I have been doing more consulting lately so I have decided to start a new site to take on that side of my blogging business.  I think that developing the new site will ultimately make some people very happy.  On the new site I will be expanding my range of services.  On this site (My Newbie Blog)  I primarily assist people with support on SEO and fixing the little problems that pop up from time to time.  I have called this service “A Little Extra Help” and I will continue to provide this service at very reasonable rates.  On the new site I will be developing and offering a full range of services including complete blog start up, a variety of article writing services, quick and easy technical help to help people when they get stuck (utilizing remote PC software when necessary),  training and coaching on all areas of blogging business (utilizing skype whenever possible), and also making available blogs that are already aged and linked.

The new site, Blog Consulting (www.blogconsulting.biz) will begin to take shape over the next couple of months.  I would expect it to be fully functional by October 1st, 2008.  Of course, if you have been reading this site, you know that it will take some time to get that site positioned on the search engines.  That particular area of blogging is very competitive and most of the established sites have been around awhile and have a lot of links pointed at them.  I consider it a challenge and fully expect it to take at least 12 months to begin to even get close to page 1, if it is actually possible.  While the site is waiting I will be utilizing a variety of other methods to get some traffic to the site (i.e. Adwords, 125×125 ads on certain sites, etc).  If you would like to take advantage of the services offered head over to the site and we will be happy to help you.

Another important answer to the “How to Create a Blog” question is writing and marketing articles. When you market your articles properly you can get some good links to your blog. There are many directories where you can submit your articles. Here are a few examples:

Article City (articlecity.com)
Article Dashboard (articledashboard.com)
Article Directory (article-directory.net)
Ezine Articles (ezinearticles.com)
Go Articles (goarticles.com)
Idea Marketers (ideamarketers.com)
Internet Home Business Articles (internethomebusinessarticles.com)
Search Warp (searchwarp.com)

These sites are a good way to get your articles out into the world. The drawback is that it takes a lot of time to go through the process of submitting your articles. A faster way to accomplish the same thing is to use Article Marketer. This service will submit your articles for you. They offer a free service which has a partial distribution or you can pay a fee to take advantage of their full service. I pay for the full service because I feel like I can spend my time more wisely doing other things with the blog than hand submitting my articles to numerous directories.

Using Article Marketers

Go to the Article Marketers website.

Take some time to read about the services the site offers and then go ahead and press Open Your Account. This option works if you are signing up for either the free service or one of the paid services.

You will need to enter some basic information.

You then need to decide which of the services you want to use.

Once you have entered in all your information hit Next and you have an Article Marketers account.

Login to the site with the User Name and Password you just set up. Now you can enter a article for submission to the directories. One word of advice; if you have already posted the article on your own site you should rewrite it before you submit it to the directories. Keep the main ideas but change the title and the headers, etc.

You are going to type in the title of your article and then paste in the text of the article. The author boxes are where you get to add the text top get your link back. There are two author boxes, one that is a text box where you can enter the URL of your blog. The other box allows you to enter in your blog site URL and the URL of your post into the box.

The HTML that I enter looks like this:

Stephen Lawes teaches people how to <a href=”http://mynewbieblog.com”>create a blog</a>. He shows them <ahref=”http://mynewbieblog.com/create-a-blog-you-can-be-proud-of/”>how to create a blog</a>, and how to begin to make money from it.

You then need to choose what categories to submit your articles.

Enter in any special requests you have about when to submit the article and then click on the agreements and type in the spam code and hit Next.

The Review Process

Once your article is submitted it first gets reviewed by a computer (since Article Marketers wants to send you article to as many possible directories there are some pretty specific guidelines they follow). If there are any issues that need to be resolved it will point them out to you. Fix any problems and save your update.

The article is then reviewed by actual people. If they find problems you will have to fix them as well. Don’t get discouraged if you have to make numerous changes, it is making your article acceptable to the largest number of directories. The more sites that publish your article the more good back links you receive. Keep on writing and learning how to create a blog!!!

