Ask a Question!
Posted by Linda Lee on October 6, 2010 · 9 Comments
Please feel free to ask a question in the comment section down below and I will answer it! Then everyone can benefit. Thank you.
Who would benefit from having a Blog?
Anyone can start a blog. All you need is the desire to get your message out.
It can be a hobby, a field of expertise, you can create a business blogsite, a consulting blog, an opinion blog talking about any subject like politics, celebrities, books, sports or whatever your interest is. The sky is the limit.
How much does it cost to set up a blog?
The cost to set up a blogsite can be from zero to around 550.00-2k.
It depends on what you want. If you want a free blog you can use WordPress.com or Blogger and they host your blog for you for free.
If you are going to have web designer set up and customize a blog theme for you it will cost more but there are many benefits to doing it that way.
Do you need to have a web site already in order to set up a blog?
You can set up a blog independent of a website or if you already have a website you can add a blog on your hosting account and link them together.
How can we tell a good blog from a bad blog?
A good blog offers solid content that is helpful to the readers. It has real information and real links and is not packed full of spammy ads.
A bad blog is full of ads, spam links and offers you no information for what may of landed you on that site in the first place.
Can you update a blog yourselves?
You can update blog websites yourself. This is one of the big advantages of learning how to run your own blog website, you can change the pages and add content and run the entire site yourself.
Can you put video and stills on a blog?
You can add videos, music clips, mp3’s, and tons of images and create your own slideshows using a WordPress blog website.
Can you advertise and sell products on a blog?
If you have a self hosted blog you can do whatever you want.
You complete freedom to set up a shop, sell products, sell ads, and display paid ads.
With a free blog website you cannot add paid ads and may be limited on what you can offer and sell.
How do you decide the look of your blog?
Choosing the look for your blog website can be lots of fun!
With your free blog, you have the choice of over 70 themes to select to customize the look of your blogsite.
With a self hosted blogsite the sky’s the limit on design, layout, logo and more.
There are thousands of free themes you can select and then there are paid themes developed by professionals which can be customized to create fabulous looks..
One of the fun things with a blog website is you can change the look of your site quite easily by going into the section callled “appearance” and then select “themes” and you can preview all the theme choices and with one click change the theme on your blog site. All the posts and pages you may of already written will still be there, just with a new look.
How do you target your audience?
Depending on the subject matter for your blog, that will vary.
The basics on helping your audience find you are:
1. Write good content.
2. Use keywords in your posts and pages that are related to your topics.
3. Try to publish something at least once a week.
4. Promote your blog using things like facebook and twitter and linkedin.
5. Read other blogs on your subjects and participate by leaving comments
6. Continue to educate yourself on blogging. (www.wordpresscentral.org)
How can you tell if anyone is looking at your blog?
All blogs offer statistic programs that track the details of your “traffic” or visitors. You can learn what search engine they came from, what page they came in on and all kinds of details about your visitors.
This helps you see what people are reading and what they are interested in so you can fine tune.
How can we earn passive income from a blog website?
If you have a free blog website you will be limited in this area.
With a self hosted blog site, you can do many things, here a just a few.
- Sell information products, such as ebooks or eguides, or tip sheets.
- Become an affiliate with places like Amazon and they give you codes you can place on your site and if anyone clicks your links and buys something you get paid a %.
- Sell other peoples products by joining their affiliate programs.
- Join clickbank, which offers thousands of ebooks and downloadable products you can sell and make between 10.00-50.00 per sale and all you do is display a link for the products.
- Create a cafepress or zazzle store and sell products through your online store. This is free, and they handle all the products and pay you a small sales commission. You can sell t-shirts, coffee mugs, aprons and much more with designs you create.
I want to join WordPress, and part of a reason is to advertise and sell my products via this blog. With this particular blog site, under a free subscription, would this be something that I would be able to do?
It is very simple. They have a section in the control panel that is a large WordPress Icon ( and I am pretty sure it says “install WordPress” right there on it), and you just click it and install it! Or there is a section in your control panel in “Software/Services” that is called “Fantastico De Lux. If you click this it is an installer for a bunch of stuff they offer, including WordPress, and then you install it there.
One of the many reasons Host Gator is my top choice for hosting. Also they are so helpful if you phone them. They are fast and always helpful. They have a great live chat support that I use all the time which is lightning fast as well.
For WordPress support I have found none better. The thing is many hosting companies will tell you they do not offer support for WordPress, but Hostgator always does. WordPress is a free database program, so really hosting companies do not have to help us with it, but Hostgator is amazing with the help they have given me over the years.
“Also if you do this does the backend of your website look like the backend of a free WP site or does it look like the hostgator cpanel? ”
Your WordPress installs always look like a WordPress site. Your cpanel is completely separate. Your WP site is a database you have installed in your hosting.
The hosting is your “control center” for everything you have on the web using that hosting account.
I see you recommend hostgator. My question is – is it easy to put a WP theme onto the domain you have got with them?
Also if you do this does the backend of your website look like the backend of a free WP site or does it look like the hostgator cpanel?
cheers
There are some themes that come with blocks where you can easily put adsense blocks
What about if you also wanted to put ads elsewhere – say in the body of your text? can you just copy and paste the adsense code anywhere you like?
Thanks for the great site – very helpful
@Harriet Morris (ID 90): When adding ads, all you need to do is copy and paste the code you are given and drop it where you want it to show up, but using the html panel in the edit section other then visual. Also if you want ads on the sidebar you use a “text” widget under the widget section and you drop the code there and add it on the sidebar that way.
Make sure you select small ads like 125×125 or 250×250 for your sidebar or they will mess up the layout of your site.
How do I add links to other sites on my website?
I have some professional logos I would like to put up too.
Go to your dashboard and you will the “links” selection. This is where you add links on your blogroll.
You need to go to the widgets and add the blogroll/links widget on a sidebar for those links to show up.
With logos you need get the html and drop that into a text widget.
Is there a simple “how to” you could pass on to me to let me know how I can move things around in the R column of my site?
How to change the order of the widgets on your sidebar.
Depending on the theme or design of your WordPress site you will have either a right sidebar or a left sidebar or both.
To move things around order wise do this:
1. Go to your dashboard
2. Click the widget section
3. On the right side you will the order of your widgets.
4. Click the one you want to move
5. You will see a drop down menu under the word “Position”
6. Select which position you want to change it to numerically
7. Hit “Save Widget” button
This will change the order. Do not forget to hit F5 if you do not see the change.
F5 forces your computer to fetch fresh files otherwise you may be seeing the cached version of the page even
though you changed it.
Also WordPress now has a drag and drop feature where you can actually drag those widgets around now where you want them to be.