Wordpress Blog Setup Made Easy the Complete Step-By-Step Guide

Blair Evan Ball Wordpress Blog Setup Made Easy The Complete Step-by-Step Guide

By Blair Evan Ball

Published by Prepare1.com

Social Media Professional | Social Media Coach http://www.prepare1.com Germantown, TN 38138 USA

With the exception of brief quotations in review – with proper accreditation – no part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

DISCLAIMER

This publication is designed to provide accurate information in regard to the subject matter covered. The author is not engaged in providing legal, financial, investment, accounting or business advice. Should the reader need such advice, he or she must seek services from a competent professional. The author particularly disclaims any liability, loss or risk taken by individuals who directly or indirectly act on the information contained herein. The author believes the information contained in this publication to be solid, but readers cannot hold him responsible for either the actions they take or the result of those actions. Blair Evan Ball is not affiliated with, nor does he represent, Facebook®.com. He is an independent consultant, coach, and active member of Facebook®.com.

Please refrain from changing, dismantling, plagiarizing or reselling this e-book. Thank you.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Table of Contents

Why a blog…………………………………………….………………………………..…2 Free Blog…………………………………………………………………………………..3 Choosing a domain………………………………….…………………………………….4 What to avoid……………………………………………………………………………...5 Why would anyone want a hyphen…………………………….………………………….6 Keyword Rich Domain Names……………………….……………………………..…….7 Already have a site…………………………………………………………………….…..8 Buying a Domain………………………………………………………………………….9 Domain Registration……………………………………………………………..…...10-12 Hosting………………………………………………………………………….…….13-17 Setting Name Servers………………………………………………………….…..….18-19 Logging into your Cpanel……………………………………………………….………..20 Setting up E-mail………………………………………………………………….……...21 Installing Wordpress………………………………………………………….……….23-28 How to select a theme…………………………………………………………………29-32 How to install a theme………………………………………………………………...33-36 Customize your settings……………………………………………………………….37-46 Install plugins………………………………………………………………….……....47-55 Creating pages……………………….…………………………………………….….…..56 Widgets and Design…………………………………………………………….……..57-60 Checklist: Domains and Hosting…………………………………………………..…61-63 Customizing Wordpress………………………………………..……………….….…64-66

2010 Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Why a Blog?

A blog is the way to go, when setting up a website for your business (or even for personal use).

Think of your web site like a vehicle. You don't want to be driving stick shift in the middle of city traffic if you don't have to, right? Using WordPress puts the “automatic” in your transmission… by providing you with a simple content management system and allowing you to update your content quickly, easily and regularly (the key to strong Search Engine Optimization). Basically it allows you to manage your own web site without having to wait for techies and without paying web developers hefty fees every time you want to change one word or paragraph on a page. You are in control.

Note: In this training, I may switch between the terms “blog” and “website”. I'm using them interchangeably as the same thing. A website can be a blog. And WordPress is a free program that runs your blog (i.e. your website). So, don't let that terminology confuse you.

Why choose a WordPress blog?  WordPress.org is the standard.  WordPress blogs are easy to update or hire someone to make changes because there are so many users.  No learning to code. Post your blog posts using a visual editor. (If you can send an email, you can post to your WordPress blog.)  You need to focus on driving your business on automatic – not being your own webmaster.

Note: Do not confuse WordPress.org with WordPress.com. WordPress.org is the blog standard. WordPress.com is a free platform. We do NOT recommend you use WordPress.com – as you'll see in the next section.

By the end of this lesson... If you’re completely new to working online, you may feel that setting up a blog will be a major learning curve. This guide will walk you through the process and help you avoid distractions, pitfalls and wasting time. The goal is to keep you from getting stuck and giving up.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

 You’ll learn how to choose a powerful domain name.  You'll set your domain up on your own hosting account.  You'll install your blog.  You’ll find out how to quickly and easily find and change your blog Theme to one that really suits your business and looks professional.  You’ll have tweaked and customized your new blog to eliminate basic security risks and rev your search engine optimization to the max.  You’ll be able to write your posts in any text editor, drop them straight into your blog (easily and instantly adding enhancements such as graphics or video links) – and publish.

You’ll have an attractive, highly optimized blog to attract relevant searchers and you'll be ready to turn your visitors into paying customers!

You won’t become an expert overnight – but you will get your blog up and running.

The first step you need to take is making sure you put your blog on your own domain.

Step One: Choosing a Domain & Buying It

We’re going to break this step down into two parts – choosing your domain name and buying it.

You may already be asking: Why is it necessary to buy a domain when there are sites such as WordPress.com and Blogger.com where you can host your blog for free? If you have an absolute shoestring budget, where even $10 a month is a major decision, this is indeed a valid question:

However, you need to be aware of several major drawbacks to free hosting…

On the plus side of free blogs. You have: 1. No start-up cost, obviously. It's free. 2. The ability to network and gain backlinks from other related blogs hosted on these free sites

Why You Should Choose WordPress.org Rather Than The Free Options.

1. It Shows that You're Serious about Your Business. Which looks more professional? http://petsmart.blogspot.com or www.PetSmart.com – I know which one I'd shop at.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

2. Building a Business Now vs. Later. If you decide later to buy your own domain, all of the networking, traffic generation, and relationship building will have to begin from scratch – promoting the new site. Basically, you'll be starting from square one.

3. Investment in Virtual Real Estate. You also will never be able to sell your blog down the road, should you want to, if you host it on a free site.

4. You Control your Destiny. On top of that, you do run a very real risk of investing much work and effort into your blog on a free site – only to find out one morning that it’s disappeared off the face of the earth. (This usually happens because either someone has complained or you’ve inadvertently violated a rule. And since the rules change arbitrarily, with the onus on you to keep abreast of the changes, it’s alarmingly easy to cross the line.)

5. More Flexibility in Making Money. Both Blogger and WordPress.com have very stringent, changeable and conflicting conditions for any sort of monetization of blogs hosted on their sites. If you are planning to use your blog as a personal diary, containing no affiliate links, advertising or selling of any sort, a blog on WordPress.com or Blogger.com is probably fairly safe: However, if your blog is a platform for your business, you really do need to choose a powerful, long- tailed keyword or focused company name as a domain name, purchase it (usually for under $10.00) and set it up on your own site.

But this guide is geared to those who are hosting their blogs on their own domains, so let’s continue with what will be one of your most important decisions…

1. Choosing a Strong Domain Name

Your domain name is going to be one of the most central keys to your online business success.

Your domain name can be keyword-based, branding-based or buzz-based. If you plan on a strong publicity campaign, especially via social networking, and want to go for branding then by all means call your blog something that is:

1. Short enough to be catchy (no more than three words together) 2. Easy to remember 3. Unique but niche-specific

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

A great example is “funwithspot.com”. The name “Spot” (when combined with words like “fun”) is iconic: It instantly makes one think of the old beginning reader primers.