The Who, What, Why, Where, When, and How of Starting a Blog

Whether you create a blog for fun or for money you can get a lot out of blogging. Some time ago I read an article about the tremendous growth that blogging was experiencing and it really caught my attention. I feel like I have a lot to talk about and a blog seemed like a perfect venue to write some of the things I wanted to share. The article recommended a couple of books. One was about how to blog, and the other was about starting a blogging business. I ordered them and eagerly awaited their arrival. They were good books, and I recommend reading them (to order the books go to the Products page) but I was still in need of more information to get started. I searched the internet for information about starting a blog from scratch and I found a few good sites but even they assumed that I knew a lot more about getting started than I did at the time. Now that I have a blog up and running I am writing this article to try and help people with very little computer experience get there own blog started. If you are hoping to start a blog to make some money or just want to have some fun and an outlet for what you have to say then then this is the article for you. Let’s get going and learn how to create a blog.

Who should blog?

I think that everybody has something to say. If you have something to say then you should have a blog. You might be asking, “what would I write about”? Good question. Here are some answers. What are your hobbies? What are you passionate about? What do you consider yourself an expert in? What do you find yourself talking about? Are you interested in politics? Can’t get enough news talk radio or TV? Love football, basketball, baseball, hockey, NASCAR? Fascinated by celebrities? Love to cook? Raising kids? Watching movies? Reading books? You can start a blog about anything that you are interested in. Write good articles and people will come and read them. If you build it, they will come. I have a couple of articles that might help you with writing as well. One of them is about using the WordPress Editor to write with. The other one is about getting motivated to start writing. Check them out later on.

What is a blog?

This is the definition of a blog I found at GoodNewsDomains.com (a good place to get a domain name and web hosting for you blog. We will talk more about this later in the article). “A web log (or “blog”) is similiar to an online journal. It is largely text-based, so it’s easy to update and maintain–even if you have no experience running a Web site. Any type of information can be presented in a blog, from stories about a family vacation to in-depth commentary on world politics. In addition, most blogs allow visitors to post responses to blog articles or entries and leave feedback for the person running the site, known as a “blogger”. Overall, a blog is a fast, easy and fun way to establish an online presence.” A blog takes the articles you write (called posts) and organizes them by date and category so that people who visit your blog can easily find, read and enjoy them. If this is starting to sound complicated don’t worry. One of the great things about a blog is that the software that runs them is very user friendly and does most of the work for you. Later in the article when we talk about domain names and web hosting I will also introduce you to a wonderful blogging software called WordPress. One of the great things about WordPress is that it’s free.

Why a blog?

A blog is not only a great way to talk about your ideas, there are also some very real possibilities of making some money. There are programs like Google Adsense, Affiliate Programs, Click Banks, and opportunities to sell articles that you write. A blog is a lot simpler to set up than a regular web site and thanks to software like WordPress everyone can do it with just a little bit of help.

Where do I get a Domain Name and Web Hosting?

Let’s start with a domain name. A domain name is the internet address of your site or blog. The domain name for this site is mynewbieblog.com. It’s good to try and find a name that matches what your blog will be about, although some people do fine by just using their name. My site could be stephenlawes.com for example. Regardless of the domain name I choose I can give my blog a different title. In order to find out if a domain name is available you need to do a search. I like to use www.goodnewsdomains for this.

At the search bar type in the domain name you would like to have. A lot of domain names are already taken so you might have to get creative. The domain search bar will actaully return a list of ideas to you. Lets say you entered “chickenwings”, in fact let’s try it and see what happens.

I have a feeling chickenwings.com is not going to be available, after all, who doesn’t like chicken wings.

I was right. Not only is chickenwings.com not available, the .net, .info and .org are already being used as well. By the way, I think the other extensions work just fine if the .com is not available. Fortunately a list of possible ideas based on your search will also appear.

It appears as though chickenwings.ws and chickenwings.name are available. Or I could choose chickenwingssite.com or chickenwingsblog.com. There are a lot of options. Once you decide on a name go ahead and register it. When you are signing up for anything on the internet always write down the information you use (user name, password, etc.) because you almost always need it later.

After you enter you name and password click Continue and you will be at the Registration and Checkout Options screen.

Select any options you want and click Continue. You will need to review your cart, select a payment type, read and click on the Domain Registration Agreement and Universal Terms of Service and the click on check out now. On the next screen you need to enter a password and a password hint. Write down your login ID number and your password and then click Continue With Checkout. Fill out your credit card information and click on Checkout Now. You will see a screen that says Thank You for your Order. Make sure you have written down all the important information. Then press Login to My Account.

