Learn WordPress in 24 Hours With Expert Video Tutorials

WordPress as a blogging platform has literally changed the way we blog and disseminate information. There are other platforms that are also quite effective, such as Blogger from Google and others such as Expression. Then there are CMS (Content Management Systems) such as Joomla and Drupal which can not only create outstanding websites but can also blogs. But WordPress is unsurpassed in its flexibility, agility and power. It also enjoys a very wide online community that almost shares virtually any information you'd like to know regarding the platform.

Why you need WordPress video tutorials 

Whether you are professional blogger or a casual writer who blogs as a hobby, you want to make sure that your blog looks presentable and professional. Because of the sheer number of blogs online right now, there is intense competition and surfers are extremely choosy. They have zero tolerant for a blog that looks amateurish or that isn't maintained.

1. Search engines love blogs 

You need to educate yourself with WordPress video tutorials because you need your blog to stand out. Search engines love blogs and if your blog is properly optimized it can rank well and bring you a handsome volume of traffic. Unfortunately the majority of bloggers do not have a clue as how to best optimize their blog for search engines. This is where the video tutorials come in handy.

2. Creating a buzz with social media 

Crafty webmasters and bloggers are now reaping a ton of daily and consistent traffic by using social media tools together with WordPress. If successfully employed, this tactic can totally transform your level of traffic. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, StubleUpon, MySpace and Digg can be configured to work with your WordPress blog and share information. Again, few know how to do this and are indeed missing out on awesome traffic and interaction opportunities. Without WordPress video tutorials, it is hard for a regular blogger to fully tap into the raw power of social media.

In many blogging conferences and seminars, we here of a select few who are making almost six figure incomes through blogging. Others have made blogging a full time job. Unfortunately, most bloggers are far from attaining this goal. This is because they have not yet learnt how to utilize WordPress to the fullest.

WordPress Blogs - The Quickest Way to Make Money Online

Blogs are one of the best and easiest ways for you to make money online. You can set a blog up within minutes, get in indexed in a couple of hours and then turn your attention to traffic generation and earning.

Many people turn to free blogging platforms to host their blog, not realising they are putting the fate of their business in the hands of another ...

Whereas it may never happen to you, it has happened to other people. The free blog companies will delete your blog first and ask questions later if they think you are even slightly in violation of their terms of service.

This can be a serious problem - your earnings could disappear over night along with some very valuable data.

You can mitigate against this problem by hosting a WordPress blog on your own domain. The costs of this is minimal. A domain will cost you under $10 a year and some webspace is well under $10 a month.

Yes, this is some investment, but you end up looking professional and have complete control over your blog. You can install additional plugins that will allow you to earn even more money from it. You have more flexibility and can do anything you want with the blog to make it your own. There is no big corporation staring over your shoulder making sure you tow the party line.

Whenever anyone sees a free blog the instant assumption is that it is an individual blogging. When they see a domain name and a self hosted WordPress blog they no longer know that - it could be a company, a guru, or anything.

This obviously puts you in a better position of establishing yourself as an expert in the field and in earning.

Once you have created one WordPress blog that is earning you money, it is very quick and easy for you to create more - you have the domain name and webhosting so you can start creating an empire of money making blogs.

Through this, you are on the road to financial freedom.

7 Reasons Why WordPress Blogs Are So Important For Businesses

Blogs today have become a way for people to share their thoughts, experiences or ideas with friends, or people who enjoy to read their posts. They are mostly used as entertainment. But blogs are so flexible that some people and companies use them as a way of communicating to their customers or readers in a more personal way.

People enjoy reading blogs, and search engines also give a better ranking to blogs. They allow the writer to communicate something to the readers but they are also able to comment on what the writer said. So they allow for interaction between people. Having a blog is very important for any business.

WordPress.org blogs are self-hosted platforms that allow you to get your own domain and have complete ownership of the blog and content. They are very professional and have a lot of flexibility when customizing them.