You can almost instantly guess this site is:

a) for kids b) about reading

And the name itself is uncomplicated, scans well visually – and is easy to remember.

A note regarding the Search Engines: No matter what your blogging focus will be, consider planning for strong SEO (search engine optimization), so that people searching for your best, long-tailed keyword come across your site in the first page of search results that Google serves up. This simply means that you might consider choosing a domain that includes the keywords for which you wish to be found by your target customer. (i.e. The difference between using the word “cat” in your domain verses the cuter “meow”. People would search for “cat” but probably wouldn't search for “meow” when shopping.)

What to Avoid

Stay away from anything that is visually confusing and hard to scan while reading. For example, any combinations of words that will create three “S” characters in your domain name, such as “abcbusinessservices.com”. Also make sure that the words running together do not create another word, like “WordPress Expert” which would become “wordpressexpert”. There are many comical examples of that online. Well, they are comical to us, but probably not to the business owner.

Read your domain name out loud to ensure that it makes phonetic sense, too. If you stumble and trip over reading your own domain name, you can bet others will too. If a name “trips” the tongue, I can virtually guarantee the visitor will not be able to remember it. (It should also be the logical choice as a search phrase, should someone want to search out of thin air for your topic or company.)

Hyphen or No Hyphen? The SEO and web design jury is divided on the use of hyphens. (For instance, www.catsruledogsdrool.com verses www.cats-rule-dogs-drool.com) Many people feel hyphenated website names look unprofessional and there is an unwritten taboo in using them, when it comes to online marketing. The truth is, however, that search bots read hyphenated names exactly the same as they read run-on words… but human beings don’t.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Your best bet is to find words that make instant sense visually when combined without hyphens (like “funwithspot.com”).

Underscored words, however, should be avoided completely. They’re virtually never used, nowadays; and people will get them confused with hyphens and not be able to find your site.

Why Would Anyone Want to Use a Hyphen?

The only justification for using a hyphen occurs when you have visual or phonetic confusion you can’t avoid – the sort that makes your domain name hard to remember.

For example, there is no earthly reason whatsoever to hyphenate “crocodileproducts.com”. However, “abcbusinessservices.com” is confusing, with those multiple “s” characters.

In that case, if you must settle on that particular domain name, consider “abc-business- services.com”. (Whatever you do, hyphenate ALL words in a domain name, if you’re going to hyphenate at all. Start playing around with only hyphenating one of the word- conjunctions but not others and people will – again – become confused.)

Be creative. Register your site as “abcbusinessservices.com” but when putting the name in hyperlinks or on promotional material, use initial caps, like so: “ABCBusinessServices.com”. That creates a visual “break” between words and helps people to scan – and it doesn’t matter whether they type the caps or not into the URL bar. (Just never capitalize actual HTML file names).

Affiliate Marketing Domain Names

If your blog is geared towards affiliate marketing you’ll want a strictly keyword-based domain name.

One question beginners have often asked: “Why can’t I just use the brand name of the product I’m promoting in my domain name?”

Don’t even think about doing that for two reasons.

1. You can get instantly into legal trouble if you incorporate a trademarked brand name into your domain name. For example, you absolutely cannot have “PepsiProducts.com”

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy as your domain name unless you are the official representative of the Pepsi-Cola company: You can, however, have a generic name geared to what Pepsi drinkers might be searching for, such as “bestsoftdrinkrecipes.com”.

2. Buying a domain name and creating a site around a name-brand product or specific web store can also turn on you if that affiliate program goes away. Then you may lose an income stream if that website becomes instantly useless.

If you are planning to have multiple blogs and sell only affiliate products, a strong name generic to your niche is a good place to start. Anything with “reviews”, “best” or a generic keyword linked by association to your topic (e.g. “healthy”, “green”, if you’re into “natural” anything) works well. For example:

healthydiets.com bestchildrenstoys.com audioproductreviews.com greengardeningtips.com naturalfootwear.com

Keyword Rich Domain Names

Side note for More Advanced Students:

Here’s the formula for using standard keyword research that will currently give you the strongest SEO:

When searching in the Google Adwords KeyTool:

Your keyword should have: - some advertiser interest - less than 9,000 global monthly searches (but more than 1,000) when you use the “exact” setting In Google search:

- less than 150,000 search results (the lower the figure, the stronger the keyword) when you enter your phrase into the search bar

Should You Use a Different Extension… if the .com version is taken?

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

In an ideal world: No. It really is worth investing your time in continuing your search until you’ve found the perfect domain and registering it as [your domain].com. This is our highest recommendation and we stick by it.

That being said, several experienced marketers report great results with .org extensions. (It used to be these were used only for non-profit organizations, but desperate internet marketers unable to find .com versions of their keywords put away that tradition long ago.)

Avoid “vanity” extensions such as .info or .biz, however: It’s the fastest way to inform Google that you’re an insincere spammer! In the same vein, .mobi is not necessary, if your blog is mobile-friendly (most are). And guaranteed, if you choose a vanity extension, you’ll never become that holy of holies in the heady world of SEO, a Google “authority site”.

Here’s the formula regarding which extensions to use:

.com –The Holy Grail (and about as easy to find) .org – If you really MUST have that particular domain name. .net – Some people recommend this, but, frankly, I don’t.

Should you Purchase Your Own Name? If you are able to reserve your own name as a .com domain by all means tie that up quickly for further down the road.

But unless you are already a prominent public figure in your niche (or are trying to establish yourself as one), you may not want to use it for your blog name. It's hard to sell a business down the road if it's tied to your name.

What to Do if You Already Have a Well-established Site… If you and your website are already well-known within your niche, don’t try to re-create the wheel: Simply add the blog to your existing, top-ranking domain. (For example, if you already owned a popular site named “lynnsbytes.com” with a high Google page ranking, adding a blog as a directory would read like this in your URL bar: “lynnsbytes.com/blog”.)

In that case, you don’t have to register a domain: All you would do is allow WordPress to create a separate directory for it when you’re setting up your blog:

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Your other alternative is to use the .org version for your blog.

Example: lynnsbytes.com – your static website lynssbytes.org – your blog, on its own separate domain

We don't recommend this second option, though, as you'll have to promote and market TWO domains rather than just one.

Before You Begin Searching for Your Domain Name

One thing you don’t want to do, however:

 Don’t look to see if there’s an existing .com for the name you’ve dreamed up. Don't even start your search for a strong keyword phrase – until you’ve researched and decided on your web host and domain registrar.

