How to Build a Successful WordPress Blog – Installing a new WordPress Blog with HostGator – Lesson 2
Access your hostgator Control Panel for installing your wordpress blog
Installing your new wordpress blog is easy with the hostgator Quickinstall software.
When you get your hosting account all set up, you'll get an email from HostGator with your login information and links to access their billing system and Control Panel for installing your new website. Once you log in, you'll see the link to the wordpress Quickinstall software right on the front page. If you don't see that link for installing your WordPress blog, page down to "Software/Services" and click on the "QuickInstall" link. In that menu find "Blog Software" and click on the "WordPress" link for installing your WordPress blog. Once there, click on the "Continue" button to continue installing.
installing a HostGator WordPress Blog
Enter your wordpress blog information: Installing your blog on HostGator
The first form field under your blogs' address is the most important for installing your WordPress blog on HostGator. If you're using WordPress with a brand new website as your main (root) directory, you can leave this empty. If you are adding WordPress to an existing website be sure to enter a directory name here or you could possibly overwrite your entire website. Use something like blog, my-blog, or possibly a main keyword associated with your website. Use all lower case and hyphens if you want to use multiple words. Finish the form with a valid email address which you will use to receive emails from HostGator, moderate your forum and collect your initial login information. Enter your name and your blogs' name, click the "Install Now" button and in a matter of seconds you're ready to blog!
Enter your blog information
Once your new WordPress blog is installed on HostGator, you should receive an email with the link to your new blog and an "admin" login password to access your new blogs' dashboard administration panel. Click the link from the email to access your new blog. At the bottom of the right hand column on your new blog, you'll see a "Meta" menu. Click the "Login" link and enter the Username "admin". Enter your new password from the email and you now have access to the HostGator dashboard of your new blog.
The login link for your new WordPress blog.
Enter "admin" as username and password to access your wordpress dashboard.
Before publishing your first post, read the next article on permalinks so your URL's will be formatted correctly.
How to Build a Successful WordPress Blog – WordPress Blog Tutorial – Lesson 1 – domain name – hosting.
Picking a domain name and hosting your wordpress Blog:
Well here it is, my first post of this hopefully successful WordPress blog. This is going to be a long journey, but I hope very fruitful for those of you that read this.
If you're reading this post, then I've had some success hosting my wordpress blog. What I hope to accomplish is that everyone searching to find a successful way to pick a domain name and get their WordPress blog seen on the Internet reads this. I hope to eventually fill it with every step I've taken from choosing a domain name, hosting and getting your eyes on this page. I'm not sure what structure it will take, but I plan on showing screenshots and a click by click explanation of how this WordPress blog was created. From choosing a domain name, hosting, managing the WordPress Dashboard, adding WordPress Plugins, page design, creating categories, linking and promotion, search engine optimization; I hope to cover everything it takes to make a successful WordPress blog.
At the moment this is a brand new WordPress blog, right out of the package without a single plugin added. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. There's a couple steps involved in hosting that I will cover first.
This wordpress blog only hours old.
Successful WordPress blog Hosting: Choosing a Domain name
The first thing you'll want to do is choose your website domain name. It's generally thought that it's best to have some of the keywords embedded in your URL (your web address - domain name). There are many good discussions around the net and I'll add some links later to lead you to these. I've gathered that keywords separated by hyphens is the most effective. So, if your website is about dog grooming, while you might find that dog-grooming.com is taken, maybe marys-dog-grooming.com might be available for hosting. You can find a domain name checker at the HostGator link below at the bottom of the page under "Our Services" to see if your domain name is available for hosting. As you'll see from the next paragraph, it's better to secure your domain name, BEFORE you choose a host.
There are many good hosts out there. I just happened to use HostGator from good reviews I've gotten around the net. Since I'm planning on developing this WordPress blog and being around for a while, I purchased the two year hatchling hosting plan at $4.76/month. So add the $15/year for the domain name registration and that works out to about $75/year. I can always change or adjust that plan in the future if my needs change.
Making a mistake with hosting my WordPress blog. (Register your Domain Name first.)
I may have made a mistake when I signed up to install my WordPress blog. I bought the hosting plan before I registered the domain name, not realizing that the hosting plan did not include domain name registration. I immediately received a confirmation email that gave me the login info. I was able to log into my new account and navigate around the cPanel platform, but when I went to the domain name (website URL) on the net, it wouldn't display. No biggie as I though it would just take a while to get into the system. HostGator has an auto-install for hosting WordPress, so while I waited for the website domain name to appear I clicked the button and whaalaaa.....instant WordPress blog!
O00ps....but now there's an email from HostGator saying I have to call them to verify my account. No prob, I give them a call and give my info to a cheerful fellow and all's well. Well......not exactly. He informs me that the domain registration is not included with the hosting and I have to register the domain yet. So back over to the domain check and hmmmm.....it's taken now.
So I try the website URL, and my WordPress blog is online. Interesting. I Lookup the whois status of my new URL and it’s registered to ME and it say’s it’s locked for one year to prevent theft or hijacking of my WordPress blog?
Back on the phone to HostGator. NOW I find out that if your domain name is not registered when you sign up for a hosting plan, they automatically register your new domain for a year when you start a new hosting plan. So now everything’s fine, except I wanted the domain registered for two years for my WordPress blog. The phone representative started a trouble ticket to have my domain extended to two years and all is right with the world hosting my new WordPress blog. At least I know my WordPress blog is good for a year. Up until now the HostGator hosting reps have been professional and cheerful throughout this process with their online live chat support and phone. I’ll update you on the outcome of the domain name extension and how the hosting of my WorPress blog goes.
