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Forum Marketing

Promoting your site can take on many different features. There are all different kinds of avenues where you can promote your site effectively. A lot of it depends on the type of niche that you’re in to begin with. For example, many people advocate the use of something called forum marketing. This is where you join forums that are relative to your niche so that you can become a valid and valuable contributor to the forum. Then, you can gain the trust and respect of the other members of the site so that they will want to visit your blog about the same topic.

For instance, let’s say that your blog is about rose gardening. You might want to find forums about flower gardening, roses or even organic gardening. You can become a member and usually you are allowed to have a forum signature. Some website owners may only allow you to have a link to your website in your profile. Either way, you can find stealth ways of advertising your blog to the members of the forum. Remember, though, that you are there to provide value on the topic at hand so don’t go blatantly spamming someone else’s forum. That is only going to make you look bad and won’t help you to drive traffic to your own site.

Social Media

Another way to promote your site is by using social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. These sites are growing in popularity as more and more people utilize them on a daily basis. By promoting your site or business on social media networks, you can develop huge lists of followers who will hang on your every word when you post. Again, this is about relationship marketing so it’s not going to be an overnight success. People need to know that you care about them and what they need, so make sure that most of your posts are not promotional in nature. You can do things like create a group on Facebook about your niche topic and provide valuable information to your followers.  Or learn how.

Another way to use social media is by putting buttons on your blog so that people can share your content with their list of friends. If you can gain the loyalty and respect of the readers of your blog, they will share your information and help you gain even more traffic to the site. Again, this is all about relationships so you must provide such valuable content that people are constantly amazed that you’re giving away this information for free. That way, when you come up with a paid product or suggest another service to them they will trust that it must be good because your free content is so super valuable.

Paid & Free Press Releases

One often overlooked way of marketing your blog is by using press releases. Some people think the press releases are simply for people who are trying to get an article in the newspaper or on television, but they are actually one of the best ways to get extra link juice online. There are several high-powered press release websites on the Internet like PRWeb and PRNewswire where you can submit your release and generate more traffic to your site. Of course, there’s also the possibility that your blog will be picked up in the mainstream media and featured in a publication outside of the Internet. This is just icing on the cake for your marketing efforts.

When writing a press release, it’s very important to remember that you don’t want to be overly promotional. Press releases are meant to express the fact that you have something newsworthy to say. For example, if your blog is about working from home then you might want to write a press release from the angle of the high unemployment rate and how more people are taking on jobs from home. That way, the press release is newsworthy in the eyes of anyone who reads it.

Free press releases are also an option, and several sits offer this service. But while it sounds good on paper, we’ve yet to ever see any significant results from a free press release service. So when we want to do a key press release and get some real visibility, we always turn back to one of the major players like PRWeb.

Article Marketing

By far, article marketing is probably one of the most common ways of getting traffic to your website and creating links back to your blog. There are many facets to article marketing that you want to learn, but the main idea is to write short, informative articles with anchor text leading back to your website.

These articles can be posted in many places online including article directories and Web 2.0 properties such as eHow, Hubpages and Squidoo. However one of the most well-known article directories is Ezine Articles, so be sure to publish your articles there as well. Unlike many others, their submission guidelines are fairly strict, but that keeps quality on the site high, so you’ll be in good company. For example, Ezine Articles will only allow you to include links in your “author bio”, not in the article itself. But that’s true of most high quality article directories…

Remember that when you are doing article marketing, that there are two reasons that you are working on this task. For one thing, you want to create high-quality links back to your site using specific anchor text that you want your site to rank for. On the other hand, you also want to create quality information that will help you to attract more visitors back to your blog. Hopefully, people will see the quality of your information and want to click through to read more on your blog. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t give all of your information away in your articles. Otherwise, there is really no reason for anyone to come and visit your blog since you’ve already given them all of the pertinent information that they want.

There are many different ways to market your blog online through social media, press releases, article marketing and more. It’s important that you focus on several different ways of promoting your blog rather than just one. A variety of different kinds of links from different sources can only serve to help your blog rise up in the search engine rankings and maintain its stability over time. In other words, don’t simply rely on article marketing for all of your promotion as you will also want to use a variety of other avenues to invite new readers to your blog daily.

Be sure to read about our favorite web hosting provider and find out how to start a blog in 10 easy steps!

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Promote Your Blog

Let’s face it: you can never have too much publicity for your blog or business. Some people make the fatal mistake of creating a blog and publishing content but never doing any promotion whatsoever. While that can work over the long term if enough of your content gets into the search engines, it certainly isn’t the quickest or most efficient route to getting your information into the right hands. You need to take some proactive steps in order to get your blog noticed in the right places.

It’s very simple to register your new blog with the top website and blog directories. We’re simply talking about filling out forms on certain websites so that you can start to get noticed. This is not one of the more active ways of marketing that we will talk about later, but it is very important in the overall marketing plan of your website.

Technorati Blog Directory

Probably the most popular blog directory that you can register with is called Technorati. This site actually tracks and lists the top 100 most influential bloggers. This would certainly be a list that you would like to be on in the long run, so the first step is getting your blog registered there.

BlogCatalog Blog Directory

Another influential blog directory site is called BlogCatalog. Again, it is very easy for you to go ahead and list your site here as just one more way of drawing in more visitors and attention. If you go to Google and put in the term “blog directories”, you will find hundreds of different sites where you can fill out a form and have your site listed. Again, don’t expect a huge influx of traffic as soon as you do this, but it is still a great way to get more publicity of your site over time.

So what is the big deal about getting submitted to these blog directories? One of the biggest reasons is because the search engines often crawl these directories. These directories are structured such that the search engines like to regularly check for new content. Therefore, if you list your blog on a site then you’re more likely to get continual attention from the search engines.

Another reason to get listed on blog directories is that some of these directories actually do see quite a bit of traffic. Many of them rank very high in the search engine results, so this can create a lot more clicks and exposure that you would not otherwise have access to.

You can’t bank on the fact that you’re going to get thousands of new visitors the next day just because you listed your site on a few blog directories, but any traffic that you do get is like icing on the cake because you wouldn’t have otherwise had it.

A lot of these blog directories have a huge number of incoming links. Some of the directories will give you the opportunity to provide a reciprocal link. This means that a number of links are being generated on a regular basis which helps for popularity and placement in the search engines. These blog directories also make a lot of use of the RSS feed updates which can allow for more individuals to subscribe to your specific blog feed.

You can submit to these directories individually on your own or sometimes you can outsource the task to someone else. There many outsourcers that you can find on different freelancing websites who would be glad to set up your blog directory listings for you. There are also certain software programs that will allow you to submit many at one time.

However, you have to make sure that the programs are not spamming any systems because you wouldn’t want to get blocked.

DMOZ Website & Blog Directory

Another major blog directory that many bloggers make sure to submit to is DMOZ.org. This is a directory of websites which is extensively utilized by search engines. This is actually the largest human edited directory on the Internet.

It is an important site because it’s trusted by the search engines and regularly reviewed by a human. Google and other search engines know that the information can be trusted as being legitimate, so getting in this directory is of utmost importance.

When trying to get yourself listed on the site, make sure that your site category is correct. You’ll submit your site to the most relevant category because the human editors are not going to allow you to submit your site to the wrong category.

You also should be patient with the process because it can take several months before you get accepted to the site. You also want to carefully write your description text to make sure that you follow the DMOZ guidelines.

Getting listed in the major website and blog directories is an important part of doing the initial promotion on your new blog. It certainly is not the last thing that you will do to market your new website. However, it never hurts to have this extra bit of traffic producing juice behind your site.

As a new blog owner, you will do everything within your power to get as much of your content sent out to your new potential readers. This might mean through RSS feeds, blog directories and other avenues which will generate interest and traffic to your site. Once they are on your site, remember that it is your responsibility to provide quality content in a welcoming format in order to keep people on your site and make them want to come back again and again.

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These feeds will allow people to subscribe to get regular updates delivered to them when you add new content to your site. Some people read their feeds online while others use news readers or get e-mails.

Having an RSS feed also makes it possible for the content of the site to be packaged up into different kinds of widgets and gadgets that can be displayed in other places. If you’ve ever been on a website and noticed the little orange icon that is usually located somewhere beside the URL, that is the RSS feed button.

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What’s the Big Deal with RSS?

So what is the big deal about having an RSS feed? Thinking about how busy people are these days, it is no surprise that readers want to get information quickly and efficiently. With more and more people using mobile devices such as cell phones and tablet computers, having your content accessible by RSS feed is going to be vitally important.

Not everyone has time to go back to their web browser and read over your blog each day. Some people prefer to have only updated information sent to them by way of an RSS feed.

Thinking of it from the consumer’s perspective, subscribing to feeds allows them to look at a huge amount of online content in a very quick amount of time. For you as the publisher of the content, RSS feeds allow you to instantly distribute your content to a huge number of people who might want to subscribe.

These kinds of feeds make it possible for people to read lots of information without having to constantly remember to check their e-mail or your site manually. In short, it streamlines the user experience while still allowing people to get the information that they want and need.

Huge news outlets also publish content feeds throughout the day. Even Google itself publishes its own feeds. Hundreds of thousands of podcasters, video bloggers and traditional bloggers publish feeds every single day in order to continue making connections with their own followers. As a new blogger, you certainly don’t want to be left behind as technology moves forward. RSS feeds are not going anywhere anytime soon, so you must learn how to set one up for your site so that you can take advantage of the huge opportunity to gain more readership.

RSS Aggregators

Before you set up your own feed, you should first understand how consumers are able to read these RSS feeds. There are many choices because there are over 2000 different feed reading applications available to consumers these days. These are also called news aggregators. Some readers also work specifically on mobile devices since more people get their news on their cell phones now more than ever. Some people also use online, web based services to manage their feeds.

So how can you publish your own feed for your website? Since you are using WordPress, it’s likely that your feed is being published automatically. This means that anyone can click on the little orange box up next to your URL and download your feed. However, you want to publish your feed in other places in order to get it distributed to as many locations online as possible.

One place that’s very popular for submitting your feed is a website called FeedBurner.

In order to create the feed for FeedBurner and submitted, the steps are very simple. Once you sign up at the site, you simply input your WordPress blog URL and click next. After you go through the steps at the website, you will have a special RSS feed that you can now put into the sidebar of your WordPress blog.

This will let people know that they can easily subscribe using FeedBurner. Thankfully, you can use widgets in your sidebar in order to display the RSS symbol so that readers know they can get all of your content in a feed reader.

WordPress RSS

WordPress automatically creates several different kinds of feeds for your site. In order to find out your feed URL so that you can submit it to search engines and directories, WordPress says that there are four different feed addresses that you can use:

http://example.com/?feed=rss

http://example.com/?feed=rss2

http://example.com/?feed=rdf

http://example.com/?feed=atom

If you have set up custom permalinks in your blog, then the proper feed addresses would be:

http://example.com/feed/

http://example.com/feed/rss/

http://example.com/feed/rss2/

http://example.com/feed/rdf/

http://example.com/feed/atom/

Why Setup a RSS?

Understanding the reasoning to set up an RSS feed is very important. Remember that your main goal as a blogger is to get your content out to as many people as possible who might be interested in what you have to say. This is sort of like your own version of online publicity. Getting people to subscribe to your RSS feed will allow them to constantly see the updated information that you post.

Instead of having to wait for someone to come back who might have forgotten that your blog even exists, you will be able to keep them updated by way of their subscription to your feed.

Many people may decide not to sign up for an e-mail list because they don’t want their inbox bombarded with possible spam e-mails all the time. However, they might still be very interested in your information so make sure that you always share things on your blog that you have shared in private e-mails to your list.

That way you’re really hitting people in both ways so that they get the information whether they subscribe to your e-mail list or only subscribe to your feed. In the end, building a successful blog is about trying to reach people in any way that you can without detracting from the relationship you’re trying to build with them. RSS feeds are one way that you can do that easily and effectively.

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For one thing, you have to think about exactly what you have to say. Again, you want to make sure that you have a unique perspective on your topic so that you’re not simply rehashing the same information that has been written about over and over again.

Readers want to get new and insightful information rather than reading the same repetitive opinions on various sites.  Your goal is to become that expert who will provide authoritative information on the topic.

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Write it Outside of WordPress

Before you start to write your blog posts, it’s best to do it in another document rather than doing it directly into your WordPress dashboard. To add a post, you simply click on posts, add new.

However, you need to write the document in MS Word or Notepad first and then transfer it over to your WordPress document later. That way, you can save that and make sure that you have the content before you try pasting it in. Remember that anything can happen when you’re working online, so it’s best to always backup your work.

Plan Your Topic

Assuming that you’ve already picked your niche, you should plan out what you want your post to say before you even start writing.  You might even want to jot down some notes or bullet points that you want to use in your post. Then, you need to come up with an effective and creative title.

Remember that you’re also writing for the search engines, so you may want to include some keywords in your post title. Here’s an example: let’s say that your blog is about homeschooling. If you’re writing your first blog post about how to socialize your children when you’re homeschooling them, you don’t want your title to be something like “Helping Susie Find New Friends”.

Be Interesting

First of all, that’s not a very entertaining title and doesn’t draw the reader’s attention into your blog. More importantly, it contains no keywords to let readers or search engines know what the topic of the blog is. Instead, you might want to go with a title such as “Socialization for Homeschoolers: Is It Really A Big Problem?”

As you can see, this is an interesting title which is also making use of specific keyword phrase “socialization for homeschoolers”. Hopefully, visitors will find the blog title intriguing enough to click on while search engines will be able to make use of the keyword in the title.

Use Chunks

Another important point that you should remember while writing a blog post is that people like to scan instead of read. You want to make sure that you leave plenty of white space and use bullet points or short paragraphs if possible when writing a blog post.

That way, people are not overwhelmed with a huge chunk of content that they may click away from instead of reading. Once they start scanning your content, hopefully they will see something interesting enough that makes them want to go back and read all of it.

Add Value

Any blog postings should also add value to the reader and help them to solve a problem, learn new things or even become more productive. Focus on writing blog posts that give people practical tips or even tutorials on how to do something. In other words, you want to overwhelm your readers with so much quality, free information that they trust you and become loyal followers of your blog.

Have Good Grammar & Spelling

It’s also important to make sure that your writing is free of grammatical and spelling errors. While no one is going to come along behind you and grade your paper with a red pen, it is important to make yourself look like a professional by making sure that your writing is free of these kinds of mistakes.

Believe it or not, there are many people in the world who will discount anything you have to say based upon your ability to write. They figure if you can’t sound intelligent in your writing then maybe your ideas are not worthwhile to read.

Use Targeted Keywords

As you are writing your blog posts, you might want to make sure to include the keyword or keyword phrase you are targeting in your first and last paragraphs at least. That being said, you don’t want to overload your content with keywords because the search engines can look at that as being keyword spamming or stuffing. This can actually hurt your rankings instead of helping them.

Paste into WordPress

Once you have written your content, you are ready to paste it into the WordPress editor. This is very simple because all you have to do is click on posts and then click new. You’ll paste in your headline and then paste in your content. If you need to put any links in your content, that is also very easy to do.