There are large companies that prowl GoDaddy & Google search results using sophisticated software, snapping up the .com versions of strong, long-tailed keywords, especially in internet marketing if you search for a great domain and then don't buy it quickly. If you don’t register your perfect domain name quickly, you may find it has been taken while you were happily checking out web hosting options – and there’s nothing more frustrating than discovering a great domain name already taken… when it was available ten minutes earlier.

Have a selection of at least 5-10 potential blog names ready before signing up with any company. Don’t skimp on the important step of finding the right .com domain name. Finding a powerful domain name for some is the most difficult part of setting up your blog. (Actually installing it will be a piece of cake!)

2. Buying Your Domain

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

There are two key components of bringing your domain out of dreams and into reality:

1. Domain registration 2. Setting up web hosting (the place where your new blog is going to live)

Your web host can also be your domain registrar, turning domain registration into a “one step” process… but it’s not necessary and, if you’re planning eventually to have several more sites, you can save a considerable amount of money by using an inexpensive domain registry service such as Godaddy.com to register your domain names. Transferring your new domain over to your web host’s server is as simple typing in a name and clicking a button, so don’t be intimidated by the process, which we’ll go over shortly.)

The obvious advantage to making your domain registrar and web host the same? It’s easier for beginners, and totally eliminates the extra step of setting your Nameservers to point to your new web host.

The disadvantage? It is always more expensive to have your web host register your domain each time you add a new one. With many web hosting companies, the first domain is usually free or discounted to register… but after that, costs per new domain can run you as high as $20 per registration versus $9-12 (tops – and often much less) with registrars such as GoDaddy.

Many people feel typing in the Nameserver info, checking a box and waiting 1-24 hours for the new site to become active is worth the savings of making it a two-step process, while those new to working online may decide they’d rather start out slowly and have a one-step process, letting their new web host register their first domain for them.

At this point, if you’ve decided you want your new web host to also be the registrar for your domain, skip ahead to Step Three.

If you’ve decided to register your domain separately (recommended), this is how you do it. We're using GoDaddy so you can see the process, although most companies ask for similar information.

1. Create an account at your chosen domain registrar by clicking on whatever

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

“create account” or “sign up” button they provide.

2. Fill in your information. Be sure to use a REAL email address since this will be tied to your domain registration. Also, be sure to make a note of your new username and password.

3. Enter your chosen domain name into the search box provided. GoDaddy has two places where you can search.

On the main page:

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Or in the upper corner of their site from most pages:

4. If your company gives the option to search all extension, be sure to deselect (uncheck) all extensions except .com, .org, .net. 5. Hit the “Search” button 6. Repeat the process until you have the name you want 7. Click the box next to the domain name you’ve chosen and add it to your Shopping Cart, then Click “Continue to Registration”. 8. At this point, you'll see offers for many services that you do NOT need. When in doubt, click “No Thanks”. 9. Choose the length of time you want to register the domain for (1 year, 2 years, etc. – if you can afford it, it’s always less expensive to register it for a longer period of time) 10. Click “Continue” 11. Click “Continue” again. Finalize your purchase.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

There will be a small delay until you receive confirmation by email that your purchase is complete.

In rare cases – once in a blue moon – a domain will be purchased by someone else while your transaction is going through. Don’t worry about this. You will not be charged.

And, speaking of which, with GoDaddy.com you do have the option of paying via PayPal or credit card.

Now that you have a domain, it's time to get hosting to make it work.

Step Two: Buying Hosting

How do you pick a good web hosting company?

First, be aware that there are many different types of web hosting companies suited to different uses. Some are better for blogging than others. For example, WordPress blogs require Linux and PHP to handle scripting and databases, so you’ll need to avoid companies that operate solely on Windows ASPX data basing… because it is not compatible.

Plus if you’re planning to have more than one site or blog, you want to find one that offers inexpensive reseller hosting.

Reseller hosting simply means you can have multiple .com domains on one account that you pay one monthly fee for.

It also means you can sell that blog and transfer it to your purchaser’s web host server, further down the road.

Web host companies geared to internet marketing also often provide multi packages that operate nearly the same way as Reseller hosting: That is, you can have several separate domains on one hosting account. However, there is a difference between true Reseller hosting and “multi” plans… On a reseller account, each domain comes with its own separate cPanel, making it easy to sell – a “must” if you’re planning to do any blog flipping.

On a “multi” plan, they usually allow you to create “add on” domains. They do provide instructions and support, and this is often the best option if you’re a serial blogger with no plans to flip sites.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

The internet marketing industry standard and favorite of choice for inexpensive reseller hosting is BlueHost . There are many other excellent hosting companies, but some of the best ones don’t yet offer reseller hosting. Others offer reseller hosting, but at a prohibitive cost for the average small home online marketer.

Five well-recommended companies offering affordable reseller hosting are: BlueHost Hostrocket Hostgator MomWebs Reliable Webs

Prices range from $5.99 per month at time of writing from Hostrocket for a reseller account to $12.95 at Reliable Webs for its Multi Plan.

Pay attention to the amount of bandwidth each company allows you (it may make a difference to your plans). You get more personalized service from the smaller companies like MomWebs.com & ReliableWebs.com, but they often have bandwidth restrictions, whereas the big guns like Hostrocket and Hostgator offer unlimited bandwidth.

Also, the smaller companies won’t allow you to send out more than 1,000 emails at a time for fear of slowing down their servers. This may not be a concern when you’re just starting out, but if you ever plan to grow your business to the point where your list exceeds 1,000 subscribers, you should plan for that now: Moving multiple sites over to a larger server can be a hair-raising or tedious experience, depending on your level of expertise. (Costly, too.)

The final component you really do want to ensure your new web host offers: A cPanel interface. (cPanel is an industry specific name for “Control Panel”.) Most do – but check, because once in a while you’ll come across a company that has some alternate system that can be very difficult to work with – or outsource.

Your cPanel is the user-friendly interface that allows you to access the inner workings of your hosting account, play around with your domains, examine your stats, install email accounts, install scripts, etc. etc.

We’re going to use it for easy installation of your blog.

You’ve secured your domain via a domain registrar. You own it. You’ve researched web hosting companies and made up your mind which one to use. Now you’re finally

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy ready to set up your web hosting and point your Nameservers away from your registrar site over to your new web hosting server.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to your web host’s home page. Click on either the plan you’ve selected or the company’s “Sign Up” button (both should take you to a sign up screen).