Well.....that wasn't bad. My domain is registered and I'm up and running with a functional wordpress blog for two years.
Let's see what happens on day 2 of hosting my WordPress blog.
As with all my posts, I look forward to your comments. Feel free to add links with useful information and I'm always happy to see your links to this site.
How to Build a Successful WordPress Blog – Your first WordPress post – Lesson 4
Congratulations! You're ready for your first WordPress Blog post!
If you've read the previous post about setting your permalinks, you're ready to blog. The first thing you'll want to do is log into your wordpress blog and select a "New Post". There's several ways to access that, so I'll let you navigate around your dashboard and find it on your own.
Entering your WordPress Blog post title:
You'll see the narrow text-box across the top to enter your posts' title. In my case for this WordPress Blog it's "Your first WordPress post". As you click into the main text area, you'll see that the "Permalink" address is automatically set for you to the title you've entered separated by hyphens. In the case of this title it was fine and I left it alone, but if you've got too many unimportant words, you can click the "Edit" button next to the Permalink address and edit out the unneeded words. Click "OK", once you've made your changes. This is a good habit to get in, as the URL is part of the formula to get you seen on the Internet.
Adding a WordPress Blog Category
You will have an idea of several themes or categories that will be re-occurring throughout your WordPress blog. Let's use our "Dog Grooming" example again. Here are some general themes you may be writing about:
- Washing
- Grooming Equipment
- Products
- Feeding
- Exercise
I know nothing about Dog Grooming but let's use these as examples. To help your users navigate, we'll use these themes to make some WordPress categories. In the right menu of your post editing page (see image below), you'll see the "+Add New Category" link. Click on it and add each category you may be writing about. If it's a broad based category you can add sub-categories under the parent. Once you've added your categories check the box that your current post fits in. You can see by my screenshot I only have 2 categories at the time of this writing. You can add new categories as needed. The main thing is to get familiar with how everything works and get started.
Saving your work:
You can save your WordPress Blog post as a draft and come back later, or "Publish" it immediately if it's ready to go. If your blog is young with low traffic you can publish immediately, but as the traffic grows you may want to keep it as a draft until you've got it ready for everyone to see. There's also a possibility that it could get indexed in a search engine unfinished if published immediately with a popular WordPress blog.
Writing your first WordPress post.
I'll go into more detail with a video on posting and add it to this WordPress blog post.
How to Build a Successful WordPress Blog – Setting up your permalinks structure for your first post – permalink structure – Lesson 3
So you're ready for your first WordPress post? (Permalink Structure)
Not quite yet. Your ultimate goal will be to get your website listed in all the search engines so people can find you, but it's better to set your permalinks structure to be more search engine friendly before you get started. To setup your permalink structure, page down to the bottom of your dashboard, open the "Settings" menu and click on the "Permalinks" structure link. There's much discussion around the net on the best way to format your links. This is what i settled on:
Copy and paste this into the permalinks structure "Custom Structure" window:
/%postname%/%post_id%/
This will change the poorly constructed WordPress default permalink structure system into a more search engine friendly format. You can also refine it even more when you actually make a post which I'll show you in the next article. You can also type a couple of keywords related to your website into the "Category base" and "Tag base" fields to change this permalink structure, but leaving them blank is also OK. The format I used above mixes a combination of keywords and numbers, which from all I've gathered is the best way to set up your permalink URL's.
- Setting your permalinks structure and text box size.
(After your permalink structure)
Increase the size of your post box:
After setting up your permalinks, another good thing to do before you make your first post is to enlarge your editing text box a little. In the same "Settings" menu you were just in, select the "Writing" link. Set the "Size of the post box" to 40 lines. This gives you a little more room to work with when you're creating a post.
As with all my posts I look forward to your questions and discussion.
Band WordPress Themes – Promote Your Band Using WordPress
The Band wordpress Theme Website developed for bands and musicians.
WordPress is an excellent choice for bands and musicians, and The band wordpress Theme makes it easy to market bands an musicians.
WordPress is simple for people inexperienced in programming or website design skills. The simple dashboard in makes one-click editing easy for beginners. Predefined templates, designed by programmers and users makes it easy to get the look and information you need to attract customers and search engines alike. There's tons of free templates to choose from.
Pre-made templates, called themes, have the look needed for your desired outcome. Just enter your text and publish. Drag and drop a widget into your sidebar for audio, video, images or other information you want to share with your fans. Allow your fans to interact with comments or subscribe to your WordPress blog to stay informed of your latest gigs or music releases.
Quality themes give you the option to change colors, height, text, images and get just the look you need.
WordPress Band theme comes with everything a band might need.
Change your layout with custom audio, social networking, or custom newsletter. Don't settle for standard WordPress themes when you can use this specially designed theme built just for bands.
A goodWordPress theme has MUCH better visibility than MySpace for your band.
For more information on how to promote yourself using Band WordPress Themes visit the website below:
Visit the Author's Website: Band WP Themes
This write-up comes from articlesbase.com
Categories
We doFollow Comments
- Tim on How to Build a Successful WordPress Blog – WordPress Blog Tutorial – Lesson 1 – domain name – hosting.
Hosting by:
Enter promo code "25offWordPressBlog"
