Posts Tagged ‘wordpress’

Why Are Categories and Tags Important for my Blog

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

How to Use Categories and Tags Effectively in Your Blog

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”.

Tags: blog, Blogging, categories, easy money, guide, make money, money, online, tutorial, wordpress
Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment »

Writing Your First Money Making Blog Post

Monday, July 7th, 2008

How to Get Started Writing Your First Blog Post

How to Write your First Blog PostOk 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?

How to Get Inspired to WriteWhen 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.

Provide Value to Your ReadersWrite 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“.

Next Article

Tags: blog, Blogging, easy money, guide, make money, money, online, tutorial, wordpress
Posted in Blogging | No Comments »

Options and Menus Available in a WordPress Blog

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Options and Menus Available in a WordPress Blog

WordPress options and settingsTo 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.

WordPress Menu Options

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.

WordPress Setting and Options Guide


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

Permalink Address StructureThe 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”.

Next Article

Tags: blog, Blogging, configure, guide, make money, money, options, setup, tutorial, wordpress
Posted in Blogging | No Comments »

The Final Step of the WordPress Setup Process

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Chapter 7 – The Final Steps of the WordPress Setup Process

WordPress Setup Final StepsAs 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.


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

Create a New User AccountI 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.

Next Article

Tags: blog, Blogging, configure, easy money, guide, make money, online, setup, wordpress
Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment »