Unique Email Address that Works with Your Existing Email

After my last article I had several people ask me about using the professional email address they created with an existing email account. This is easier to do than you think.

The whole point of this is so you can have an email address that represents your business, without the need for checking multiple email accounts.

The first thing you need to do is setup your existing Gmail account to add on the new email address you created.

Setting up Gmail with a New Email Address

1. To do this first login to your Gmail account.
2. Once you are logged in go to “Settings” in the upper right hand corner.
3. Under settings click “Accounts”
4. Here you will have two options “Send mail as:” and “Get mail from other accounts:” I prefer the send mail as option because I always setup my self hosted email addresses as “forwarding” email addresses only.
5. (This means all the email that goes to the email address I created actually gets forwarded to my Gmail account so I only need to check one email address.)
6. Select the “Send mail as” option and add your new email address. A new window will open that will give you the option to add how your “From” name will appear, and the address the email will be sent from. For example anything I send from MML@gmail.com would show up as DreamhostBlogger@makemoneylife.com
7. Once you have added the new email address you have created you will be emailed a confirmation code that you need to input into the window.
8. If your self hosted email address forwards to your Gmail account simply go to your inbox and you should have an email with the confirmation code waiting for you.
9. Open the email and copy the confirmation code and paste it into the code window.

You have now verified that you own the email account you are trying to add to your Gmail account.

From here you can set the new email account as the “default” send from address on your Gmail account and anything you mail to people from your Gmail account will show that it came from your professional looking self hosted email address.

Otherwise you can leave it as a secondary account on your Gmail and you will have the option for a drop down selection of which email address you would like to send mail from whenever you compose a new message.

In today’s article I would like to discuss Categories and Tags and cover how they can be used effectively on your blog.

Categories and Tags look very similar and the differences between them can be hard for someone to spot who is new to blogging.

Let’s take a closer look at each one and see why they are important for your blog.

What are Categories and how are they useful?

Categories are best thought of as being the main chapters for your blog or filing cabinets for information. They are the way authors break down information into various subjects.

Most blogs will only have a limited number of Categories. The more categories you have the harder it becomes to navigate your blog using categories.

I have found the best method for creating categories is to plan out your site ahead of time. Look at your blog as though it were a project. What do you plan to cover during the course of your project? What will the main topics of discussion be on your blog?

As you can see from looking at my site I have eight main Categories that I plan to use to sort out all the information I will present. I came up with these categories by planning out what I will be covering in the blog, and created different categories to accommodate these topics.

Let’s look at an example of how to come up with Categories. Say we are writing a blog about “Cars”. (I am using this as an example because I know very little about cars and their inner workings.) Now being a car novice, I would think the following topics would make good categories for a blog about cars:

1. General
2. News
3. Building
4. Repair
5. Restoration
6. Maintenance
7. Buying / Selling
8. Car Shows

Now this is not a definitive list by any means. I’m sure there are some car guys reading this that are already thinking of better Categories for their site. That’s ok. The point of this example was to showcase that even someone who is unfamiliar with a topic can create a good system for organizing data.

Our Categories act as folders that we store information in so it easy for our readers to find what they are looking for. Keep in mind that categories are a primary way that people navigate your blog to find what they are looking for.

How are Tags different from Categories, and how are they used?

Tags are more like additional bits of information that help to describe an article that has been filed under a given Category.

For example, if I wrote a post about “Why Adsense is the Best Way for Beginners to Monetize Their Blog” I would file it in the “Monetize” Category since that is the underlying point of the post.

But because there are so many articles I could write about Monetization we want to be a little more specific to help our readers find what they are looking for. This is where our Tags come in.

To better organize my Adsense post I could add Tags like “Adsense” “Beginner” “PPC” or “Pay Per Click”. All these Tags would help someone find the information they are looking for quicker and it would also give them a better idea on the specifics of a post.

The thing to keep in mind is using consistency in your tags. Since most words can have numerous synonyms you want to pick the word that best describes some detail of an article, and use it whenever you have an article that can described in that same way.

So if you have an article that uses the Tag “Money”, do not label other articles about money with “Cash”, “Moola”, “Dough” etc. Stick to using “Money” as the Tag. This way your tags are consistent and they able to serve their purpose, which is providing a second tier of navigation on your blog.

How to Plan out Each Category for your Blog.

When you first create your blog plan out what your Categories are going to be. For some blogs this is easy enough to do because you can already see what types of information you will need to post to present detailed ideas to your readers.

In other cases you may not be anticipate everything you will be writing about. If this is the case, no problem, just take it one Category at a time.

Whether you plan out your categories in advance or create them as you go, just make sure to put some thought into the layout of your blog. Plan your Categories as though they were chapters and you will make things easier for yourself and easier for your readers also.

Remember that even if you create several categories when you develop your blog they will not show up until you have added articles to those categories, so no one will know what you are planning in advance.

(My theme actually allows me to display Categories that do not have articles yet, but normally this is not the case with most themes.)

Setting up your categories for your blog is very much like “planning and structuring a blog post”. The categories will act as points of interests and your articles fill in the details on these topics.

Once you have created your Categories you will have a much easier time creating content for your blog since you will have a road map to come back to if you are having trouble coming up with your next article.

Now that you have a better understanding of Categories and Tags, let’s take your first article and actually publish it to your blog. To move on to the next article click on my link below for “Posting Your First Money Maker on Your Blog”.

Today’s guide is going to cover the detailed process I use to structure a post and create great content. This will focus more on the technical layout and planning of a post, where my last guide covered the zen surrounding content creation.

If you are new to blogging I highly recommend reading this guide to help you get started. As you discover your writing style you can expand on what I have outlined here to best suit your blog.

These are methods I have taught to numerous people who were new to blogging and everyone that has learned them has thanked me for presenting these ideas in such a methodical way.

When I write my blog posts I like to use Microsoft Word or any third party writing program so that I can save my work on my computer. I do this for two reasons. The first reason is that I like to have a backup of all the work I do write on my PC. The other reason is incase the server lags, crashes, or gives a internal 500 server error, then my work will not be lost.

This is a good practice to follow to safeguard all the hard work you put into writing a post. It will help you avoid a lot of frustration, so you don’t have to worry about losing your work.

So now let’s take a look at how to start structuring your first blog post.

It All Starts With a Great Idea (Inspiration)

As I outlined in my last guide, “How to Get Started Writing Your First Blog Post” a major key to a successful blog post, is “Inspiration”.

Many people overlook the significance of being inspired when you write. You absolutely need to be. That inspiration makes what you are writing interesting to others, and without it you are just producing stale content that people will be unlikely to read.

Becoming inspired to write can be one of the hardest things out there. I mentioned some methods for this is my previous article but the main concepts that apply here are:

• Writing about something you know.
• Be passionate about your subject matter.
• Look for things that excite you, and share that excitement with others.

Keeping these three basic ideas in mind will definitely start you on the road to good content. Becoming truly inspired will help you create great content, and will lead to big things for your blog.

Make a Great Title to Draw People In

A great title is very important when structuring your blog posts. I like to focus on the title of the article before I start anything else.

Once I have my idea and my inspiration, I sit down and create a great title for that plan. I do this partially because it inspires me and it also helps me define my subject matter.

A good title should be clear and concise. Pretend you are writing for a newspaper and have a limit of 5 to 10 words to express the idea behind your article. What would it say?

You want title to not only draw people in, but also to give them an idea of what they are clicking in to.

The page title for your post is what will show up in the search results and also carries a hefty weight for any keywords you use in it. So in addition to being interesting you want to utilize the power the title has for your keywords also.

As you can see from looking at the title of this page “How to Plan and Structure a Great Blog Post”, I have a few of my keywords in the title, along with an explanation of what the post is about.

If someone was searching for “How to” “blog post” etc, these are all things that may bring up this post. Another word I made use of is the word “Great”. This is known as a modifier. Modifiers are helpful because they are conditional search terms people use to express intent in a query.

In this case the person searching for this article may not only be looking for a post on how to write a blog post. They may be looking for information on how to write a “Great” blog post.

At this point in your blogging career I would say focus on writing a title that people will find interesting and don’t worry about keywords, modifiers, and SEO for now. Just be aware of these things, as they will become more important down the road.

Ok. So now you have a great title for your first post. That’s great! You have just created the first piece needed to start structuring your post. Write your title at the top of your post and then close your eyes and think about how your post relates to that title.

Visualize the “How to” Aspect

Now that you know what you are writing about and you have a great title that let’s people know what to expect, it helps to do a visualization exercise so you can write the most concise post possible.

The guides I write on Make Money Life are a good example of this because they are all “How to” guides. Depending on your topic this may not be as critical but it always helps. Whether you are writing about how to do something, video games, or the latest craze on the internet, visualizing what you are going to write about will feed your inspiration as well as help you remember all the details.

When I write a “How To” guide I constantly find myself closing my eyes and visualizing different processes in my head. In the case of this article, before I even started writing I closed my eyes and pretended I was writing an article.

This made me realize the first step I take is creating a title, then creating points of interest like a table of contents, and then I go into detail on each section, etc. Now when I open my eyes I have the entire body of my post fresh in my mind.

As I mentioned before always write when you are inspired. Don’t let your ideas fade away. The same goes for the visualization process. Now that you have the points of interest for your article we need to write them down.

Create a Table of Contents for Your Article

So now let’s take the points of interest we visualized and add them to our article. All we are doing here is creating an outline that we will eventually fill in with details.

For now just write out of the different points as though they were chapters in a book. For example, if I was writing about how to cook something the points of interest might be:

1. Get out your cooking supplies
2. Gather the correct ingredients
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
4. Mix up the ingredients
5. Spray non-stick oil onto a pan
6. Add you ingredients to the pan
7. Bake for 30 minutes in the oven
8. Let cool for 10 minutes

Now to be honest, I really don’t cook much. My lovely wife loves to cook, and she does most of the fancy stuff. But having cooked some basic things, and watched her in the kitchen I can picture the steps involved in a given process.

Looking at the list above you can see we now have a great structure for a post with 8 different sections.

We don’t need to focus on the details for each section yet because we just want to create a solid outline so we don’t leave anything out for out readers. Imagine if after reading six steps the author didn’t tell you how long to bake your dinner for. That would be pretty frustrating.

This outline process ensures that we cover all the important information our readers need to get out of your article.

Now that we have entire outline for the article completed we know that we are not leaving out any sections of important information. Now comes the fun part.

Outline the Details of Each Section

At this point we need to go into detail on each section we have outlined. As I mentioned before you want to make sure you pick a niche you are familiar with. You can now see why this is such an important decision.

I feel that the outline method we are using is a great technique because it allows people to focus on the article one section of information at a time. This frees up your mind to focus on one small section so you can add as many important details as possible.

It also keeps people from going off on tangents because they can see the road map for their information. If you find yourself writing about something that comes later in the article simply copy and paste what you have written in the appropriate section.

Once you have finished adding the details to each section take a moment to re-read your article. You may discover some areas that need to be elaborated on.

Fill in the Blanks

It is very different, reading your own work for the first time, than it is writing it. This is because our mind has a hard time writing while thinking. As I write I mentally dictate what I want to say to people. For the most part this works fine, but sometimes my mind is saying one thing and my hands are typing something completely different.

Reread your article and make sure that all the points you wanted to make are clear, and as intended. Sometimes a simple misspelling of a word or incorrect usage can completely change the meaning of a sentence. A good example is writing “CAN” when you mean “CAN’T” or vice versa.

As you read through your work think to yourself if there are any details that have been left out that would help people better understand the point you are trying to make. Sometimes adding an additional sentence can clarify something that might have otherwise been vague or hard to follow.

Your goal is to give your reader everything they need to know without having to come back and ask questions. People want to act on what they are reading, so give them the information they need to accomplish something and they will think of you the next time they are looking for an answer.

Re-read and Proof Your Work

Proof reading your work is one the most important parts of writing an article. This is different than “re-reading” because now we are looking for grammatical errors and incorrect word usage.

Proof reading should be looked at as what we did in school in English class. Check to make sure words are spelled correctly using a spell checker. Using Office software can be helpful to look for sentence and word usage errors.

The reason we want to do is because it only takes a few extra minutes to make sure we provide a polished finished product for people. Not only that, but a poorly written paper can affect your credibility as well. No one is going to take technical advice from someone that has trouble writing complete sentences.

It also helps to have a second set of eyes to help you spot errors you otherwise would have missed. Have friends or family check over your work to see if they spot anything you may have missed. This can also be helpful for having someone point out something that may be unclear to someone that is not familiar with your subject matter.

I can’t stress enough the importance of the proof reading stage. After all the effort you have put into creating great content make sure it really shines by following this last easy step.

Congratulations!

So you’re done proof reading and everything looks good? Awesome! You have just finished writing your first structured blog post. Congratulations.

Now that you have followed this method you can see how easy it can be to create a well-planned and structured post that will offer a lot of value to your readers.

As you become a more experienced blogger you may find techniques that you add or change, but I feel the basic ideas we have covered here offer a solid base to anyone who may be uncomfortable starting out with their first post.

Before you know it you will be able to create a post like it was nothing and the ideas will come flowing out. That is one of the best parts about being a blogger. When you finally find your inspiration you will realize that it isn’t hard to produce content, it is fun!

I don’t think it should ever feel like work to write. Maintaining a site is one thing, and it does require effort on behalf of the admin, but creating content for your site should be an enjoyable experience. This way you know you are on the right track.

Now that you have written your first article let’s look at some of the next important details involved in publishing your post. To move onto the next section click on my link below for “Why Are Categories and Tags Important for my Blog?”

Ok so your blog is all setup and you know your way around the back end, now comes the fun part. We need to actually start making some content. I know it has taken awhile for us to get this far, but I wanted to provide you with a solid understanding of your blog before you enter into the blogging arena.

Don’t worry this isn’t the type of arena that requires you to use a shield and spear. This is more if a competition of minds. All blog authors (well, most) strive to create really amazing content.