This is why many business owners choose to create a WordPress blog and it's one of the most famous blog platforms. Here are 7 reasons why it is very important to have a WordPress blog for your business:

1. Blogs are easy to setup, cost very little money to maintain, and help build your online presence and credibility.
2. Blogs can get a lot of traffic from search engines and other websites.
3. Search engines love fresh content, so as long as you keep writing and creating content for a specific niche, you could rank on the first pages of the search engines for free. This means more exposure for your blog and your business.
4. People love blogs. They are looking for content that can help them solve a problem. Be sure to help your readers or educate them in a specific subject, and that will get you more traffic.
5. Blogs are interactive. When you create posts, your readers can comment on them. This becomes a social proof that your blog is interesting and popular. People will be more likely to read your posts if it has a lot of comments.
6. Blogs can make you money. If your blog becomes really popular, on a particular niche, you can make money from advertisements or from selling your own products or affiliate programs.
7. With a stand-alone blog like WordPress.org platform, you have complete control, ownership, and flexibility.

It's one of the cheapest strategies to grow a business for network marketers. All you need to do is to make a precise plan before creating and installing your WordPress blog.

Structuring Your WordPress Site

Pages and Posts are the two main content types inside WordPress. While they sound the same, there are actually some big differences in how they work within the overall system.

Pages are most often used for static, permanent articles that won't change very often. About, Bio, Company, Contact -- these are general types of content that won't have frequent updates and can remain as a static page. 

It's easy to further organize your content by creating sub-pages. The top level page is called the Parent and anything below it is it's Child. This setting can be found under Page Attributes on the right side when editing a page.

Posts are most useful with blog or news sections as you can easily create a Category that holds all of those posts, then create a menu link to the Category, which will automatically display every post you've assigned to it. As with Parent/Child pages mentioned above, you can also have as many sub-categories as you want, making for very effective content organization.

If you are planning to write frequent content on a particular subject, then using the Categories/Posts combination is the best way to go, as WordPress will be handling all of the linking and formatting for you.

Another way to split off your Posts is to use Tags. In this way you can have a primary subject like "gardening" but create separate tags for different sub-topics. WordPress will automatically create separate links to all articles tagged with the term you choose, providing an additional method for visitors to find content within your site!

For additional tips on organizing your content in WordPress, visit the links below.

WordPress - How to Install Plugins Within the Dashboard of WordPress 3.0

This is a short article on WordPress - How to install and activate plugins in WordPress 3.0. After reading this article you will be able to install all your plugins now and in the future. There are two ways in which you can install WordPress Plugins from within the Dashboard of your WordPress blog. One way is to search via the Dashboard and the other way is to download them to your computer and upload your plugin via the Dashboard. I will take you through both ways step by step. If this is the first time you will be installing plugins, it is a simple process so just follow along and carry out each step as needed.

Installing Plugins via the Dashboard Automatically

First you will need to login to the 'Dashboard' of your WordPress blog. If you now look over on the left hand side you will see a list of of menus. Hover over the 'Plugins' Menu and click on the arrow that appears, a drop down menu will now appear.

Now click on 'Add New' and you will now arrive at the 'Install Plugins' page.

As you can see on the screen you are able to type in a word or phrase for what you are searching for, now if you know the name of the plugin you are searching for, enter the name of that plugin. If you are searching to see if there is a plugin to carry out a particular task, enter a relevant phrase. For this example I am going to enter 'database backup' as this is something I need to add to my blog. Now click on 'Search Plugins'.

As you will see, a list of different plugins will appear. Look through the list to see if there is an appropriate plugin for what you are searching for. The plugin 'WP-DB-Backup' is in my list which is perfect for what I was looking for, so I will now click 'Install Now' link. You will now see the plugin you chose being installed and it will tell you when it is complete, you will then be presented with the option to activate the plugin - if you wish to do so, click on the 'Activate Now' link.

All done! Any plugins which have been added to the WordPress.org website can now be installed onto your blog in this way without having to download them and install them manually.

Uploading Plugins From Your Computer to Your WordPress Blog

You may still, from time to time need to install a plugin manually, for example, it may be a newly released plugin that has not yet been added to WordPress.org site or you may have purchased a plugin. I will be showing you how to do this using a plugin called 'RSS Bomber' as I have just purchased it.

Once you have downloaded the plugin to your computer, you need to make sure that the plugin is inside a zip file. Now login to your WordPress Dashboard and click on the 'Plugins' tab and then 'Add New'. Now click on the 'Upload' link near the top of the page. Now click the 'Choose File' button and choose the zip file of your plugin to be uploaded, then click 'Choose' followed by the 'Install Now' button. WordPress will now upload and install your plugin. Once the installation of your plugin has finished it will give you the option to activate your plugin, just click the 'Activate Plugin' link to activate it. All done - you will now see your newly installed plugin in your 'Manage Plugins' page.