Simply highlight the text that you want as your anchor text and click on the little chain-link just above the box where you paste your copy. Here, you will input the link in the pop-up box. By putting a couple of links in your copy, you are giving readers a place to click off and get more information or purchase the product or service you want to sell.

Tag Your Post

You’ll also notice there’s a place in WordPress to add what are called tags. These are basically keywords that will also help the search engines classify your blog post so that readers can find it. Make sure to add at least three or four tags but no more than about eight.

Again, you don’t want it to appear that you’re only trying to rank in the search engines. Google and other search engines like quality websites with good content for their readers.

You should also note that you can schedule your posts in WordPress in case you want to write a few that will be released in the future. For instance, if you want to go ahead and write a post about something that’s happening the next week, you can do that and just schedule it to be released at that time.

Check out our video on how to write your first blog post.

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Don’t worry about monetizing your blog right away.  Blogging is about an ongoing dialogue with your readers. Because of this, you want to make sure that your website is both engaging and welcoming to new readers.

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Make it Welcoming

There are many ways to make sure that your blog is welcoming to people when they first come onto the site. First of all, you want to talk to them in a conversational tone. You don’t want everything to seem very technical or overly academic so that people don’t feel welcome.

Remember that you don’t know if the person coming to your site is brand-new to the topic or very experienced, so you need to make sure that your content and layout is welcoming to them no matter what level of experience or knowledge they have about the subject matter.

Is it Easy to Read?

The first thing you need to make sure of is that your theme and layout are designed in such a way as to make people feel at home. For instance, it has been proven that having a light background with dark text is much more readable for people than having a dark background with light text.

You don’t want people to have to squint to read your site, so make sure to look at it from an objective standpoint after you build it. If it is too difficult for people to read because the text is too small or the coloring is not right, take the time to make sure that all of that is resolved before launching your blog for the first time.

Occasionally you might also see weird characters on your WordPress site. Don’t panic. It’s easily fixable and just requires that you pay attention to details.

Have A Nice Website Header

Another way that you can make your blog more welcoming is by having a nice header designed for the top of the site. Show your personality here and make the blog more individualized. Remember that you’re trying to build a relationship, and part of that is branding yourself as an expert on the topic that your blog is about.

By creating a header, you can brand yourself in such a way as to make people believe that you are the expert in your particular topic. You wanted to look professional, yet engaging. Headers can be outsourced for less than $25, so invest in branding yourself.

This goes back to creating a logo that’s representative of your brand, of who you are.

What Would Seth Godin Do Plugin

There is also a free WordPress plugin called “What would Seth Godin do”. You can search for this plug-in in your WordPress dashboard. Simply put, it creates a text box at the top of your screen with prewritten information to welcome the visitor. You can set it up to say whatever you want, and you can even program it to give a special message to new visitors and a different message to returning visitors. You might invite the person to join your mailing list, subscribe to your RSS feed or just tell them that your glad they have visited your site.

Allow Comments

One way to make it more engaging to readers is to allow comments. When people read your blog posts, you don’t want them to simply read it and move on with their day. You want to engage them by making the content entertaining, informative and maybe even a bit controversial.

That’s not to say that you should go out of your way to irritate your readers or try to create controversy. But you don’t want to blog about boring or mediocre topics where you have no original slant. Let’s face it: if you don’t have anything original to say then maybe you shouldn’t have a blog on the topic.

By allowing comments, even moderated ones, this will not only help your readers to interact with you more effectively but it will also give the search engines more content to help you rank. You can set up the comments so that you have to approve them before they’re posted which will give you the right to delete any comments which are inappropriate or simple spam.

Blog commenting is very popular right now, so closing your comments completely really doesn’t help you to achieve a loyal following. Not only should you allow comments, but you should respond to the comments professionally so that people know that there is a person behind the blog. This helps to develop trust and loyalty between you and your readers.

You should check out the DISQUS plugin.  It allows real-time commenting, notification of response, full integration with media services such as Youtube, Flickr, and compatibility with mobile websites for commenting while on the go.

Do Your Research

Another way to be more welcoming and engaging to every reader is by doing your research. You want to make sure that not only do you provide a unique perspective on what you’re discussing, but you also have the most up-to-date information about your niche. If news stories have been released relating to the topic, you want to include that information so that you’re also informing your readers. If you could become their “go to” person for the topic, you can develop quite a huge list of readers.

You may also want to entertain the idea of setting up a mailing list so that people can subscribe to your monthly newsletter and updates. Again, this is another way for you to stay in direct contact with those people who are following what you have to say on your blog.

Have Easy Layouts

As far as the layout, you want to make certain that it’s easy for people to navigate and find information that they want to read. Have a search box so that people can go back and look for particular keywords to find more information on blog posts you may have written in the past. You may also want to have a list of your pages and categories in the sidebar so that people can refer back to topics that interest them. You could also have a list of your most recent blog posts so that people can see what you’ve been writing about lately.

Finally remember to test how your blog looks in different browsers and see our review on WordPress themes.

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You can find WordPress plugins for a whole variety of different tasks, and new ones seem to be coming out at a rapid pace. Most plugins that you find are free of charge, although there are some paid plugins that you can purchase directly from developers online.

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Google Sitemap Generator

Having a sitemap plugin (such as Google XML Sitemaps) is also very critical to the overall success of your site and bringing in more traffic. This is a simple plugin that generates a sitemap you can then submit to Google Webmaster tools.

By submitting the sitemap, you’re letting Google know about your new website and inviting them to come and crawl the information on a regular basis. Obviously, you want Google to come to your site as often as possible.

Best of all, once configured it will automatically notify Google of new posts you publish and updates to existing posts, so it’s a “set and forget” type of thing.

SEO

So why would you use plugins? Some plugins are specifically designed to help you generate more traffic from the search engines. One very popular plugin is called All In One SEO. This plugin has several fields that you fill in with your keywords, site name and description among other things.

Then, this information is automatically coded into your webpages so that it makes your website more attractive to the search engines. In the old days, you would’ve had to program this into your website yourself, but thankfully the use of plugins on WordPress came about allowing anyone to have these features.

Privacy Policy Generators

There are many different plugins that people use on a regular basis in WordPress. Aside from the one mentioned above, there are other plugins such as Easy Privacy Policy plugin.  If you’re going to be selling anything online, you want to have a privacy policy on your website as well as a disclaimer.

If you search in the plugins directory, you’ll find all kinds of different options available to you in order to quickly and easily add these pages. You’ll simply click a couple of buttons to install the plugin, configure it with some information and you’re off to the races!

Amazon

There are also a whole variety of paid plugins available online. For instance, many people like to sell products from Amazon.com. You don’t want to have to go into Amazon, find products and generate your affiliate link over and over and over again. Here’s an Amazon Affiliate Link Localizer plugin to alleviate the hassle of adding these products your website.

In fact, some of the plugins like Amazon Showcase WordPress Plugin pull products that you specify and drip feed them on your blog. So, while you’re asleep or on vacation, content is automatically being added to your site at your specified intervals of time.

Although you always want to add unique content to your blog in order to make it a great experience for the user and more attractive to the search engines, some bloggers find that having a little bit of automated content allows them to beef up their site without sacrificing quality. Also, because many people are interested in selling products or services on their site, these plugins allow for products to be added easier and faster.

Social Media

There are other plugins like the Social Media Widget which will make your site more social media friendly. These days you can often find examples such as Facebook & Twitter button on websites. This option allows people to easily share your content on their favorite social networking sites.

So, if you write a particularly interesting or controversial blog post, users are able to click a button and share it with all of their friends and followers. This is a great thing to have on your blog because it allows you to go “viral” easily.

YouTube Videos

The Automatic YouTube Video Posts Plugin allows you to add media content to your site such as music and videos. You can automatically import videos from your YouTube account corresponding to the topic of your blog. Even though you could lose a little bit of your traffic from people clicking off your site to read more, this kind of content can also pull more interest from the search engines to your blog.

Contact Form

Another great plugin that is free to use on WordPress is the Fast Secure Contact Form. You definitely want to have a contact form available on your website so that your users can get in touch with you with questions and comments about your site. Also, from a legal standpoint you want to make sure that you have a way for anyone to contact you in case there are legal issues with your site.

Link Cloaking

Some other types of WordPress plugins that are popular these days are link cloaking plugins like Pretty Link. These allow for you to mask your affiliate links in such a way as to not alert the search engines that your links are going out to a page to sell a product or service. Instead, they make the links look more SEO friendly.

You can use this plugin to manage affiliate links in one central place.  You should never put a direct affiliate link in an article, because if that affiliate link breaks later due to articles being syndicated (copied, etc.), you might lose that revenue.  However if you use your Pretty Link URL then you always have control of the affiliate link and can change it easily.

Related Posts

You can also use a plugin like Efficient Related Posts or YARPP (our personal favorite) that pulls up other related posts on your own website. For example, if you write a post about organic gardening and you have written posts in the past related to organic gardening, then it will show a list of related posts so that the reader can find more information on your blog.

This simply improves reader loyalty while also keeping people on your website longer. The longer they are there, the more likely they are to click on an ad or an affiliate offer.

As you can see, WordPress offers all kinds of great perks in the way of plugins. Make use of these plugins to increase traffic to your site and improve overall reader loyalty.

Here are 10 more top WordPress Plugins that you should know about.

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You don’t need to know how to code the site at all. For example, you might choose to have a theme with two columns or three columns, and a header or one without. There are almost unlimited amounts of design options that you can choose when it comes to having your own WordPress blog.

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Find the Themes

So where do you get these themes? There are numerous places that you can obtain them for your WordPress blog. First of all, the easiest way is to simply click on the appearance tab in your WordPress dashboard and then you will see the option for themes.

Once you click on it, then you can do a search within WordPress for all kinds of free WordPress themes that are available, i.e. on wordpress.org. You will see many variations.  Spend some time really looking at all of the options available.

Premium Themes

There are also paid WordPress themes that you can find online from different vendors, including PremiumWP and StudioPress (founded by our friend Brian Gardner, and highly recommended). If you are going to have a site that is for your business or other professional interests, you might want to invest in a paid theme that will allow you to do all kinds of other customizations that many of the free themes don’t allow.

These can range in price from very inexpensive all the way up to a $200 or more. A lot of this depends on whether you’re going to use the theme just on one website or whether you plan to use it on numerous sites. Some theme designers have an option called a multi-site license or even a developer’s license. Make sure you know what the licensing rules are for the package you purchase.

One great thing about WordPress is that it doesn’t require you to be technologically savvy to use it. However, some can be quite complicated and complex to use, especially for a novice.

You don’t want to purchase a theme this could be overly hard for you to customize to suit your needs. However, if you do find one that you don’t think you can set up by yourself, then you can always outsource that task to someone else who does that on a regular basis.

As an example, you might decide that you want a custom header to go at the top of your site. This makes your site stand out from the crowd and gives you an opportunity to brand yourself better. Many people will make a website header for less than $25 by hiring a graphic designer on sites like Elance and Guru.

Map Out Your Site

Before you purchase a header or even use a free one, it makes sense to sit down and map out how you want your site to look. If you are planning to generate passive income on the site by using Google AdSense or affiliate offers, you need to think about exactly where you want those advertisements to be placed.

Certainly, many studies have been done over the years pointing out the best areas to place your website advertisements (like this Google AdSense Heatmap) to ensure maximum conversions. Do some research online to find out the best places to place your ads so that you can make the most money from your website?

If you are not planning to put advertisements on your website, then you still need to think through what you want the user to experience when they come to your blog. Thinking through this ahead of time will help you narrow down the choices when you’re looking for themes that will fit with your blog site plan. You might even want to ask around if you’re on any kind of Internet forums to see what themes other people are using with great success.

You should also review how your website looks in different web browsers.

Install a WordPress Theme

To install a theme, it depends on where you got it. If you’re using one of the free themes that come inside of WordPress, you’re simply going to click on the theme and hit the install button. Once installed, it will ask if you want to activate the theme and you can simply click on the “activate” button.

You can load several themes onto your site and preview each one individually before activating the one that you want to use. Thankfully, themes are very simple and easy to change on a WordPress site, so don’t worry if you load 5 or 10 before you figure out which one you want to activate. It really is just simple clicks of a button to change them out.

If you purchase the theme from somewhere or download one from somewhere else on the Internet, it is still very easy to install on your site. In most cases, you will be given a zip file when you download a theme online.

You’ll simply click into your themes area, click on the install themes tab and then look for a button that says upload. Once you browse and find the zip file that you downloaded, simply upload it to the site and activate it.

As you can see, installing a WordPress theme is very easy. With a few clicks, you will have a site that literally looks like it was designed by a professional. This is one of the biggest perks of using WordPress to build your blog. You don’t have to worry about all of the technical jargon. You just need to know where to click and before you know it you will be publishing the first few articles on your blog!

Be sure to read about our favorite web hosting provider and find out how to start a blog in 10 easy steps!

One of those reasons is because it is so simple and easy for even a novice to install. Previously, many people felt like they had to hire an expensive website programmer in order to have a nice-looking blog online. In fact, many folks gave up after trying to figure out all of the technical jargon such as HTML and CSS.

Prepare Installing WordPress

Before you install WordPress on your site, you do want to make sure that you have purchased a domain name and input the proper name server information into your domain account.

This tells the domain registrar where to forward people when they want to come to your website. Otherwise, the domain will point to a parked web page hosted by your domain registrar. Obviously, this is not what you want to have happen.

Not only is WordPress easy to use, it is also free and easy to install. But you will need to purchase web hosting and a domain name in order to make this site your own. In other words, you’re not going to be using the free (but very limited) WordPress.com hosting service.

Instead, you will be using the free WordPress blogging platform and your own web hosting account (just like we do!).

As mentioned previously, we recommend HostGator (read our review here) for your hosting account because of their great reputation and really low cost (plus no long term commitment like most others – you can start month to month). Plus that’s who we started with so we can personally vouch for them.

Installing WordPress on HostGator

Another reason why we recommend HostGator is because they have a particular software called Fantastico located within their control panels – which makes it super easy to install WordPress for your site. When you sign up for hosting, you will get access to your own control panel which is commonly called your CPANEL.

When you login to your cPanel for the first time, you might be overwhelmed at all of the options available. Rest assured that you will probably never use most of the options that you see on the page. For now, the main thing that we are interested in making use of is Fantastico.

Once you login to your cPanel, you will want to scroll all the way down the page and look for the heading “software/services”. This is where you will find the Fantastico software.

Click on that button and it will take you to the first screen that will allow you to set up your WordPress blog. Next, click on WordPress in the left sidebar.

Now click “New Installation.”

At this point, you will be required to enter some very important information. The first thing you will need to decide is where you are installing WordPress. There is a drop-down menu that says “install on domain” beside it. Use this drop-down menu to choose where you are installing this instance.

If you have any questions about that, contact your hosting company to get clarification. It will also ask you which directory you want to install WordPress. Most of the time, you’re going to leave that blank.

The next blank is for your admin access data. First, you need to choose a username that you can easily remember which will help you to log into your dashboard.

Make sure that you choose a username that other people can’t guess. Also, if you’re going to build multiple WordPress sites, make sure that you don’t use the exact username for each site as it can make your blog much more prone to being hacked.

Next, you’ll need to choose a password. Again, it’s important to choose a password that no one else can guess. Many people use passwords that have letters and numbers to make it a lot harder for anyone to hack into your account.