The reason being that if you have amazing content people will want to share your site with others. The more people that share your site the more back links you develop which generates higher rankings in search engine results, and so on. You can see how it can snowball into success if you can create some really great content.

Ah, but there’s the catch… “How do I create really great content?” Well unfortunately there’s no secret formula. There are several questions you can ask yourself though to guarantee that you are creating the best content you are capable of.

Let’s take a look at a few of these methods below.

Take a Good Look at Your Niche.

The first thing you need to do is take a good hard look at your niche. When we talked about niches before we covered the importance of choosing a good niche. Choosing a good niche means picking a topic you are familiar with and have knowledge in that you can share with others.

This knowledge is what makes your blog unique and interesting. If someone doesn’t understand their subject matter it shows in their writing. Believe me! I have come across some pretty stale blogs out there.

I think a lot of these people are picking topics based solely on trying to make money. They focus on whatever the flavor of the month is, in the hopes that it will get them good traffic. The only flaw with their plan is that these “trends” are so highly competitive that their mediocre content falls right through the cracks.

This is what you want to avoid. Plus, as I mentioned before a popular topic can sometimes be the worst to pursue when starting out because they are so competitive.

Hopefully by this point you have chosen a niche you are happy with. Now let’s take a good look at your niche.

• What makes your niche special?
• What sets your knowledge of the subject apart from others?
• What inside information can you offer that others can’t?

These are a couple considerations to make when examining your subject matter.

A great example of this was an article I wrote when I had first started blogging. Because of some people I knew, I got wind of a news worthy story that even the media in my city hadn’t picked up on.

I leveraged this to my advantage by writing a news story with the details of what I knew about the story. The article attracted a good deal of attention to the point where I was contacted by a reporter who was trying to gather some additional information from me on the story.

Within 48 hours of speaking with the reporter the story was in our city newspaper and on several news channels, until it eventually made its way across the net.

Now in this case the news did not cite my post as I hadn’t offered any facts. The story I posted did however offer enough details to allow the newspaper to get the full story from other sources in town.

Once the story broke I received a lot of traffic from people doing searches for news articles on the story I had originally posted. This is a great example of using inside information to create interesting content and drive traffic.

The main thing to be aware of here is to protect people’s privacy and make sure it’s ok to post the information. In this case I made sure that my friend was not listed as my source as per her request. I also made sure these were not “trade secrets” that would get someone in trouble if they were posted.

Always be smart about what you post as this helps build your relationships and also your credibility.

What’s My Inspiration?

When you sit down to write an article for your blog, ask yourself… “what’s my inspiration”. What is the point behind what I am writing?

If you are writing a review is it because you loved something or hated it. If you are posting a news story what is the angle of the article? Are you doing a commentary or fact based post.

There are many ways to write a post, so it is best to decide what you are trying to accomplish right beforehand.

In the example of this post, I am trying to portray that the intent of the article is to help someone learn something. Because of that I mentally dictate as I write, and try to structure my information as though I was talking someone sitting right next to me.

• Does it work?.. I hope so. You’ve read this far, right?

While we may not all know exactly how we want to explain something we can still determine what the heart of the post is about. If you sit down and establish this before you start writing your article will come much easier than if you just sit down and try to make words appear on the screen.

What Are People Interested In? (How Do Ideas Spread)

The concept of ideas spreading is one that is commonly used by Aaron Wall of SEO Book. What this refers to are the ways in which information travels across this internet.

Because there are set patterns that can actually be tracked in many cases we can gain insights from how information spreads online.

There are numerous resources you can use to get a feel for what the current “buzz” online is.

• Checking News Sources
• Top Videos on YouTube
• And Blogs!

These are all great sources of what is hot that day or week. If you are having trouble coming up with a topic that relates to your niche then check out news sources, video sites, and other blogs to see if anything excites you. When you find something exciting then you have stumbled across a great topic to write about.

As I mentioned above it takes motivation to write a good article. Don’t just sit down and force yourself to spew something out. This will not be interesting and people will not want to read it.

If you are excited about something you are writing about it will show in your writing and people will be much more interested in what you have to say in your article.

Ask Yourself… Would You Want to Read It?

Aside from others being interested in what you have written, you need to decide if you are interested in it. While it is true that we are our toughest critics, it also says a lot about the quality of an article if you enjoy reading your own work.

If you have written something and find it boring to proof read (or even write) then there is no way someone else will find it interesting.

This is because they will be able to read the motivation you had when you wrote the article. If you needed to force yourself to write it, they will need to force themselves to read it, and in many cases they just won’t bother.

Now if you write something that you think is really interesting while it may not appeal to everyone, our targeted audience will be much more interested to see what you have to say.

Remember you can’t please everyone, but you should at least get a 50/50 response from the general public on your articles. This is normal.

On my original blog I wrote several articles that I would get varying responses on. Some days it would be “You Suck!” and other days it would be “Best Article Ever.” The funny thing was that these comments would be left for the same post.

While you may not be able to please everyone, a 50/50 ratio shows that you are on the right track.

Don’t let people get you down. Remember it is a lot easier to criticize someone for something they made, than to create something yourself. Those who do not like your work are only venting their frustration at their own inability to create something of value.

If You Have a Good Idea then Run with It!

What’s that? The light bulb just came on over your head? Awesome, run with it! Sit down and start typing. This is the inspiration we have been looking for. Harness it and use it to create something amazing.

I always tell people that when you think of a great idea, write it out immediately. Don’t jot down a note or wait until later after the inspiration has faded.

Many great ideas in life were realized when one person rallied others with their excitement or passions for a belief. Look at many of the great motivational speakers of our time. People aren’t moved act if you “kind of have a dream”. Let people share in the excitement you felt when writing your article.

“That excitement will lend itself into creating amazing content.”

Providing Value to Your Readers Makes Your Blog Valuable.

Write something valuable for your readers. The more value you provide to your readers the more value they will return to you with back links and word of mouth for your site.

Some people out there are very protective of linking out to other sites because of the potential effect it might have on their page rank.

While I understand the SEO concerns they have, I feel that they are creating a sterile, self contained site that does not offer real value to their readers.

The internet is called the World Wide Web because it offers a vast spider web of information to people. How better to make use of this web than by linking out to great sites that we feel others should know about.

Not only will this make your blog that much more valuable, it will also show others that you share the link love, and they will be more likely to link back to your site.

Being too over protective of your links can actually hurt your SEO effort as search engines will actually rank a site higher for offering valuable sources of information to their readers. The way to manage this is by making sure your links are relevant to your topic, rather than being non existent.

The more value you can provide to people the more you will be referenced. Seth Godin writes in his book “Purple Cow“, that “remarkable things are worth remarking on”. If you provide value to your readers it will benefit numerous ways. It is a two way street and definitely worth the extra effort.

Overview

Now that you have a good idea of the zen behind structuring a post let’s actually start writing. Remember the best way to learn something is by actually doing it.

Take some of the things we have covered in this article and work them into your first blog post.

Give it some thought. Remember it doesn’t always come naturally in the beginning. Take some time to plan and become inspired, and once you do run with it. Before long you will be well on your way to creating unique content that will make your blog stand out from the competition.