You have now learned the two easiest ways to install plugins into WordPress 3.0, you can of course upload your plugins via an FTP client but this is a little more technical and why do things the hard way when they can be done in the simplest ways possible!

Alester:-).

'WordPress How To' is a valuable resource for anyone that wants to get started with WordPress. The tutorials are easy to follow in a step-by-step process. By the time you finish each tutorial you will be able to carry out what you have learned with ease.

Manually Updating a Local WordPress Installation Using Windows XP

Introduction

Just recently, I updated WordPress from 2.8 to 3.0. Most tutorials including WordPress's Codex, tell you how to update for a live blog, which is stored at your web host's server. I could not find any information regarding manually updating an installation on a local computer (such as a testing server for theme development), so I wrote this article.

You may be asking, "Why not just use the auto-update feature?" Well, as documented by typing something like "WordPress 3.0 hangs at Unpacking the Update" into Google without quotes, I ran into the problem of the auto feature halting while updating. I had to install manually.

Manual Installation Basics

It turns out manually updating was pretty easy, but was very difficult at first because of pitfalls I did not pay attention to. Those will be documented in the "pitfalls" section below. Although I won't put together an in depth tutorial, I will tell you how I updated my test blog in a very basic way. This same method is similar to the instructions in the Updating WordPress codex page.

1. First, I backed up the database by going to Tools, then Export in the Admin panel. I then selected Download Export File. This method is documented in the article "How to back up your WordPress blog in 60 seconds" by Christopher S. Penn. Type this article title in Google to find out more.
2. In the Admin panel, there were the buttons Install Automatically or Download [WordPress version number]. I chose the download link for a manual installation
3. I navigated to the folder the file was downloaded to. This may be a My Documents, Documents or Downloads folder. In my case, it was a Downloads folder within My Documents
4. I unzipped the folder (wordpress-3.01.zip) by right-clicking and selecting Extract All
5. Following the Extract All wizard opens up the extracted folder. I double clicked the wordpress folder
6. From here, I opened up a second Explorer window by going to Start menu, My Computer. From there I navigated to my original WordPress installation. I installed mine in Local Disk (C:), Program Files, Apache Software Foundation, Apache 2.2, htdocs, wordpress
7. Once inside my original wordpress folder, I copied (Ctrl-C) the wp-includes and wp-admin files from my WordPress 3.01 folder and pasted (Ctrl-V) to the original (WordPress 2.8) folder
8. Although I did not do the following step during installation, as my folders were already set up this way, it is a good idea to set up your folders in Windows XP so they show the full path in the title bar. To do that, go to the Tools menu item, Folder Options..., View tab, check Display the full path in title bar and Display the full path in address bar. This way, you can know at a glance which folder you are in
9. As mentioned in the Updating WordPress codex page, I did not copy the wp-content folder, as this would overwrite my current themes and plugins. For WordPress 3.0, I copied the twentyten theme folder into the wp-content, themes folder to get 3.0's newest default theme
10. Finally, I copied all of the files from the top level folder, wordpress, including index.php. Then I pasted these into the original (2.8) folder. I did not overwrite the.htaccess file or the wp-config.php file, leaving these as is. Usually, these files are not included in a typical install. I renamed the wp-config-sample.php file in WP 3.0 as wp-config-sample2.php just in case
11. From here, I was asked to login to my Admin panel again and prompted to update the database, following the provided link
12. Installation was successful!

Windows XP Related Pitfalls

Installation was successful after a lot of trial and error and cursing at my computer screen, that is. I was trying to follow the above advice to install manually after the frustrating hang at "Unpacking the update" in the auto install. When trying to manually move the wp-admin and wp-includes folder from the 3.0 folder to the 2.8 folder, I was getting "Cannot create or replace wp-admin: Access is denied" error messages. What was even more frustrating was that I was getting these messages after sending the original file folders to the Recycling Bin via deleting them. I couldn't even Restore the files as access was denied! Surely I thought I scrapped my entire WordPress installation and couldn't upgrade.

Finally I realized what the problem was. I was working in a Limited account in Windows XP. I do this purposefully for safety, because I don't want to be online with an Administrator's account. To follow the above instructions, copying and moving files in the Program Files folder and such, I needed to log in to an account with Administrator's privileges.

