Setting up a blog is one thing that I have been asked about many times through the many emails that I receive so I thought I would write an article on the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to set up a blog, just
Ask An Artist
Setting Up A Blog
Go to Host Commando and sign up, once you have confirmed your subscription and have signed in choose your package ( I recommend the premium). After paying the invoice you will be sent to another page where you will have to create a 2nd login account. This will be your “Hosting account” which is where your site/blog will be hosted on the internet. You may have to “confirm” this account by checking your email just as you did with your Host Commando account. (Note; they may have changed this by now and no confirmation may be necessary). This is where all the tech. stuff is stored that runs your site/blog. You won’t necessarily need to know a lot about this right now but you have to create the account so they can set up the files that are needed to get your site up and running, they should have explained this in better detail and I have sent them an email suggesting that they do this, but don’t worry I’ll walk you through this.
At some point you will be asked to create a domain name and I am not sure exactly when this will happen. Weather it is before or after this step but it will involve going through a domain registration site and is included in your yearly subscription (premium) and is free for life (nice). What you want to do is come up with a domain name that brands your hobby, business or what ever you want to blog about on the net and use a couple of “key” words that you will be using for your SEO (search engine optimization) in it. I know this all sounds French to you but trust me you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. So in your case it’s pretty simple if it isn’t taken already Your hobby.com or Your name.com and try to keep it short and to the point and what most people would recognize. Long and hyphenated domain names are not user friendly so keep this in mind. In other words no French or fancy wording that the average person wouldn’t recognize or use as search words for in the search engines. There are some that have chosen names for the businesses that are so far out of the norm that half of their marketing problem IS the name they chose for their business because no one knows what it means! …..sigh….
Anyway, the next step after setting up the “hosting account” you need to go back to your Set Up Account by using the login that you created on the first step. Sign in to your account again and it will take you to your “Client Area” You will want to scroll down to where you will see “Server Log In” and in this box you will see your domain name that you have chosen and right next to that you will see a button that says “Manage” click on this button and it will take you to another page that also says “Client Area” ( yes I know this is confusing too and I have told them about having two pages with the same name). This page you will see you’re “Product Details” and to the right you will see “Direct Login”. Under the “Direct Login” are two buttons one says “Login to cPanel” and the other says “Login to Webmail” and below this you will see “Login Details” this is where you will see the 2nd Login information that you created for your Control Panel for your web hosting and you have the option of changing your password if needed but this is only for your hosting and NOT for your “Set Up Account” this is just a gateway to your tech files for your blog and you don’t need to do anything here unless they want you to set up your hosting account through here. Now I am telling you this so you have a better understanding of what’s on this page and why, being that they don’t seem to explain this part very well and I’ll tell you why as we get further into it, but for now we need to get them to set up your blog.
On this same page if you scroll down you will see “Wordpress Installation Request” and there will be a button under this that says “New Request” I don’t know why they do this this way but you have to click on that button and in the next page you will see “ Blog Title” which could be the name of your business/hobby with at least one keyword as in your domain name or even the same name. The next box is your “Description” which is what your blog is about again think about keywords and of course keep it simple and to the point. Then the last box is your “Keywords” You can enter your words or phrases here so anything you can think of that would be what people would enter in the search bar when looking for your type of business or what your blog is about. “Your hobby or business” is one that comes to mind you can add don’t waste a lot of time on it because you can always add more once your set up but do enter enough to get you up and running. After your set up they give you some free tools to help you do some research. Then check the box that says “Home Page” if you want it to stand alone or click on the Custom box if you want it to appear on another website. You also want to check the box that says “Accessibility” this is where they will build a sitemap to submit to Google to get your site indexed which is very important and what lets Google know that you exist. Then finally pick your “Theme” again I would say go for the 3 column themes because you get more options when you start adding things to your blog and you will want to stay with the 3 column when it comes time to change the theme with something that you may really want at a later date Once they get everything loaded that they are going to put on it and believe me you are going to have some great tools and plugins installed then we can change the theme to something that fits more to your business and there are thousands of themes out there that are available for free. Take a look at my theme and you will see what I mean this was a free theme that I use and it’s perfect for me
One last thing you will see on the 2nd client page 4 available down loads that are very cool, one being the video tutorials which shows you the basics of operating the blog which I would highly recommend familiarizing yourself with and the other one I would download are the tools to help you do research with. The “Blogging For Profits” will explain a little about a few ways of using your blog to make money.
Hopefully this will help you get up and running and if you still have problems let me know. This is just the beginning of what you are about to find out about the power of what a blog can do for you. Once your up and running then we need to get you going with a newsletter, auto responders, email signup forms, a store and more and all this can be done just by adding the right plugins. I just recently found a newsletter plugin that mirrors any page on my blog and I can make a newsletter template from it.
I hope this will help you get started with a WordPress Blog which is the best format on the net. I have had mine for nearly 3 years and am discovering new things about its power almost every day. The plug ins that are created by tech savvy people are mostly free and always seem to have a good support system to back them for any questions about the Plugin.
When I first started to blog I had to learn how to do all the set up myself because there was no service out there to do it for you and it literally took me hundreds if not thousands of hours of research to learn everything that is needed but with this service all of this is done for you and basically you can just jump right in without having to know the technical stuff. But let me leave you with this, once you start to discover the power of this you will want to learn more or you can
Ask An Artist
about
2 thoughts on “Ask An Artist Setting Up A Blog”
Needed, timely information very well explained and referenced. You assist all who read this Art and I for one appreciate it.
AND – I am lovin this new layout and format. Judy
Thanks Judy I have been trying to let people know especially artists that using a blog is one of the most effective ways of getting their work displayed. I have also focused on local businesses and informing them the importance of this as well. I would say 50% of my work is now coming from my blog because I have integrated it with several marketing techniques that I have learned. Even though the last three years has been a time of economic hardship it has also been a time of learning for which I am thankful for. It’s times like these that changes must be made and once realizing this, the quest for survival kicks in which leads to finding the answers to questions such as “Ok, so what do we do about it?”. Accepting the negative is the first step to turning it into a positive. Not accepting the negative is a state of denial which will curtail any positive thoughts or actions because of that 900 lb. gorilla on your back who’s name is S.I.D., (Self Inflicted Doubt)