branding. This is true not only of large corporations and their official blogs, like Disney and Google, but also small business owners and entrepreneurs. As a freelance writer myself, my blog plays a monumental role in how I choose to brand myself and my writing business. It offers potential and current clients a better viewpoint into who I am as a person and what I am able to bring to the table.

Companies like Disney still have their official websites. This is where they can place important official information, but the blogs offer customers a glimpse behind the scenes in a very human way. This allows the people at Disney to interact with its users, customers, and community. It is much less intimidating for web users to participate in a blog or forum than it is for them to approach a corporate contact form. They can feel like they are a part of the family, rather than an outsider intruding in unfamiliar territory.

With blogs, companies and individuals can remind the public that they aren’t just some corporate entity; they’re real people. And when it comes to brands, people want to deal with other people, not some nameless organization. Blogging helps to establish, maintain, and grow that very human relationship with the brand.

Read more at http://www.bloggingtips.com/2012/04/13/why-blogging-is-the-future-of-branding/#WIOgQSTdCT1jYaVM.99

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How To Make More Money From Your Mailing List In 48 Hours

I’m sure you must have read many blog posts on building a massive email subscriber list. You may already have a big email list yourself. But have you made any real business progress using it? Have you made any money from it?

In one of my recent blogging consultancy sessions, I was surprised to meet a blogger who had more than 1000 subscribers, yet he made very little money from them. His list was largely disengaged from his business, and the only attempts he made to monetize it was by offering freelance writing services. Naturally, that offer failed since the majority of his subscribers were freelancers themselves and did not need his services.

What’s the solution then?

Without going into the details, the easiest and most profitable way of monetizing your email list, and making a sustainable passive income from it, is by creating a digital product that fulfills a core need of your subscribers.

Understand your subscribers first, analyze their preferences and needs, and create a product that addresses their problems with the most actionable advice possible. Don’t give them opinions. Give them solutions.

With this in mind, here are two kinds of digital products that you can create within 48 hours and sell them to your mailing list.

1. Offer a Premium Email Course

Email courses are much easier to create as compared to eBooks. You don’t need to write 40-50 pages to create an email course. Instead, you can create a series of highly actionable emails, spread over 8-10 weeks, accompanied by additional resources and links to exclusive content on your blog.

Some of the most successful internet marketers, bloggers and freelancers have used free email courses to build their email list. But many others have extended their free email courses and created exclusive premium versions with additional content and tools for their subscribers.

The success secret in email courses is focus. You need to focus on a single problem, instead of a wide range of issues. For example, your email course can be about “How To Attract 1000 subscribers in 8 weeks” or “How To Feature on The Top Blogs in Your Niche in 2 weeks”.

Pick one problem, and offer in-depth, detailed and highly actionable advice on it. Spread your emails over a period of 8-10 weeks. Add a list of actions, at the end of every email, which your subscribers need to complete.

Bundle a 1 hour consultancy session for the buyers who purchase your email course. That will add further spice to your product.

Since you already have a sizeable email list, I’m sure you’re either using AWeber or Mailchimp. It’s easy to create auto-responders in both these services.

Create a good looking advertisement image of your email course and put it in your blog’s sidebar. Float it to your mailing list with a time limit. For example, the first time you introduce your email course, announce that the registration is open only for one week.

Always time-cap your offers – they produce the maximum impact.

2. Sell Highly Actionable Video Tutorials

As I said, selling email courses is a great way to make money from your email list, and many people are already doing it. But just in case you want to create something more unique, you can create a short and effective video tutorial series.

Sounds difficult doesn’t it?

That’s precisely why many bloggers never explore this option.

Creating and selling video tutorials is not as hard or time taking as people think. Best of all, people love to purchase video tutorials and the conversion rates on video products is significantly higher than eBooks and email courses.

Skilled designers, academics and IT professionals are earning thousands of dollars by selling tutorials on websites like Udemy. But with your own email list, you can replicate their success without having to share your revenues.

Here are a few examples of bloggers and designers who’re successfully selling video tutorials to their subscribers.

• Video Fruit – Bryan Harris
• John’s Blog – Jon Park
• Animation Methods

The content formula for video tutorials is quite similar to email courses and eBooks – you need to focus on one problem.

The only difference is in the way you deliver this content.

You have two options in this regard.

• If you’re not shy, and have prior experience of creating videos, then get in front of the camera and deliver the content yourself, looking directly in your buyer’s eyes. This creates the highest impact and also gets you closer to your subscribers. You can mix it up with screenshots from your computer, where needed. But make sure you write down the main points of your tutorial on a piece of paper and structure your tutorial properly. After a brief introduction and opening, get down to the business.