Here's what HostGator Looks like:

And, here's MomWebs which is known for its support:

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

2. Make sure if you need more than one that you choose a Reseller plan or a Multi package that allows you unlimited domains. 3. If given the option between Linux and Windows hosting, choose Linux. No matter what operating system your computer has – that’s really quite irrelevant as Linux hosting relates to your server side only. Here's what the screen will look like at Host Gator:

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

And, your options at MomWebs.com -

4. If you haven’t purchased your domain and you want the one-step process of having your web host do it for you, select “Register New Domain”.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

5. If you have already registered your domain with a domain registry company such as GoDaddy or Dynadot, select “Use Existing Domain”. (*N.B. Do not select “transfer domain”: Pointing your Nameservers is not a transfer!). 6. Review your information. Especially check for spelling mistakes. 7. Choose the billing cycle you prefer (monthly, annually, etc.) 8. When it asks you who you are, select “new customer”, if that option is presented 9. Check your email for your “Welcome” email 10. IMPORTANT! Copy your “Welcome” email information in a safe place.

Now you’re ready for the next step…

Step Three. Setting Name Servers

It’s time to change the Name servers to point to your new host server.

Your “Welcome” email will contain the information you need about your name servers. You’ll be looking for 2 lines like this if you picked Hostgator, for example:

nsXXX.hostgator.com nsXXX.hostgator.com

Or if you signed up with Hostrocket:

dnsX.hrnoc.net dnsX.hrnoc.net

(The “X” represents numbers specific to your two Nameservers: The letters “NS” will always feature in a Nameserver address somewhere.)

Once you’ve located your Nameserver info in your “Welcome” email…

1. Log back into your original domain registrar account. You'll log into Dynadot or GoDaddy, NOT your web host, Hostgator, etc. 2. Click on “Domains” in the top tab. Then find your domains. (In GoDaddy you'll go to “domain management” then to “domain manager” as shown in these photos.)

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

3. Find your domain in the list of domains and click the box next to your domain name.

4. Once you're on the management page for your specific domain, click on the arrow next to “Name Servers” and click “Set Name Servers”. It's the one on the right.

5. Type your name server addresses (from the email that you received from your hosting company) into boxes 1 and 2

6. Click on “ok”.

And that’s all there is to it! Give it a few hours (anywhere from half an hour to 24 hours) and then go back to your welcome letter. You’re now ready to use your server’s powerful cPanel to set up your email addresses – and your new blog!

Logging into Your cPanel

1. Log into your cPanel using either the specific address contained in your “Welcome” email or, simply:

[yourspecificdomainname].com/cpanel

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

E.G.: http://macblog.com/cpanel

2. Enter the username and password given to you in your “Welcome” email. (The email from your hosting company – like Hostgator or MomWebs – not the one from GoDaddy.)

You’ll see a screen something like this:

Step Four: Setting up Email

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

At this point, if you want to use an email address specific to your website (E.G.: [email protected]) you can set up new email accounts within your cPanel.

Under the “Mail” section, click on “Email accounts” and select and follow the instructions provided for your particular email client (E.G.: Outlook Express, Mozilla Firefox, etc.).

Sites like Hostrocket and HostGator do provide video tutorials on how to set up your email, as well as specific instructions for each type of email client. If you’re nervous about this step, watch your host’s video tutorial at least twice before setting up your email addresses for real. (Make the first email address a “test” one.)

It's pretty simple, though. Here's how it looks -

So, if you wanted your email address to be “[email protected]” you'd enter “themaincheese” where it says email.

Now you've got an account, but the next step involves actually being able to CHECK emails – which are the more difficult part in my opinion.

You've got a few options for this.

1. Check your emails on the Web. Your hosting has a panel for checking your emails. It's cumbersome and we don't recommend it. However, it works, if you need something quick and easy.

2. Check emails in your Email Client (like Outlook or Thunderbird). You’ll need to log out of that and open up your email client (your Outlook Express, or

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy whatever you read your mail in) and click on “Account Settings”. Your welcome email from your new web host should contain information on what port to use, and whether or not to use pop, imap or smtp when prompted. (Mozilla Thunderbird has a new set up wizard which retrieves this information automatically.) Follow the email client prompts to import your new email account.

3. Forward your email account into Gmail. Or – if you prefer – you can skip the entire email setup step for now and simply forward your email into a gmail account: Either your main one (so that you can use your existing Google Analytics and AdWords account – or one you’ve created to reflect the name of your specific blog (E.G.: [email protected]).

Step Five: Installing WordPress When your email accounts are set up and you’re ready to install your blog, go back to (or log in again to) your cPanel:

1. Look for the word “Fantastico De Luxe”, along with this symbol

(You’ll most likely have to scroll below the fold to find it!)

2. Click on the blue Happy Face symbol. 3. You’ll be taken to the Fantastico main panel. Select “WordPress”:

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

4. The information within the box (blurred out, above) will change. Click on “New Installation”…

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

5. You’ll see a screen similar to this:

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

6. Leave “Install in Directory” blank – you want the blog to appear right at your main domain name; in our hypothetical example here, “softwareforbigmacs.com” (Important: UNLESS you're adding a blog to an existing website where you've already got content.) 7. In “Admin access data”, you can type: admin. However, I recommend you choose something else as “admin” is a very common username and will increase your odds of hackers getting into your blog. 8. In “Password”, type any strong password you desire. (Just make sure you keep a note of this as you go along.) 9. Your “Admin nickname” will show when you leave comments or post on your blog so choose something you'd like the world to see. 10. Type your chosen email address into the “Admin email” text area box 11. Under “Site name”, enter your domain name. 12. Under “Description”, enter a short description regarding what your blog is about. 13. Click the “Install WordPress” button, and on the next screen, review the information; then select “Finish installation” 14. On the next screen that appears in the WordPress box, you’ll see your final information. Be sure to bookmark your new blog address! You may wish to print this page as well. You can send yourself a confirmation email, if you like. (Recommended.)

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

(Send it to your most often-used email account: not your new one. Be sure to copy the information!)

15. Once you’ve done that, you’ll get the final screen within text area box:

Select “Back to WordPress overview”

16. You’ll be returned to the screen in Step Six… only now you’ll see “Current Installations” with details of your blog underneath “New Installation”:

17. Select “Visit Site” beside your new blog name. 18. Congratulations - you now have your own blog!

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

At this point, you can log right out of Fantastico and your cPanel.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

HINT: If you’re wondering how to log out of Fantastico, just click the little “tool” symbol in the top-left corner of your screen:

This will take you back to your cPanel, where you can click “Log Out” in your menu bar.

In fact, at this point, you’re done with Fantastico and cPanel for blog set up and customization.

If you want to totter off and imbibe a well-earned cup of coffee, it’s no problem to log in later and continue customizing – and you don’t have to do it via your cPanel.

How to Login To Your New Blog

To log into your new WordPress blog, select “Log in” on your blog. (Bottom right-hand menu, under “Meta”.)

Step Six: How to Select a Theme

You’re now ready to fine-tune and customize your blog, making it:

1. secure 2. well-optimized 3. easy to use 4. attractive and relevant to your topic (and brand)

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

If you haven’t already done so, now is a good time to take a break and select the right Theme for your purpose.

