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When you decide to start build your own website it’s important to ensure that you do it in the best possible way from the start. The best way is to ensure that you own your website and all its contents completely. A lot of people don’t realize this when they get started and might look to sites like WordPress.com or Blogger.com, but when you use web-based services like that, you may retain copyright to your content, but the platform you are using is not owned by you, so you can have your account shut down without notice and you are not in full control. The only way to be sure is to start your own “self-hosted” website instead. One of the most popular options for a self-hosted website that you fully own is WordPress.org. The .org version of the site allows you to use their website software and put it on your own website, so that’s what we’re going to talk about in this guide. What’s really great about self-hosted WordPress is that the platform itself is free. You’ll pay a small fee to buy your domain name and keep it registered each year, plus a small hosting fee. You could have your WordPress Blog up and running for under $20.00 with a fee of about $5.00 a month for hosting. You may choose to spend more depending on whether you choose a free or premium theme. But, it can be done, and done well inexpensively. In addition, it’s not really as hard as you might think. As a writer, even if you don’t understand technology well, you can easily set up your WordPress Blog in less than a day, in some cases less than an hour, by following the steps and advice in this guide.

6 Steps to Successfully Setting up Your WordPress Blog Getting set up is as easy as following the 6 steps in this guide. To give you an overview, these are the resources you need to have available to you:

Domain: We recommend registering your domain name at Namecheap. Web Hosting: Sign up with Bluehost for reliable service and easy one-click installation

of WordPress from your cpanel. Website Theme: Use something like OptimizePress that will control the look and feel of

your website and provide you with powerful marketing features.

Step 1) Register Your Domain Name Registering a domain name simply means purchasing the rights to use the URL that you have chosen for a specific period of time. You can choose to pay once a year or longer. It’s usually less than $15.00 per year, unless you purchase a premium domain name that someone else is selling that has aged and matured. We recommend using Name Cheap for your domain purchases. They’re a reliable company and domains start at just $5 per year. Tips for Choosing the Best Domain Name One of the first things you must do is choose a domain name for your blog. It should make sense for your subject matter, be simple to remember, and if it helps people find you through a Google search for the subject matter, all the better.

http://www.writerhelpwanted.com/name-cheap

http://www.writerhelpwanted.com/blue-host-wp

http://www.writerhelpwanted.com/optimize-press



Use Keywords – Make a list of about one hundred keywords related to the subject matter of your blog. You’ll have better luck finding a domain name that works that has low competition, but if you’re lucky enough to get a high competition keyword in your domain name, that’s even better.

Study Your Audience – When you choose a domain name you want it to say

something important to your audience so that they know they’re at the right place to get the information they’re seeking. The only way you can do that is to research your audience and consider the ways in which they search for information.

Make it Simple Yet Notable – Don’t get carried away by choosing too long of a domain

name. You want it to be easy to remember, easy to type, easy to spell, yet also be something that they will remember even when they aren’t sitting right in front of their computer.

Use a Dot Com – In most cases you will want to choose a .com domain name unless

you are truly a nonprofit organization, but even then, you want to still purchase the .com because people are more likely to remember to type .com than .net or .org when they remember the domain name.

Consider Localizing Your URL – If your audience is local to you consider adding a

localizing keyword to your domain name. This will greatly enhance the ability for your local audience to find your blog.

Avoid Numbers or Hyphens – While a few successful blogs do have hyphens in them,

it’s really better not to have hyphens or numbers because people will often forget or not know whether it’s spelled out, or where the hyphen is if they just hear the domain name. Even if they see it, they may forget how it looks.

Do Your Due Diligence – Research the potential URLs that you choose to ensure the

name is not trademarked or used by another business in a manner that could cause confusion or issues with your blog. The last thing you need is to do a lot of work getting popular only to be sent a letter to cease and desist.

Following these tips will ensure that you choose a good domain name that will help with search engine optimization and please your target audience. Once you have the right name, register it at Namecheap. Once you’ve registered, they will ask you to update the nameservers for your site. For that step, you have to set up your hosting account first, which is what we’ll talk about next.

