Learn how to start your own blog today with the help & guidance of an award winning pro blogger. Learn everything you need to know to start your blogging career right now!
NewBase 14 March 2024 Energy News issue - 1707 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...
How To Start A Blog With A Pro Blogger
1. mat t hewwoodward.co.uk
http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-start-a-blog-award-winning-blogger-step-step/
Matthew Woodward
How To Start A Blog With An Award Winning Blogger Step By
Step
Since I launched this blog just 10 months ago it has received over 85,000 unique visitors, won 3 awards and
earnt nearly over $60,000!
In the last 3 months I have blogged f rom Amsterdam, Iceland, Under a tree, Austria, Texas, In a pub, Costa
Rica & 30,000 f eet up in a plane.
So what’s stopping you f rom creating a blog right now in the next 30 minutes and kickstarting your blogging
career?
What You Will Learn
Today I’m going to teach you-
1. How to create a blog over my shoulder step by step
2. How to set everything up including your own domain
3. The site will be mobile responsive, secure & automatically backed up
4. It will also be f ully SEO optimised with social integration
5. You will also be able to add an email subscription opt in f orm
Claim Your Free Domain Registration & Start Your Blog Today – Just Click Here
Getting Started
Bef ore we begin, we should f irst glance at what the f inal product will be.
Below is a screenshot of the blog I created along with a sample post. You can take note of the f act that it
also boasts social icons and links f rom af f iliates.
2. How To Get a Domain Name
In order to begin with your blog we f irst need to set up a domain name and f ind a website hosting service.
I pref er JustHost because they are a well-known company with reliable uptime. Plus, their service comes
with a domain at no extra cost. It is super easy!
Here’s what to do: go to JustHost and click the red button that says sign up now. It will prompt you to enter
a domain name. You can do so and then click next.
It will ask f or some more inf ormation, which you should f ill out. You also get to pick a plan f or your account
— at this point, a one year plan is okay.
Also, be sure to make a good, strong password!
3. Installing WordPress
First, you will need to log in to your account on JustHost (you can do this with your newly-created domain
and password). Af ter you have access to the administrator tools, click on websites.
Here are the next steps:
Click on the option to install WordPress
When you get to the next step, leave Installation Pref erences and Advanced Options at their def ault
settings
Deselect the recommended plugins and themes box — we will deal with that stuf f in a bit
Click complete at the bottom of the screen
Congratulations! At this point you have installed the basic WordPress set up.
One quick thing you should do, just in case, is write down the password and login.
There is no need to be intimidated by WordPress — it powers about 18% of the web and is made with non-
coders in mind, so mastering the basics will not be hard.
4. Now, you might be going insane with blogging by this point, so f eel f ree to change the name of the site to
anything you want. I’m going with Blogsanity. Then click save.
Permalinks
Next you should head over to the lef t side of your screen and choose settings, then click on permalinks.
What is next?
Select the custom structure option, and put in this: /%category%/%postname%/
Download plugins — both the pack f rom my blog and the exclusive list that I recommend
Keep all of your plugins in the same f older
Installing Plug-Ins
5. To install plug-ins, here are the steps to f ollow:
You want to install all of these awesome plugins, so here is the process to do so.
1. Choose new.
2. Upload the plugin f ile.
3. Do these steps with each plugin you want to add.
With my recommendations, you only have nine plugins to worry about.
Configuring Plugins
Start by choosing SEO on the lef t hand side of your screen. Once there you can sign up, grab the
verif ication meta values and put them in the appropriate f orms.
Also be sure to keep titles and metas in mind — select the option f or all f our and then save your settings.
6. You will want to take advantage of Google author highlighting, and in order to do that you need to head
over to Google+ and build a prof ile.
Af ter you get a URL f or your Google+ page, you should go back to WordPress. Look on the lef t side of
your screen and click on users. Then choose edit. Here, you can paste your Google+ prof ile URL so that
Google+ Authorship works on your end.
Bef ore moving on, hop back over to WordPress SEO. You should go to title & metas — f ind taxonomies
and choose the option to noindex the pages. Be sure to save your changes.
Finally, f ind your way to the help section and copy “%%excerpt%%.” Then place it in the right boxes.
Improving Blog Security
You do not want to have to always worry about people hacking into your site, so we are going to boost
your blog’s security.
In the tweaks section, select every box that appears in yellow.
Once that is over with, return to the dashboard to deal with points f our, f ive, and six. When you choose
f our it will prompt you to change the user admin ID.
Then you will need to re-log in. Af ter that, get over to the dashboard and rename the other points.
Back Up Your Blog
7. You should have your site backed up in case the worst happens, so mosey on over to backup and choose
Add New Job.
There will be a f ew settings you can tinker around with. One choice is where your backup will go to — I like
having it sent via email. Remember to save your changes.
Our next stop is the schedule tab, where you can pick when your automatic backups happen. I’m going to
opt f or daily backups at three, which is the basic setting. Don’t f orget to save your important changes.
Also drop by Files and make sure that it knows you want to back up plugins.
