Creating your first blog!

Hi, My name is Robert Renfro and I run Distinct design. I have been doing online marketing for a few years now and am going to be sharing my ideas, experiences and sometimes frustrations. So read along, I hope you learn something and can put this article to use!

First what does blog stand for? Blog means web-log : blog. So your hearing how exciting it is and important to have a blog? Well I was in your same shoes not to long ago and have become a true believer of blogging. Let me give you a little bit of my background. I specialize in Search engine Optimization and website design. Also I do a lot of print media projects for Kansas City Kansas Community College and have worked for companies like Cerner Corporation on the online marketing team as a web designer. I have also worked for companies as an e-commerce developer where I worked on the e-commerce site and also built websites for within the company.

So, Why did I not get into blogging then? Well honestly I just didnt see the importance to do it for myself. While I constantly blogged for the companies I worked for, just never did my own. So I am here to let you on in a few insider tips and tricks to creating a successful blog, the corporate way and the professional way.

This tutorial will give you all the basics to creating a blog and some advanced techniques. If you would like to have myself do the blog for you visit my site and contact me.

Chapter 1 : Blog Introduction

Chapter 2 : Setting up your Blog

Chapter 3 : Customizing your Blog

Chapter 4 : Blog SEO

Chapter 5 : Before you publish

Chapter 6 : Spread the word

Chapter 7 : Navigating the blog

Chapter 8 : Conclusion

Chapter 1: Blog Introduction

1.1 – Find out what blog is best for you! There are many different types of blogs. Wordpress is an excellent blog yet it requires a little bit of knowledge when it comes to editing. Blogger which is produced by google is another great blog and requires very little knowledge to edit themes or your blog. I would recemmend whichever you feel comfortable with and even try both of them, if one does not work as well for you, drop it and stick with the one that you are comfortable with.

1.2 – A great blog has a nice but clean and easy to read design. What is a blog for? a blog is for a user to post topics that he feels led to share. What if your readers have a heard time reading the post, this is why a nice easy clean design is a must for a new blog.

1.3 – Have an idea of what the blog is about. Are you going to be doing “how-tos” for people or is your blog just something to post ideas you have? Maybe your blog is a place for you to post information about whats going on in your family so that your entire family can view and make posts.

1.4 – Find a good theme that fits you and what you are trying to accomplish. There are flash themes which require a little bit of flash knowledge and then some themes that you should be able to just “plug and play”. That means, your theme will give you the look and feel you want and thats all you have to do. I am a strong believer in creating a customized theme. I can help you with this or you can find many people to help you with this. Usually a custom theme will cost $80-$100.

Chapter 2: Setting up your Blog

2.0 I am going to give instructions for Wordpress and Blogger since these are the two most used blogs, and I personally feel they are the best.

WordPress :

2.1 visit wordpress – click “register a blog”. Fill out all the information.

You will have to register an account then login. From here, your blog is register (wow that was hard)

First thing. Setup your theme : go to Appearance, themes, Add new Themes.

Your theme will need to be saved in a.zip file and uploaded to the blog. It will install it, Go to themes

and click activate on the theme you uploaded. Your done. the Blog is setup.

Blogger:

2.2 visit blogger – you will need a google account. Once you have an account simply hit “creat a blog”

Add a title, choose an address (think about optimized titles)

Choose a theme to start with. Now start blogging. Once again, not very hard. This is literally all you have to do to setup a blog. Its amazing that not everyone is doing this.

Chapter 3: Customizing your blog

3.0 I am going to give instructions for Wordpress Only, Blogger is pretty straight forward and much the same.

From chapter 1 you should have found a blog theme that is setup for the wordpress or blogger. Much of these can be found for free (I charge $89 for a very custom theme).

3.1 Every Wordpress page is built with php, xml and CSS. You do not need to change any of the php or xml!! If you do not know anything about php or xml do not touch it!! your blog will not work if you do. Although changing CSS is easy and ok! I would say though to watch some youtube videos on CSS if you do not know much about it.

3.2 In Wordpress under Appearance, click on Editor. You will have to find the style.css file. This is where you are going to be able to do some changing. If you want to change colors just find the tag that controls the color you are interested in changing and change old color (#242123) to your new one (#ffffff). Again, a good idea is to have a strong grasp on CSS, and I recommend having the “web developer” plugin for firefox. You can edit the CSS for ANY web page in the world and see what happens when you change things in the CSS without it saving when you close the editor.

Chapter 4: Blog SEO

4.0 First I would like to say to visit http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/. This is a very detailed post on Wordpress SEO. Yoast has covered Wordpress SEO amazingly and I believe no one will write a better blog. Somethings are very easy to change while other things you may not understand. Yoast will have you download a bunch of plugins. Download every single one! they are worth it.

4.1 The key to Blog SEO is doing everything right, and think about EVERYTHING. A lot of things need to be changed for a blog to be optimized! Although I find that the biggest thing left out in a blog is people being lazy and simply just not “optimizing” the page or post. Fill out all the info. Make sure your tags are there and that the post is keyword rich.

