Selling Learning – Learning Selling

The word “blog” is a combination of the terms “web” and “log” (like “diary”). It’s a mix of website and diary, easily editable by the user.

One major difference between a blog and a normal website is that a blog allows readers to comment on what they read. It’s an interactive experience.

So why blog?

• For fun..
• For marketing (a blog is just a type of website, really)
• To learn new skills
• To communicate with your friends/readers

There are various types of blogging software, but the most common is WordPress, which is free. You can host the software on your own domain (for which you pay), or on a free blogging service. Once you have the software set up, it should be very user-friendly.

If you don’t want to spend anything, obviously the free service is better. Check out www.wordpress.com for details.

However, if you plan to put in a lot of effort formatting, writing and marketing your blog, it makes sense for you to have control over the results by owning your own domain, in which case a commercial hosting is what you need.

This is a lot easier than it sounds. Check out any commercial hosting service, such as www.godaddy.com . You’ll need to choose and register your domain, then associate a hosting package.

Hosting services which offer “1 click install” of WordPress are the easiest to use for beginners. You need to have at least one database with your hosting (that’s essential!!). Most people prefer Linux to Windows hosting.

Pay for your hosting and wait 24 hours or so until it goes live. Then follow the instructions to install WordPress. It’s easy!

Using your preferred browswer (Internet Explorer, or whatever), access your new domain (NOT through the hosting) by typing www.mydomain.com. If you have installed WordPress correctly, you should see the “public” page.

Go to: www.mydomain.com/wp-login.php and enter the username and password that you decided on during the setup process. This will take you into your “dashboard”.

• Go to “appearance”/”Install Themes” to change the look of your blog (there are many free “themes” available for you to choose from)
• Go to “settings” to change the site title, tagline or other details.
• Go to “pages” and choose “add new” to create a page.
• Go to “users” and choose “add new” to let someone else contribute to the blog.
• Go to “plugins”/”add new” to choose one of the many options available for your blog. For example, you can choose a plugin which will link your blog to your Facebook account.

Go to “posts” and choose “add new”. Write something amazing, like this post! Then choose “publish”.

As readers are able to comment on what you have written, there is also the potential for spammers to submit comments (recommending, for example websites with top quality Viagra). You will get an e-mail each time there’s a comment to be “moderated”. Click the links to “approve” or “trash” the comment. There is a “free” plugin available called “Aksimet” which functions like an anti-spam, but you have to register to use it and it’s not available for multiple or commercial blogs. The option I use on this blog is called SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam, which simply requires those wishing to comment to copy a word or phrase from a little picture (see the comments section at the bottom of this post for an example). And that’s free too. And easy to install.

So, who will read your blog? Probably no one at first. But add interesting content and publicise your blog through Facebook, Youtube, and so on, and gradually the number of readers will increase! There are also specific things you can do to increase your readership, but I haven’t figured out what they are yet, so you’ll have to work that out for yourself!

Obviously you could use your blog to sell things or, if you get lots of traffic, you could put up some Google advertisements. You’ll need to set up an account with Google Adsense, then choose a suitable plugin to display your ads. Or, you could just do it for fun and stay with the day job for paying the rent..

There are lots of bloggers out there offering good advice on how to write better, how to attract more traffic, and how to make money from your blog. A good place to start is:

http://www.copyblogger.com/ or look at the advice and tutorials on www.wordpress.org .