• If you tend to freeze in front of the camera, then use a screencast with your voice in the background. This works well for technical tutorials that require a lot of tool configuration, coding etc.

Once you create your video tutorial, give the final touches in an editing tool. I personally use the Windows Movie Maker. It’s a free, yet extremely useful, tool and should be enough for your editing needs. But in case you need to explore more tools, here’s a good list.

The next challenge is to sell your video tutorial.

There are many digital product selling tools like E-Junkie, Shopify, Easy Digital Downloads etc. but none of them is tailored for video selling. The only service, which I could find, that had separate video selling features was Selz. You can upload videos of up to 15GB on your free Selz account.

Once the video is uploaded, you can embed the Selz video selling widget in your WordPress website. From there, buyers can directly pay you for the tutorial on your website, using Master Card, Visa or PayPal, and choose to download or stream the video tutorial online.

Conclusion

Having a sizeable email list is one of the basic needs of any online business. But in order to make sustainable income from your mailing list, you need to create the right product for your subscribers. The two product types I mentioned in this post are not only easy to create but also have the potential to offer massive value for money. If your product has enough value for the buyers, you will not only make a lot of sales with your mailing list, but also attract many referral subscribers and customers to your blog.

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The most important tip to make your incentive drive more subscribers

Building an email list.

This had been a topic I had been discussing on this blog for few weeks now and I’ll still continue discussing it for few weeks more, if not months.

If that means one thing, it means that building an email list is crucial for your success online, or I wouldn’t have done it at all, right?

And this means I care about you, yeah, I really care about helping you build a blog that boosts your business by blogging the smart, simple way.

That said, let’s dive into this post.

Oh, and if you forgot to check previous posts, make sure to check them, especially the last one, because it’s related to this post.

• Why Email is Important to Build Sustainable Lucrative Business
• How to Get More Email Subscribers Overnight? Tip #1
• How to Boost Your Email Subscribers? Tip #2
• How to Boost Your Email Subscribers? Tip #3

Today’s tip:

in the latest post, the tip I discussed was creating a narrow-niche incentive.

If you didn’t  check that post, please stop reading this post and go check it first, everything in this post is based on what we covered in the latest post, so make sure to check it and then come back here.

So you finished it? Great.

In the post, I discussed with you why having an incentive is important to get more subscribers. I also discussed why it should be narrow-niche incentive.

After that, I showed you how to create it.

I just want to reinforce the point that it doesn’t need to be long. You just need to go narrower in your niche, 10-pages is more than enough.

Now, you finished writing the incentive, the question now is…

How to sell the incentive for your visitors?

Sell?

Isn’t the incentive free?

Yes, it’s free, but again many other bloggers have incentives, some will even be like yours… you need to sell them the incentive to get them to subscribe.

Even, if they’re not buying it with money, they’re giving you their emails and that’s what you want. You need to sell them the incentive, that they enter their email address without thinking.

But how? How to sell the incentive for your visitors?

Well, the answer is very easy and simple.

Benefits not features.

Yes, when you create your landing page, it doesn’t need to be long, a few bullet points with benefits is enough. Don’t share features… Benefits sell, not features.

But what is the difference?

Here is an example of what features could look like:

• it is 23 pages long
• it has 4500 words
• the sections include this, that and the other
• etc.

But here is what benefits could look like:

• guaranteed to change the way you look to blogging
• 10 strategies that will help you make more money this year
• an eBook that you can’t miss if you want to grow the traffic of your blog.

I think it’s obvious why benefits sell. People don’t know how long the ebook is or how many chapters in the book, all they need is how this ebook will help them, what change they’ll have after reading the ebook.

That’s it.

So start doing the work

If you’ve an incentive already, re edit your copy and think like you’re selling people to subscribe, show them the benefits and not the features.

If you don’t have an incentive already, create one, as I showed you in the previous post, and then apply the above technique.

It’s really simple, but it could help you boost your conversion rates.

So tell me, what are the benefits of your incentive, even if you didn’t create it, this will help you keep track of what you want to share in the ebook, so share it now below

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Want More Revenue From Your Website – Join T3Leads

Still struggling to make some decent bucks from Google AdSense? Or, feeling dejected, as Google rejected your site? Look no further – Join T3Leads.