The next blank starts your base configuration section. Where it asks for an “admin nickname”, this is the name that you want to show up on your site when you make a post.

For instance, if you make a post then this name is what will show up as the author of that post. Many people choose “admin”, but if you’re trying to have a more personalized site then you might want to use your first name or even a nickname.

The next blank asks for your admin e-mail. Normally, you will set up your e-mails in the CPANEL. You can see the option to add e-mail accounts at the top of your CPANEL screen. You can also forward these e-mail accounts so that you get them in one central location if you wish.

This particular e-mail box is specifically for your administrator. This is the e-mail that you would want people to contact if they have a question or problem with your website. It’s very important to have contact information on your site, so make sure that this e-mail is actually working.

The next blank is site name. This is very self-explanatory as you will want to put the name of your site or even be URL address. This is not a necessary blank so you don’t have to fill it out if you don’t wish to.

Keep in mind that sometimes certain themes will show this name in the header. Therefore, if you don’t want these words to show up in the header of your website then you may not want to put any information here. The same can be said for the description which typically shows up as the tagline in the header of your website.

Once you have all of the information filled out, click on “install WordPress”.

The next page will ask you to confirm your installation, email your installation info, and then you are finished! Now, all that is left is for you to login to your brand-new WordPress website. This can be done by putting in your URL followed by /wp-admin/. For example, “your_website.com/wp-admin/”

You will then need to login with the username and password that you choose. As you can see, installing WordPress on your website using HostGator is extremely simple and easy to do.

When you rent a home or apartment, you are paying someone else’s mortgage, but more importantly, you have no ownership over your own space.

If you plant a tree in the backyard, you don’t have ownership over it. Maybe you decide to put tile down in the bathroom, but you can’t take it with you one day when you leave. Renting means that you are living somewhere at the approval of another person.

Owning, on the other hand, means that you can do what you want because you own the space. You can paint, put down hardwood floors and fence the backyard. Sure, you might have some neighborhood covenants that govern certain things, but for the most part, you are the captain of your own ship.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Using Free Web Hosts

With web hosting, many people make critical areas when it comes to choosing how to host their blogs. There are free blog services like Blogger and WordPress.com that you can use (don’t confuse the WordPress.com free web host with the very popular WordPress blogging software – which we use AND highly recommend). In fact, many people start out using these free services because they want to “test the waters”. However, there is a big danger is using free services if you want to build a long term business as a blogger.

Just as with renting, you can be “kicked out” of your free blog in a heartbeat. Let’s say you spend 6 months building up a blog with tons of fantastic content and a following of faithful readers. Then, one day out of the blue, you realize your blog has been wiped clean.

As unbelievable as it may sound, it does happen and is not a good surprise. When you build rankings to a free blog, you are paying someone else’s mortgage payment in a way. You are building rankings for something you do not own which can be wiped out in any time for no valid reason at all.

Also some free services like WordPress.com prohibit the use of affiliate links on your free blog, meaning you can’t make money with your blog. Which really makes “free” into a pretty bad deal?

When you use a free blog service, you have to follow someone else’s rules. If you break those rules, or they even think that you did, they can click a button and kill your business in a heartbeat. It is like building a house on sand. Who needs or wants the stress of wondering if your business will still be there tomorrow?

Paid Web Hosts

So what is the answer? Get your own web hosting! You can (and should) still use WordPress as your blogging software. Web hosting is very inexpensive (less than $7 per month for basic services) and will allow you to be the ruler over your own virtual “real estate.”

As you learn how to start a blog, you will be able to write what you want and build your business without constantly worrying about the possibility that someone will remove your content tomorrow.

When considering a hosting company, it helps to ask other successful bloggers and Internet marketers who they recommend. Many will have horror stories of certain hosting companies, which will help you avoid landmines in your search for a hosting company.

You also want to make sure that the host you choose has CPANEL (control panel) so that you can easily access certain features that you will need as you learn more about blogging and working online. You may also want to ask if the host has support for WordPress, our recommended blogging software. Some web hosts (like our recommended web host below) provide a simple way to install WordPress in just a few clicks.

Another factor to consider is how much space you really need for your new blog. You don’t want to overbuy and overpay each month for space you don’t yet need.

You can always upgrade your plan later as your blog grows in traffic. When starting out in blogging, it’s important to only spend money on the necessities instead of wasting a lot on things that are not needed yet.

Our Web Host Recommendation

There are many web hosting companies out there, but one of the most popular and most reputable is called HostGator (read our review here). They are well known within the industry for their competitive pricing and great customer service.

Also they’re the ones we started with and we recommend you start with them as well.

They have chat representatives available all the time in case you have questions or concerns which makes it a valuable resource for new bloggers all the way up to advanced bloggers. They offer several plans including dedicated servers, but you won’t need that until you have either a lot of sites or a ton of traffic.

HostGator offers unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth and a very easy control panel where you can set up email addresses among other things. They have a 99.9% uptime guarantee which is highly important because that means your website will very rarely “go down”.

Some hosting companies cannot guarantee uptime, and that usually means they experience a lot of technical glitches. The last thing you want to worry about is having your site go down a lot and missing out on traffic and income potential.

As one of the world’s top 10 largest web hosting companies, HostGator has more than 4 million hosted domains. They are certainly not the only hosting companies, but you will rarely hear any complaints about their services.

Another great thing about HostGator is that WordPress can be installed in just a few clicks using a feature called Fantastico. They also have simple tutorials available showing exactly how to install WordPress, and once you do it then you will be a pro at it – and you’ll get your blog started right away.

Choosing your web hosting is important because you want to be sure that your blog is protected and stable. After all, this will be your new business model so you need to take the decision seriously.

Look at all of the factors when you are comparing hosting companies so that you don’t have to move your site later as that can mean a real hassle and potential loss of data if not done correctly. You can also look for special coupons and deals on hosting to get in at a great price.

Check out the detailed review on the ONLY web host we recommend if you’re just getting started – the one we recommend to our own friends and family.  Our recommended web host even comes with 1-click installation of WordPress, our favorite easy to use blog publishing platform: the one we use for all our sites.

This is not to say that you can’t make money in a popular, broad niche, but it does take more time and work to grow that kind of blog to the level where it makes good money.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How to Pick a Niche – Passion vs. Moneymakers

So where do you start when you want to pick the right niche and learn how to start a blog? There are two schools of thought on picking a niche. Some people say that you should just choose something you are passionate about because you will want to wake up every morning and write quality content.

While that is a great thought, if your biggest hobby is underwater basket weaving, you are unlikely to make a great income blogging about it.

One often overlooked component in blogging is that you need to be able to find related products to promote to your customer base in order to make money. Of course, you could create a blog with simple AdSense or other banner ads, but it might take longer to see a profit over time.

On the other hand, some people say you should only pick topics that are known moneymakers whether you are interested in them or not. While that might work for some people, others need to have at least a passing interest in their topic in order to be successful.

In short, when you learn how to start a blog, you want to be certain that thousands (if not millions) of other people share your enthusiasm and interest in the topic and will pay money for products and/or services that you have to offer in the niche from time to time. No matter what, the key to the whole niche selection process is choosing the right keywords and getting your research together before building a blog site.

Keyword Tools

There are many free online keyword research tools to find keywords. One popular tool is the free Google Keyword tool.  After you have entered the keywords, you can check the amount of advertisers in that niche by gauging the bar in the “Competition” column.  You can even assess how lucrative the keywords are by click on the “Columns” button, and then enable the “Suggested Bid” checkbox.

This site is handy for many different tasks including your search for a blog topic. Let’s say you know that dating is a popular niche, so you want to do something in that niche. The problem is that going after such a broad niche can be the kiss of death for most new bloggers. So it’s important to find a sub-niche on dating in this case.

One way of doing that is putting in a “seed keyword”. You could start with “finding a date” and whittle the keyword options down further and further. Perhaps, in the end, you find that you would be interested in blogging about “finding a date for young professionals in their 20s & 30s.” There are many sub-topics to choose once you have a general idea of your topic.

The idea behind blogging is to develop a loyal following. To that end, it is important that you target your niche with laser-like focus so that you are one of the only people providing such specific content to a group of people. Additionally, you want to be sure that enough people are interested in your niche so that you get enough traffic.

If only 10 people per month are searching for your keyword, you need to either move on to another topic or see if there are other related keywords to create a bigger blog.

You can use tools other than the Google Keyword tool also. For instance, two other free tools are the SEObook keyword tool and Google Insights for Search. There are also other paid tools that are a lot fancier. We recommend you get a proven keyword research tool to find your keywords quickly and accurately.

The Google Insights tool gives additional information that can be very important during the niche research phase. It shows you how popular search terms are and what kind of history they have. For example, Christmas phrases would be highly searched from October through December, but most blogs would be quiet throughout the rest of the year. That can have a direct impact on your income.

Check the trends for your keywords and make sure that enough interest is there throughout the year to give you a reason to put your time and effort into the topic. This tool can also help you maximize your chances of making bursts of income at different times of the year as well.

So how do you know the proper way to research a keyword? The answer is that there is no “right” way. Everyone has their own opinion as to the number of searches that a keyword tern should have to make it worthwhile.

You can find yourself spending so much time researching that you never get around to creating quality content for your blog. Don’t over-analyze things. Often, you will find yourself with a list of keywords that, when added up, will give you plenty of potential search volume for the month.

The key is finding a way to get to the #1 slot on Google so that you can get the bulk of the daily searches for your keywords.

Once you have picked your keyword, you can also search what affiliate programs are available and check their commission.  Choosing a niche for your blog does not need to be a long, drawn out process. Use a mixture of your interests and knowledge to make your selection.

Here’s a quick tip: if you do a search on Google for a topic and people are paying money to run AdWords ads on the right side, they are making money. If you see TV commercials or magazine ads about your topic, they are making money. It’s a good bet that you will make money too!  So get started today and pick that lucrative niche that you will dominate!

Be sure to check our How to Start a Blog page to give you an overview of the process.  In our next step, we’ll be talking about our recommended web host, which comes with 1-click installation of WordPress, our favorite easy to use blog publishing platform: the one we use for all our sites.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just a few years ago, a dedicated server was far too pricey an option for most people. It could easy run you hundreds of dollars / month. But times, like everything else have changed. That means you’re in luck, because prices have dropped. Well, sort of.

So what exactly is a dedicated server?

A dedicated server is private server specifically dedicated to your website and your website alone… nobody else’s. You don’t want to share your server, do you? In contrast, a shared web hosting solution is shaky, flakey and your web can be shut down by someone’s else’s problem or screw up (spike in traffic, bugs, etc). None of that is an issue if you’re just getting started and want to keep your costs low, but as you grow, you need reliability.

What are the pros of having your own personal dedicated server?

Nothing is without it’s upside, so here are the pros.  The biggest one, of course, is reliability. When you start a blog or website and it starts to grow, reliability begins to really matter. With a dedicated server, you never, ever have to worry about someone else’s traffic spike bringing your site down. That’s because you never have to share resources with other people on your dedicated servers, it’s all yours. Also, if you have a dedicated server and you find yourself experiencing a traffic surge there’s no need to sweat it, as you won’t bring other websites down.

Yes, a huge surge in traffic will dramatically increase your CPU usage (or bring your server down altogether) but having a dedicated server means you never get charged for the increased use of resources, as you would if you went the shared web hosting route. And that can wind up saving you a pretty penny, and who doesn’t like saving money?

What are the cons of a dedicated server?

Well, first and foremost, as we mentioned is Cost. A dedicated server may be more affordable than ever, but it’s still not the cheapest way to go. You’re buying a whole big box up-front that you may never use. Who knows if you need all that space and processing power on a server? And even today, you’re still looking at $150/month for an entry-level dedicated server.

Let’s not forget, that one server is where all your stuff is. It’s never  a good idea to put all one’s eggs in one basket, yet that’s exactly what you’re doing when and if you go the dedicated server route.

Also, any kind of hardware failure can bring down your entire box. You’re offline and being offline in the web business is a fate worse than death, but you knew that already, right? Point is, that’s a risk you simply can’t afford to take.

When you’re the only one on that server, your web hosting provider is much less likely to notice a problem. However if you’re on a big server with some neighbors, well, you know how it is… someone’s always quick to complain, so the squeaky wheel gets fixed pretty fast.

Also unless you get into the $1,000/month range, dedicated server don’t get even close to the quality and reliability of equipment of shared web hosting and VPS.

All that said, for us, personally, we know a dedicated server solution would not be a good option. We’ve gone that route and it failed miserably as we slowly outgrow it. We really feel that the negatives far outweigh the positives, though after reading this edition of Web Hosting 101, you may still feel a dedicated server is right for you.

Are there any better web hosting options?

That really depends on you and what your needs are. If you’re just starting out and have a small amount of traffic, keep your costs low and go with a solid, reliable, and cheap shared web host. Just be careful to not go with a flaky one. (Here is the only shared web host we personally recommend to our own friends and family).

Truth be told, once you outgrow a shared web host, we prefer the Virtual Private Server (VPS) route. We’ve really found that it’s a much more effective more cost-effective, if and only if you get a reliable provider.

A VPS, as we’ve mentioned before, is the love child of a dedicated server and a shared web hosting solution. It’s a combination, the best of both worlds, really. We like to think of it as a “high-end” shared web hosting solution. You don’t share with as many people and it still has many of the benefits of a dedicated server. It’s like working out at a high end chain gym, like Equinox.

So who do you go with if you’re in the market for a VPS (Virtual Private Server)?

There are a lot of providers out there. We’ve researched options tirelessly and we’ve personally tried a bunch of them, and most of them tend to oversell their server resources which makes them flaky. On the bright side, after all that research, we’ve found one that doesn’t suck. In fact they’re awesome.

To find out which one we recommend, check out our “web hosting resources“. There you can find our personal recommendations for a Virtual Private Server provider as well as a whole hosts of other recommendations that may be of interest to you. I wonder how many of our recommendations you are going to adopt and how fast you will adopt them.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Web Hosting 101 series, where we’re going to dig a little deeper for you…

• Web Hosting 101: What Are My Web Hosting Options?
• Web Hosting 101: What’s Shared Web Hosting? (coming soon)
• Web Hosting 101: What’s A Dedicated Server?
• Web Hosting 101: What’s A VPS? (coming soon)
• Web Hosting 101: What’s Cloud Web Hosting?

Click here to view the embedded video.

First, what’s the difference between Keywords and Tags?

There really isn’t a difference. Simply put, the keywords that you enter at the bottom of your article or blog post in WordPress are called tags. So for the purpose of this article we’re going to use them interchangeably.

What are the “Best Keywords and Tags?”

The tags for an article are the few words that best describe what your article (or blog post) is about. Ideally there are 5-10 keywords that specifically tie into your post.

A word of warning: these keywords have to be topics that actually relate to your article. You can’t just throw in random keywords that you think will get you noticed on search engines, as that will backfire on you. That’s called keyword spamming and it’s a one way ticket to nowheresville, population: you and your blog that no one will go to.

What are the some examples of the Best Keywords and tags?