A well-designed Theme is extremely important to your blogging success. Poorly designed Themes contain “glitches”, bugs and are much harder for search engines to find. They also tend to be difficult to customize – and hey, if you’d wanted to be a web designer, you wouldn’t be writing a blog, would you?

So let’s quickly discuss what sort of Theme you need for your specific blogging goals – and where to get them.

Paid Themes vs. Free

First, let’s dispel one particular myth – that free Themes are “unprofessional” and inferior.

Actually, some of the most expensive Themes can be full of glitches, hard to manage and poorly optimized. So can many free ones. Whatever Theme you choose, paid or free, it needs to be:

 easy to customize  plug-in friendly  well designed

Fortunately, there’s a secret about free WordPress Themes: You can install and try any Theme out with one single click, and see how easy it is to handle and “test drive”. If you don’t like it, or it’s missing features, or hard to understand – try another!

Your best bet – before you put too much content on your blog and give it too many tweaks – is to select half a dozen good free Themes (and look into some paid ones). Upload them to your blog (I’ll show you how to do that shortly) and try them out.

For a sneak preview, let’s go to WordPress.org... (specifically http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ )

Here, you’ll find an entire library of free WordPress Themes donated by designers. Some are amazing; some not so good.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

You can enter your specific search parameters into the grey text area box above the sub- head, “Featured Themes” and check out the results that come up.

Some parameters that might suit your needs: Choose only the ones that apply – or make up your own search terms, such as:

- “AdSense ready” - “4 column” - “3 column” - “Magazine style” - “Photo album” - “Dark background” - “Light background” - “Mobile friendly” - “Twitter friendly”

You can also search by topic, such as “animals” or “making money”; or by color (for example, “mauve”).

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Once you’ve found a Theme that fits your needs and wishes, you can click either on the title (which is actually a link) or the thumbnail pic to take a closer look at its specs.

Here's an example of a free theme:

This will give you a detailed description of the Theme, author, style, rating, reviews, etc.

Click on the green “Preview” button to see how it looks in action. There’s no need to download it at this point: If it’s available through WordPress.org, we can easily install it via our blog “Dashboard” – you’ll be introduced to that very shortly.

There are plenty of tried-and-tested Themes, free and paid, ideally suited to a variety of uses.

Here are just a few of the most popular ones…

Theme Description

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Thesis From DIY Themes. All the rage in 2009, it’s an exceptionally clean and well optimized Theme, highly customizable, with unique options. However, it’s not a beginner-friendly Theme. Currently runs from $87 for a single personal license to $164 for a developer’s license.

Flexibility This one has been around for a long time and can give Thesis a run for its money! Flexibility3 is free. Easier to use than Thesis by far, but there is a learning curve.

FlexSqueeze Currently costs $127 for a multi-site license, but you can create and customize sales pages within your blog virtually instantly, with drag-and-drop coding done for you.

Elegant Themes A beautiful set of well-optimized, crisp Themes, with new ones being added regularly. Cross-browser functionality, “newbie” friendly and exceptional support makes this a popular option – as does its current price of $39 for unlimited access to all Themes.

Free or paid, any good Theme should advertise these characteristics:

 Cross browser compatibility  Widget ready  Valid XHTML and CSS  WordPress 3.0 (and upwards) compatible  Advertisement ready  [optional, depending on your monetization goals] AdSense ready

You’ll also want to make sure it supports graphics. Step Seven: How to Install a Theme

The first thing we’re going to do is see how easy it is to change Themes within your Dashboard. Open your browser and type your blog log-in address into the URL bar.

E.G.: “http://yourdomainname.com/wp-login.php”

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

If that doesn’t work, try: “http://yourdomainname.com/wp-admin.” (Don’t type my quotes, of course.)

You’ll end up looking at your Dashboard:

Turn your attention to the menu on the left hand side – it’s going to be a very important aid to managing your blog.

Each of these tabs opens up into a drop-down menu, if you hover your mouse pointer over the right of each tab heading.

We’re going to find some alternative blog Themes, so go ahead and click on “Themes’ under the “Appearance” drop-down menu…

You’ll immediately see which Themes are already installed… and you’ll be able to immediately go find and upload new ones from WordPress.org – right through your Dashboard!

You’ll see the current Theme your blog is using: In this example, “Twenty Ten”… and underneath that, “Available Themes”.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

You have no other available Themes in your Theme Library right now, so click on the blue hyperlink, “Install Themes” – or on the grayed-out “Install Themes” tab, to the right of “Manage Themes”.

Either brings you to a search page where you will be able to instantly checkmark search criteria such as:

 The colors you want  The number of columns  Fixed width or Flexible width  Specific features  Subjects you are interested in

It will also allow you to enter more search criteria in a Search Box, if you need it. If you’ve had a look at Themes you like at WordPress.org (as shown in Step Six: How to Select a Theme), you can simply enter the Theme name into the “Install Themes” search box (assuming you made a note of Themes you like when we were indulging in our sneak preview).

In the example below, we’re searching for the “Tweetsheep” Theme…

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Once it’s brought up the Theme you want, click on “Preview” to see how your blog will look, and if you like the results, click in the top right corner of the preview screen to go back to the page below, and select “Install”.

Click “Install Now” at the next screen. You’re given the option to preview it again, and if you like the results, select “Activate”.

It’s that simple!

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

You can go back to the “Manage Themes” tab easily to re-activate your old one, if you’re not happy with the results. Or you can use the “Install Themes” tab to select new ones from WordPress.org any time.

Step Eight: Customizing Your Settings

It’s important to customize your blog settings. If you’re not tech savvy, don’t panic! This is actually very easy. We’re going to make just a few tweaks, but you’d be surprised at how much it helps your blog stay secure – while bringing in the right traffic for your marketing goals.

The first thing you’ll do is go to your “Settings” tab, in the left hand menu. We’re going to make small adjustment to all the sub-settings it contains…

1. General: Once you click on “General”, you’ll see your main settings page…

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

The date, time format and time zone are easy enough to customize to your local geographic area, but most important parts to customize are:

 Site Title  Tagline  WordPress address (URL)  Site address (URL) Let’s say we’re customizing “http://macblog.com”...

Under “Site Title”, make sure it displays the name of your blog exactly as you want to see it in the main header, without the “.com” extension. (Do this even if you’re planning on using a Graphic header.)

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Under “Tagline”, put your best, one-sentence description of what your blog is all about (containing keywords, if you have them).

In other words, the title and tagline you are entering above into our fictional blog (the latter containing a highly specific keyword, “free mac trivia games”) will look like this, when rendered by your actual blog…

For this next part, make sure you have your log-in information handy, because you’ll need to log in again to your Dashboard, after you’ve made your change.

In “WordPress Address (URL:” and “Site address” (URL), change this:

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

To this:

In other words, you’ve inserted “www”.