To make sure that you get your entire site backed up, we need to get rid of the maximum f ile size. You can
do this by setting the maximum to zero.
Where are we now? A good place — we have a blog that is optimised for search engines, secure
against attacks, and automatically backed up.
Now we can build on that groundwork.
Configuring Social Sharing
8. You probably want a social media side bar, so let’s make it.
Go to Global Conf ig and put in your Twitter handle. (Don’t have a Twitter yet? I think the best idea is to just
go ahead and make one.)
Next, allow normal display. For the time being, you can keep the def aults.
One thing you should do is uncheck all of the sharing options and then just choose those that you actually
want. Af ter the content, you can add Twitter, Google +1, and the Facebook like button.
Another tool we want is Pretty Link, which lets us mask all af f iliate links.
How do you add this? On the options screen, you will want to switch link options to Permanent 301 and add
no follow to link box. Af ter that, update the changes.
Adding Affiliate Links
9. We are ready to add af f iliate link #1! For this sample, we can use my HostGator af f iliate.
What do we want to have happen? Every time a user goes to blogsanity.com/hostgator, the URL will direct
them to the af f iliate link.
You can create it, because we will need to put that link in our very f irst post.
Setting up Google Analytics
You can jump over to Settings > Google Analytics. It will allow us to enter a web property ID, so you should
do that and then save the change.
Doing this will let you get access to all of the Google Analytics stats — visitor numbers, most popular
content, etc.
Setting up a Contact Form
10. One way f or visitors to get in touch with you is a contact f orm. Click Pages, then Add New. Choose the
Contact Me option.
In the blank space, write the f ollowing: “Please do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions or
comments. I’ll do my best to get back to you within 48 hours. Thanks!”
Then we can go to our SEO control box to set some meta and title descriptions.
Theme Installation
WordPress has thousands of f ree and paid themes to choose f rom. Start by going to Appearances and
Themes > Install Themes.
It will show a lot of newer themes. I’m going to install Montezuma, a theme I really like because it works on
mobile devices.
11. Once it installs, activate it. Now you are ready to write your first post!
Publishing Posts
Creating posts in WordPress is a piece of cake. Hover over the Posts link and click Add New.
There is a clearly marked box f or a title. Try something like this: “Hello There! Welcome to the blog.” Type
some stuf f in, and maybe even attach an image (you can upload one or choose one f rom the gallery).
Adding YouTube Video
It is pretty easy to add YouTube content to posts on your blog.
Adding Link to Host Gator Affiliate
12. Remember our HostGator af f iliate link? It is time to put that to use.
There are many dif f erent options: tabs, boxes, etc.
Let’s try a button. All we need to do is put the af f iliate URL in the link spot, and then change the display text
to “Visit HostGator Now.” Hit conf irm, add shortcode, and then this step is complete!
We need a category, so call it “personal.” For SEO, the title will be “Hello There! Welcome to my blog.”
What about the meta description? Try something like this: “Welcome to Blogsanity, the part of the web where
bloggers go nuts, 24/7!”
Are you ready? All you need to do is click publish. Now your post is live!
Published Post
Everything looks great! We can see our sharing options, video, and our post.
13. Setting Up the Side Bar
To conf igure the side bar, you will need to head over to Appearance and Widgets. There are dif f erent things
we could display: newest posts, a search box, etc.
E-Mail Subscription Form
If everything has made sense so f ar, why not go the extra mile? I advise you to create an email newsletter
— when visitors subscribe you can collect their data.
Amassing a solid number of email subscribers is a huge part of your blog. How do you do that? An AWeber
account will help, so let’s take a speedy look at that.
Setting Up an AWeber Account
For just a buck, you can make an AWeber account. Go ahead and do so, then log in.
14. Once inside, there is a process to f ollow:
Make an email list
Get a sign-up f orm
Pick a template, any template
Shif t the template width to 320 pixels
Find colours that are distinct
See the box that prompts you to enter text and type something like, “Please subscribe. I will never
spam you.”
Format it — center the text
Save the f orm bef ore exiting
Next, name it. As per our theme today, I’ll call it Blogsanity.
Don’t f orget to save the f orm!
Create an Email Subscription Box
First, head to Settings and lick on AWeber Web Form. Once you log in you can get the code it provides and
type it in when prompted.
Second, navigate over to Widgets. Find the AWeber Form and drag it to the very top. As always, remember
to save!
15. You now have an email subscription f orm set up, and once visitors begin to add their inf ormation you can
start marketing to them.
You’re done! I have guided you through the process of setting up a search engine optimized, responsive,
mobile-compatible blog.
You are even ready to connect with visitors using your social sharing buttons and contact page. These are
the building blocks f or making prof it online.
What Next?
You can use this blog that you have set up as a test site, an af f iliate platf orm, or your main blog — but no
matter what you choose, you have no excuse to not blog now.
You now have the skills and the knowledge, so why not? Follow in my f oot steps and pave your path to
success!
Resources In The Tutorial
JustHost – Claim Your Free Domain Registration – Get your domain, hosting & 1 click WordPress
install!
Aweber – Start your email list f or just $1!