Now that you undestanding the philosophy behind writing a great blog post, let’s look at the actual planning stage for an article. I will outline the steps I take when putting together an article to help you come up with a good method for consistantly writing well thought out posts.

Click the link below to read my next guide entitled “How to Plan and Structure a Great Blog Post“.

To login into your blog for the first time you will need to make sure you have completed the final step of the WordPress installation. This is outlined in my guide on The Final Steps of the WordPress Setup Process.

Now that you have your WordPress blog setup, let’s take a look at some of the options available to you.

As I mentioned in a previous article I think that WordPress is definitely the way to go if you plan to get serious about your blogging because it gives you a lot of control over your website.

Now whether you choose to actually focus on becoming an avid blogger or decide to use WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System) the options will still apply. So let’s take a look at what we can do with WordPress.

The first thing you will need to do is login to your blog for the first time. To do this go to your domain (www.yoursitename.com) and check on the front page of your blog for a “Meta” section that will provide you with a login link.

This can also be done by typing your domain name followed by “WP-Admin”.

http://www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin

Both of these options will bring you to the admin login screen of your blog. If you do not have the option available to you when you go to your web address it may because you have not fully configured your blog. If this is the case check my article on using Dreamhost one-click installs for the details on fully configuring your blog.

Now that you are at the admin screen, login with the username and password you created, or using the admin password provided in the final step of the setup process.

Now that you are logged in we can checkout all the options available to you through WordPress.

The screen you are taken to by default when you login is known as your WordPress “Dashboard”. From the dashboard you can see a lot of good information.

The main area you will notice is the “Right Now” section in orange, which allows you to write a new post or page for your site. We will cover this in more detail in “How to Write Your First Money Making Post”.

Down below this you will notice an area that says “You Have”, which keeps track of all the Posts, Pages, Categories, and Tags located on your website.

At the very top of your screen you will notice two fields of information. The first one on the left has links to Write, Manage, Design and Comments. The section on the right has links for Settings, Plugins, and Users.

We will look at the options on the left first. The options on the left have four main sections you will use regularly.

WRITE

The Write section allows you to create new posts and pages for your site. When you click on the Write link it will take you to a page where you can create a page, post or link for your site. I will discuss the differences in more detail in my article on writing your first post.

MANAGE

The Manage link takes you to a screen that allows you to edit various sections of the website. From this screen you can edit existing pages or posts. You can also modify links, categories and tags on your site. You also have options for Link Categories, a Media Library, and the ability to Import and Export data from your blog.

The Import feature allows you to import posts from an existing blog if you have moved over from a blogger blog to WordPress. The Export feature allows you to export a backup of your WordPress database, which allows you to save all the data in your blog including comments people have left on articles.

This is a very handy feature to make a note of. I recommend doing daily or weekly backups of your blog to safe guard your hard work.

DESIGN

The third option we are going to look at is the Design category. If you click on the Design link you will be taken to a screen that has three options. The options are Themes, Widgets and Theme Editor.

The Themes link will bring you to a screen where you can change the look and feel of your blog by applying a new theme. Themes are very flexible and allow you to have a lot of customization over your blog. When you change your theme only the look and feel of the blog changes, not your data. This way you can try out as many different themes as you like without having to worry about losing information.

You can also upload new themes to your hosting to use with your blog. I will cover this in a future guide on FTP (File Transfer Protocol). For now let’s focus on learning about your new blog.

The next link is the Widgets section. Widgets are customizable programs that provide certain functionality to your blog. A Widget can be as simple as a menu or calendar or as advanced as a Polling system that allows users to cast votes.

I will cover Widget in detail in future guides. For now, there are three things you should know about Widgets.

01. Your theme must be Widget enabled to make use of Widgets. Most new themes are.
02. When you add a widget your default sidebar options disappear because they are making room for the Widgets. Make a mental note of what is on your sidebar by default and re-add those options as Widgets. Now you have full control over the side panel.
03. Random HTML code can be run in the “TEXT” Widget. This enables you to add custom Widgets from places like Google Gadgets, Adsense, Amazon Associates, EntreCard, etc.

The last link is the Theme Editor section. The Theme Editor gives you direct access to your themes PHP & CSS code. This will become useful down the road as you learn more about blogging and modifying themes to suit your needs.

This may sound advanced now. To be honest I knew nothing about code or PHP until I started blogging. Let me just say, it is very easy to pickup. There are many guides out there to help you. And forums are another great source of help when working with the Theme Editor.

COMMENTS

The last section at the top of your blog is the Comments section. This is where comments on your blog can be moderated.

Whenever you receive a comment on a post you will see an orange box with a number appear next to this link. The number lets you know how many comments you have awaiting moderation.

You have three main options for moderating comments, Approve, Delete, and Spam. Approve marks the comment as ok to post on the blog. Delete will remove the comment without anyone else having seen it. Spam flags the comment for review by your spam filter. The spam filter will learn various patterns over time to make it more useful in blocking spam from your blog.

If you approve a user’s comment, any future comments from that user will automatically be posted to your blog. This can sometimes lead to spam so it’s a good idea to check your comments section once a day.

Moving On…

Ok. Now that you have a good understanding of the main navigation menus in WordPress let’s move on to the options on the top right-hand portion of the screen.

These are the Settings, Plugins, and Users options.

These settings are also very handy to know because they control other important functions of your blog.

SETTINGS

The settings link on your blog contains several sub categories. They are:

• General
• Writing
• Reading
• Discussion
• Privacy
• Permalinks
• Miscellaneous

Lets take a brief look at each one and what you need to know about each section.

General

Settings as you would probably guess controls all the main global settings for your blog. When you click on the settings link you are taken to a screen with the following options:

• Blog Title
• Tag Line
• WordPress Address
• Blog Address
• E-mail Address
• Membership
• New User Default Role
• Timezone
• Date Format
• Time Format
• Week Starts On

The main options to make a note of here are Blog Title, Tag Line, WordPress Address, Blog Address, and E-mail Address.

The Blog Title is the name of your blog. This should be set to the Title you entered in the final steps of the WordPress setup. You can change it here if you want. Usually you would want this to remain the same, but incase you spelled the name wrong or want to add or remove spaces this is where you would do it.

The tag line is kind of like the sales pitch for your blog. My tag line for Make Money Life is “A beginners guide to making money online”. It is good to put some thought into your Tag Line because it will show up in the Title of your site in search results. This way you can get a few more keywords into your title.

The WordPress Address and Blog Address is how you want your domain address to show up when people type it in. This is handled through a modification WordPress makes to the htaccess file on your site.

The two common variations would be:

mydomainname.com

Or

www.mydomainname.com

The other option to make a note of here is the E-mail Address setting. This is pretty much the default address for your site. It does not need to be the email address that you post on your site though.

For mine I will usually create an admin email address for each site and use it here. This can be really handy if you use the email provided by your hosting and set it to forward to the email address you normally use. For more information on how to do that, you can checkout my article on “How to Setup a Professional Looking Email for your Domain”.