As soon as you click the blue “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page, you’ll be logged right out of your Dashboard. Simply type: “http://www.macblog.com/wp-admin” and log in again. (You, of course, will use the actual domain name of your particular blog.)

2. Writing: The next category within “Settings” is “Writing”. The only section you have to worry about on this page is the “Update Services” section.

If you see the message: “WordPress is not notifying any Update Services because of your blog’s privacy settings”, don’t worry – there’s an easy way to fix this. Skip down the page to step six, Privacy, follow the instructions; then come back here to continue…

Otherwise, what you should be seeing right now is this:

This tells you the blog is “pinging” (notifying) only one lonely little news service. You want WordPress to notify all the major ones, each time you publish a new post!

Copy and paste the following list into a plain text editor such as Notepad: Then copy it again (this eliminates hidden “garbage” from MS Word) into your “Update Services” text area box. (I’ve included pingomatic again, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally erasing it. You want it in there – but you also want the other, up-to-date ping sites!)

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/ http://1470.net/api/ping

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2 http://bblog.com/ping.php http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPCsub.com/ping http://blogmatcher.com/u.php http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc http://coreblog.org/ping/ http://ping.myblog.jp http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php http://ping.feedburner.com http://ping.bitacoras.com http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/ http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/ http://rpc.pingomatic.com/ http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2 http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping http://topicexchange.com/RPC2 http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php http://xping.pubhttp://ping.weblogs.se/

You won’t see the whole list since the text area box doesn’t expand – but you can scroll through it, to check that the entire list is there, if you like:

Eventually someone in your blogging or marketing circle will probably tell you that you have to manually ping these sites. You don’t.

There are manual ping sites, but I have not included a list here, since WordPress will do a great job of pinging the right websites for you with the ones given here.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Oh. And on EVERY Settings page – be sure to click on “Save Changes” when your editing is done!

3. Reading: This sub-setting determines what gets displayed. When you press “Reading” in the left-hand, drop-down menu, you’ll see this page…

First up, it asks whether you want your blog to show a fixed, static page (like an “ordinary” website) or your latest posts. Google likes to see “Your latest posts” better… but if you’re running a service-based business and your blog is meant to be your business site, you might want to check “A static page”.

With the latter, the drop-down menu allows you to choose one of your existing pages (the default here is just an “About” tab) to be the Front page. It also allows you to select which tab your posts will appear on. Once your blog is set up, you could create a new page called “Latest Posts” or “Blog Posts”, and go back to this Reading setting to select is as your “Posts page”.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

But most people want to select “Your latest posts” – after all, that’s why you started a blog, right? To share frequent posts with your fans and subscribers.

You actually don’t need to touch the “Select” boxes, if you’re going with this option.

Leave “Blog pages show at most” at 10, and change “Syndication feeds show the most recent” to any number between 10 and 25 (whatever your preference is).

Move down to “For each article in feed, show” and select “Summary” rather than the default “Full Text”. Showing summaries rather than entire posts not only arouses reader interest, but helps prevent outright content stealing.

Save your changes, and move on to…

4. Discussion: Here’s where you customize how you want people to interact with you.

 Uncheck “Allow link notifications from other blogs (trackbacks and pingbacks” (it allows in too much spam)  Select “Automatically close comments on articles older than 14 days” – and change the “14” to 60 days, maximum.  Change “Comments should be displayed with the older comments at the top” to “Comments should be displayed with the newer comments at the top” Continuing down the page, the next part deals with email: I recommend you let it notify you via email whenever there is a comment – otherwise you will find yourself constantly checking for comments or (even worse) getting busy and missing some!

Likewise, you don’t always want to be “approving” every single comment, so under “Before a comment appears”, select the second option, “comment author must have a previously approved comment”.

Finally, keep “Hold a comment in the queue if it contains 2 or more links” checked, under “Comment Moderation”. This helps eliminate link-laden comment span.

The first part of this hefty sub-segment should look like this, when you’re done…

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

But we’re not finished yet… Continuing on down the “Discussion” page, we come to the “Avatars” section. Select “Show Avatar” – people like to see their own picture, if they’ve gone to the bother of creating one. It helps to build a Community on your site. And it helps keep conversations in the comments clearer if you have a visual clue as to who’s speaking.

Keep your “Maximum Rating” at “G – Suitable for all audiences” (unless it isn’t!) It’s been said that Google only likes raunchier content if you’re paying through the nose for advertising.

All business or sales-oriented blogs should select “Gravatar Logo” as the “Default Avatar” that will be displayed for everyone who comments (including you). If you haven’t already created a Gravatar for yourself (those nice, tiny thumbnails of people that you see beside blog comments) go do that as soon as you can at http://en.gravatar.com/. It's free.

(Be sure to sign up with your blog contact email, so that it will automatically show your photo Gravatar, when you reply to commenters.)

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

5. Media: You get a break here: Nothing to customize! Move along, folks…

6. Privacy: This section is crucial – but very easy to customize.

Just make sure “I would like my blog to be visible to everyone…” is selected. And be sure to “Save Changes”!

7. Permalinks: Another crucial setting. As you open the Permalinks tab, it looks like this…

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

You are going to change it and give it a “Custom Structure”, so that it gets your posts the best ranking possible in Google.

1. Select the “Month and name” button. The instant you do this, text will show up inside the “Custom Structure” box (but the latter will not be selected yet).

2. Remove the “/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/” text from the Custom Structure text area box by selecting and deleting it. 3. Now type in (without my quotes): “/%postname%.html”

Your Custom Structure text area box will now look like this:

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Another format you might prefer is:

Believe it or not, this little tweak will make your blog far more searchable by Google for your keywords – and increase your rankings.

That’s it. You’ve finished customizing your settings!

Setting up your Akismet plugin

Now we need to turn our attention to preventing comment spam. For this, you’ll need to customize your Akismet plugin.

Go back to your main Dashboard page…

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Notice the little black circles containing numbers in the left-hand menu… If you don’t see these at all on your Dashboard, don’t worry – that’s actually a great thing: However, if you do, what it’s trying to tell you is:

You need to update to the newest version of WordPress

A plug in needs to be updated

Simply click on the little black circle containing the number “1” beside “Updates” and it will tell you if you need to upgrade your version:

If it says you have the latest version, ignore the “re-install” and “download” buttons, and continue down this page to the Plugins section…

If this is your first blog, once you click on the little circle beside “Plugins”, you will likely see Akismet presented as in need of an update. This plugin is your most important and should be regularly kept updated – it is your spam filter. Glance at your left-hand

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy menu every time you log on to see if there are any tell-tale little circles warning you something needs to be updated.

Select the “Update Plugins” button. It will flip to a page where you’ll see whether or not it upgraded successfully. If it did so, you’ll see “All updates have been completed”.