Let’s say you had a post on your blog entitled “How to get a hot date online!” Some keywords you might use include as tags are: dating, online dating, online dating profile, get a date, get noticed online. See how those actually relate to the article we’re talking about? That’s the idea. Your job of course is to find the ones that best reflect your article AND get the most search traffic, but more on that coming up.

Also there’s no need to post 50-100 keyword tags. In fact, that’s not going to help you at all. Less is usually more, and the keyword realm is no different.  Be honest about what your article is about and you’ll be much more likely to get noticed in search engines.

WordPress “tag pages” are great for SEO

A lot of people don’t know this, but one of the (many) great things about WordPress is that for each tag you add to an article, WordPress creates a tag page. And that tag page will link to all articles tagged with that keyword. So all articles tagged with the keyword “dating” will be linked from the “dating” tag page on your blog.

For example, here are the tag pages for “web hosting” and “WordPress“ here on Blog Success Journal. And to give you a little different flavor, here are the tag pages for “pick up lines” and “sex positions” on Ask Dan & Jennifer.

Tag pages are important from an SEO perspective, because they can rank really well in search engines. Tagging your posts well will help you climb the keyword mountain faster and you’ll get noticed in the search engines and gradually move your way up in search rankings for those keywords.

Again, this is assuming you are tagging your posts accurately: if you add bogus keywords as tags, then your “tag pages” will be full of spam, i.e. non-related junk, and they will NOT help you get better search engine rankings.

Categories are not keyword tags – don’t use them interchangeably

Tags are just the natural evolution of the old category concept. Whereas years ago you had to choose 1 or 2 pre-defined categories when writing an article, these days it’s easy to just add the 5 to 10 tags, which are the topics the article is really about.

“But what about categories”, you ask? Well, for the moment you will still need them as well. We strongly recommend that you choose a single category that your article best fits into – in addition to the tags. For example, on Ask Dan & Jennifer, our 3 top-level categories are “sex“, “love“, and “dating“. Each new article is filed in one of these top-level categories, and then we add the appropriate tags to it.

We use major keywords as categories for better search engine rankings, because just like with tags, WordPress creates a category page which links to all the articles in that category. But you still need to tag your articles appropriately.

Use the same form of keywords and tags from one post to the next

As far as Google is concerned, the following keyword tags are completely different: “website” and “web site” and “websites”.

You need to be aware that those are completely different keywords and be consistent in the way you tag your articles. There’s nothing wrong with either keyword, but choosing one form and using it that way consistently increases your chances of getting ranked for that form of the keyword. So pick one and stick with it. Either you always use “website” as your tag or you use “web site”. Don’t use both interchangeably or you’ll be missing the chance for better rankings and more traffic.

Do your Keyword Research to determine with keywords get the most search engine traffic

“Website” and “web site” are perfectly valid keywords (tags), but we’ve also mentioned that search engines regard them as two completely different keyword tags.

But did you also know that each one generates an entirely different amount of search engine traffic?  Well, you do now. Fact is that not all keywords are created equal. Obviously if you are building your audience for your website, you want to only have the most effective keywords possible.

How do you that? Keyword research. That means doing your homework and looking up the number of searches each version of a keyword gets.

Doing your keyword research is crucial to have the most effective keyword tags on your blog, and it’s literally the ONLY way you will learn which keywords and tags are the most effective for you and your blog. It’s a bit time-consuming and tedious, but if you’re starting a blog you really need to start thinking of it as a business and more importantly as YOUR business. Treat it as if it is your full-time job, because well, it is and who else is going to research keywords and tags for you? That’s right. Nobody.

And here’s great news about keyword research: these results are fairly consistent from day-to-day. So you just need to do it once and save your findings in a spreadsheet – that’s what we do. Sure you’ll find yourself updating this keyword research spreadsheet now and then, but you won’t have to duplicate your work every time.

Keyword research tools – how to find the right keywords to use.

Here is a great keyword tool for you to check it. It can take a little getting used to, at first. But once you play with them a little bit they get easier to use, and it really helps to know as much about your niche as possible. That way you can hone in on the words that your audience are mostly likely to use to try and find the kind of content you have to offer online.

• SEO Book Keyword Research Tool – free keyword research option.

Tip: A very helpful strategy we use is to do your keyword research for your niche up front, find your most valuable keywords (in the right form: plural, singular, etc.) and keep track of all of them in a spreadsheet (complete with number of views per day). That way you can always refer to this again. And you will refer to it later – and you will update it later… but it’s important to have a strong starting point to build on.

Do your keyword research now and it will set you up for long-term success

Fact of the matter is that most people do the research too late after they’ve already made up their own keywords and find out they don’t work as well as others would have. But why do that? Why waste all that time (and potentially money) when you can simply do the keyword research NOW and get started on the right foot? It’s much easier to start off on the right foot than it is to get off to a slow start and get stuck in bad habits and then try to correct them. Do the keyword research now and start yourself off with the best tag habits possible and you won’t need to correct them later.

This is a very technical article, with a lot of information. It’s unrealistic to expect to assimilate all of it at once. We highly recommend that you read it several times to make the most of all the keyword and tag information above. Then, after you’ve done that, go out there and make the magic happen!

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, what exactly is cloud web hosting?

No, it’s not where Han Solo was frozen in Carbonite. What it is, is the future of web hosting. It’s basically a group of dozens or even HUNDREDS of servers all working together to deliver web pages to visitors. These servers working together make up a CDN (Content Delivery Network), a term that’s becoming more and more commonly used.

Instead of having your website and all your data, images, etc. on one sever, the information is spread across ALL of them. And better still, these servers can be located all across the world, meaning closer to your website visitors, wherever in the world they may be.

So if one server goes down suddenly in the night, who cares? If someone’s website gets mentioned on Oprah three or four times or it becomes really popular on Digg and gets a huge traffic spike, it’s all good. With cloud hosting it’s just not a problem because your data is spread across all the servers meaning they can pick up the slack so your site stays up when you really need it to. And if one of these servers crashes, you probably won’t even know it has happened.

The cloud hosting industry likes to refer to it as “the leading edge of hosting.” Is it, yeah, well… but with a few bags of salt. Cloud hosting is a really great idea, but the technology just hasn’t quite gotten there yet so in some cases it really doesn’t quite live up to the hype. It is however a new and great add-on for certain things.

Back in the day, cloud hosting was used only by the really big and well-funded sites like CNN because they really needed their sites to load fast no matter where the person was in the world. If CNN is in Atlanta and I am in Abu Dhabi, it will load a lot slower than if I am in Atlanta. Cloud hosting solves this issue because as you know the servers are spread across the globe so when the guy in Abu Dhabi goes to CNN.com he will hit the cloud server closest to him and that will result in way faster page loads, which in the internet business is everything. But now cloud hosting is far more affordable and available for everyone – and even we use it for all our websites.

What are the pros of cloud web hosting?

Unlike traditional web hosting, cloud hosting is cheap and you only pay for what you use. It also scales instantly, so if you site gets mentioned on Oprah or hits the Digg homepage, all those servers working together keep your website up and running. Also the caching servers located strategically throughout the world make your website load much faster for your visitors, regardless of where they are.

What are the cons of cloud web hosting?

Ironically, all the advantages of cloud web hosting are the cons. What happens if you get a DOS (Denial of Service) attack for days or weeks and there’s a huge spike in your traffic? Guess what? You pay for that.

Cloud web hosting will happily service the hackers’ requests like nothing’s wrong. Because it’s optimized for speed and delivery. Anything that goes crazy, costs more (think a poorly written WordPress plugin or PHP script).

At this point cloud hosting is great for delivering static content (like the images or CSS files on your website), but the technology really just isn’t there to handle full dynamic websites. This means uploading your entire website to a cloud web hosting provider is neither practical nor realistic for you to do (yet). Yes, it can be done, and some websites are doing it, but they’re incurring much more downtime than we would be comfortable with.

The concept of cloud hosting really is the best thing in web hosting in years, but the reality just doesn’t totally live up to that promise. Yet.

Then how come we use cloud web hosting?

So after all these gotchas, how come we use cloud hosting? Well, because it’s awesome, in a “right tool for the job” sort of way.

Then exactly what do we use cloud hosting for, what you ask? We used it to serve up all our static content (images, CSS and JS files, stuff like that) and it works flawlessly.

Here’s how it works… Let’s say someone from Japan visits our Ask Dan & Jennifer website – which has been called “today’s #1 Love & Sex Resource” – and which is actually hosted on a server in Maryland, USA. They click on our site, get the page from our server in Maryland, but the following 30 to 50 requests for small files (images, CSS files, etc.) hit our cloud web host, which redirects the user to the cloud host caching server in Japan for all that static information to view.

Why do we do that? Simple: faster page load times. We went from having page download times around 1 second to download times around 300 millisecond and that is huge. That means happy people and happy search engines and you want both to be happy. Google and Bing will love you for it and so will your readers.

That’s all the time we have for today. And don’t forget Blog Success Journal has TONS of resources for you. Videos, articles, recommendations, you name it. We have everything you need to build a successful blog and also make money off your blog. We are your one stop shot so be sure to take advantage of us!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Web Hosting 101 series, where we’re going to dig a little deeper for you…

• Web Hosting 101: What Are My Web Hosting Options?
• Web Hosting 101: What’s Shared Web Hosting? (coming soon)
• Web Hosting 101: What’s A Dedicated Server?
• Web Hosting 101: What’s A VPS? (coming soon)
• Web Hosting 101: What’s Cloud Web Hosting?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wait, why email? Isn’t social media the cool new thing these days?

Well, that’s true. Social media is all the rage these days, and for good reason. It’s probably the most effective form of marketing on the planet today, maybe the most effective form of all time. It does wonders for your traffic.

But consider this: 90% of the people who get to your website, however they find you (via word of mouth, social media, search engines like Bing! or Google, for example), don’t come back. They visit once and leave forever. That’s kind of a problem if you want to start a website that generates ad revenue and ultimately generates you an income. You want them to come back and come back regularly.

How do you get those visitors to come back to your site?

It’s quite simple: you get yourself an email list set up – and get your visitors to sign up to it. The trick is to get people to give you their email address willingly, so that you can contact them regularly and entice them to come back check out all the cool stuff you’ve been writing about. All that is known as email marketing.

How do you get people to give you their email address?

So now you know you need an email list. But how do you get someone to give you their email address? Simple: you don’t. No one is just going to hand you that information.

Way too many people already have their email address and they are already overwhelmed by the sheer amount of legitimate emails they receive on a daily basis (and we’re not even mentioning the spam emails they get). Just think about your own inbox… you know what we’re talking about here. So they aren’t exactly in a big hurry to hand their email addresses over to someone who is going to pile even more emails into their inbox.

No one gives that info away all willy nilly, but they WILL give it to you, if you know how to ask. How do you ask? By giving them something. Saying things like “sign up for our email list in order to get this FREE (insert e-book, free credit report, free Aardvark calendar or anything else you think they just can’t live with out)” works a lot better than saying “please sign up for our newsletter or email list (which probably contains absolutely NOTHING that they’d want to read anyway).

The term some marketers use here is an ethical bribe… you bribe people to give you a chance to contact them over email by offering them a great incentive they ACTUALLY WANT in order to get on your list.

Tip: No one cares about your “newsletter”.

This leads us to a very important point. We want you to say the following out loud with us: Nobody gives a damn about your newsletter. It’s harsh, I know, but it’s true.

No one wants to hear about all the fancy new office layout or the new site redesign or whatever. People are busy and selfish. They don’t care about YOU, they care about THEM. They have problems and they want to know how to solve them. Focus on what they need. More importantly focus on how YOU are the one to solve their problems for them.

Send your subscribers great content to establish yourself as an expert.

Now that you’ve got them subscribed to your list, it’s all up to you… and it comes down to 2 main things: quality and consistency.

Quality: Don’t email people junk, send them useful stuff. It’s that simple.

If you expect someone to read what you have to say regularly and not immediately unsubscribe, then send them somehthing that’ll actually have some value to them. Maybe the best tips of the week for whatever topic of newsletter they signed up for, be it puppy care tips or whatever. Do it right, it’ll be worth it in the end. This is not to say you can’t send them offers for quality services they can use, that’s fine. But for every offer you send, plan to send 3 to 5 useful pieces of information that makes them feel your email is worth opening.

Consistency: Send out your newsletter regularly so your readers know when to expect them.

Sending your newsletter messages out consistently is crucial.

People (and search engines) like consistency, a reliable, predictable schedule that shows them “you’re serious” and in this for the long haul, not some guy out to make a quick buck.

Over time your email list will grow, and so will your customer base.

It will take time, but it is a moral imperative that you become a trusted expert in their minds. Why? Because when they want more information on a particular topic, or more importantly, if they want to buy something on the topic who do you think they will be turning to? Some random guy who sends out an email once a month. Are they going to ask themselves “What would Yoda do?” No, no they won’t. They will turn to their trusted expert on the subject whip out their wallet and hand that trusted expert some hard earned cash. Now do you see why you want to be their own personal Yoda (aka trusted expert) on the subject? That’s what we thought. Now you have seen the light, young grasshopper. Now go out and prosper!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Patience, grasshopper. You need to learn to walk before you and run, and in this case, we are going to teach you what NOT to do first.  Here’s the wrong way of doing things.

The WRONG way

Have a company Twitter account without the name of the person(s) doing the tweeting

Using this nameless corporate account to post corporate updates or thinly veiled corporate updates masquerading as tweets from a real person. No one cares. This makes you come off as some out of touch “mega” corporation and that is just not going to get you anywhere.

Post links to your press releases

No one wants to read your press releases and they really aren’t too interested in connecting with a business either. They want to make a personal connection, and they want to know they’re dealing with the real deal.

Don’t follow others

Twitter is interactive. That’s the whole appeal of it. If you don’t follow others, they won’t follow you. You just can’t start an account and wait patiently and expect to become the next Twitter sensation. It just doesn’t work that way. Waiting for things to happen on Twitter is about as effective as waiting for the phone to ring when you’re looking for love (or anything else, for that matter).

Don’t contribute to the discussion

Twitter is a medium where people can interact, share ideas, followers and more, but who wants to do that? Why get involved and do things to grow your business when you can just sit there? You’re just setting up a Twitter account and maybe you’ve actually decided to follow people who follow you or maybe even follow people who’ve never heard of you, but get involved beyond that? That’s just crazy talk.

Inconsistency

Sure, you could be a trusted source of tweets, dispersing them at regular intervals, but why? You’d rather tweet randomly and inconsistently. Why regularly post your tweets say every four hours when you can post ever ten minutes for two days and then disappear for a month! That’ll get them interested, right?

Well… not so much actually. To be fair, this is a playbook that people actually follow, intentionally. They really believe that doing these things will work. Problem is, they don’t. It’s a one way ticket to irrelevance.  If you want to guarantee that no one will know or care about you on Twitter, by all means go ahead and use them.

The RIGHT way

So if that’s what you shouldn’t be doing, what’s the right way? Well, there is no wrong or right, there is only what you should be doing to get the results that you want. That’s what we mean, by “right.” That being said, here we go:

Being a real, authentic person

Your Twitter account should really reflect who you are. It should have your name on it, and ideally a picture of you or your brand to let people know you’re the real deal. This is the biggest thing ever to remember about Twitter. You must be real.

