This is Part 3 of the How to Start a Blog Series. If you missed the first two parts you can find them here: Part 1 and Part 2.

In the last post we started to navigate in our WordPress Dashboard and we installed a new theme on our blog. Now we are ready to start adding some content.

7. Adding Widgets
Adding Widgets is really important. Widgets are what you find in the Sidebar of your Blog. Some widgets add functionality for navigating through your blog. Some widgets help to highlight people who are visiting your blog or leaving comments. Spend some time looking through the widgets that are available with your theme.

You will find the Widgets in the Appearance section of the menu in your Dashboard.

I have recorded two short videos to show you how to find and add the widgets. In these videos you will also see how to add two important widgets that will not come with your theme. They are the Google Friend Connect Widget and the Twitter Counter Widget. I HIGHLY recommend that you add these widgets to your site.

Adding Widgets Part 1

Adding Widgets Part 2

Some examples of widgets that help with navigation:
1. Recent Posts
2. Recent Comments
3. Categories
4. Pages
5. Tag Cloud

Some examples of widgets that help with highlighting visitors
1. Google Friend Connect
2. Twitter Counter
3. Networked Blogs

8. Adding Plugins Plugins are what really set the WordPress.ORG blog apart from the free blog sites. There are so many POWERFUL plugins available to us and lucky for you they are now extremely easy to add to your blog.

Watch the videos below to see how to Add plugins to your blog and how to get the Akismet Plugin set up to filter Spam comments.
Plugins Part 1

Plugins Part 2

This video will walk you through the simple process of Adding a new Plugin and will also show you one of my favorite plugins Commentluv.

I will talk more about plugins in the next post and give you a list of the Plugins that I recommend.

9. Creating Posts
Even though we have already covered a lot in this post, there is still one more thing that I want to talk about. That is creating Posts. It is very important that you start creating posts as soon as possible. Even if you aren’t ready for anyone to see your blog yet, you should start creating posts.

Chances are that no one will find your blog until you start doing some key things to start generating traffic anyway (we will talk about those things in another post). So, don’t wait to put some content on your blog. You really want to have 5 – 7 posts already on your blog before you start working on driving traffic to your site.

Adding a New Post Part 1

Adding a New Post Part 2

At this point, you are well on your way! We will continue to talk about getting you blog ready to share with the world in the next post. Look for How to Start a Blog (Part 4) soon!

If you have any questions or feel like you just want to talk to someone send me an email on the Let’s Talk Page.

This is Part 2 of the How to Start a Blog series.  If you missed Part 1 click here.  We left off on Part 1 with setting up a Hosting account.

3.  Changing your Nameservers
After you set up your hosting account you will need to change the Nameservers on your domain.  You will want to find the Domain Manager after you log in to the account you set up where you purchased your domain.  (If you purchased your domain from the same company that you purchased your hosting from you won’t need to do this.)

So where do you find your Nameservers?  You should have received an email from your hosting company that gives you your nameservers.  If you can’t find that email, they should also be listed in your Cpanel.

This sounds much more complicated than it is, but if you are feeling overwhelmed, call your hosting company and they will be able to help you.

4.  Installing WordPress
The next step is Installing WordPress.ORG to your website.  I believe that most of the Hosting Companies have done a lot to simplify the process of installing WordPress.  Many even have a one click install option.

I have come across some blogs where people from a more technical background recommend that you don’t use these easy installers, but I am not one of the techie bloggers.  When I started my blog I was told to use the Fantastico program in the Cpanel of my HostGator account, and that is what I did.

I won’t pretend to understand the difference, but if you are feeling brave and would like to try the more advanced method of installing WordPress my friend Kimberly Castleberry has some video tutorials that may help you.  Click here for that video.

To install WordPress the easy way you want to log in to your Cpanel (Control Panel).  To do this go to www.(yourdomain).com/cpanel.

Scroll down in your Cpanel until you find the Software/Services section and double click on Fantastico De Luxe.

You will see the section for Blog along the left.  You want to select the WordPress option.  Then you will see an option on the right for New Installation.  You will then need to set up your WordPress Account including your Username and Password.

Make note of  the username and password that you create.  You will need them to log in to the Dashboard of your new Blog.  This is something that you will be using a lot for as long as you continue to work on you blog.

5.   Using your WordPress Dashboard
The next thing you want to do is log in to your WordPress Dashboard.  To get to your Dashboard you want to go to www.(yourdomain).com/wp-admin.  I have recorded a short video to show you how to Navigate through your dashboard.

6. Changing the Theme on your Blog
The theme that you start with is pretty plain and boring.  You definitely want to change it to make your blog more unique and eye catching.  Changing themes is really simple.  Don’t stress to much about finding the PERFECT theme.  You can always change it later.  You just want to find something that you like to get you started while you begin to add content and build up your following.

Here is another short video to show you where to find themes and how to change them.