Enter in your Customer number and Password and hit Secure Login. The first time you do this you will get a screen asking for a Call in PIN number.

Enter in a 4 digit pin (write it down) and press Save.

Now that you have a domain name we need to get you set up with a web host. Web Hosts are the computers on the internet where your blog is stored. There are a lot of web hosts available. I use GoodNewsDomains.com for this service as well. There prices are reasonable and they have a control panel that is easy to use. They also have WordPress available for free for your blog. WordPress will make your blogging experience a lot more enjoyable. At the GoodNewsDomains welcome screen put the mouse on the Web Hosting button and on the drop down menu press Hosting Plans.

I use the Linux server deluxe plan and I suggest you do the same. The plan is on sale as I write this post at $7.24 a month. It will be money well spent.

Click on Add and then follow the directions giving all your pertinent information (don’t forget to write down your user name, password, account number, etc). You will get a screen asking you to customize your order. You can always come back and upgrade later. Read through and click Continue. You will be asked if you need Website tonight. Since we are going to install WordPress you do not need Website tonight. Click Continue to Checkout. At the Secure Checkout screen check your payment method and check that you have read the Universal Terms of Service. The click Checkout Now. Enter in your payment information and click Checkout Now. You will get a screen that says Thank You for Your Order. Click on Login to My Account. Put the mouse over Web Hosting and on the drop down menu press My Hosting Account. You will see this:

Click on Setup Account. Read the Hosting Service Agreement and click Next.

Enter a user name and password (write it down) and click Next.

Select a domain name from your list (you probably only have one) and click Next.

Go with the default setting on this screen and click Next.

Review the information and click Finish.

The account is now pending setup. This can take a few minutes or longer so log out and take a ten minute break.

When can I get started?

Once your site is active you can get WordPress installed and your blog started. I will walk you through the process of getting WordPress installed now.

Go to the GoodNewsDomains.com site and put your mouse over the Web Hosting button and a drop down menu will appear. Click on My Hosting Accounts.

If you are not logged in you will need to do it now. Sign in with the Customer Account number and the Password you set up when you signed up for your domain name and web hosting.

The next screen will have your hosting account listed and a link that says Open.

Click on the Open link and you will see the Hosting Control Center screen.

Look for the Value Applications link and click on it.

Look for the Show all applications link and click on it. Scroll down that page until you find the WordPress application.

Click on the WordPress button.

Click on the Install Now button. You will then be asked what domain you want to use. Unless you registered more than one domain name you will probably only have one to choose from. Click on the domain name and click Continue.

You will then be asked for a Database description and database password.

Type in a description for your database. I usually use the name of the blog but you can call it anything. Enter a Password. Make sure you write down this information. You will need it again. Click Next and you will be asked to choose an install directory.

The screen will have wordpress typed in it. You need to put your cursor in the box and delete wordpress. For this installation you want that folder to be blank.

Once its blank click Next. Now you need to enter your admin name, password, a working email address, and your blog title. You can change the title in the future so don’t panic about this. After your title is in click Finish.

It takes a few minutes to an hour for your blog set up. You can see if your blog is installed by typing in your domain name in your web browser. Once its installed you will see your blog.

How do I add the bells and whistles?

If you made it this far into the article then you probably have the right stuff the create a successful blog. Now that you have your blog started you can change the theme to give it the look you want. You can start writing and adding articles that express your ideas. To help you get your blog looking good and working well read the articles on mynewbieblog.com. All of the articles will help you step by step to add all the bells and whistles. After you finish this article read Starting a Blog. Then read 50 Things to do to Start a Blog from Scratch - Part 1, then Part 2, and then Part 3. Read Making Progress on Starting a Blog and More Progress on the 50 Things to Do to Start a Blog from Scratch. Then read the various articles about installing plugins and Google Adsense, etc. You will be well on your way. At that point you might want to go and learn from blogs that can help you to make your blog profitable(monetize). If that’s what you hope to do some good sites to check out are Court’s Internet Marketing School, ProBlogger, DoshDosh, and CopyBlogger. Come back often and checkout mynewbielog.com as well. Better yet, sign up for the RSS feed or get an email subscription to the blog so you don’t miss anything. Happy blogging!