You can be as weird or as out there as you want, just as long as that represents who you really are. Otherwise, you’ve got yourself a one way ticket to becoming the “Vanilla Ice” of Twitter.

Making “Frienemies”

You ever hear the expression “the friend of my enemy is my friend?” That’s a bit of an extreme example, but the point is that on Twitter, you need to seek out the people who are in your niche and engage them. Find the people who are out there, doing whatever it is you do and become friends with them. Retweet their posts if you find them useful (we’ll get to that in a second). Ask them questions, start a conversation.

This will raise your profile and their followers will become aware of you, and may follow you back as well. That’s all part of becoming relevant in your niche.

Be present and consistent

If you want to lose weight or change your body, you don’t need a radical diet or exercise plan. You just need to find the right program for your goals and be consistent about it. Same goes for Twitter. Some people only post once a day. Some people post once an hour. Both are valid. Figure out what you want your schedule to be and then set it and stick to it.  This will help you become an ever present and consistent force on Twitter

Use a scheduling tool

So you’ve decided you want to post every four hours, 24/7. Are you really going to have to sit there at the keyboard at 4 am? Not if you use a scheduling tool. There are various services that offer this feature, but we’re big fans of Sendible because it just works and they’re very responsive.

Also Sendible works with most any social service out there, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. With Sendible, we schedule out what to post and when, and then it automatically posts at 4 am (or whenever), without interrupting our beauty sleep. Just remember, Twitter and Facebook are “social media” so schedule your Tweets with caution.

Do a fun giveaway

It’s a fact. People love free stuff. Could be anything from the latest product your company is promoting to a signed picture of David Hasselhoff that you found at your neighbor’s garage sale. Just make sure it is fun and tailored to your audience, and ideally is tied into them working to promote your product or get you new followers.

Encourage people to interact

This is what social media is all about. Getting people talking. Post an article and ask your followers what their opinion is on it. Post a poll topic, get people to vote on it. Post a picture of your baby and ask people to rate it. Anything! Just get them talking and get them talking in a way that helps you achieve your goal(s) that made you join social networking in the first place.

All that comes first, before you can promote or sell anything. Once you’ve built a loyal, consistent following, in time you’re going to become the go-to source for information in your niche. And that’s when you can start running promotions and campaigns that lead to sales (read: making money), more business, etc. Just don’t stop doing what got you TO that place in the first place – participating!

Click here to view the embedded video.

What the heck are keywords?

What are they and why do I need to know about them? Are they really that important to me and my blog? Can’t I get by without them? I mean, it’s all about the content right? So if I just write a really cool article, people will find it, right?

Well, not so much really. As with most anything in the world, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but don’t worry. That’s what we are here for. So sit back and enjoy. We’re going to give you keyword 101. If you’re an SEO expert, you won’t get much out of this video (you should be teaching it, really), but if you think SEO refers to a 70’s rock band, you’re in the right place.

Here’s the deal. You’ve set up your blog, picked a niche, installed the necessary tools to make your blog succeed, now what? Now you have to make sure that people who are searching for it on Google and other search engines can find it. But how? With keywords.

Wait, what exactly is keyword, you ask? And what’s a “keyword phrase”

Every go to Google and type in something like “How do I make money off my blog?”  or “Good pizza” or “Dry cleaners in my neighborhood” Guess what? Those are keywords.  Or, they are a “key phrase search” to be specific. Technically a single word (i.e. “dating”) is a keyword, but a phrase (i.e. “dating tips”) is a keyword phrase. Simple, right?

They can be short, or they can be long. Most “keywords “ are actually three to five word phrases. Keywords, in a nutshell, are what you are searching for. Whatever you type in Google (or Bing, Yahoo, or whatever) is a keyword or a string of keywords.

The textbook definition of keyword is a “term that encapsulates the essence of your text.” For this article, on this article “What are keywords and why do they matter?” Our keywords could include the following: keywords, keyword research, keyword analysis, keyword service, most searched keywords, SEO, blogging

Think of it this way: the content of each article can be boiled down to a few key topics. Those would be your keywords for that article.

Choose your keywords carefully.

Why? Because some keywords will get a few clicks a day while some words get a few THOUSANDS of clicks a day. The crazy part? Both keywords can cover the same topic and mean the same thing, but the more “common” term people use more often will obviously get more searches.  So every keyword gets incredibly different results and offer a completely different bang for your buck.

For example, keyword (singular), keywords (plural) and “keyword phrases” get 859, 723, 45 searches per day respectively.

How will you know the difference between the two? The way you learn everything: by doing your homework, which in this case is called keyword research. But where do you start? With a basic keyword research tool.

Keyword research tools – how to find the right keywords to use.

Here is a great keyword tool for you to check it. It can take a little getting used to, at first. But once you play with them a little bit they get easier to use, and it really helps to know as much about your niche as possible. That way you can hone in on the words that your audience are mostly likely to use to try and find the kind of content you have to offer online.

• SEO Book Keyword Research Tool – free keyword research option

Tip: A very helpful strategy we use is to do your keyword research for your niche up front, find your most valuable keywords (in the right form: plural, singular, etc.) and keep track of all of them in a spreadsheet (complete with number of views per day). That way you can always refer to this again. And you will refer to it later – and you will update it later… but it’s important to have a strong starting point to build on.

Don’t keyword spam!

Figure out which are the most searched words in your niche, then include them in your blog as much as possible, but don’t do it arbitrarily. That’s called “keyword spamming” and you don’t want to go down that road. No one will like you, particularly the search engines who you’re technically “spamming” by doing it. And that’s not something you really need to be doing anyway. Just do your homework, write your blog with those words in mind, and you’ll be all set for success.

Next steps to choosing great keywords for your blog posts.

This article is just an introduction, the very, very tippy top of the iceberg, but it is at least enough to get you started. Now you’ve got yourself a good starting point from which to conquer the internet via your master of SEO and keywords! Okay, maybe not so much, but you’re on your way. That counts, right?

Just remember: you start with the topic, the niche that you’re going to cover,  then you really need to focus on how people who are looking for your content are going to find it. Those tags you add to your blog are crucial! Those three to five words can make or break you!

And back to the cardinal rule… write great content that people actually want to read, and work with the search engines to help them find your great content. Then promote that great content.

Be sure to also check out part 2 of our Keywords 101 series: Keyword Research 101: How to Choose The Best Tags & Keywords For Your Blog Posts – And Why This Matters (Video).

Top 10 Tools Every Blogger Needs (Part 1 of 2)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Top 10 Tools Every Blogger Needs (Part 2 of 2)

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. WordPress

Once you get set up with a great web host (here’s our #1 recommended web host), you need a blog publishing engine, or rather a Content Management System (CMS) that your site will run on. You have a lot of options, some paid and some free. Google’s Blogger is free, but there’s no support. What happens if you blog goes down (or disappears) in the middle of the night? Who will you call? With Blogger, you get what you pay for: not much. We’ve actually seen this happen. Joomla is well, something that we won’t get into here (lets just say we are SO not fans of Joomla). Then there’s TypePad, a paid option. Let’s just say we started on TypePad, and left as soon as we could.

WordPress is really your only viable choice, plus it’s free. It’s very powerful and customizable, and very easy to optimize for a busy site, which is crucial. It’s the best CMS tool out there, and it comes in 2 flavors, both free: installed on your website or hosted on their servers. Sure, you can get a WordPress blog right on the WordPress.com site, but we strongly recommend against that. That’s a handicapped WordPress that doesn’t give you the power to grow that makes WordPress so valuable to begin with. And their terms of use don’t allow affiliate / revenue generating links.

If your blog is your business, you need to treat it like a business. Get a good, cheap web hosting service and install your own WordPress on it. There’s no reason not to. Our recommended web host even offers 1-click WordPress install.

2. Google Analytics

Knowledge is power. You need to know about the traffic on your site. Where is it coming from? Where are they going on your site? How long are they staying there? Is your traffic up? Or down?  This is information you need. Big time.

Google Analytics has all this. Yes, there are other products out there that cover the same territory, but this is the best one. And it’s free. Have we mentioned that free is good? Because it is. Get it, use it, learn it, love it. You totally met your new best friend. Fun fact: some years ago, Google Analytics was a commercial product called Urchin, which cost upwards of $5,000. Then Google bought it, made it way better, and offered it free to everyone. Best. Analytics. Ever.

3. Chartbeat

Chartbeat very similar to Google Analytics. In fact someone once called Chartbeat “Google Analytics on crack”. It offers you much of the same data, but it does so in REAL TIME. You can see traffic stats unfold right before your very eyes, feeding your Type A personality or offering you a cure for insomnia. It shows you who’s on your site right now, what they’re looking at, where they came from, etc.

Chartbeat has many valuable features, but chief among them is the ability to tell you how long it takes real users around the world to download pages on your site. Is your fancy new flash widget downloading slowly? Is your front page taking forever to load? Chartbeat will tell you, and you desperately need to know. Why? Because the internet makes people impatient. They may have no problem waiting nine months for their child to be born, but they won’t wait five seconds for your site to come up. Google knows that and won’t send visitors to a slow-loading website. Chartbeat lets you know if there’s a problem and gives you real time insight into what’s happening on your website.

4. Pingdom

Is your website up? Or is it down? You hope it’s up, you thinks its up, but is it really? Is it up all the time? Does it go down at the four in the morning on the third Tuesday of the month? Is your web host flaky, meaning having lots of tiny outages that you wouldn’t normally notice?

The truth is that without a great site uptime monitor like Pingdom, you simply don’t know. It offers you uptime reports, error analysis response time reports and will notify you by email, text or twitter if something happens. Pingdom does cost money, but it is an extremely valuable and necessary item for anyone who is in the business of blogging and/or making money online. You simply can’t live without it. Think about it: if you walk by a store and the sign says “closed” are you really going in? You can’t. It’s closed. Your website is the same way. Pingdom makes sure your doors are open all the time. And yes we’ve tried many other uptime monitors over the years, most sucking more or less than the one before.

More than any other uptime service we’ve tried, Pingdom catches any minor server flakiness so you know about it before your visitors or Google abandon you for it. Think of this as your outside agent keeping your web host honest.

5. Google Ad Manager (now DoubleClick For Publishers)

Google Ad Manager is the best ad management tool on the market, bar none. And it’s free.  It is simple, robust and relatively easy to use, once you get the hang of it. Yes, you’ll need to play with it a bit because it’s very powerful, but it’s time well spent.

So what’s an ad manager? It’s a way for you to post ads on your site and make money. It allows you to create “ad units” on your website and then to display (and test) all kinds of different ads through those ad units. And then it allows you to figure out which ads get clicked best, convert best, etc. It’s something you must have if you’re going to make money online.

And it is free, and will remain so despite rumours that this could change with their recent acquisition of DoubleClick. As a result of that acquisition, Google Ad Manager has morphed into DoubleClick For Publishers (DFP). The DFP web page has replaced the Google Ad Manager web page, but the functionality is the same. In fact the functionality and the user interface have both improved considerably since the DoubleClick merger.

6. Aweber (Email List Server)

If you have a website and no email list, you’re really missing out on a huge opportunity. But that’s a topic for another day.

And let’s face it. If you do have an email list, you need your emails to get there and get read. Period. You need a way to get them from your keyboard to John Doe’s inbox. Period.

How do you make that happened? With Aweber.  It’s that simple, and with their $1 for 1 month trial offer, it’s that cheap. At least, to start. It’s true. Aweber is not the cheapest email marketing service out there, it’s just the best, and frankly, it’s only one worth using. We left. We came back. There’s a reason for that. In the past it wasn’t exactly known as the easiest to use or most intuitive  site out there but they have made incredible strides in this department as of late and it is way more accessible for you and we can’t recommend it highly enough. Do yourself a favor and don’t price-shop email list providers; try Aweber, you’ll be glad you did.

7. Tubemogul

If you’ve started a video show (or video podcast) you know that it can’t just be on your website, it has to be everywhere. That means YouTube, DailyMotion, 5Min, Blip.tv, Vimeo, Yahoo Video, Sevenload, etc. You also know that each video file is HUGE (especially with HD), and uploading them is a HUGE PAIN. And that’s just uploading it once. With multiple sites, you have to upload each video multiple times, right?

Wrong. Tubemogul takes care of this for you. With Tubemogul, you simply upload it to their site once and then boom! They use their proprietary magic to distribute your video content to all the major online video platforms.  That saves you time, and sanity. And if that wasn’t enough, they have analytics built in! See how many times your video has been viewed, for example.

8. VodPod

Oh, VodPod, how do we love thee? Well, we’ll spare you the details, but we love them a lot. You are seeing them right here, at the top of our page! You see that sexy row of our videos? That’s them.  They are really amazing at giving you ways to do something with your videos in a stylish, organized manner. Lets say you upload your video to Youtube. Great. What do you do with it now? Embed the heck out of it? That’s fine, to a degree, but if you have multiple videos like we do (we have over 550 segments and counting on Ask Dan & Jennifer alone) that just doesn’t cut it. Vodpod gives you a way to integrate and display your videos on your website in a way that is as accessible as it is aesthetically pleasing.

9. Sendible

The simple fact of social media is that it is always there. If you want to be a force in the social media world, you must always be there. You need to be regularly posting to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. You can’t be robotic, but you must be consistent. The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” certainly applies to the digital age and social media.

Fortunately, with Sendible, that’s never a problem. Sendible is a tool that allows you to schedule you tweets and other social media posts on all platforms hours, days, weeks and even months in advance. Going on vacation? No problem, set up your tweets in advance and your followers will never even know you were gone. Another way to look at this is that your followers who expect your great tweets regularly will keep getting them regularly. Just don’t go totally automated or everyone will stop following you… they expect personality and engagement too!

10. TweetDeck

TweekDeck is a free desktop tool that functions as your personal real-time social media browser. It allows you to keep up with and post to Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare and seemingly every other place you can think of – all from one application. Think of it as a sexy, digital command center from which you can control your burgeoning media empire. Okay, maybe not, but it is really simple and fun to use. You simply enter in your account information for each network and that’s it. You are officially off and running.

11. PollDaddy

Yes, we know this is #11, but you will thank us for it. Face it. People have opinions and they LOVE to share them. That’s a fact. It’s also a fact that user interaction is a key component of a successful site. People love to take polls and they love to see what other people think.
PollDaddy is the way to go, and there’s no point in you looking around at other polling options. We did. They look bad; really bad. Recently it was acquired by Automattic, the good people who bring you WordPress, which is definitely a good thing. Here’s a poll we ran on Ask Dan & Jennifer…

That’s all for our top 10 (and by 10 we mean  11) tools that all bloggers need! We’ve done all the work, research and experimentation so you don’t have to. All you have to do is run out and get these tools and put them to work on your site. And remember, if  your website is your business, you need to treat it like one. Now get out there and get to making money and changing people’s lives!

We know we went kind of fast through this list due to time constraints, but stay with us. In the coming weeks we’re going to get into all the details you ever wanted to know for choosing all of these tools and using them like a pro.

• “what are all these weird characters suddenly showing up all over my blog: Â â €™ ¢?”
• “I just upgraded my WordPress and now I see funny characters all over my posts – what gives?”
• “I just moved my blog to a new web host and now I see funny characters all over my posts – help”

I know, because we’ve been there… searching everywhere for a way to convert the data from one character set to another.