Click on the link advising you to “Return to plugins page”…

The very first time you install Akismet, you will need to get an API key – your personal serial number for the Akismet application integration. You can use the same Akismet API key for all your blogs, on all your domains – so be sure to copy the API key number, once you receive it via email, and keep it in a safe place!

To get your API key number, right-click on the blue hyperlink “API key” in the Description text after you return to the plugins page and select “open in new tab” or “open in new window”:

You’ll be taken to the API key site, where you’ll have the option of choosing a business or personal API key. If your blog is strictly personal, it’s free: However, if you’re going to use it for business, costs range from $5.00 per month to $50.00. By all means, select “grab a free key” for now, since you’re just starting out. Once you monetize your site, you can always go back to your Akismet account and upgrade to a paid option.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

You’ll be asked for your first and last name, email address and URL. It’s easier not to enter the URL; particularly if you’re planning to create more blogs. You’ll then be asked to choose a username (which does not need to match your blog username). Be sure to make a note of it – you’ll use your Akismet username should you ever wish to log into your Akismet account.

If the next page tells you your key was successfully created and “Akismet will email you your API key”, close out of Akismet and go back to your blog Dashboard. Once there, go to the left-hand menu, and click on “Plugins”. You’ll then see a list of all your pre- installed plugins in the main body of the page (with the headings: “Plugin” and “Description”).

If you click on the left-hand menu “Plugins” tab, you’ll see that “Akismet Configuration” has appeared in its drop-down menu.

Click on it, and enter your API key number in the text area box that will open to the right…

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Once you’ve done that, check the “Automatically discard spam comments on posts older than a month” box (below the key number text area box).

Then press “Update options”.

You are now protected from much of the spam endangering blog users. It may not stop all of it from coming through – but it will act as a gatekeeper, and allow you to delete unpublished spam before it populates your comments section.

And those are the absolute basics you need, to optimize your blog for Google SEO and keep it secure. Performing these actions will get you used to navigating via the left-hand menu.

You should also be able to search WordPress.org for plugins (or on your blog by going to “Plugins” in the left nav), the way you searched that site for Themes. Plugins change all the time, so keep your ears open to catch the best new ones for today’s internet marketing.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Some highly recommended plugins…

 Evermore – summarizes your blog posts. (Good if your Theme won’t accept the “summarize” setting we customized earlier.)  Editorial Calendar – great for visually planning your blog posts for the month  All in One SEO pack – I consider this one crucial (but you do have to remember to click a button to “enable” it, every time you update it).  Exclude Pages from Navigation - good if you want to have hidden download pages, etc., in your blog  FeedBurner Feedsmith – another absolute essential  Google XML Sitemaps – Not all Themes handle this well, but if you can install it without a hitch, it’s great for SEO  Sociable – Adds buttons to help people share your post on all their favorite social networking sites This list may look a little daunting if you’re new to WordPress, but plugins are your servants. Add them one at a time, and if one doesn’t work, simply deactivate or delete it.

Just remember that some plugins need to be configured (I.E. have manual input from you – they’ll prompt you for the information they need).

And remember to “Activate” them, when they’re successfully installed!

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Your First Post…

At this point, you’ll probably be quite used to how your Dashboard works and posting will be self-evident.

You'll start a new post by clicking on “Add New” in the “Posts” drop-down menu.

All you do is either write directly in the post text area box, or paste your finished text in. And put the title in the title bar. (WordPress 3.0.1 even prompts you with “Add Title Here!”)

Important: Make sure you're writing in the “VISUAL” tab, not the “HTML” tab, unless you intend to edit html code.

Before Posting...

Check the Conversation. Scanning down the page below your post, make sure “Allow comments” is checked, under the “Discussion” tab. (Allowing pingbacks is a matter of your personal preference.)

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Create Categories. You can create categories for your blog. Click on “Categories” in the “Posts” tab drop-down menu – setting them up is self-evident… but don’t go overboard and create too many!

Add Tags. Notice on the right-hand side there is a prompt to add “Post Tags”. This is for your long-tailed keywords. Insert between 2-5 of your best keywords/phrases for your post.

Add Pictures. Adding graphics to your posts can make the different between bland and buzz. In posts, all you do is click on the “image” icon in the horizontal menu tab above your post text area, and it will prompt you to upload a photo and help you position it.

It’s drag-and-drop easy.

The “All in One SEO” Plugin: If you’ve used the “All in One SEO pack plugin”, do remember to fill in the fields it provides at the bottom of your screen for every post.

If your title is catchy, but does not have good keywords, this is your chance to tell Google what your post is really about.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Publishing or Scheduling Your Post

You can publish your post immediately you’ve finished it… or you can set it (like an alarm clock) to publish later: In an hour, a day, a week, nine days… Your choice.

If you want to publish your new post immediately, just press the dark blue “Publish” button.

If you’d like it to appear at a later date, however, clicking on the blue hyperlink: “Edit”, beside “Publish immediately”, will make a drop- down section magically appear…

When you’ve changed the date and time to the one you want, do NOT click on “Publish” – select the small, grey “OK” button.

The dark blue “Publish” button will change to a “Schedule” button, and above it you’ll see the message: “Schedule for Nov 4, 2010, at 23:36”

Click on “Schedule” – and that’s it!

You can pre-load as many posts as you want, scheduling them to publish at regular intervals.

Editing Your Posts

You can also save your post as a Draft or Publish/Schedule it. But, don't worry – you can edit your posts at any time (before or after they’re “published”).

All you do is select “Posts” in the drop-down menu for “Posts” – here’s a screenshot, because that sounds confusing.

You’ll see your posts all listed rather like plugins. There won’t be an obvious “Edit” button or link – but if you hover your mouse over the title of each post, the “Edit” buttons will appear.

Creating Pages

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

Creating pages for your blog is highly similar to adding new posts (so is editing pages).

Play around, and add a page – you can delete any you don’t want easily enough. The fact that you can preview pages and posts means you don’t even have to publish them to see how they look.

Remember that your posts are where your content should be focused, however...

Use pages for unchangeable data, such as contact information, a brief bio or “about” page, a list of resources, etc.

Widgets and Your Design

The “Appearance” tab in the left-hand menu is where you’ll find your Theme options (if there are any), your Themes, an editor (in case you want to customize any of the actual page files) and your widgets.

A lot of your customization can be done by clicking on your Themes tab and following user-friendly prompts.

Your “widgets” are nothing more than the sidebars that appear on the blog. You can actually drag and drop them in an instant over into the “Sidebar” section on the right hand side of your Dashboard to make them instantly appear in your blog:

For example, you could decide you don’t want any Archives – in that case, just drag the “Archives” slug from Sidebar_Left in our picture example back to the “Widgets” section on the left. (Think of the left hand side of the Widgets screen as “storage”.)