Writing

The Writing section lets you specify all the global settings that pertain to writing posts for your blog. Everything in here is set well by default.

The one setting to make a note of is “Size of the post box”. This is the setting that controls how large the blog editor window appears in WordPress. By default this is set to 10, which I find just a little too small for my tastes.

I would recommend setting this options to 25 lines or larger. If you want to see the difference then write a test post with the option default of 10 lines. Then go back and change it to 25 lines and see if it feels better for your work style.

Reading

The Reading link gives you some good options to manage the display of your articles on your blog. The first option is “Front page displays”, which allows you to select if you would like a static front page for your site or your latest post to be displayed so the front page always has fresh content.

Depending on how you are setting up your site and the type of content you will be providing this can vary. Some of my sites utilize the latest posts option and some use a static page. Most blogs use the latest posts options as their default.

The next two options control how many posts are displayed on your front page as well as your RSS feed. (Syndication)

• Blog pages show at most
• Syndication feeds show the most recent

By default these are both set to 10. This is fine for starting out. As your blog grows, and you make various monetization and SEO choices you may decide to change these options so make a mental note of where they are.

For the “For each article in a feed, show” option I would leave it set to its default of “Full Text”. It is considered bad netiquette to offer only partial posts in your feed so I would recommend leaving this set to the default.

The “Encoding for pages and feeds” option can be left as is, so now let’s take a look at “Discussion”.

Discussion

All the options are set well in this category to begin with. Just take a look at the page so you have an idea of what options are offered here. If you find yourself looking for any of these settings in the future you will know where to find them.

Privacy

This option controls your blogs visibility. By default this will be set to:

I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers.

This is exactly what you want. Since the whole point of our blog is to eventually become a money making website, we want all the exposure we can get.

Permalinks

The Permalinks section has a useful feature that lets you change how permalinks are displayed. A permalink is the address that shows up in the address bar of your browser.

This is useful because it can provide a descriptive link to your readers and anyone linking to the site. This is also good because it can be setup to provide excellent SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your site.

We will cover the SEO benefits in detail in a later guide so for now make a note of where this is located.

Miscellaneous

The Miscellaneous section is another section where the default settings are fine. This mainly controls where the files you upload through WordPress are stored and their default sizes.

I very rarely need to change anything in here, so it’s just good to know where to find this stuff if you need to.

Those are all the sub categories of the Settings link in the top right. The next important section to be aware of is the Plugins section.

Plugins

The Plugins screen is the area of your blog that allows you to activate and deactivate plugins. Plugins are very useful programs people create for WordPress that add additional functionality to your blog.

By default you will have several plugins installed. These display the plugin name, which will take you to the author’s website when you click on it. It also displays a brief description of the plugin and what it does. To the far right you will see an Activate / Deactivate link that allows you to turn plugins on or off.

One of the great benefits of WordPress is you can download additional plugins to add even more functionality to an already great program. We will cover this in more detail in a future guide.

The other subcategory to Plugins is the plugin editor. This is very similar to the theme editor in that it allows you to modify the PHP code and change the way plugins function. As a beginner you won’t have much need for this so we will cover it at a later time.

Users

The last section at the top is the users section. This section allows you to add users to your blog if you are working with friends or multiple authors.

For more information on the Users section checkout my guide titled “The Final Steps of the WordPress Setup Process”, which walks you through adding a user account to your blog.

Overview… Phew!

So now you should have a solid understanding of all the major options and settings within your WordPress blog. If you were able to make it through this whole article you deserve a cookie (or a beer).

I know this one got a little long, but I wanted to cover all the major functions that make WordPress such a flexible content management system.

Now that you are a WordPress Pro let’s put what we have learned into practice and “Write Your First Money Making Post”.

Now that you have a free blog setup and you want to get started blogging we should checkout all the options that are available to you through your blog software.

It is very helpful to be aware of these options from the start because they will become more and more important as you get more involved in developing your blog.

The first thing we should do is log into your Blogger account and take a look around to get started.

To do this, go to blogger.com if you are not already there, and then log into your account. Remember that you log in using your Google login information or the information you setup when you registered the blog.

Blogger Dashboard

Once you have logged in you should be at the “Blogger Dashboard”. Right off the bat you will notice three main fields of information near the top of the page.

At the very top right-hand corner you will see your login name, along with “Dashboard”, “Help” and “Sign Out”. This is your main navigation panel that allows you to get back to the dashboard screen we are at.

The next important field is the “Manage Your Blogs” box. This is the box that controls the main functions of your blog. You have the option to “Create a Blog” which we have already done. Down below this you will see the blogs you have created.

You have five main options for any blog you have created. “View Blog”, “New Post”, “Posts”, “Settings”, and “Layout”. “View Blog” allows you to see your blog as others see it. The “New Post” link will allow you to start a new post directly from your dashboard screen. The “Posts” link will show you all the posts you have created and allow you to manage them.

The “Settings” link is very important. Your settings options through blogger feel very much like the back end of WordPress. You will want to become familiar with this area of your blog to make the most of your site.

The “Layout” allows you to modify the feel of your blog within the template you chose. We will come back to this in a few minutes. First, I would like to focus on the “Settings” options.

Go back to your dashboard and click the “Settings” link. Once you have done this you will be at a screen that allows you to add more information to your blog.

Blogger Settings 

You will notice on the “Settings” screen there are three main tabs and several sub tabs to each category. For now we are going to cover the basics of the sub tabs in the “Settings” category. Let’s start with the default tab, which is “Basic.”

BASIC (Tab)

Title: This is the first field you will see on this page. The title allows you to specify what appears at the top browser in the blue bar. While having your name is important, providing additional information that will tell people what the site is also beneficial.

I am going to use an example blog here called “Nifty News”. Nifty News is a site about all the weird happenings on the internet. Since a user may not get that just from reading Nifty News we are going to create the title:

• Nifty News – Strange News about the Last Internet Trends

That’s a much better title because it tells people our brand, and what our brand is about. Keep in mind that the title is what shows up for users when they do a search through a search engine. Whatever you type here is what a user will click on to get to the main page of your site.

With that in mind try to think of something interesting to entice people to click through to your site.

Description: A good description will also help you attract visitors to your site. Try to write a detailed description about what your site is about to help users decide why they would want to visit your site. For Nifty News I’m going to type:

“Nifty News brings you fringe web news to keep you involved in the latest web trends. Don’t miss the latest Star Wars kid because you were busy reading MSN. Come to Nifty News to get the news that is really important.”

Ok, yes it’s corny, but I’m trying to have some fun with it. People do not want to read another sterile blog unless your focus is politics or something that requires you to be serious. Give your blog some personality and people will be much more likely to read your articles because they will be entertaining.

Add your blog to our listings?: Always make sure any option like this is set to yes. You want to make sure any service you utilize lists your blog so you can get maximum exposure. That is the idea behind a money making blog in the first place, right?

Let search engines find your blog?: Once again make sure this is set to yes to get maximum exposure for your blog.

The rest of the options on this page are explained pretty well by the descriptions provided by Blogger. I wanted to cover the most important ones in detail so you know why they are useful.