And most of the solutions we’ve found online have not been very helpful… stabs in the dark on average. The notable exceptions were these 2 very helpful posts in a sea of really scary guesses… MySQL latin1 → utf8 (WordPress upgrade) and Fixing mixed-encoding MySQL dumpfiles with WordPress.

The real problem is, I was asking the wrong question, so I kept finding solutions that didn’t work. Until now.

So let’s take a step back and better understand the problem…

What causes those funny characters in your WordPress posts upon upgrade / migration / whatever?

It’s a character encoding thing, and I won’t go into too much detail on it, but suffice to say: WordPress stores your content in a MySQL database, encoded in a character set called UTF8.

But if you installed your WordPress site before WordPress 2.3 (yeah, a while back), at that time WordPress didn’t specify that default character set when creating its storage tables (posts, etc.)… so the tables were created with whatever the default character set was in the MySQL installation. As it happens, back then it was Latin1.

“Yeah, so what” you say. Well, WordPress is still expecting the content to be in UTF8, which is why you’ll occasionally see those funny characters on your blog… Â â €™ ¢?

Sure, there’s a “fix”  for that (read: duct tape patch)… you can just tell WordPress in it’s wp-config.php file that your data is stored in Latin1, and those funny characters won’t show any more.

define('DB_CHARSET', 'latin1');

But you’ve still got a database created with Latin1 encoding, storing your UTF8 data. Which in some cases will start causing you problems – such as when we tried to upgrade to WordPress 3 and enable WordPress MultiSite, and it will fail over and over again with no discernible error messages.

So how do you convert that data from Latin1 to UTF8?

Trick is, the content is (and still was back then) stored/encoded in UTF8… but MySQL “thinks” it’s in Latin1 because that’s how the tables were created.

So the better question is… how can you extract that UTF8 data from your MySQL database without corrupting it when MySQL dutifully attempts to convert it to UTF8 for you on export… essentially attempting to convert something that doesn’t need converting.

So how do you fix the Latin1 encoding, a.k.a. convert it to UTF8?

This situation can be fixed quite easily with just a few Linux commands performed on the server. Yes, it could technically be done through CPANEL & phpMyAdmin and using Windows tools to edit your data, but that’s far more likely to corrupt it. Your data is much less likely do get corrupted in this way.

Note: the fix below assumes at least a very basic familiarity with Linux (UNIX) and the ability to connect to your server command line (Telnet or ideally SSH) and run a few basic command.

“Whoa, what’s that?”, you say. Never fear, if you are not comfortable doing this, it’s likely that your web host will do it for you – the procedure is very quick and simple for someone familiar with these commands.

Also, if done correctly the approach below will create a whole new “clean” database, it will NOT change/fix/mangle your current database. That means you’ll be able to literally just edit the WordPress wp-config.php and “point” your WordPress from the old database to the fresh, clean new one. And you should be good to go.

That’s the tricky part.

Disclaimers: The following assumes at least a basic understanding of MySQL and WordPress config files and export functions. There is absolutely no warranty or guarantee of accuracy with anything you read here (or pretty much anywhere, lol). You and only you are responsible for any damage to your database, WordPress installation, mental health, ego, etc.  as a results of following these or any other suggested directions. Also, look both ways before crossing the street, and be advised the beverage you are about to enjoy may be hot, and never spit up-wind.

The actual step-by-step WordPress / MySQL fix…

1. Back up all your stuff first (likely using phpMyAdmin / CPANEL)

Before doing any of the following it strongly encouraged to back up all your data and files. Just to be safe. At the very least, your full database and the WordPress config file: wp-config.php

2. Note the settings that your WordPress is currently using (from wp-config.php)

Specifically, your MySQL database configuration, including DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, and also DB_CHARSET and DB_COLLATE

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //

/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME', 'database_name_here');

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'username_here');

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here');

3. Create a new MySQL database and create a new user with full privileges to that new database (both using phpMyAdmin)

After you export and “clean” you current data, you’re going to import it into this new database. Then you’ll be using this new database going forward.

4. Export your current WordPress database

The following exports all your data into a single text file (exp-my-database-latin1.sql).

mysqldump --opt --default-character-set=latin1 --skip-extended-insert --user my_db_user_here --password my_db_name_here -r exp-my-database-latin1.sql --log-error=log-mysqldump-my-database.txt

5. Change the character set in the output file (to the correct one)

replace "CHARSET=latin1" "CHARSET=utf8" "SET NAMES latin1" "SET NAMES utf8" < exp-my-database-latin1.sql > exp-my-database-utf8.sql

6. Run a compare script to sanity check your changes

diff exp-my-database-latin1.sql exp-my-database-utf8.sql

7. Import the cleaned data into the NEW database

mysql --default-character-set=utf8 --user=my_db_user_here --password='my_password_goes_here' my_db_name_here < exp-my-database-utf8.sql

8. Update your WordPress config to point at the shiny, clean, new database

Just update your wp-config.php file with the database name, login, and password of the clean, shiny new database.

Also, update your encoding settings in wp-config.php to reflect the new UTF character set:

/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');

/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define('DB_COLLATE', '');

9. Test your changes… browse your website thoroughly and look for those funny characters

If it didn’t “work”, you’ll have funny characters all over your posts; they’ll be quite obvious as you browse 10 to 20 posts looking for them.

That’s it, you should now be able to pull up your website and enjoy the yummy UTF8 goodness, no more Latin1.

IF for whatever reason you need to back out this change, that’s very easy to do… just point your WordPress back to the original database (that you didn’t mess with).

To do that, just edit your wp-config.php file and restore the information you noted in step 1: DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, and also DB_CHARSET and DB_COLLATE. Then bring up your website and all should be good again.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Congratulations! You’ve made it this far. You’ve got your niche, figured out what you want to talk about, who the other players in the niche are, decided what you like about them, what you don’t like about them, and you’ve started interacting with their readers on their blog and you have begun to build up your presence. Now what?

Now you write your first blog post.

Oh, how this strikes fear in the hearts of many a blogger… “What will I write about?” They ask “How will I come up with a topic.” Writer’s block sets in at this point and for many, but really, it’s not a problem if you’re writing about something that you are passionate about.

Not satisfied? Fine. We’ll give you a sure-fire way to come up with your first subject.

Lock yourself in a room. Literally. No cell phone, no significant other, no T.V., nothing. Sit down in front of a pen and paper and write down every idea that you can think of. Don’t stop until you have a least 50-100. Then pick one. How do you pick you? You pick the one that speaks to you. How will you know which one speaks to you? It just does. Try not to over think this. Your first blog post is important, but the fate of the world doesn’t depend on it. Just your world. Kidding! Just relax, and pick one. You’ve got like a 100 to choose from, right? See, it wasn’t that hard. You’ve done it! You’ve chosen a topic. And now you have your first blog topic ready to write about to your heart’s content.

Here’s something to get your juices going: What keeps your audience up at night?

What are their hopes, dreams, problems, etc? Now pick one of these and write about it. Now we come to blog length. How long should it be? As long as a woman’s skirt: long enough to cover the goods, but short to keep it interesting. Spell check it, and be sure to test any links in it you might have to say, your twitter account or a product page.

On a side note, always have a notebook handy.

You will often find yourself getting ideas at the most random times, when you least expect it. Write them down whenever they come to you. You may never actually use any of these ideas that you come up with on the go, but you will have them and it will help relieve any fear or pressure you feel about coming up with topics. You’ll never be stuck.

Once you have that first blog post written, when do you post it?

This is a bigger question than you think. The name of the game with posting is consistency. Do you post every hour or every day or every week? You have to set a schedule and stick to it. If you’re going to make money at this, you need to have people consistently coming to your site to check out your content. It has to be new, constantly updating content. They aren’t going to be checking out your greatest hits, either. They want new, fresh content. It’s not going to help if you post ten times a day for a week and then don’t post again for another month. If you do that, you’ll come off as flakey to your readers and that’s just death to bloggers. You won’t get those readers back, and you won’t be generating any traffic or making any money, either.

But it’s not just readers that hate inconsistency and flakiness. Search engines hate it too. You want to be on their good side, and you’ll need to be posting regularly. We’re talking at least once a week, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to manage that. The more posts the better, but don’t commit yourself to something you can’t deliver and end up flaking out. There’s plenty of scheduling software’s out there that can help you make sure you never miss a posting. WordPress even allows you to schedule a post to go live at a certain date and time. So there’s no excuse to not be posting regularly!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The first thing you have to do is know the four main types of web hosting out there, and they are:

Web Hosting Type #1: Shared Web Hosting

What exactly is shared web hosting? Just what it sounds like: a bunch of websites on one server, and everyone shares resources.

Pros of Shared Web Hosting: This is the cheapest option (some starting well under $10/month), and there are tons of providers for you to choose from. (Although there’s only one shared web host that we’ve relied on ourselves and actually recommend to our own friends and family – read on, we’ll tell you which one that is).

Cons of Shared Web Hosting: If someone else’s site goes down, yours goes down too. Or if someone screws up or gets a traffic spike you get affected by that too. Or you get a massive traffic spike (or you make a mistake) and you take everyone else down with you.

Basically, in web hosting, you get what you pay for. If you get anything out web hosting 101, we hope it is this: don’t cut corners. We’re not saying you should spend like a drunken sailor, but don’t cut your nose to spite your face, okay? It’s not pretty, trust me. And it does nothing for your blog.

Web Hosting Type #2: Dedicated Servers

Whoever invented the web hosting business must’ve been a big believer in truth in advertising, because again, this option is exactly what it says it is. A dedicated server is a server that is entirely dedicated to you and your website. You don’t share it, it’s all yours. This is not an option we, your illustrious hosts, recommend. Why? Well, first the good news:

Pros of a Dedicated Server: No neighbors to worry about, it’s all you. That results in better reliability.

Cons of a Dedicated Server: You have to buy the whole server, whether or not you need it. It’s not scalable which makes it very difficult when your website outgrows your current situation. It’s also very expensive for most of you just starting out in the world of blogging (costs $150/month to start)

Now you see why we don’t recommend it. Most of you can’t really afford to spend that kind of money on your web hosting solution (at least not initially), and even if you can you’re going to outgrow it at some point and then what? You can’t quickly and easy ramp up to the next level when you need to.

Web Hosting Type #3: VPS (Virtual Private Servers)

This is our preferred solution. VPS is what we use, and what we recommend you use as well. What is a virtual private server? Simply put, it’s a cross between a shared web hosting solution and a dedicated server. You still share, just not with as many people as you would if you went the shared web hosting route. We like to think of it as “high end” shared web hosting. We use it and we love it because it’s very easy, and you can just scale up to as much as you need, as soon as you need it.

Pros of a VPS (Virtual Private Server): Fast, easy, affordable ($50/month to start), you can ramp up later at the flip of a switch; and we use it (isn’t that reason enough for you?)

Con of a VPS (Virtual Private Server): You still have neighbors and you may still have to be very careful of VPS providers: they may over-sell the service, resulting in a flaky server for you. In fact many do, and there’s only one that we trust to power our own websites. (read on, we’ll tell you which one)

Web Hosting Type #4: Cloud Hosting

What is cloud web hosting? Hundreds of servers (many spread all over the globe) all working together to serve up your website (and the sites of all their other clients). If one of their servers goes down, no problem. The rest of their global servers will pick up the slack. It’s really great in theory, but not quite all the way there in real life. We don’t recommend using this as your sole web solution.

We use VPS coupled with cloud hosting for static content. Why? Because this combination decreased our page load speed time to less than half of what it was before – and that matters (a lot) to both your website visitors and to Google. Before it might take a couple of seconds to load our page, now it takes a matter of milliseconds, because our static content is on cloud servers all over the world. So someone from Japan gets our static content from a Japan based cloud server, for example.

Pros of Cloud Hosting: Pay only for what you need. Scales instantly. Global server network.

Cons of Cloud Hosting: You can but really shouldn’t offload your whole website to them (yet) – that technology just isn’t reliable enough yet. And you pay for all you eat – so a poorly written WordPress plugin or PHP script, or a denial of service attack, can drastically increase your web hosting cost.

By now, you’re probably wondering: which specific web hosts do you recommend Dan & Jennifer?

Well, we’re happy to tell you:

Our Recommended Shared Web Host:

HostGator - At just $7 (or less) per month for solid service this one is our first choice. It’s who we’ve used personally relied on for our websites, and the only shared web host we refer our friends and family to.

Our Recommended Dedicated Server Host:

N/A. We don’t recommend dedicated servers. Go with shared web hosting (above) or VPS (below) if you’ve outgrown shared web hosting.

Our Recommended VPS Host:

ServInt – Very solid VPS; they’re the ones we trust to power our websites today, serving just under a million page views per month (and growing fast!!) – all dynamic content, mostly WordPress and vBulletin.

Our Recommended Cloud Host:

Rackspace CloudFiles - Cost is less than Amazon S3, and it just works. We’ve been very happy with the service.

“This is a lot of information, just tell me what to do!” you say! Okay, fine. Here goes:

Keep it simple! If you’re just starting a site: go with a shared web host that’s solid, reliable, and cheap – just be careful to not go with a flaky one. (here is the shared web host we personally recommend).

Then when your traffic grows over 100k page views a month, jump to a VPS. As your traffic keeps growing, say around 300k page views a month, offload your static content (images, etc.) to a cloud host. That’s exactly what we did with Ask Dan & Jennifer and our other websites with amazing results.

Coming up in the Web Hosting 101 series, we’re going to dig a little deeper for you…

• Web Hosting 101: What’s Shared Web Hosting? (coming soon)
• Web Hosting 101: What’s A Dedicated Server?
• Web Hosting 101: What’s A VPS? (coming soon)
• Web Hosting 101: What’s Cloud Web Hosting?

Click here to view the embedded video.

You need to have a topic for your blog and you need to make sure it’s something you’re deeply, truly passionate about.

“Without passion you don’t have energy, without energy you have nothing.”
– Donald Trump, Inspirational Quotes from Today Is That Day

This is absolutely critical. There is nothing else more important than this. You may not be ready to hear this or think that it could happen, but the fact is sooner or later you’re probably going to be making a living at this. This will be come your job. This is something that is going to consume a great deal of your time. You’ll be talking about it constantly. It might as well be something that you love. Something that you eat, sleep and breathe. Because then, it’s fun. If not, well, what’s the point?

Another really simple yet profound thing to consider is this: is this just a hobby, or do you plan on making money off of it?

Would you like it to become a source of income at some point? If you’re just looking to vent about something or indulge in your inner nerd, or talk about your favorite pro wrestler than you probably don’t need to worry too much about your niche. Because it just won’t matter. If your blog is your hobby then all you have to do is indulge your passion to your heart’s content and not say anything too stupid that will get you fired from you “real” job (and yes, that has happened to people before).

But if your blog is something you’d like to make money off of, you need to consider the market place. Some niches monetize better than others. Some just don’t offer than much money. Some are already well covered (that is, there are already a great number of people blogging g on that topic), while some are completely ignored or relatively underserved. If it’s a crowded space, then you really might want to rethink it. It’s always better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.

Once you’ve decided that, it’s time to jump right in!

Step one is doing your homework: research the blogs in your niche.

