My First (Paid) Wordpress Site!

Hey, everyone.

I did it!  I got my first Wordpress site up.  Well, not technically my first Wordpress site; I had a blog on Wordpress.com before, but this is my first one on Wordpress.org.  The difference is that Wordpress.com is free and it's a good way to start blogging.  People told me Blogger is easier for beginners, which is why I migrated over here, but apparently you have less control over your blog and its content.  A lot of people have said they've had their Blogger blogs deleted with little or no warning and while it's easy to monetize with Google Adsense, you can't choose what affiliate links you want on your site.  Same thing with Wordpress.com blogs; you can monetize them with Adsense, but you can't choose what products or services you're advertising.  With Wordpress.org sites, you download the Wordpress software - which is free - but you have to buy a domain and hosting for it.  A domain, you'll recall, is the address of your site; the part that ends with .com or .org or whatever that you enter at the top of your browser.  Hosting is basically your online real estate.  Your domain is like your house and buying hosting is like buying land to put your house on.  You're buying digital memery space on a server somewhere so you can set up shop.  

Getting the new site set up SEEMED really confusing and frustrating and hard until I found out what the problem was and then it was as easy as I'd heard.  I'd read that setting up a new site had become really easy for us common folk but I ran into a problem and didn't know what to do and went crying to the people on Warrior Forum who helped me figure out what the problem was and from there it was pretty easy to get set up.  I got my domain from Go-Daddy, which is a popular and oft-recommended place to go.  It turned out to be more expensive than I thought it'd be just 'cause I ended up buying some bells & whistles they recommended for things like site security and convenience.  I got the hosting from BlueHost, which is, again, a popular and oft recommended place to go.  The problem came when I tried to connect the domain to the host.  There's something called "nameservers" and you have to make sure your nameservers are directed to your host site and not the site where you bought the domain.  My problem was that my nameservers were still directed at Go-Daddy.  Once I changed um and directed um to BlueHost, my site came online.  I already had the Wordpress software downloaded and installed.  Wordpress is basically a site-building program, as I understand it.  I also found a theme for my site.  There's a lot of Wordpress themes out there.  I uploaded my theme and BOOM! I had my site.

You'll notice I'm not telling you the name of my site or what it's about.  That's because I just got it up and running today and I need to work on the content.  I have some content in mind, but a lot of it can't be made as long as I'm here in Korea so I need to work on some starter content to get me going until I CAN make the kind of content I want.  I'll let you know how that goes and I'll let you know how it goes when I start trying to put some affiliate links on the site.  

Wish me luck.

Off-page SEO From Memory

Hey, all.  Time to test my knowledge of off-page SEO by writing as much as I know about it without looking at my notes (which will be easy to resist since I LOST MY F@$&ING IPOD THIS WEEKEND!).  Here goes:

Again, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization; it's the things you do to show search engines that your site is authoritative and relevant to someone who searches for your kind of site.  There's On-page SEO and Off-page SEO.  On-page SEO is things you do ON your site to show the search engines that your site is relevant.  It mostly involves finding your key words/key-word phrases and using them to tweak your HTML code (the computer language all websites are based on.

Off-page SEO is what you do to show that your site is authoritative; that you know what your talking about and other people look to you for answers.  You do this mostly by creating back-links.  A back-link is when another website posts a link that leads people to YOUR website.  If someone else links to your site, it probably means they think you know what you're talking about.  A back-link is like a vote in favor of your site.  The more back-links you get, the more popular and therefore authoritative you appear to be.  Now, the QUALITY of your back-links actually counts MORE than the quantity.  As I've said before, one back-link from a highly respected site within your niche is worth 100 back-links from a bunch of sites no one's ever heard of.  

The best way I know of to create back-links is with a link-wheel.  I heard about this from Pat Flynn on his website.  Off the top of my head, it goes something like this:  The technique is double-layered, which is what I like about it.  He uses Web 2.0 sites like Squidoo.  Those are the first layer.  He writes an article and then uses special software to spin it into several different versions of the same article.  He then submits those articles to different websites in the second layer and those sites link to the Web 2.0 sites in the first layer which then links back to him.  I can't remember it too well off the top of my head.

Other ways to create back-links include leaving meaningful comments on other people's blogs, writing and submitting articles to directories, and guest-blogging on someone else's site.

That's all I've got for now.  Guess I need to study this part more.  Sorry; I've just lost a lot of motivation since I lost my iPod with all my notes and ideas and stuff on it.  Now's not the time to replace it, either, 'cause I'm moving back home to the states soon.  I'm better off waiting until I get home.

Anyway, maybe I'll come back and expand on this later if I remember more stuff. Wish me luck, guys.