We will talk about adding Posts and Customizing your blog with Widgets and Plugins in the next post. In the mean time here is another post that will help you to see the big picture of how to be successful with blogging and some action tips that you can start taking now even before you have your blog completely set up.

If you are for ready for more then go to How to Start a Blog (Part 3)!

If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would have a blog, I never would have believed you. I never would have imagined that my life would take this direction and I would be comfortable sharing my life publicly on the internet like this. I had heard about people who had made tons of money because of blogging, but they were high school and college kids. I was too old (in my late 20’s) to know how to start a blog. So when I got started with Internet Marketing, I put off starting a blog much longer than I should have. Hopefully you won’t make the same mistake that I did.

Why is it important to have a blog?

Creating a blog is the easiest way to share your knowledge, skills, and personality so that you can connect with, and begin establishing a relationship with, other people who have similar goals and interests.

There are a few reasons why you might want to start a blog.
1. You are already involved with a network marketing business and you want to maximize your time, energy, and money
2. You are interested in starting a network marketing or home-based business and you want to get started using the latest marketing techniques to maximize your time, energy, and money.
3. You are interested in affiliate marketing, which means getting paid to help drive traffic to other people’s websites or products.
4. You want to connect with other people with common interests/hobbies

Now I’m not talking about the kind of blog where you write about what you had for breakfast and how you feel about the contestants on American Idol. Not that there is anything wrong with those blogs, but that is not what you want to do to brand yourself for Online Marketing and Social Media.

So what do you need to start a blog?

Let me start by telling you that I highly recommend that you use a WordPress.ORG blog. If you are serious about using your blog to create an internet presence then this is the best type of blog. WordPress.ORG is a self-hosted blog. There is also a WordPress.COM blog that is free to set up. With WordPress.COM or Blogger.com (another free blogging service) you are hosting your blog (and all of your content) on their server. If they decide they don’t like your content, they can remove it.

Another advantage to a self-hosted blog is that you get to use your own domain and you can possible get paid for the traffic that you get on your blog. If you use a WordPress.COM blog your domain would be www.yourblog.wordpress.com and WordPress.COM will get all of the credit for the traffic you get on your blog. So if you are hoping to monetize your blog, you want to get a WordPress.ORG blog.

1. A domain
The first thing that you want to do is pick your domain name. This is your website, for example the domain name for this blog is www.melissawrightjourney.com. I usually use GoDaddy.com for purchasing domains. There are many places that you can purchase domains from, and it doesn’t really matter where you get it, so use any company you are familiar with.

If you are creating a blog for internet marketing you want to get a domain name that incorporates your name. You are branding YOU not your business or product. If you are creating a blog just to connect with people that share your interests or hobbies, it is ok to use a domain that is related to your topic, but if you are working to establish yourself in your industry/business you want this domain be centered on your name.

The best case is if you can just get yourname.com. If you have a common name like I do, here are some suggestions for domain name…

meetmelissawright
createwithmelissawright
melissawrightblog
melissawrightonline
learnwithmelissawright

Be creative, but don’t stress too much.

Stay away from the .net, .biz, and other extensions. You will lose leads to the .com websites if they have already been taken.

2. A Hosting Account
The next step is to set up a hosting account.

When you set up your hosting account, you are basically renting space on someone’s server to store your website and all of your content. Setting up your hosting account does start to get a little more technical, and I am not going to get too much into the technical details in this post. One good thing is that most hosting companies have really great support if you are feeling overwhelmed.

For hosting I use HostGator, but just like purchasing domains, there are a lot of great options out there. If you go to www.wordpress.org they recommend several hosting companies. Do some research and pick the company that you feel most comfortable with.

If you have any questions about Host Gator, I will do my best to answer them.

I will continue the How to Start a Blog series, so look for more soon. I plan to share everything I have been learning about how to get start a blog and how to get a huge following using Social Media tools. If you have any questions about what I have covered so far let me know.

If you have your Domain and your Hosting Account set up.  Go to How to Start a Blog (Part 2).

Welcome to our website!  Jodi and I are very excited about starting this website and sharing all of the great knowledge that we have gained over the last 6 months with all of you.

It wasn’t that long ago that we were in the exact same position as you.

Melissa Wright (left) and Jodi Lee (right)

We knew that we wanted to learn about Social Media and Branding, but we felt lost and overwhelmed.  There are a lot of people talking about this right now, but so many of them forget what it is like to be that brand new person who feels like they are exploring a foreign country where they don’t speak the native language.

We are here to help.

We are documenting each step of setting up this blog so you can see exactly what we do and how we do it.  It will truly be like you are looking over our shoulder.  We are also working on getting a Podcast channel set up where we will be sharing videos and interviews with all of you.  We have a lot of plans and we can’t wait to share them with all of you.

While we are working on this site you can learn more about us on our individual blogs.

http://meetjodilee.com

http://melissawrightjourney.com

Make sure that you sign up for our Member List and keep checking back in with us!

Melissa and Jodi