Learn the lay of the land. Find out who the players are in your space. Do all the research that you can. Google and other search engines are great for learning everything from how old the blogs are to who founded them, what kind of money are the generating, etc.

Next, make a list of the most popular blogs in your niche and study them closely.

At the end of the day, it’s all been done. There is not any reason to try to reinvent the wheel here. Just look at what other people are doing and copy what works, while placing your own personal spin on it.

Get to know the most successful authors in your space.

Read their blog, post comments, be part of the discussion. The more interactive you can become on their site(s) the better. Sooner or later, you will become known and that will lead people to becoming curious about you and what you have to say and ultimately lead people back to your blog. Increased presence means increased traffic which means increased revenue. For you.

Now go out there and do it! Get in the game people! You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Now you may be asking yourself “Should I even bother?”

“The niche I want to blog about is already so crowded and they say not to write in a crowded niche!” True, but then again, we started Ask Dan & Jennifer and that’s a love and sex site and that niche is about as crowded as it gets! And we do, in fact make a living off of it. So, it can be done. There are no absolute rules. These are only guidelines, so definitely, by all means go with your gut and your passion, but make it easy on yourself, too!

For example, we started Ask Dan & Jennifer to focus on all topics love & sex, but not long thereafter we also started Blog Success Journal to share all the fun stuff we were learning about blogging. And a while after that we kicked off yet another site, Today Is That Day, which is about all topics personal development.

See the trend? They’re multiplying!

So what’s the problem with starting multiple blogs?

Nothing really, it’s a great idea and in some cases works great, i.e. for us it’s a great thing. But even we have to be careful in balancing our time and effort between the 3 sites… you only have so much focused time you can invest every day.

Then there are the technical gotchas: managing the tech behind all those websites. Let’s say you have a great web host and they keep your server running smoothly (here’s the ONLY web host we recommend if you’re just getting started).

But you still need to install and run your website software, which for most blogs is (and really should be) WordPress. And until recently, you could only run 1 single blog / website from a WordPress installation. That means that every time you wanted to create a new blog / website  you had to do a brand new WordPress install… which leaves you with a bunch of WordPress installs to run. We have about 10 WordPress installs at this point, but more on that.

OK, so what’s the problem with running multiple WordPress installs?

No big deal right? Sure it may take 30 minutes to get it up and running, but that’s just the “down payment”; here’s where it gets hairy: you’ll have to maintain yet another new WordPress install going forward. That means regular WordPress updates, installing and configuring all the required plugins, updating those plugins regularly, etc. Pretty soon you’re a support slave to your several sites – argh! If only there was a better way…

So what is WordPress Multisite (formerly known as WordPress MU)?

Great news.. now there IS a better way! As of WordPress 3.0, the previously separate project called WordPress MU (WordPress Multi-User) has been fully integrated into WordPress so now it’s much easier to install and manage for the rest of us.

So that means that when you install WordPress you can now choose to install as a single site, OR create a “network” – meaning you can run and manage all your WordPress websites from one place. Awesome!

Benefits of WordPress Multisite over many standalone WordPress installations

1.) One WordPress is much easier to manage than 10 = better use of your valuable time

Installing, configuring, managing, and upgrading one instance of WordPress and all its plugins at one time for all your websites is a GOOD THING… much easier for you to do and keep track of than say, 10 WordPress installs. And when managing a system is easy and straightforward, you’re much more likely to do it right and do it consistently.

Time, friends, is the most valuable commodity you will ever have. You don’t so much spend your time as you invest it. And as the stock market has shown us all, some investments net better returns than others…

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff that life is made of.”
– Benjamin Franklin, Inspirational Quotes from Today Is That Day

“To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to either spend or waste and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.”
– Bruce Lee, Inspirational Quotes from Today Is That Day

2.) Better site performance = faster response time = more search engine traffic

Each WordPress installation takes a significant amount of resources on your server (that means CPU cycles and RAM, and a little disk space)… and you can pretty much multiply that requirement by the number of WordPress installations you’re running. Think of it this way: they leaner you run, the less your hosting bill will be, and the FASTER your website will be. Faster website = more search engine traffic – because Google absolutely cares and takes site response time into account when ranking your site compared to others.

Have you actually seen a working WordPress Multisite in the wild? Is it stable?

Absolutely! In true Dan & Jennifer fashion we put our money where our mouth is so to speak, and went “Multisite” on our site Today Is That Day.

Previously, Today Is That Day was made up of two WordPress installs:

1. The Today Is That Day Magazine – articles, videos, etc.
2. Inspirational Quotes from Today Is That Day – our hand-picked selecting of hundreds of the best Inspirational Quotes

Today those two WordPress installs have been combined and are running smoothly as 1 WordPress Multisite.

And don’t think that combining those two WordPress installs into one is not worth it… it absolutely is. Today Is That Day “for now” only had two WordPress installs running it, but we’d already planned two more for features to be added in the coming months.

And Ask Dan & Jennifer, which has been around significantly longer and is far more complex, is currently running on 4 WordPress installs, with more planned. So moving THAT to Multisite will be a great help.

One minor clarification: a Wordpres Multisite install an be for different domains (www.site1.com, www.site2.com), or for different “sections” of one website, which is how we use it (see example above for Today Is That Day: one is a “subdirectory” of the other).

You can also certainly install a single Multisite to manage your different WordPress domains… and at some point we’re going to do that for the several simpler WordPress website we’re running. But our current goal is consolidating all the different WordPress installs for each of our main websites into one WordPress per site.

So how DO you upgrade your existing WordPress installs to WordPress Multisite?

So now that we know about WordPress Multisite, the obvious next question is… how do I migrate my 10 WordPress installations into a single “easy to manage” WordPress Multisite?

Yes, between Ask Dan & Jennifer, Today Is That Day, and Blog Success Journal, we really do (or rather did) have about 10 active WordPress installs. And yes, it was quite a pain staying on top of them all. So we’re quite pleased to be migrating them all to the Multisite model.

First, you’ll want to be running the latest version of WordPress. You can even use WordPress auto install (or auto upgrade) for that, very easy.

But then comes the more involved process… enabling your “Multisite” and then migrating your other sites INTO it. Stay tuned, that answer along with all the gory and magical details of “how to do it” is coming up shortly…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Should you start an online video show? That’s like asking yourself if you want to lose weight or marry the person of your dreams! The answer, if you haven’t caught on yet is yes. We’ve been doing it for years, and it’s been huge for us! But recently we were talking to someone who said “Oh, there’s no point in me starting an online video show. You guys have been doing it for so long.”

That’s just bunk. It’s true, we have been doing it for years, but it’s not like we just woke up one day and said “let’s start an online video show!” and then presto! We became a huge success. It didn’t work that way. We started our first online video show (Ask Dan & Jennifer) a few years ago, and it grew and it grew and it grew and now it’s grown like 1000% in that time, but it didn’t happen overnight. It took time. Allow yourself the time to grow and just go off and do it. And whatever you do, don’t think it’s too late. It’s never too late.

And this is ESPECIALLY true if you have already started a blog – because a video show will get you a lot of extra visitors and much more credibility.

There are many reasons you should start your own online video show. Such as…

It creates trust

If you make posts to a blog, yes, it’s great and wonderful and all that, but it still doesn’t pack the same punch as an online video. People can look at your online video and say “Wow. He/She is a real person.” People will be able to relate better to you if they can see and hear you. It will allow you to better showcase your own particular brand of speech, humor, satire and the like. It also creates a deeper personal connection. Having a face and voice to associate with your content helps your audience feel like they know you and then they will be more invested in you and your success.

It helps you reach different people

Face it: in today’s world, we have way too much to do and way too little time to do it in. Reading a blog takes more time than listening to one. People want options with their content. They want to be able to put it on the iPod/iPhone/iPad and take it with them to the beach or the gym or to be able to listen to it in the car. Having a video blog gives people options. And people like their options.

It allows you to differentiate yourself in the market

We started askdanandjennifer.com a few years ago and it’s a love and relationship site, and that is a VERY crowded market place. It’s very difficult to stand out, and if you don’t stand out, you die. It’s just that simple. So we had to sit down and ask ourselves, “What can we do to stand out? What do we have that no one else does?” Simple! We have Dan and Jennifer. By posting our online video show we were able to showcase our most unique asset-ourselves. People could see us and connect with us and become part of our audience and then tell their friends about us. That helped increase our audience exponentially.

It opens up an entirely new audience

There are a mulitiude of video sites out there (youtube, hulu, funnyordie, etc) and they have their own audiences, and many of these people are not really that into reading blogs. Posting an online video show allows you to access and engage these people and potentially bring them back to your site or simply create a new online show only audience. There are millions of people on these video sharing sites and it’s also true that there are people on these sites that are going to be interested in whatever it is you have to say. They’re not going to go to you, you will have to go to them. The first rule of growing your fan base is simple: go where the people are. Not going to these sites is about as effective as opening up a surfboard shop in Utah. No one’s going to buy a surfboard there. Why? Because there’s nowhere to surf in Utah. Setting up your surf shop in say Southern California is going to be more effective. Even more effective would be setting it up right on the beach. You have to go where the people are.

You can be everywhere

Having an online video show gives your and your blog a life of its own outside your actual blog. You can be on multiple sites that each have a wide reach. The bigger your net, the bigger your catch.

Never, ever, try to do anything

We never try to do anything. We just haul off and do it. You’ll never hear us say “we’re going to try this and see what happens” we say “we’re going to do this.” Big difference.

“Do or do not, there is no try.” – Yoda, Inspirational Quotes from Today Is That Day

That crusty little muppet was right. If you “try” to do something, you’re just going to fail and but if you “do” something it’s different. You’ve “decided” to do it. The word “decide” has comes from the latin root which means “to cut off all other options.” If you want to be successful, say you’re going to do something, and then burn the bridge behind you so you have no other choice.

Never ever give up.

Of all the blogs that started around the same time as ours, we can name two still in existence. Most quit after about six months. The general rule of thumb is people quit right before they’re about to become successful. Don’t that make that mistake. Never give up. Just do whatever it is you want to be doing. Live that passion, live it daily and be consistent about it. You can’t help but succeed then.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Answer: not on your website. Yes, yes, we know. Every good web host (and even the not so good ones) gives this away for free when you host your site with them. This is exactly why you DON’T want to take them up on it. Think about it: if your website goes down (and trust us, it WILL) what’s going to happen to your email? Oh, that’s right. It’s down too. Why? Because you put all your eggs in one basket. So your website and your email server are BOTH down. How are you going to be notified? D’oh! You can’t be notified by email because that’s not working either. You’d better hope you get notified by SMS, and forget about receiving any important emails from perspective clients, fans or anyone else.

Think that’s enough reason not to host your own server? Well, we’ve got more. As if this wasn’t enough, hosting your own email can eat up half of your resources making your web page load slower. In the internet business that’s a fate worse than death. Because no first time visitor to your website is ever going to say “wow, that page loads really slow. I’ll come back later and give them another chance.” Doesn’t happen. Pure and simple. Also Google measures every millisecond it takes to load your website, and they track that daily. If you’re slow, Google will be happy to send their visitors to someone faster.

Your web server exists to load your website pages fast. Period. It exists to do nothing else. Anything that gets in the way of this is simply bad for business. That’s why you don’t ever, under any circumstances host your own email server. Period.

So, now that we’ve scared the pants of you and told you what not to do, what are your options? We’ll the truth is, you’ve only got two in our opinion. But they’re really good ones, so fret not, fledgling website owner. We’ve got you covered.

Email Hosting Option #1: Gmail

First and foremost is Gmail. They are simplest option. They are free, and for your domain they are the cheapest option which may be all you need to hear if your website is just getting started. Beyond having an unbeatable price, they also offer something else that’s much more attractive: piece of mind. See, Google has big, huge buckets of money to throw at, well everything. This means they’ve invested in the best people and technology money can buy to ensure that nothing bad ever happens. You won’t ever have to worry about your Gmail going down, because if that happened, a lot of insanely well paid people would lose their incredibly cushy and killer jobs unless they get it fixed FAST; and they just aren’t going to let that happen. So Gmail won’t let you down and it’s incredibly simple and easy to use. You don’t need a huge amount of technical knowledge. A few simple clicks and you are up and running.

Email Hosting Option #2: Rackspace

Rackspace (or as we like to refer to them “The Artist Formerly Known As Webmail.us) is our recommendation, and they are our email hosting provider. Why? Rackspace is comprised of rock stars. Their support people are awesome, and when you call or email them with a problem, they actually call or email you back – with an actual solution. People at Rackspace aren’t just passionate; they are, as they like to call it “fanatical.” And we mean that in a good, non cult-y way. Rackspace has created a culture (they refer to it as their ‘special sauce) where employees thrive and have been named one of the best companies to work for by Computer World and The Sunday Times. All of this means that your business is handled by happy people who actually want to go to work and not some disgruntled college kid sitting in a basement somewhere. You can probably tell by now that we’re pretty big fans of theirs. It’s really hard not to be, actually. They’re reasonably priced too! Give them a try and you’ll see why we love working with them.

As a small side not on Rackspace, we also use them for Cloud Hosting all the static content on our websites, but more on that soon in a separate article.

Whether you go with Gmail or Rackspace, your email will still be up and running if your website ever goes down… and you won’t be impacting your website load times every time you get an email with those huge NSFW pictures from your pervert friends and funny cat videos from your less perverted friends. FTW!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Question 1: Why are you starting a blog?

It’s the most profound question you will ever ask yourself, but also the most important. Why are you doing this? What do you hope to accomplish? Do you want to make money? Do you want to help people? Do you want to make people laugh? Do you want to vent about something (society, politics, your love life)? There are no wrong answers here, but you do need to have one. You need to know why you are doing it, but more than anything you need to be passionate about doing it, whatever it is. If you love Spam and you want to sing the praises of Spam on your blog, then you will be successful. But if you’re a Vegan and you hate spam and someone offers you a ton of cash to blog about Spam, it’s just not going to work. It’s a job at that point, and you’ll hate doing it, and more importantly, you’ll hate yourself for doing it.

Question 2: What’s your niche?

Everyone needs an angle. Whether you’re a writer blogging about being a stripper, or a stripper blogging being a writer, you need a hook, pure and simple. You can’t be all things to all people and you shouldn’t try. You will fail. You can only succeed if you can identify a portion of the market that is being underserved (ideally, they won’t be getting served at all) and then speaking and marketing to them. This isn’t as hard a question to answer as it might seem. Once you answer the first question, the second question will largely answer itself.

Question 3: How will you set yourself (and your new blog) apart?

Here’s the really tricky question. You know why you’re blogging, you know what your niche is, now what? How do you stand out in a sea of endless bloggers? What’s your angle on your angle? Maybe you’re giving relationship and dating advice from the Born Again Christian perspective, for example. Or maybe you’re a divorced dad offer dating and parenting tips. The point is, whatever your niche, there is probably someone already there serving it as there are very few new ideas under the sun. What makes you worth listening to? Tricky question, to be sure, but an important one.

Once you have the answers to these three questions, you’re good to go. Just be aware that the answers, may change over time, and probably should. Your answers to these three questions represent a snapshot of where you are at the time you answer them. If you have a vision and a goal of say, getting ten people a day to visit your blog, and then that happens, then what? What happens is your answer to these three questions will probably change. You’ll need to re-answer them, and that will affect why you are doing this and how you go about doing it.