Another option to make note of on this page is the “Delete Your Blog?” button. It is at the very bottom of the page. While hopefully you never need to use this, if you decide you want to start from scratch this will allow you to purge all the content from you blog, including the blogger address.

This is really only to be used if you are getting rid of your blog.

• Always remember to use the “Save Settings” button when you are done making changes. This applies to any settings pages in Blogger.

Now let’s take a quick look at the other Sub Menus at the top. The next one after Basic is “Publishing”.

PUBLISHING

Under publishing there is one main option. This option is to change your blogspot address. Hopefully you have decided on a name you like, but if you have had second thoughts and want to try something else this is where you would change it.

As mentioned on the page the name you choose is subject to availability. You also have the option to register a domain through blogger and point it toward your blog. If you decide to go with a domain to use with your free blog this is an easy option to get things setup.

If you already have a domain name you would need to change the settings with your registrar to point it towards your blogspot blog.

FORMATTING

The next tab gives you access to all the formatting options for your posts. By default the options are set pretty well. You may want to scan down the list and read the description for each so you have an idea of what each setting does. This way if you are looking to change something down the road you have a good idea of where it needs to be done.

COMMENTS

The next tab is the comments screen. The comments screen controls all the specifics about who can post to your blog. These options are also set appropriately by default.

The two options you may want to look at by default are the “Who can comment” options and the “Enable Comment Moderation”. People who can comment is set to registered users. This is good because in theory it will cut down on the amount of potential spam your blog receives.

Some people like to make it so that anyone can comment on their blog. This way, no one is left out whether they have an account of not. The thing to keep in mind here is that you may want to enable the “Comment Moderation” options if you choose this setting. This way you can check to make sure people are not link spamming in their comments before their feedback is posted to your blog.

The last option to not is the “Comment Notification Email” setting which will send you an email whenever someone comments on your blog. This is great if your blog is new and you are eagerly awaiting feedback or if you are very active in the comments section of your blog.

On the other hand, this may start to feel like spam when your blog becomes bigger. If that becomes the case just remember you can always go back in here and disable this option.

ARCHIVING

The archiving options control how your blog handles older posts. This is usually a setting that people toggle to work on a monthly basis.

It will basically give your blog a chronological storage system so people can go back and check for posts during certain months if they choose. This is one of the many ways readers can access data on a blog.

The options that are set by default are fine.

SITE FEED

Your Site Feed controls the settings for the RSS feed on your blog. You may have heard of RSS or seen “Atom” on other blogs. This is a way that users can subscribe to your blog like a magazine.

Whenever you post new content those subscribers will automatically have it sent to their subscription program. I will go into more detail on RSS in future articles.

For now just be aware that these options are here. Once again the descriptions of each setting are good enough to understand what they are for.

Be aware that it is not good netiquette to limit your blog feeds. Keep the option set to “Full” to keep your readers happy. The “Post Feed Redirect URL” is important if you are using a RSS service like feed burner to manage your feed. This will be more important to you down the road so for now don’t worry about it. We will come back to this when we need to.

EMAIL

The email section allows you to setup an email address to be notified whenever content is posted to your blog. This can be handy if you have a multiple author blog. That way you and your friends are aware of when something has been posted.

This can be useful for proof reading someone else’s work to make sure there are no errors in the post.

The other option allows you to setup and email address to use to post content directly to your blog. This is more of an advanced practice by bloggers and I would say don’t worry about this for now.

OPENID

OpenID is a login system that works by setting up a list of trusted sites. It can be useful for quickly logging into some service or allowing other users that you trust to quickly access services you offer.

For a detailed explanation of what OpenID is and how it works you will want to click on the “Learn more about OpenID” link that is on this page.

It is not important to utilize OpenID to get started using your blog.

PERMISSIONS

The permissions area allows you to add users to your blog. These users can be other authors you are working with if multiple people are creating content for the blog.

To add an author all you need to do is click on the “Add Author” button and you will get a drop down box that asks you to submit the email address of the person you would like to add to your blog.

The section below this titled “Blog Readers” will allow you to specify who is able to access your blog. By default this is set to “Anybody,” which is what you want for a money making blog.

If you wanted a more private blog you could set it to “Only People I Choose” or “Only Blog Authors”. This is really only important if you are working on a private blog with people. I assume that because you are reading my website to learn about creating a money making blog that this is probably not the case.

Congratulations

You now know all the basic settings and functions of your Blogger blog. The details we covered will help you get your blog setup exactly the way you like it.

Because this article ran a little long I am going to cover the “Layout” category in the next article entitled “Understanding Your Blogger Layout Options”. This will help you customize the look and feel of your site to get it exactly the way you want it.

If you have read enough about setting up your blog for now and would like to move onto the next topic which covers Writing Your First Money Making Blog Post then click on the link below to get started!

Now that you have setup your blog as outlined in my previous article you are ready to get familiar with all of the functions of your blog.

As I mentioned before, it doesn’t hurt to write a “Hello World” post explaining who you are and what your blog is about. This is good so you can learn by doing and you can always delete the post later if you are unhappy with it.

Whether you have already written a post or not, the following article will walk you through the various menus and options available in your blog. I am breaking this article into two parts for those using Blogger and those using WordPress.

For those using WordPress blogs there is one additional step to finalize your setup. Please check out my guide on The Final Step of the WordPress Setup Process to complete your new installation.

If you are using Blogger to host your blog then you will want to follow my guide, Learning How to use Your Blogger Blog.

If you are using a hosted WordPress blog then you will want to read my article about Options and Menus Available in a WordPress Blog.

If you are already familiar with the options available in your blog and would like to move onto the next training guide, I would recommend checking out Writing Your First Money Making Blog Post.

As I mentioned in my previous article about using Dreamhost one-click installs to setup your blog, you will need to receive a confirmation email from Dreamhost to let you know the blog installation has been completed.

Once you have received this email you will want to open it and click on the link provided to finalize your new WordPress installation.

When you click the link in the email from Dreamhost it will take you to the blog “Setup” screen.

The first screen will ask you the name of your blog and an email address you would like associated with it.

Chances are you have already setup a name that you used with the domain you created for the new blog. Type the name in as you would like it to be displayed on your blog.

For example:

makemoneylife.com

I would type in as: Make Money Life. This way it’s easier for people to read.

Most WordPress themes will also display this name at the top of your blog, so that is where I get a little additional keyword bonus from the considerations I made when creating a name for my site.

The next thing you need to enter is an email address that will be associated with the blog.

• If you do not want to use your personal email address I recommend reading my article on “How to Setup a Professional Looking Email for your Domain”.

Once you have the required information filled out click the next button. This will take you to a setup screen that displays the login and password for admin on your blog.

I would recommend doing three things here.

01. First write down the information on the screen so you have a backup of it incase you forget it.

02. Then hit the “Print Screen” (PrtScn) button on your keyboard. (It is usually located near the “Backspace”, “Insert”, and “F12” keys on most keyboards. Once you have done this click the “Start” menu and select “Run”.

Type: MSPAINT and hit enter.