Blogger Networking Tip

Here's a little something I've decided I should do to help myself network with other bloggers and get my name out there and get noticed.  I've been listening to a lot of internet marketing podcasts and reading a lot of articles to learn how to do all this stuff and it's been suggested that networking with other bloggers is a good way to get started in this business.  I was listening to Pat Flynn's podcast - I think he was interviewing the guy from thinktraffic.com - and they were talking about how, when you're just starting out, it's going to take some time for the internet to notice you.  You can't expect to get great search results and start making money for at least six months after you launch your website unless you really know what you're doing and even then, it takes a while to get going.  They suggested that networking with other bloggers is something you can start doing right away to help get your name out there and build some cred and learn a few things.  

Here's my tip; here's what I've decided to start doing and I think you should do it, too:  Whenever you learn something from an article or a podcast or any time you find some valuable information anywhere, leave a comment about it.  At the very least, thank the person who gave you the valuable information you've learned.  If you learn something from an article, leave a comment.  Liked the podcast you just listened to?  Give the podcaster a good review.  Hopefully, you'll be able to link your name to your blog or website so if anyone clicks on your name (like maybe the author of the article or the podcaster) they'll be taken to your blog/site and maybe they'll mention you in one of their posts/podcasts or maybe they'll at least leave a comment on your blog, which will create a nice back-link.

That's it.  If you learn something from an article or podcast or whatever, leave a comment/review.  At the very least, thank the guy/woman.  I just thought of this recently, so I haven't put it into practice, but I really think it's a good idea to help with networking.

On-page SEO From Memory

Alright, folks; I'm back from my vacation in Amsterdam.  Let's see how much I can remember about SEO without looking at my notes after spending a week and a half in a Purple Haze.  I'm gonna split this into two articles.  The first will deal with on-page SEO and I'll do off-page SEO later.  Here goes.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is divided into two types; on-page and off-page SEO.  On-page SEO is what you do on your website to let the search engine crawlers know that your site is relevant to a given search.  It mostly involves figuring out your key words and tweaking the HTML code.  There're lots of tools available for finding your key words.  The only one I've used so far (because it's free) is Google's Adsense Keyword Tool.  You start with a broad search of one key word you know you're interested in and narrow it down by adding other words to get a key-word phrase.  With the broad search, if you type in, for example, car parts, you'll get results for "car" and "parts" with any number of words before, after, and between them.  If you actually put both words in quotes, you'll get results for "car parts" together, but you'll still get results with other words before and after them, but not between them.  If you put (car parts) in brackets, you will only get results for those two words together; you will not get any results with other words before, after, or between them.  (I should probably check out other free keyword tools.  One of my goals is to see if I can MAKE money without spending a single penny.  I'm gonna have a project or two that I WILL spend money on, but I want to have one project that I've spent absolutely no money on.)  

Once you've got you key words and/or key-word phrases, you need to start putting them in the right places.  You should use at least one or two key words in your domain name, URLs, H tags, and image alt tags.  Your domain name is the address of your home page; the part that ends with .com or .net or .org.  Your URLs are the addresses of each page within your website.  They're your domain name plus the additional stuff that directs a visitor to a particular page.  H tags are Header Tags.  There's H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6.  The lower the number, the more important they are.  There's also a Title Tag, which is very important.  The title tag is the description of your website that appears below the link to your site when it pops up in the search results.  Off the top of my head, I can't remember if the title tag and the H1 tag are the same thing, but I don't think they are.  I believe the H1 tag is the main heading for your site.  I remember that the H1 tag is like the title of an article or an essay and the lower H tags are like the paragraph headings within the article.  The image alt tags are a description of any images you use on your site.  Apparently, it's a good idea to insert some of your key words into those alt descriptions in the HTML.

Another thing you can do is link your articles to each other.  A visitor shouldn't have to click more than three or maybe four links to get from any one page on your site to any other page on your site.

Alright, that's about all I can remember off the top of my head.  It seems like there should be more, but I guess I'll find out after I publish this and then go back and look at my previous articles on the subject.  I'm sure there'll be many "D'oh!"s and much forehead slapping.  Stay tuned.  Today you get a two-for-one deal.  I'm about to offer a tip on how to network and get your name out there.  Catch ya later.

My Nefarious Plans: A Status Report

Hey, all.

I know last time I said I was gonna try to recite as much of what I know from memory as possible, and I'll get to that, but I decided I wanna do something else.  I'd like to talk about my game-plan because it's changed recently. 

First of all, I don't know if I mentioned this, but I'm not writing the ebook I had planned.  I found out someone else already wrote a book that covered my topic pretty well.  I don't think I have enough of a different angle on it to make it worth writing a book of my own.

The main thing I wanna talk about, though, is that I've decided to jump right into an affiliate/niche site.  I'm not sure I know what the difference is between affiliate marketing and niche marketing, mainly because I'm not sure I know what niche marketing is.  I know what a niche is and I understand the idea of being an affilaite selling products, information, and services related to a given niche, but it seems like there's more to niche marketing than that.  Affiliate marketing, just to review, is when you have a site with links that sell, again, products, information, or services.  If somebody clicks on those links and buys whatever you're promoting, you get a commission on the sale.  Sometimes you can get a little money just for having them click on the ad whether they buy anything or not.

