Starting out with blogs - help needed

by burtie

Posted: 13 years ago 17 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi all,

I want to start to learn and work with blogging to make money.

I am very passionate about 'green living' so I thought that I would like to blog in this area.

I also want to work towards having an income from this in the future.

I would love to be about to share news, views, product reviews and more.

To start with which blogging softward/plugins should I use to get me off to a flying start?

Any tips that you can offer me or any threads that you can point me to that will help would be fantastic.

Thanks people.

#blogs #needed #starting

RobinSkeen 13 years ago

Wordpress is the easiest to learn. Here is a thread that will get you started when it comes to plugins, etc.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...0PFwis0oyrkN8U
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Roger Mayne 13 years ago

Hi Burtie

Ok, I would definitely suggest going for Wordpress on your own hosting.

If you are not technically savvy, a great Wordpress theme to get you started is the Flexibility Theme. It lets you make layout changes very easily without knowing any code (and there is a FREE version)

Flexibility Theme v2 is available for download

For plugins, I would suggest the following

All-in-one SEO
WP DB Backup
Yet Another Related Post
Sociable
Google Sitemaps

(hint: you can install all of these from within Wordpress. Go to Plugins and click the Install Plugins button, then search for each plugin name)

Hope this helps to get started.
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burtie 13 years ago

Thanks guys...

I have now started my blog at The Eco Bloke

Would love some feedback if possible...

I am still learning so any tips would be fab!
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- Roger Mayne 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by burtie
  
  Thanks guys...
  
  I have now started my blog at The Eco Bloke
  
  Would love some feedback if possible...
  
  I am still learning so any tips would be fab!
  
  Hi Burtie
  
  I think your new blog looks great! The only negative thing I would say is that there seems to be very few navigation links. I know you only have a couple of posts so far, but may be something you should look at.
  
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  "If you don't quit, you can't fail"
  Success will follow.
  
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burtie

13 years ago

Originally Posted by swiftdeal

Hi Burtie

I think your new blog looks great! The only negative thing I would say is that there seems to be very few navigation links. I know you only have a couple of posts so far, but may be something you should look at.

Thanks swiftdeal. OK so I might sound dumb, but could you explain a little more about nagigation links?

Originally Posted by warritaylor1976

Definitely Wordpress....plug in Some SEO plugins and you are ready to go...its that simple really..

Focus on your reviews writing skills...that's the one making you money

Thanks warritaylor1976. Which SEO plugins should I use in your opinion? Also with regards to the reviews. Do you mean writing reviews and adding affilliate links? If so I aim to do this every third post and do it like and article instead of a sales pitch as not to cheapen the brand.

I have heard about pinging to get links? If someone could explain this I would be grateful :-)

Thanks
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Roger Mayne 13 years ago

Originally Posted by burtie

I have heard about pinging to get links? If someone could explain this I would be grateful :-)

Blog and Ping Tool - Use Pingler.com to Drive Traffic your Blogs and Websites - add your blog URL and it will tell sites all around the net that you've updated your content, and they will come and have a look.
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Roger Mayne

13 years ago

Well, you want visitors to stay at your site as long as possible. The more inter links there are, the longer they will stay. This will instill some loyalty to you, and they will be more likely to join your mailing list, take your recommendations, etc.

You could add a widget to your blog that will show all the latest posts, or your category listings. A good plugin would be the Yet Another Related Post (WordPress › Yet Another Related Posts Plugin WordPress Plugins) which will show links to posts that have a similar title and content. This will hopefully keep your visitor.

Thanks
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burtie

13 years ago

Thanks swiftdeal,

The plugin that you recommended is already installed but I think that I need some more posts before it gets working.

Thanks
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burtie

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Phil Ayres

Definitely Wordpress. There are many free themes out there that will work just fine. But, here are a few of the plugins that you will find to be very helpful:

alinks (This is a plugin that actually allows you to interlink pages on your blog automatically.)
Headspace: A lot of people use all-in-one... I actually like this better.
XML Sitemaps
Feedburner plugin
FLV embed
DBManager
Different Posts Per Page
Google Analytics
s3 (Amazon s3)
Simple captcha
Sociable
WP DB backup
UBD block ad
cforms

Here's my tip. Develop one plugin folder and one them folder. Throw ALL of your plugins and themes in their respective folders. And, everytime you create a new blog.... just upload what is in those folders to the new site. You will be able to be up in no time.

Also, I just posted a free blog WSO today that you may find of value... check it out...http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...-new-post.html

Best of luck.

Thanks Phil. I will get to all of that just now :-)

Originally Posted by swiftdeal

Blog and Ping Tool - Use Pingler.com to Drive Traffic your Blogs and Websites - add your blog URL and it will tell sites all around the net that you've updated your content, and they will come and have a look.

Hi swiftdeal. Thanks for this. Should I ping after very now post? And if so, do I ping the post or the home page? Cheers

Thanks
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Adriaan 13 years ago

Hi

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start free green blogs with Squidoo : Welcome to Squidoo and www.blogger.com and write and post "green articles" at EzineArticles Submission - Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints and Article Search Engine Directory: GoArticles.com
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Get good stuff at adriaanlouw.com. The others do.
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- vicone 13 years ago
  
  Once a blog is set up, navigates well and has the important plugins, it is also useful to keep in mind how you are going to attract the traffic required.
  
  The ping feature mentioned earlier is helpful in drawing blog traffic. You'll also find some additional suggestions in this article:
  
  Six Easy Methods For Increasing Blog Traffic
  
  As well, an important strategy that helps to boost traffic is to use RSS effectively. Tools such as Big Mikes RSSBot are very helpful with this and are easy to use. You can see more about using RSS for blog traffic here:
  
  RSS - Super Charge Your Blog Traffic
  
  Big Mike's RSSbot submits to a number of rss directories for you. It is a desktop application and available from Incansoft | Experience The Difference Today!
  
  Ivan
  
  Thanks
  
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  Best Tested Backlink Strategies For Free Traffic
  
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  A Collection of Inspiring, Uplifting Quotes, Beautifully Illustrated - Free Download
  
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Phil Ayres 13 years ago
Definitely Wordpress. There are many free themes out there that will work just fine. But, here are a few of the plugins that you will find to be very helpful:
- alinks (This is a plugin that actually allows you to interlink pages on your blog automatically.)
- Headspace: A lot of people use all-in-one... I actually like this better.
- XML Sitemaps
- Feedburner plugin
- FLV embed
- DBManager
- Different Posts Per Page
- Google Analytics
- s3 (Amazon s3)
- Simple captcha
- Sociable
- WP DB backup
- UBD block ad
- cforms
Here's my tip. Develop one plugin folder and one them folder. Throw ALL of your plugins and themes in their respective folders. And, everytime you create a new blog.... just upload what is in those folders to the new site. You will be able to be up in no time.

Also, I just posted a free blog WSO today that you may find of value... check it out...http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...-new-post.html

Best of luck.
- Thanks
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Michael Kohler 13 years ago

If you are doing WP blogs, then use WP Direct or some kind of automating service. I think contentboss has one of these as well. Automation is the key in many cases.
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burtie 13 years ago

Thanks all. I am actioning all your suggestions :-)

Keep them coming!
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Joanne Reid 13 years ago

Your blog is wonderful...energetic, thoughtful and the graphics are great. For a start, this just blows the doors off anything I have seen in a while. You are an inspiration.
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- tzimukim 13 years ago
  
  If you'd like some quality content for "Green living" niche, please check here:
  RARE, RESTRICTED, UNIQUE PLR - Green Living niche - only for 30 lucky warriors
  
  Thanks
  
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