Don’t worry about this. Don’t wait to have the perfect answers. You won’t. You’ll not only never get it “right,” but you never even get started either. It’s all about progress, not perfection. You must repeat “Progress over perfection” in your head one million times. Okay, actually only three. But you get the point, hopefully. Perfection is one of the deadliest diseases on the planet. It robs people. Of their hopes, of their dreams and of the chance of actually making those hopes and dreams a reality. If you don’t get in the game you’ll never get a chance to win it, but there are some that endlessly practice and attempt to perfect whatever it is they working on before they show it to the world. But it’s never perfect. Ever. I don’t even know if anyone knows what that means.

It’s vitally important that you have a plan, vision and something to shoot for. But don’t let the prep work consume you to the point where things are unhealthy. That’s as much a life lesson as it is a lesson about blogging, but it certainly applies here.

Don’t waste your time trying out each WordPress plugin to find out which one you want. Here are the top 10 WordPress plugins that you want your blog to have, hands down.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

W3 Total Cache

For top-notch website performance, you need the W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin. Both your blog visitors and search engines care about how fast your website is. If your pages take forever to load, you’ll lose readers and search engine traffic. In fact Google just announced this week that they are not officially taking site response time into consideration for rankings. Of course they are: speed means quality of experience for their users.

W3 Total Cache can reduce your page load time by as much as 50% or even more – something you definitely want to do. AND it will help you keep your site running and available instead of crashing if you get a major rush of traffic all at once, such as getting a popular story on Digg or a “StumbleUpon attack”.  Other major caching plugins like WP Cache and WP Super Cache are OK, but in our opinion they are not as versatile or as powerful as W3 Total Cache (and we’ve used/tested them all).

Google XML Sitemaps

You want search engines to know when you post new content so you get more traffic. Google XML Sitemaps automatically generates an updated sitemap and submits it to top search engines without you lifting a finger. Don’t rely on search engines to crawl your site and find new posts – use this plugin to automatically tell them the instant you post – before someone else copies your post and pretends they wrote it – which happens. And “original content” (i.e. where Google “finds” a post first) gets much more credit than duplicate content (i.e. other places Google finds that post).

GravityForms or cForms

Your readers need an easy way to contact you, whether it’s to ask you a question or to advertise on your site. Contact form plugins like GravityForms or cForms allow you to easily create a great-looking contact form for your website. Instead of putting your email address out there for everyone (including spam bots) to email you thousands of times, use GravityForms or cForms to allow your readers users to contact you easily without cluttering your inbox with lots of spam.

Disqus Comments

Another interactive tool for your blog readers is the all-important comment box. Disqus Comments is an excellent WordPress plugin that allows visitors to comment on your articles with a great looking social interface and great spam control. Use an advanced plugin like Disqus Comments instead of WordPress’s integrated comment tool. It looks much, much better and gives you more control over comments. It’s also a hosted comment plugin that automatically syncs the comments with your WordPress database, and provides great social interaction with your readers.

Two other very popular comment oriented WordPress plugins are JS-Kit Echo and IntenseDebate. We’ve tried them both and feel Disqus is currently the better choice. The backend comment management of JS-Kit Echo leaves a lot to be desired, and we feel the Disqus comment layout just looks better than the IntenseDebate option. Frankly, this is a matter of preference, they’re all good options!

Akismet

This plugin automatically comes with WordPress and does a great job catching comment and trackback spam. If you’re using a hosted comment service like Disqus, Akismet won’t apply to you. Actually you can still use the Akismet service through Disqus, just won’t need to enable the plugin.

FeedBurner Feedsmith

Redirect your RSS feed to FeedBurner and have your RSS subscribers poll Feedburner instead of your site. This WordPress plugin makes your feed much more usable, since it provides far more optimized RSS feed than WordPress alone does. It will also offload the feed reader traffic to Google (who now owns FeedBurner) so it’s much,  much faster than your web server, improving your blog’s performance even more. This will sound a little technical to a new blogger, but do it anyway, it’ll work better that way.

YARPP

This WordPress plugin is an excellent tool to use if you want readers who are interested in your topics to stay on your website longer. YARPP automatically displays the most closely related articles from your blog to your readers at the end of the article, allowing them to easily browse through the content they’re interested in on your site instead of allowing to look for what they want elsewhere.

After The Deadline

This easy to use spell and grammar checker for WordPress is available for free and is essential to use even if you feel like you’re spelling and grammar error-free. It doesn’t cost anything and will ensure each post is error free and looks as good as it is.

Sexy Bookmarks

A bookmarking tool is essential for your blog and Sexy Bookmarks is an excellent tool to use with great eye candy. It adds a nice visual appeal to your blog, while encouraging readers to share the article they’re reading with their friends on Twitter, Facebook and more. This means more linkbacks to your blog and more readers for you!

Viper’s Video Quicktags

To embed your YouTube video on your blog, you’ll need Viper’s Video Quicktags. Newer versions of WordPress (2.9 and above) allow you to embed videos without special plugins, but Viper’s Video Quicktags allows you much better control over how the videos look in your posts. You can set the format for all of your videos in one place instead of coding it in each post – and having to edit ALL your posts to make a change.

After building very successful WordPress blog and online magazine AskDanAndJennifer.com over the last four years, these WordPress plugins are our personal favorites – and for the most part, the only ones we actually use.

So if you’re staring a blog yourself and decide to install WordPress for it (which in our opinion is the only way to go!) these WordPress plugins are a great place to start.

Do you have favorite “must have” WordPress plugins that aren’t in this list? Let us know! Leave a comment.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Camcorder

One of the obvious things you need to start a successful video show is a camcorder, or possibly more than one if you have them. You don’t have to have an expensive camcorder – you can even use your webcam if you don’t have a more traditional camcorder.

The best thing you can get is a simple HD camcorder which has the following: 1.) a microphone-in jack and 2.) ability to record to an SD card (this makes it very easy to take your recordings to a PC/Mac for video editing) and 3.) a remote control (way better than pushing a button and running to your seat). The Canon Vixia line has worked well for us.

Regardless of whatever camcorder you have, make sure you have a stable place to set the camera up for filming. If you’re using a traditional camcorder, you’ll definitely need a tripod. Don’t have someone hold your camera for you – they’ll never be able to keep it steady enough to keep your viewers from getting motion sickness.

When your video budget justifies it, have someone who knows what they’re doing come in and do the filming part for you. The quality difference will be significant.

Good Lighting

Your living room overhead or a lamp just won’t work if you want good, even lighting for your online video show. Lamps and overheads create shadows, which look unprofessional in a video. Visit a camera store or browse online for some discount lighting fixtures or lighting kits. You don’t need super expensive lightboxes or anything like that. A simple bulb with a broad umbrella will do just fine.

We use and highly recommend this Cowboy Studio video lighting kit. It’s a good price and good quality, and best of all, it is SO MUCH COOLER than our old lighting kit. This one barely puts off any heat.

Lapel Microphone

Strong, even sound is as important as good lighting. For a professional looking and sounding online video show, you want to minimize echos and static. Some computers and laptops have built-in microphones that may work, but your best bet is a lapel microphone, especially if you’re shooting your video on a set in front of a camera instead of with a webcam. Lapel microphones are very inexpensive, but they’re worth their weight in gold.

For example, for a long time we used 2 of  these $20 Audio-Techica lapel mics with 20 foot cords and a $5 cable splitter from Radio Shack to combone their signal into the camcorder microphone-in jack. Until you go wireless, these are probably still your best bet.

Video Editing Platform

Good video editing software is essential for a professional looking video show. There will be lots of things you want to edit out, without spending hours re-recording a video to be perfect because you don’t have editing software. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to have a Mac to have a great video editing platform. Adobe has some great options for Windows video editing, including Adobe Premiere Elements which is available for less than $100. However, their best program so far is Adobe Premiere Pro, which comes in at just over $700 – if that fits your budget.

Just like with filming above, when your video budget justifies it, have someone who knows what they’re doing do the video editing for you. The quality difference will be significant, again. What’s great is today you can share files with your video editor using tools like Dropbox, so no more running hard drives with HD video all over town.

Use Video Sharing Sites

Video sharing websites, like YouTube, are free and your most valuable tool for getting people to see your video show and start making money online. Create accounts with several of the most popular video sharing websites and start uploading your video show online regularly so people can start watching what you’ve created. Tubemogul is an excellent option if you want to upload one video to multiple video sharing websites without the hassle of uploading large files over and over to different sites. Tubemogul allows you to upload the video once and it will distribute your video to various video sharing websites for you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Staying Relevant In Your Niche

Using social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook is one of the easiest ways you can stay connected to your blog readers and relevant in your niche. Regular Tweets and Facebook posts keep people reading and keep people “in the know” about your favorite topics. Also, one of the best forms of advertisement is through word of mouth. Fans of your Facebook page will inadvertently direct their friends to your page via their Wall and so on and so on. Your Twitter followers might Tweet about a topic you’ve already Tweeted about and tell their friends about it and so on. Using social media outlets is a must if you really want to be a successful blogger and build your own brand.

The Benefits Of Scheduling Your Tweets

The benefits of scheduling your Tweets is that you don’t always have to be at your computer when you want something Tweeted. While there are applications that can allow you to Tweet from your cell phone, sometimes you just want to take some time off without completely withdrawing yourself from staying on top of things and staying relevant. That’s where scheduling your Tweets (and your blog posts) comes in handy.

Tweeting Responsibly

There is definitely a fine line between using Twitter and Facebook scheduling tools and abusing them. While you can schedule many of your Tweets, it quickly becomes obvious that all you’re doing is scheduling your Tweets and you’re not really relevant in your niche anyways. Your Twitter followers and Facebook fans will ask you questions, and it’s important that you answer them. Although you do schedule some of your Tweets, you should add to it by answering questions and having real conversations with people. This is the best way to build your brand and let people know that you’re available and interested in what your blog is about. Social media outlets give you the opportunity to actually be in the action instead of simply being behind the scenes. Use your Twitter and your Facebook pages to talk about your favorite topics, ask your fans and followers questions of your own and get them involved and interested in your blog topics. Not only will this generate tons of traffic for your blog, it will also generate real interest, and that’s something that can’t be bought. Be responsible with your Twitter and Facebook. Take the time to talk to your fans and followers, and schedule your Tweets and posts when you have to.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Content Is Key

You may have the best SEO keywords on your website or blog, but without quality content, the search engines are going to start overlooking you. You may get an influx of site traffic for awhile, but it will quickly cease as the search engines realize that people aren’t staying on your website very long. If you’re not offering people anything of value on your website, you won’t be getting traffic for long, if you ever got it at all. The key to a successful blog or website is to produce quality content that people want to read on a regular basis. Search engines will pick up on regular publishing and start taking a better look at your website or blog. If there’s good stuff on there that people are interested in and searching for, the search engines will start sending them to you. It’s as simple as that.

Search Engine De-Crappers

Search engines, especially Google, spend millions of dollars every year on technology that allows them to filter through websites that publish what is known as Internet “crap.” Search engines don’t want to send traffic to websites that don’t offer people anything of value. You can only fool search engines with SEO tricks and keywords for so long, if at all these days. Search engines are continuously working on ways to weed out the bad and useless content, regardless of how many fancy keywords and SEO there is. If you don’t produce quality content on a regular basis, search engines are going to figure it out and fast. Without quality content, you’re not going to get the traffic you need for a successful blog or website.

Regular Publishing

To take this #1 tip on blog and website success a little further, you must continue publishing good content that people want to read on a regular basis. You may have a great article up on your site or blog, but if you’ve only published one or two articles, the search engines aren’t going to know to look in your direction. Search engines want to send people to websites and blogs that regularly publish good content, not a website or blog that published one or two good articles. Search engines such as Google love websites that stay relevant and stay in the game by continuously posting content.

Ask yourself this question: do you publish information to your blog for yourself (just so you can say something) or so that other people can get value from What you have to say, what you’ve discovered, etc?

Do you discriminate against half (or more) of your website visitors?

So you build a great looking blog (or website), start publishing some great content, and you even make sure the website looks good.

But here’s the catch: it looks good to YOU, with your web browser (Firefox 3.0 or Internet Explorer 8.0), running on your operating system (i.e. Vista).

Here’s a fun fact: different people end up using different web browsers. For example, our Ask Dan & Jennifer love and sex online magazine and advice column gets 52% visitors using Internet Explorer, 33% visitors using Firefox, 9% using Safari, and so on.

And those break down further by browser release verions (ex. IE6, IE7, IE8, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, and so on).

How can you know what web browsers your visitors are using?

Well you do use web analytics, right? That just means a (often free) web software that keeps track of who visitors your website so know how many visitors you have every day, where they’re coming from, what articles/pages they like, and so on.

And the good analytics services will give you a detailed breakdown of what web browsers (and operating systems) your visitors are using. Our absolutely favorite web analytics tool is Google Analytics: in our opinion the bar none best analytics tool out there. Plus, here’s a bonus: it’s free.

Not all web browsers are created equal

OK, so people use different browsers… so what? Well, the problem is that each of those browsers shows your website a little differently.

But no big deal right? Wrong. Just a few little differences can result in your site lookign completely messed up to half your visitors. Worst yet, it looks fine to you, so how can you even know?

How you can quickly and easily see how your website looks in the most popular web browsers

So what’s the solution? Do you just call up your friends who you know run the different web browsers and see if they’ll keep testing your website every time you make a change? No way!

Do you install all the browser versions on your own computer at home? Nope, you can’t run them all… and seriously, who has time to mess with that!

Here’s the smart and easy way: you use an online service that actually shows you what your website looks like in all the major browsers.

The original solution: online screenshot and web validation services

There have been services online offering this functionality for some years now. Here’s a list of them. With most of these services, you just type in the web address, and it shows you a screen capture of how your website and how it looks in 20 different browser editions.

The down side with many of these services is that they’re very slow: it can take an hour to get your screenshots. and if you’re going to make tweaks or fixes, that just won’t work.

Today’s better solution: Adobe BrowserLab

Yesterday I was looking for a better solution… and found our favorite one ever, which happens to be from Adobe (we love their software anyway, so that was an added bonus). It’s called Adobe BrowserLab. And according to Adobe, “BrowserLab provides web designers exact renderings of their web pages in multiple browsers and operating systems, on demand.”

Here’s why BrowserLab is the best tool for this that we’ve seen: it brings up your website in the top web browsers immediately: so in under 5 minutes you can just know what your website looks like to the vast majority of your visitors! And that frankly is a must for any web designer – or anyone really who has a website that gets more than a few thousand visitors a month. Also check out this recent PC World article on BrowserLab.

As an added bonus, Adobe BrowserLab is currently offered free by Adobe… but I suspect web designers would also pay for this service if they had to.

The downside of BrowserLab is that it (as of now) only shows you what your website looks in the top 5 or so browsers. But honestly unless you have a dedicated web design team that’s doing this for you, that meeds the goal of today’s test: making sure your website isn’t “broken” for half your visitors.

And with Adobe BrowserLab that’s become a very easy thing to do. If you know of other great tools for doing this, be sure to let us know in the comments what they are and why you like them!