Anyway, I've got an idea or two for an affiliate site I wanna run and I've decided to just dive right in and get it going.  I had previously planned to learn as much as I can about this whole marketing business before starting anything, but I recently remembered that a great way to learn is to learn by doing.  If I start a site, I'll get hands-on practice at doing the things I need to do and making and fixing the mistakes involved.  Making mistakes is an indispensable part of learning and I can't know what challenges come with running an affiliate site if I don't try it, so I'm gonna do that.

Part of the problem is that the site I have in mind is going to be image and video-based, but these are images and videos I can't make while I'm in Korea.  I'm going to have to wait until I move home to start doing that.  If I'm going to get the site up and running before I leave - which won't be for another two months - I need to figure out some other content to put up.  I'm a bit concerned about using what I consider to be a good idea as my guinea pig, but I figure even if the site isn't great at first, I can fix it up as I go along. 

I've also got some ideas for apps and apparently you can hire other people to make apps FOR you, but it's a bit pricey. 

I've actually got a swimsuit design idea, but I don't know where to have that made.  I need to find someone who can make me a prototype and then I need to find someone to buy the design or maybe mass-produce it for me.  I like the former idea better, but I don't know how much I'll get for the design.  I'm pretty sure most companies will offer me less than it's worth.  I hope I can get royalties on each sale.  I've got lots of T-shirt design ideas, but I don't know who pays the best for those.  I've actually got some designs for floor tiles and/or wallpaper, but again, I don't know who to sell my ideas to.  Maybe I'll go on warrior forum and ask around.

Anyway, that's what I'm gonna start doing after I get back from my vacation.  Wish me luck.

Technorati Verification

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Off-Page SEO

Hi, folks.

Today, I'll tell you what I know about off-page SEO.  Once again SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  Off-page SEO refers to things you do outside of your website/blog to get search engines to notice you and climb their ranks.

Off-page SEO seems to be primarily abut building back-links.  A back-link, again, is when another website posts a link to YOUR website, as opposed to you posting a link to someone else.  Every back-link you create is like a vote for your site.  The more you have, the more popular and authoritative you look.  Now, it should also be mentioned that the QUALITY of your back-links is even more important than the QUANTITY.  One back-link from a highly-respected, authoritative site is worth more than a hundred back links from a bunch of sites no one's ever heard of.

I did a Google search for the "Best Ways to create back-links" (or something to that effect).  I then looked at each result on the first page and came up with the following Top Seven Ways to generate back-links:

1.)  Blog Commenting - This is where you go to someone else's blog and comment on their stuff.  It needs to be a meaningful comment, though; don't just say something for the sake of saying something and creating a back-link.  The problem with this idea, as you might imagine, is that's HORRIBLY inefficient.  To get any movement on the search engine rankings, you need a LOT of back-links (unless you can swing a few good quality back-links) which means you have to find a LOT of blogs you like and make a LOT of comments on them which is probably as tedious and time-consuming as it sounds.

2.)  Article Submission - You write an article and submit it to an article directory or an internet magazine.  There's plently of both out there.  Some of the top directories are EzineArticles, Article Dashboard, GoArticles, Article Base, and Buzzle.

3.)  Forum Posting - You post questions and comments on forums related to your kind of content.

4.)  Directory Submission - There's a ton of website directories out there.  You should probably submit your site address to at least the top 10 or 20.  Technorati is probably the biggest one.  There's also Yahoo!, DMOZ.org, zeal.com, directoryworld.net, and Clickey.

5.)  Social Bookmarking Sites - These are sites where you can "Like" a website.  Stumble is one.  There's also Digg and Reddit. 

6.)  Social Networking - I think this means Facebook and Twitter and the like.  You can have a facebook page devoted to your site or your blog and that'll drive some traffic your way along with some back-links if people really like your stuff.

7.)  Guest Posts - This is where you write an article for someone else's blog.

Really, though, it sounds to me like the best way to generate back-links is through a hybrid of methods called a Link Wheel.  There're lots of different ways to construct a link wheel, but the one that sounds best to me - the one that I intend to use - came from Pat Flynn's site SmartPassiveIncome.com, which he says came from a popular internet marketing forum called Warrior Forum.  I like this strategy because it's multi-layered.  It's really quite brilliant.  I'll let you follow the link to Pat's site and watch the video of him explaining it rather than me explaining it all right here.  That'd take a whole other post by itself.

So, that's off-page SEO, for you.  Again, it's all about the back-links.  Next time, I think I'll try reposting as much information as I can FROM MEMORY.  When I've been making these posts, I've been looking at my notes.  I wanna see how much of this shit I can rattle off without my notes.

Wish me luck.