Step 2) Set up a Hosting Account A hosting account is the place the code to your website lives. You can typically get a hosting account for anywhere from $5-7 per month. For a simple blog, getting the smallest account that you need is best. You can always upgrade as your blog becomes more popular. A shared hosting account is typically enough for what you will need for a blog without ecommerce.



We recommend a reliable company like Bluehost. They have great introductory pricing, reliable service and excellent customer care. They also have all their required software up to date, so you can successfully set up a WordPress site. You can also try Bluehost’s WordPress Optimized Hosting, which is a bit more expensive, but it ensures your site is secure, up-to-date and works well for your visitors and customers. When you register your hosting account, remember to write down your nameservers, which will be listed under DNS settings.

You’ll use this information to change the nameservers, back at Namecheap.

Step 3) Update Your Nameservers To update your nameservers, go back to Namecheap and log in to your account. Find the domain name you registered and click to update the nameservers. You want to enter “custom nameservers” and you’ll fill in the information Bluehost provided. Updating the nameservers connects your domain to your hosting account, so people can see your website when they search for your domain name.



Most times, the nameserver update is very fast, but it can take up to 48 hours. Still, that doesn’t stop you from working on your blog while you wait. Initiate the change, and then move on to the next step. Bluehost will provide you with an IP address login, so you can start working on your website right away.

Step 4) Install WordPress on Your Hosting Account Now that you have your hosting account set up and purchased a domain name and changed the name servers, you can go into your hosting account to install WordPress. The easiest way to install WordPress is by using the one-click method with software included in your cpanel. Bluehost. When you log into cpanel, you’ll see something that looks like this, listed under “SimpleScripts Installations.” Click on “Wordpress” and follow the instructions for the install.

Step 5) Select a WordPress Theme There are free and premium WordPress themes that you can use. There is already a theme attached to the first install of WordPress which is very basic and you can use, but you will probably want to do much more customization. You can search through the library of free WordPress themes by going to “Themes” section of your dashboard’s men, but we recommend using OptimizePress because it will provide you with a theme and powerful tools for creating landing pages to grow your mailing list, sell your information products, ebooks and more. Once you’ve installed OptimizePress, you can customize when you go to “Themes” in your dashboard and click “Customize,” like you can see to the right. Follow the steps to customize the site the way you’d like. Some of the features of OptimizePress include:

Fully responsive, mobile-ready pages



30 templates to choose from Ability to add custom elements to your site like Facebook comments, audio player, order

boxes and many more Easy to make membership sites

Step 6) Plugins to Enhance Your Blog Plugins are created to extend the functionality of your blog. They add features such as forms, anti-spam capabilities, and more. Some recommended plugins:

SEO by Yoast – This plugin allows you to improve the SEO of your blog easily. Each time you write a new blog post you will be able to fill out the SEO information to make your blog search engine results more likely and more attractive.

Formidable – Easily create forms and collect data from your visitors. You can integrate Formidable with your autoresponder, so you can collect data on your subscribers.

Wordfence Security – This plugin is free and it helps your site become not only more

secure but faster loading as well.

WordPress Social Sharing Optimization – When you share your site via social media like Facebook this will help the right picture show up with your links.

Shareaholic – This plugin enables you to add share buttons for multiple social media

networks before or after your blog posts.

Google Analytics by Yoast – This plugin will help you to track your analytics using Google. You can use it to track page views, clicks and more.

Backup Buddy – This premium plugin enables you to automatically on a schedule or

manually back up your blog.

Akismet – Help keep spam comments and trackbacks at bay with this popular plugin. It comes installed with WordPress, but you have to do a bit of set up to make it work.

Adding a Free Plugin: To add a free plugin from the WordPress plugin directory, go to the “Dashboard”, click “Plugins” and then “Add New”.

http://www.writerhelpwanted.com/formidable


You can search for plugins such as the ones above using their name typed into the search bar. For example: “SEO by Yoast”.

When you see the plugin you want in the list click “Install now” as you can see in the image above. Then choose “Activate Plugin”.

