Hey all. Today I wanted to touch on something really quick that I have learned is crucial to making money online. The difference between using free web and owning your own domain name is very important when it comes to making money with your website.

Now in the past I have talked about how to setup free hosting and how to setup paid hosting. I covered both of these topics so that even people who do not have the money to start their own business, could get started making money online.

After several weeks away from this site working on other sites I maintain that bring in regular income I wanted to mention something I had noticed.

Owning your own domain name is very important and can directly impact the opportunities that are available to you, which will directly affect how much money you make and how quickly you can make it.

Now free web hosting can work for things like Adsense, and other Pay-Per-Click programs but some of the best paying money making opportunities usually are only available to those who have their own domain name.

One common example of this can be seen with those who write paid reviews on their blogs or websites. Many times offers from advertisers will only be available to people who have their own domain name, and the offers specifically exclude domains like wordpress.com, blogger, etc.

So if you are planning what is best for your business you may want to keep this in mind if you are trying to decide between buying a domain or free web hosting.

Hey everyone. I have gone for awhile. But I have great news!

I have been working on several money making sites over the past few months and have some really great tips to share with everyone on some of the best ways I have found to make money online.

I will be evolving the site in a direction where I outline some of the best money making tips I have come across and some of the best opportunities I have found that people should know about.

The index section of the site is pretty complete and teaches users everything they need to know about setting up their first domain, and website or blog to writing their first money making post.

In the coming weeks I will be focusing on articles and advice that I have learned first hand from utilizing them with other sites I work on. These are not plugs for affiliate services that I make money off when you sign up. These are genuine methods that are tested and work for making some great money on the side.

If you have been following the site, you will be some of the first users to learn first hand the tricks and mindset that is required to make money online.

Keep checking back for all the latest articles and news to help beginners start making real money online.

Today I would like to talk about a great way for people to save a lot of money each year, by doing the easiest thing ever… bringing your lunch to work. So many people overlook how much money can be saved by bringing in a lunch instead of going out to eat every day.

If you have read my guides about how to make money online you will know that I am all about looking at making and saving money as a numbers game. It’s true! Anything involving money is a numbers game. It is a set of numbers you are constantly tweaking to give yourself the advantage of being on the receiving end instead of the giving end.

How does this apply to bringing your lunch? Simple… think about how much you spend on lunch, and misc. expenses like breakfast, coffee and soda per day. Now you may be thinking to yourself, it’s not really that much. I felt the same way when I was buying all my food each day. But once I bought my house, I started running numbers to see all the places where I could be saving money for house payments.

What Do I Spend on Lunch Each Day?

Upon examining what I spent on lunch, it didn’t seem like much in the course of a day, or over a few days, but when I looked at it with a broader perspective and played the numbers game I came to realize just how much I was actually spending on food and drinks.

Now I love my coffee as much as the next person and on a normal day I would stop for coffee on my way to work. Sometimes if I was hungry in the morning I would buy a cereal bar for breakfast. The coffee cost about $1.25 for a medium sized cup, while you could easily spend more by getting the larger size, or a “premium” coffee from a place like Starbucks. The cereal bar cost about $0.75. Ok so $2.00 for breakfast, that doesn’t seem that bad?

For lunch I would usually go out to different places to keep it interesting. I might go to the Gas Station and get two hotdogs for a dollar, along with a bag of chips and a soda, or drive down to McDonalds for a quick drive through lunch. When I got sick of stuff like that I would eat at subway, or chip in to have a pizza delivered, and sometimes I would even get cheap Chinese food for lunch.

No matter where I went I ended up spending about $5.00 – $6.00 on average for lunch after factoring in sales tax. Sometimes I would even run out in the afternoon to pickup a soda if I was tired and needed a pick-me-up or just wanted to run out and get some fresh air.

Now why have I bothered outlining this in such detail? Because I think this is probably not that much different from the routine of a lot of people out there. When I rented, I never really felt the need to look that closely at my money. I figured I didn’t need a lot of extra money in the bank, but I think this is a self defeating philosophy that we as American consumers have been duped into believing.

Grand Totals…

Coming back to the “numbers game” let’s take a look at what I spent on a daily basis over the course of time. So let’s see… $2.00 for breakfast, $6.00 for lunch, and $2.00 for a snack or soda. So that’s roughly $10 a day. Not too bad yet.

So after one week this cost me about $50 dollars, ouch! And one month cost me about $200!!? (not factoring weekends) Holy crap! So one year cost me roughly $2,400 dollars for crappy fast food lunches! See how numbers game works.

Now granted I may not have been consistent in that time frame and I might have found some ways to save a dollar or two here and there, so we’ll knock off $400 dollars. So on average I stood to spend about $2,000 a year on food that I could easily bring from home which would probably end up costing me about $400 or less depending on how I planned those lunches.

So you see I could have been saving anywhere from $2,000 – $2,400 dollars a year on food. This doesn’t even factor in the fuel used to go out and get lunch, or the extra unneeded wear it put on my car. How about running to AC on hot days, and the extra gas that was used, when I could have sat inside the air conditioned building where I work.

Now at this point you are probably thinking, “Hey you said this was about how to save $1,000 dollars a year?” That’s true, I did. That was factoring that someone spent the bare minimum for food and drinks each day for a grand total of $5.00. Which is half what I was spending.

Conclusions…

So you can see how significant the numbers game actually is when it comes to making and saving money. Most any business can be approached this same way but it is especially important for making money online. All the little dollars and cents add up over the course of time and this is money that you can be making, saving or wasting.

I hope my long winded rant helps people evaluate other areas where they could be making or saving a lot of extra money. It applies to more than just bringing your lunch to work. I used this example because this was a large area where I was losing money every month that I could be using to pay off my house.

I have found the biggest key at being successful here is keeping your lunch interesting. It’s way too easy to burn out after eating the same thing day after day. Look up some lunch ideas online and keep it interesting so that lunch is something you look forward to. You can get started with some good lunch ideas by using my search link below:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Work+Lunch+Ideas

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you have any lunch tips or money saving ideas I would definitely be interested to hear them. What are some of the ways that you save money on food and drinks on a daily basis? Please share you comments with any good suggestions you can offer to help others. Thanks!

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.