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

You want to add a calendar? Drag the “Calendar” slug over to your Sidebar_Left and it will magically appear in your blog sidebar to your readers.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

You can create custom text and graphics for your widgets by selecting a “Text” slug and dropping your custom HTML in.

To customize any widget, click on the arrow on the right side of the widget after you drag it into your sidebar. Your options for that widget will display. Edit whatever you'd like, and then click on “save”. The changes will display instantly on your blog. Just click the 'refresh' button to see the new version.

Graphics and Your Widgets

Adding graphics to your sidebars (widgets) is a great way to spice up your blog’s visual appeal. In sidebar widgets, you need to do this with HTML…

TRICK: If you have no idea how to write HTML for inserting pictures into your widget text slug, there’s an easy way to get around this: Just upload a photo to a fake new post you have no intention of publishing. When you’ve inserted your photo into your fake post, switch tabs from “Visual” to “HTML” (right-hand side of the above graphic); copy the HTML that appears after the photo is inserted… and drops the snippet of freshly- created code into your “Text” widget slug. (As I've shown you, these slugs have drop- down menus.)

And that really is everything you need to know to set up your basic blog like a pro!

Happy Blogging!

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy ~ Checklist: Domains and Hosting

1. Choosing my Domain  I know my business goals for my blog, and I’m clear about the purpose of my domain name (Check all that apply)  Support my affiliate marketing efforts  Help brand me as the “go to” person in my niche  Personal Journal  Platform for AdSense banners and ad buttons  Other______ I know whether or not I need my domain name to be strictly keyword-based  I’ve done basic Google and AdWords KeyTool research on likely keywords to incorporate into my name  I’ve made a list of at least 5-10 potential .com domain names I really like from the results  I’ve put myself in my potential audience’s mindset to pinpoint what terms they’d use for searching my blog topic  I’ve checked my potential domain names for:  Good visual “flow”  Relevance and impact  Memorability (is it easy to remember?)  I’ve read my domain name out loud, to make sure my tongue doesn’t “trip” over the syllables  I’ve made a decision on which domain registration route I want to go:  Letting my new web host register my domain name for me (one step)  Purchasing my domain name separately from hosting, for maximum savings

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

2. Buying Hosting

 I’ve researched web hosting companies and determined that they do have:  Linux-based servers  PHP  Fantastico De Luxe  A cPanel interface  Reseller or Multi Plan, to allow me to easily host multiple, separate .com domains on my server  I have checked to ensure how much bandwidth and email usage I’m allowed on my new server; and how that’s going to fit in with my long-term business and blogging goals  Unlimited bandwidth  Set bandwidth (Amount: ______)  Unlimited emails  Set number of emails (Amount: ______)  I have successfully created my web hosting account

3. Setting Name Servers

 I have decided on a domain registrar company and plan, and registered my domain  I have retrieved the Nameserver information from my account information at my Domain Registrar  I am perfectly clear that pointing my Nameservers is not the same as a transfer  I have pointed the Nameservers over to my new account as instructed  I have allowed time for my new site to become active  I have located my cpanel log-in information (username and password) in my new web hosting company’s Welcome Letter

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

4. Setting up my Email Accounts  I have located the “Email Accounts” button under the “Mail” tab in my cPanel  I have decided to:  Create a new email account on my new server  Use an existing email account  Create a new gmail account dedicated to my new blog  Other______ I have retrieved any recommended information (welcome letters, tutorials, etc.) from my web host or from my email Client (Outlook Express, Mozilla Firefox, etc.)  I am following them, step by step, in setting up my new email account I’ve provided an existing contact email so that I can be contacted by my web host support staff, when necessary and saved all my new account passwords and other information.

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy ~ Checklist: Customizing WordPress

How to Select a Theme

 I have researched blog themes at Wordpress.org, using search terms relevant to my niche and blog focus  I have thought about what I need in my blog theme:  AdSense  Ad buttons  Number of columns  Dark or light background  Other______ I have made a note of any themes I particularly like  I have explored some paid themes also  I’ve checked in previews to see if the themes I like are compatible with my needs, and that they have the basics of:  Cross browser compatibility  Widget ready  Valid XHTML and CSS  WordPress 3.0 (and upwards) compatible  Advertisement ready (if I need that)  AdSense ready (if I need that)  Graphics support  Other______

How to Install a Theme  I have located “Themes” in my Dashboard left-hand menu, under the “Appearances” tab  I’ve been able to select “Themes” and see thumbnails of Themes already installed

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

 I have selected the “Install Themes” lab to go search WordPress.org’s Theme Library from within my Dashboard  I’ve entered my search parameters or the name of a theme I’ve made a note of  I’ve previewed themes I’m interested in, getting out of preview mode by clicking in the top right corner within the preview itself  I’ve clicked on “Install” and installed my best choice  I’ve confirmed that choice by clicking “Activate”  I am aware that I can go back and re-install the original theme or an earlier one, if I don’t like the one I’ve selected now by returning to the “Appearances” tab in my Dashboard’s left-hand menu and selecting “Themes” again; then selecting the thumbnail of the previous one I want to return to  I have customized all Settings as per instructed:  General  Writing (including copy-pasting in the Guide’s list of currently potent ping sites)  Reading  Discussion  Privacy  Permalinks  I have been careful to “Save Changes” on every single setting tab!  I have set up my Akismet plug in – and got my API key in a confirmation email  I have entered my API key as instructed  I have “Activated” the Akismet plugin  I have remembered to press “Update options”  I have searched Plugins at WordPress.org through my dashboard, exactly as I searched Themes, and installed the two other crucial plugins for good SEO  All in One SEO pack  FeedburnerFeedsmith

Blair Evan Ball WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy

 I understand I can install more plugins as need (TIP: Keep them to a minimum: Too many plugins can slow your site!)  I have remembered to check if my plugins need to be configured and “Enabled” All in One SEO pack  I have “Activated” my new plugins!  I have read the tutorial on adding new posts, and understand it.  I’ve practiced scheduling a post for a future date  I’m aware I can also “Save Drafts” or “Edit” my posts (as well as create pages and categories – sparingly – in a similar manner)  I’m aware of the “Post Tags” text area box for up to 5 of my best post keywords, if I need them  I’ve remembered to edit my Permalink to a keyword-based or easy-to- remember [filename.html] syntax (HINT: Look above “Title” for the option to edit)  I’ve remembered to drop down to the bottom of my screen and enter my  Post Title (max: 60 words)  Description (max 160 words) For the “All in One SEO” plugin to use in my blog’s SEO  I have customized my widgets so that my sidebars display exactly what I want  I have practiced adding a graphic to my post and uploading it  I’ve discovered that blogging is going to be easy!