TIP: It’s best if you install one plugin at a time, configure it completely, and ensure that your blog still works. Some plugins do not play nice with others and if you double check each time you install one, to make sure everything still works, you won’t be confused about which plugin caused a problem with your blog. In addition, if you install a plugin and you find you don’t like it or it doesn’t do what you expect it, deactivate and then delete it as you don’t want to overload your plugin with plugins you don’t need. Some plugins don’t require that you adjust any settings, but many do. When you plugin requires additional set up, you can often find the option to set up them under “Plugins -> Installed Plugins”


Then find the plugin you’re looking for and click “Settings”.

If you can’t see anything there, you might find the plugin listed in the left menu on its own. Or it might be under “Tools” or “Settings”. Each plugin is different, so check the documentation and you’ll find it. There are many more plugins than the ones recommended above. Think of any functionality that you can imagine and look up a plugin for that feature on the WordPress.org website as well as via a Google Search if you want premium plugins. There are plugins for almost anything that you want to do for your blog. Installing a Premium Plugin from a Zip Folder If you purchase a premium plugin or download a free plugin from a website, you will probably be given a zip folder with the plugin. Check the plugin provider’s installation instructions, but basically, you should be able to go to “Plugins” and then “Add New”.

And then choose the “Upload” option. Select the zip folder from your hard drive and follow the same instructions as above.

Tips for Organizing Your Website Staying on top of your website and creating a useful experience for your visitors requires some organization. Here are a few tips for you.


Create an Editorial Calendar – There is an editorial calendar plugin you can use or you can also just use a spreadsheet or Google calendar to capture the blog posts that you have written and will write in the future. Planning your content in advance and your writing schedule is an important way to get organized.

Create a Gravatar Account -- Using a Gravatar account will enable your picture will

show up next to comments you make on other blogs, as well as replies on your own blog. People can also look at your account to see your bio which can help you build your brand.

Set up Basic Pages – You will need a few basic pages, depending on the purpose of

your site, such as a contact page, an about page, and any disclaimers required by law if you promote or sell anything on your site to make money. We also recommend you create privacy policy and terms of use pages. While these aren’t required, if you ever want to advertise your blog, or even try accepting ads on your blog, more and more ad networks now want to see privacy and terms information on your blog. Generally, fewer pages are better than more pages for the main navigation. Terms, disclaimers and privacy policies can go in the footer.

Set up Categories – Every WordPress blog has the ability to set up categories that you

can choose to assign to any particular blog post as you write it. You can create new categories as you go as well as creating categories in the dashboard. Using keywords as a category is a good strategy. As a rule of thumb, if you’re not going to have at least 10 or more articles for a single category don’t create a new category.

There’s a lot to think about and you may be overwhelmed with all the little details, but just take it one step at a time. Now before we go, we have just a few more thoughts on making the most of your new website.

Best Practices for Your WordPress Blog Avoiding common mistakes that beginners make when starting a WordPress blog and focus on the best practices for success.

Keep it Simple – There is no real point in spending thousands of dollars on every bell and whistle when you first start your self-hosted WordPress site. Just get hosting, a domain name and a recommended theme for now and figure out what you really need as you go.

Backup Your Blog Regularly – It’s very important that you back up your blog on a regular basis. Technology is not perfect and no matter how much security you have, or what type of hosting you purchase things sometimes happen. Storms happen, servers burn up, viruses invade. If you keep a regular backup of your blog you will be able to recover quickly. There are a number of backup plugins that you can use. One very popular one is BackupBuddy. It isn’t free but backups are something that’s worth spending on because




http://www.writerhelpwanted.com/backup-buddy


remember – much of the content on your blog is not on your computer and is irrecoverable should you ever lose it. Another alternative is not to use a plugin but a service like AutoSiteSaver. WordPress plugins generally backup WordPress only. AutoSiteSaver backs up your entire cPanel (web hosting) account. So things like your emails that haven’t been downloaded to your computer, or any files uploaded outside of WordPress are also saved.

Update Your WordPress As Needed – WordPress puts out automatic updates and

patches that you’ll learn about when you sign on to the Dashboard of your blog. When there is an update it is important to install it. It’s the best way to avoid security breaches and other problems.

That’s all it takes to get started with your first WordPress site. Take it one step-at-a-time and you’ll be up and running in no time.

http://autositesaver.com/

http://autositesaver.com/

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