This will open MS Paint. Now click “Edit” > “Paste” and you will have a screenshot of the login information that was displayed for you incase you forget it. Click “File” > “Save” and save the screenshot somewhere on your computer or back up drive for safekeeping.

03. Once you have written down your login information, highlight the password with your mouse, and “right click” to bring up the options menu. Select “Copy” from the options menu and then go ahead and click the “Log In” button.

When you click “Login” it will take you to the WordPress admin login screen for your new site. Type in “admin” for your username and then “right click” in the password field and select “Paste” from the menu.

Once you have done this click the “Log in” button. You will now log into your new blog for the first time.

Create a New User Account

I recommend creating a new user account right away so it is easy to login next time.

01. To do this, go to: “Users” (located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen).

02. In the “Users” screen you will see a section of fields labeled “Add New User”.

Choose a username you would like for logging into the site. The user name is case sensitive so if you choose Paul or paul, they are considered two different logins. Be sure to make a mental note if you used capital letters or not.

Once you have your username you need to enter your first and last name. I usually enter Paul and the first letter of my last name. This doesn’t need to be extremely official.

Then it will ask for an email address. I recommend using the one you setup above for your blog. For mine it was paul@makemoneylife.com.

Then it asks for your “Website”. You can leave this blank or you can enter the address of your blog. I usually add the address just because I always like to make use of promotional mechanisms on sites.

Now you will want to create a password that is easy to remember. Type it in twice to confirm your new password.

Then from the “role” drop down menu I would suggest setting yourself up as “Administrator”. You can choose other options but you want to make sure that you have full control over your site.

The other options are useful for when you are setting up an account for a friend or partner on the site and you want to allow them to be an author, without administrator rights to the blog.

Now that you have setup the final options for your blog and created a new user account so it will be easy to login, you are ready to get started learning the ins and outs of WordPress. Click the link below to get started with my guide Options and Menus Available in a WordPress Blog.

Now that you have setup a new domain you probably want to get it up and running with WordPress so you can start making the most out of your new site.

If you have not signed up for hosting as outlined in my article covering “Installing and Configuring Your Blog for the First time”, you will need to do so before you can proceed.

If you have already installed WordPress and are interested in setting up a second domain to run another site you will want to checkout my guide on “Adding a New Domain to Your Hosting” to make sure that everything is in place to setup another blog.

If you have taken care of the prerequisites you are ready to move on to the actual installation of the new blog with WordPress publishing software.

Go to Dreamhost.com and log into your account. Once you are at the account control panel you will need to follow the steps listed below to setup your new blog installation.

• If you are setting up your domain and hosting for the first time you can watch from the 4:40 mark to get a good idea of what you need to do.

01. First, click on the “Goodies” link in the navigational menu to the left. It is located under the “Mail” link and above the “Status” link in the navigation menu.

02. This will open a drop down menu with several options. We want to select the option near the bottom of the list called “One-Click Installs”

03. Once you have selected this option you will be taken to a new page called One-Click Installs.

The page gives you three options for how you would like to manage the one click install process. The options are:

• Install new website software – Easy mode
• Install new website software – Advanced mode
• Upgrade or remove previously installed software – Advanced mode

You can choose the option that best suits your needs but I would recommend going with the “Install new website software – Advanced mode” option.

The reason being is that you want to have as much control over your site as possible. That’s why you went with web hosting in the first place, right? I will walk you through everything in the advanced menu, so you will know what options you need to choose.
If you are
04. Once you have clicked the “Install – Advanced” option a drop down will open and you will need to select the software you would like to use. In this case, since we are installing a new blog you would want to select the “WordPress” option.

There are several options available including:

• WordPress
• Gallery
• ZenCart
• PhpGed View
• OpenX
• Pligg
• dotProject
• Moodle
• Joomla
• Phpbb
• MediaWiki
• WebCalendar

For the sake of this article we are going to focus on the “WordPress” option.

05. Down below this make sure you select the proper option. You do not want to mess up a blog you have already created if you have more than one domain setup. (If this is your first blog installation then you don’t need to worry about this.)

It is going to ask you: “Install to?”

Make sure you select your new domain from the drop down list. (If you only have one domain it should default to the proper one.)

Once you have selected your new domain, if you leave the box blank after the domain name WordPress will be installed to the root directory of your domain. This is most likely what you want.

If you want to install WordPress into a directory other than root, most people enter “Blog” for this section. (This is mainly done when people are building a site and want to have a blog hosted on the website also. They may also do this if they are building a website around the blog.)

06. Once you have selected your new domain from the drop down menu you need to specify a name for the new blog’s database. You can go with anything here. If your site name is CoolBlogInfo, you might want to choose something like “cbiblog” for your database name.

• (If you get a message that the database name is already in use just try again until you find one that is available.)

07. For the section asking “Use Existing Hostname,” I recommend keeping this separate from your original blog. (This only applies if you have more than one blog setup on your domain. If not, disregard this.) It is probably set to your original information by default.

To change this, toggle the drop down menu and select “Create a new hostname now.”

Once you have done this, the Create a New Hostname box will become available and you can enter a new name. The default “mysql” label is fine but toggle the drop down after this to associate the mysql sub-domain with your new domain name. (By default this will be set to your original blog information.)

08. The next section asks you the “First User” for this database. I recommend creating something easy to remember here. You can go with the default, which should be setup from your original blog, but to keep things separate I created an easy to recall user name and wrote the info down so I wouldn’t forget it.

(If this is your first blog just choose a name that will be easy to remember and go with that. This will be your login and password for your database should you ever need it.)

09. Once you have entered all the information, double check this page to make sure everything is correct. Once you have determined all the information is how you want it and the WordPress installation is pointing to the correct domain, you can go ahead and press the “Install it for me now!” button.

Once you have done this you will be taken to the “Success” screen!

• Fantastico, shmantastico!

You will now see a message about your new blog being setup within the next 10 minutes.

After all the hard work you have done you deserve a coffee (or beer). Get up, fix yourself a drink, and once you come back to your computer your new blog should be setup and ready to go.

Congratulations, you have now mastered the Dreamhost One-Click Install program. You can see how useful this can be for quickly setting up multiple domains with their own blogs.

Now that you have setup your first (or second) blog, you will want to login and make sure everything is setup correctly. Check my guide entitled “Options and Menus Available in a WordPress Blog” to learn all the details of configuring your blog software.

In our last guide I discussed considerations to make when setting your blog for the first time. Now I would actually like to cover how to setup your blog.

As I mentioned in previous articles, Make Money Life is geared towards teaching anyone how to get started making money online. I do not want to assume that someone already knows one area or another.

While doing a lot of my research, I came across sites with great information that left out key points, because the author assumed people knew about these things already. This created a lot of unneeded research time for me that could have been spent setting up my site. If you come across information like this on my site please let me know so I can revise articles and help better answer your questions.

• I will always address questions or feedback if they are in the form of comments on the blog.

Blogging Hardware and Software Requirements

I’m sure you will be glad to hear that blogging it not a very intense operation for a computer. Because of this, you can probably get by with almost any computer you currently own. In some rare exceptions you may notice slower performance on very old systems, but most PCs out there will work fine.