Founded in 2006 and based in Encino, California – T3Leads is the leader in Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) Affiliate Programme, providing quality services to both affiliates and merchants.

A company which boasts 20,000 satisfied affiliates on-board their cutting edge platform; is the favorite destination of merchants who are looking for quality leads and marketing opportunities.

WHY T3Leads: If you have a website or blog, you must be using, or aware of AdSense programme to monetize your website by advertising on the free space (top and sides) of your site.

Now think – How difficult it is to make a good amount of money from AdSense. And, making significant amount is practically impossible! Why is this?  Because Google keeps the majority of the profit leaving webmasters with very little.

Google is known for its monopoly by setting n-number of rules and standards. Because it is so large and influential, they rule the internet advertising space with their monopoly.

But T3Leads is not Google.  With the direct intent to not supplement but replace Google, T3Leads has decided to treat their customers differently with significantly looser restrictions and higher payouts.

Actually, T3Leads has developed a technology based on the concept of AdSense and improved all of the pitfalls.

Features: Checkout the publisher-friendly features of T3Leads …

Read more before joining: The reason for creating a website is usually to make money of it, and the best and most popular way to do that is by advertising.

Until now, Google has been the authority on advertising on sites, but Google’s conditions for advertisers are less than ideal.  By excluding sites with bad quality traffic, Google may think they are protecting themselves, but they are actually hurting their potential profits as well as the webmasters that they refuse to work with.

Noticing that – these problems create a gap in the market as well as a poor quality service, T3Leads has created a much more favorable alternative with which webmasters are not excluded (barring fraudulent traffic).

Final Words: Because T3Leads takes the middle man out of the process, payouts are higher and the rules and the system are easier to use.  Webmasters also have the ability to customize ads to a greater extent, giving them more control over their monetization.

T3Leads has taken AdSense and improved its shortcoming and made its benefits even more beneficial, helping webmasters monetize their sites more effectively with more profit.

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Increase Page Views of Your Blog – 5 Easy Tips

“How much is your page views?” – Is the first question usually asked by advertisers, before putting their money on a blog.

For professional bloggers or full time bloggers, page views play an important role to attract advertisers and helps to achieve the financial goal.

Page view is also important for bloggers who use Google AdSense or other services like this. Let’s know the benefits of increased page views of your blog –

• More revenue from advertisers and AdSense program.

• Higher conversion rate, or selling of products / affiliate marketing.

• Increased trust factor of search engines due to more time spent on the domain or site.

• Increased trust factor of search engines leads to higher ranking of content in search results.

• Increased page views leads to improved or lower Alexa Rank.

Without much ado, let me tell you – 5 Tips to Increase Page Views of Your Blog or Website.

1. Great content

In present day scenario, the meaning of great content is much beyond than a great piece of copywriting, or an unique piece of article which provides solution to a critical issue, or even a breaking news.

Visual satisfaction makes a web-reader to consume more content and pages. To make your blog post visually appealing, you have to use better graphics, user friendly layouts and soothing colors.

The layouts of your posts, pages and the whole blog should be user friendly. Use of relevant graphics at appropriate places, with an user friendly navigation of the blog makes your readers to spend more time on your site. And more time spent means more page views.

2. Interlinking of posts

Interlink relevant and old posts on your article to provide in-depth knowledge to your blog readers.

People usually like to refer old and relevant posts to know more and gather more information. Interlinking of posts not only increases page views of your blog, but also helps your overall SEO efforts. The hyper-links on your blog post send a signal to search engines about the anchor texts and the subject matter for higher ranking.

3. Displaying related posts

Offering related posts at the end of the article is a great way to increase page views.

It’s a natural human tendency to do something or click on the next link, after reading the article completely or completing the act of reading. You can take the help of a great WordPress Plugin called WordPress Related Posts to achieve this task. This is one of the best and easy way to increase page views of your site.

4. Displaying featured posts

Use your side-bar cleverly by displaying more posts for your visitors.

By displaying more featured posts, you are offering more option to your blog visitors to consume more or read more. A thumbnail image along with a teaser line / article heading works great.

5. Displaying excerpts on the home page

More number of posts on your home page means more number of option for your readers, and more page views.

But you can’t display 10 or 20 complete posts on your home page. It not only makes the loading time prolong, but also needs more scrolling by the readers.

The best solution is – Show only the excerpts in the form of initial 4 to 5 lines of the article. In this way, you can comfortably display 8 to 10 articles on your home page.

Do you have any tips in your mind to increase page views of a blog? Add in the comments below to make the list perfect.

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