4.2 Quickest effects most important

Permalinks

Optimize your Titles for SEO

Optimize your Descriptions

Optimize the More text

Image Optimization

Chapter 5: Before you publish

Every Blogger should have a checklist before he posts onto the web. Here is the best checklist to use.

Bloggers Checklist

Chapter 6: Spread the Word

6.0 Get involved in Linkedin.com, Digg.com and social networks! Find a group that is related to your blog and join and be ACTIVE! Many people will enjoy reading about what you have to say so share share share.

6.1 Facebook – Facebook is an excellent source to spread the word and find people to share your ideas with. I will be creating a Advanced facebook article for users later, but if you are already on facebook, use it! Groups are a great resource to share ideas and keep up on new things within your category. Every post on facebook or myspace should be informational and interesting to read. Also do not just always post about the same topic or subject. Change it up.

6.2 Twitter – A recent article showed that twitter has been the fasted growing social network on the web. Why is twitter growing so rapidly? Because it is easy to use. All you have to do is create an account, then post topics about what your doing. Although a lot of people say, “why do I want to read what someone is doing every minute.” Twitter should not be used to post that you are reading on the deck. Twitter should be used to post links to your last blog article. Twitter should be a tool you use to spread the word about something really cool that is going on, or maybe something really bad if it has a purpose.

Chapter 7: Navigating your blog

7.0 This should be a whole post by it self but I am going to dab on each part of how to navigate through your blog on wordpress..

7.1 Dashboard – sends you to the main page of the blog admin panel.

Posts – where you edit, add and delete posts. You can also add or change categories here

Media – Add images and videos here that can be put into your posts

Links – always link to your friends and other great blogs. They will return the favor and it will help you out in the long run.

Pages – If you have an important post sometimes its better to create a page than just add as a post. This is where you add edit and delete pages for your blog.

Comments – If you want to see all the comments that have been made on your blog this is the place to do so.

7.2 Appearance – Add new themes, edit themes or delete themes through the appearance panel. Distinct Design specializes in theme customization.

Plugins – Plugins run Wordpress. Make sure you use lots of plugins for SEO and any other tool you may need. Plugins are free and an excellent source for your blogg.

Users – If you are going to have multiple writers or admins you will need to setup an account for each person. This is the place to do it.

Settings – Change the blog URL or tagline, timezone, date formate, and much more. This changes how the posts will look in the blog.

Chapter 8: Conclusion

8.0 Some of the most important features in a blog is having fresh content. Juicy Content is what the SEOs call it. Have 1-3 posts per week and keep up with whatever your blog categories are about. If you are running posts about new cooking receipes, have a receipe every week or every other day.

8.1 Make sure your blog is optimized for the web as best as possible. Yoast has the best SEO article I have seen for this. Follow his advice and the search engines will find you blog!

8.2 Submit your articles. Just because you posted on a blog, doesnt mean that people will find it. Post articles in article submission sites. If you need help with this contact Distinct Design. Digg.com is a good resource for this.

8.3 Good bye! I hope you enjoyed reading my article on creating a blog. I will be submitting more how-to articles frequently, so if you have enjoyed this reading, please subscribe to this Blog by clicking the RSS feed at the top.

http://www.distinctdesignus.com/

]]> http://distinctdesignus.com/blog/creating-a-blog/feed/ 5 http://distinctdesignus.com/blog/what-makes-a-successful-website/ http://distinctdesignus.com/blog/what-makes-a-successful-website/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:25:54 +0000 admin http://distinctdesignus.com/blog/?p=3

Three key things to make a successful website, does your site have it?

1. Successful websites have an appealing look and feel but also a functional navigation. Google has a nice clean look and feel that is appealing but it is very functional! The first thing that turns someone off your site is not being able to get where they want to quickly. This is a requirement for a successful website. Site also should have an easy design though. Think of websites you hate or just think, man these guys are unprofessional. The site has funky colors, its hard to read and it was put together by someone trying to do to much “design” and not enough “thought”. Rule number one, Always think about your sites design look but also the feel!

2. This probably should be number 1 but I am going in order that I start a new website. Search Engine Optimization! So you just made a design that could lead to a successful website, but who is finding the site? A successful website will need some close optimization of the website no one will find it. SEO is probably the leading aspect for a successful site, If the website is found it has a better chance of being successful. Although obviously if a website is not found by users it will not be successful. Rule number two, a lot of thought and research should be done for SEO.

3. Analytics is a key part to successful website design because if you cant see how your site is doing then you wont know if its successful! Site Analytics is a great way to set goals for your business and the website. You can see how well some of your marketing strategies are doing but also you can see if your SEO is working! Google Analytics is a free program that should not be taken lightly. Many People believe free software is less powerful. Google Analytics lacks no where when it comes to site tracking. Rule number three, you will want to be able to tell if you have a successful website through analytics.

rule 1 : Always think about your sites design look but also the feel!
rule 2 : A lot of thought and research should be done for SEO!
rule 3 : You will want to be able to tell if you have a successful website through analytics.