The software you use for your blog is dependant on your preferences and hosting service. I would highly recommend using WordPress software to maintain your blog.

WordPress is completely free to download and use, is widely supported, and has a very helpful community of users. It also has a lot of extended functionality through the use of free plugins and themes that people make for it.

There are other software alternatives but for the scope of this article and providing support to my readers, I am going to focus mainly on WordPress.

Now as I mentioned, sometimes the software you are able to run with your host may limit you to a specific application. A good example was setting up a blog for my company through their hosting service, which only supported “Movable Type” blogging software.

If a host tells you that you can only use one type of software it is a potential red flag for future support issues. I prefer a company that accommodates my needs instead of the other way around.

As I mentioned in a previous article, I am very happy with Dreamhost web hosting. I have sites on several hosts and out of all of these services Dreamhost has the best track record for uptime and helpful support.

You can save $10 signing up with Dreamhost by using the coupon code: MMLSavings

WordPress vs. Blogger

In my previous article Setup a Blog to Start Making Money Online I covered the pros and cons of using free blog services vs. WordPress software and web hosting. I will cover setting up both in the sections below.

How to Setup Your Blog on Blogger.com

To create a blog on blogger.com all you need to do is signup for a Google account. If you have a Google or Gmail account already you are one step ahead of the game. If not, you can do this right through the blogger website.

02. Fill out the information on the following page and click the “Continue” button.

03. Once you have your account setup, you should be taken to “Step #2 – Name Blog” which is the blog creation section. (If you signed in with an existing Google account you will see a “Create a Blog” link at the top of the page.)

04. On the Name Your Blog screen you need to decide on two very important bits of information. A blog title and blog address.

“Take your time and choose wisely. This is a very important consideration for the future of your site.”

• I have written a guide on Choosing a Website Name that will help Sell Your Business that covers many of the considerations that need to be made when choosing a site name and address.

05. Once you have decided on a name, fill in the required information for the blog title and address. Then click the “next” button.

06. You will now be taken to a screen that will allow you to “Choose a Template” to customize the look for your blog. Choose a template that best suits your tastes and click the “next” button.

07. You are now at the final screen “Your blog has been created!” You have successfully created your first blog and can now add your first post by clicking the “Start Blogging” button.

You might want to do this and write a quick Hello World post explaining to people who you are and what your blog is about. This can be done as a practice post and you can always go back and delete it if you don’t like it.

Congratulations on setting up your first blog! Now you know how easy it is to setup a free blog with blogger.com (blogspot).

I am also happy to tell you it is just as easy to setup your first blog using web hosting with a service like Dreamhost.

I will cover this type of setup in the section below. If you are setting up your blog with Dreamhost checkout the following instructions for everything you need to know to easily get started.

How to Setup Your Blog with a Hosting Service

To setup a blog on a hosting service like Dreamhost there are a few more steps involved, but it can be just as easy as setting up a free blog. Don’t worry; I will walk you through everything you need to know to setup a blog with a professional appearance.

The first thing you need to do is register for a hosting account. As I have mentioned before I think Dreamhost is a great option for bloggers because they cater to WordPress and their “one click install” service makes it easy for even a beginner to get their first blog up and running in minutes.

When you sign up for your hosting you will need to register a web address if you do not already have one. I am guessing most people reading this article do not already own a web address so you will need to think of a name for your blog if you have not done this already.

I have a great guide on the site that will walk you through all the considerations to make when choosing a name for your site and web address.

Once you have your name picked out you are ready to complete the signup process.

01. The first screen you will come to says “Signup – Let’s Get Started”. Here you will need to select the type of hosting you want, or decide if you only want a web address.

• You will need hosting for setting up your blog on a web host.

02. The next choice asks if you need extra features for your site. They offer Unique IPs, Premium phone support, VPN Access, SSL Secure certificates, and Google Apps.

I feel that most of these extra features are unneeded. If this is your first site, you do not need a lot of fancy services you are not going to use.

The premium phone support is expensive in the event that you don’t use it, and the Dreamhost support staff responds to email requests in a VERY timely manner. I recommend using email for any support questions you may have, because it’s quick and free.

The Google Apps option is worth leaving checked because it’s free. I left it checked when I signed up for my account. I haven’t used it to date, but the price is right.

03. The next step will instruct you to “Please configure your first hosted domain now.” Here you have a couple options.

• Register a new .com/net/org/info domain for me. (Free with hosting!)
• I already own a domain, I just want to host it with you (you can still register a free domain later)!
• I already own a domain, I want to host it AND transfer the registration for free!
• Just a dreamhosters.com sub-domain for now (you can still register a free domain later)!

You are probably going to want to go with the first option here. When you sign up for hosting you get to pick a free domain name so you can setup your web address now by choosing this option.

The second and third options apply if you already own a web address (domain). If this is the case you probably know which option best suits your needs.

The last option allows you to setup a sub domain with Dreamhost. Since the whole point of signing up for hosting is that you can have a unique site name and address I recommend registering the free domain that is offered to you in the first option.

04. Once you have made your selection you need to complete the registration form. This is standard information you would need to provide for any type of subscription-based service.

Once you have filled in the required information you can move onto the next section.

05. In the “Finally” section you will want to make sure to use the MMLSavings coupon code to get your $10 discount on hosting. You can use the money you save to register a second domain if you would like to setup a second website down the road.

Once you have entered the coupon code click the “Continue to Secure Payment” button to finalize your registration.

06. On the next page it will give you a couple options for how to pay for your hosting. The two main options are by PayPal or Credit Card.

If you read the fine print you can see that only Credit Card payments are eligible for refunds so this is the option I went with to be safe. It’s also nice because not everyone has a PayPal account.

07. Once you have filled in your billing information click the “Charge this card now” button and you will be taken to the “Let’s Get Started” screen.

• “Welcome to Dreamhost”

This screen tells you that your payment has been accepted and that your account will be setup as soon as it is approved. (It only takes about five to ten minutes to approve your account.)

I recommend printing this page out for your records. You will also receive the same confirmation to your email so if you prefer to save it as an email you can do that too.

From here click the “Continue to your web panel” button. This will allow you to login to your new account for the first time.

When you click this button it will take you to the “Current Users: Log In” screen. You will be required to enter your Web ID and password to login into your new account. Your Web ID is the email address you provided during registration. Your Web Panel password is the password you setup when you registered.

Once you have entered this information press the “Log In” button and you will be taken to your account control panel.

Congratulations. You have just finished setting up your first web hosting account. From here you can install WordPress using the Dreamhost “one click install” service. For more information on this, checkout my next article about Using Dreamhost One Click Installs to Setup Your New Blog.

Blog Setup Overview

You have now learned how to setup a blog on a free host like blogger or on a web host like Dreamhost. You are finally ready to start writing your first blog posts.

At this point feel free to log-in to your blog and explore. Don’t be afraid to write some test posts to get a feel for your blog and the publishing process. Keep in mind that anything you create can always be deleted later so have fun and try things out.

Once you are ready you can move onto my following article about Logging into Your Blog for the First time.