I never figured out if the Limited account issue was why the Auto-Upgrade feature didn't work. However, this advice is warranted: if upgrading WordPress manually for a local installation, make sure you are using or have access to an account that has Administrator privileges. I hope this article will be useful for those who may have come across the same problems I did. Thank you for reading.

How to Use WordPress to Automate Your Business

If you haven't heard of WordPress, listen. WordPress is an amazing blogging platform -- but it's so much more than that. In fact, this article will teach you some things as to how to use WordPress to automate your website and therefore your business, leaving you time to do the things you enjoy without having to keep your finger on every little "nook and cranny" job that needs to be done. Here are just some of the things WordPress can do.

AdSense

If you use AdSense to earn extra income on your site, the AdSense Integrator can both dad and then manage the AdSense ads you put on your blog, effortlessly following the last AdSense rules and updates without your having to keep on top of them. This is one way when it comes to how to use WordPress that you can really earn passive income without having to do anything except for adding the initial plug-in.

Google Analytics

When it comes to how to use WordPress to track your customers, Google Analytics will help you keep track of who's visiting your page, where they're from, and a lot more information that's valuable when it comes to knowing your customers. The Google "Analyticater" offered by WordPress makes it very easy to add this to your website.

XML Sitemaps

The XML Sitemaps plug-in will make you much more visible to your customers -- in fact, if your customers can't find you, it's not likely you will have any business at all to speak of. However, Sitemaps easily makes you visible to search engines as they crawl your site, which gets you seen on the web -- and therefore gets you more customers.

AWeber

AWeber is a service that, although not free, can really help you explode your business. Used with WordPress, it's another way you can really automate your business. With this service, you can basically turn autoresponder functions into guaranteed customer draws. You can create website sign-up forms, which will help you attract customers; instead of simply having visitors anonymously visit your site and then go away, you can simply include a sign-up form on your blog using AWeber's simple "point-and-click" interactive functionality.

That's not all, though. While most auto responders will send canned messages to subscribers after sign-up and other functions, AWeber actually provides you the ability to give personalized e-mails to subscribers or customers in an automated sequence that's really going to give you the ability to connect with your customers -- and your potential customers, too. What's more, you can also schedule autoresponder functions so that they'll go up when you know your customers are likely to be thinking about reordering, as applicable. Again, this is all automatic, and he will only rarely have to lift a finger after initial setup.

All of this and more is available if you know how to use WordPress and associated plug-ins and services to fully automate your business. Of course, your business is still going to need you to run it, but automating it as much as possible for the simple day-to-day mundane tasks such as those described above will to free you up to focus on the really important part of your business, which is to provide quality products and/or services.

Internet Marketing Course - 4 Recommended Plugins for WordPress Blogs

WordPress is probably the best interface for anyone who wants to setup a blog style website but has little or no HTML coding knowledge. I had to write HTML codes for websites generation when I was in college. When WordPress was born, it is heaven to many. I personally believe that WordPress was one of the key reasons to an explosion of websites launches over the past decade.

The following are essential WordPress Plugins for anyone who wants to monetize a website, especially one with a blog style.

1. Akismet

Most Blog style websites have a comment box at the bottom of every post that allows the readers to leave their feedback or comments. These comments are great for SEO traffic. However, the comment box is also a magnet for spam.

Akismet is a Plugin that checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam and allows you to review the comments before approving it. To activate Akismet you will need a WordPress.com API key which is free for personal websites use.

Although Akismet is a good tool, you will want to check your comments folder regularly because some good comments may actually get filtered out. This plugin works like a computer anti-spam software that automatically put junk mails into your junk box. If you know how it works, it is not perfect. But this is not to say that you don't need an anti-spam software.

2. Social BookMarking Links Plugin

This plugin automatically add links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages and in your RSS feed. You can choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites! Furthermore, you can also send a link to your post via email, AIM, Facebook, Twitter and more. WordPress version 2.6 or above is required though.

When you integrate social bookmarking with your posts, visitors can bookmark your web page with their social bookmarking accounts and that creates great backlinks for you that are well-liked by Search Engines.

3. Google Sitemaps Plugin

Google sitemaps creates a compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom created ones. What's cool about this plugin is that every time you create or edit a post, your sitemap gets updated automatically and all the major search engines that support the sitemap protocol such as ASK.com, Google, Bing and Yahoo are notified about the update.

This simply means your blog pages will be more SEO friendly.

4. Google Adsense

This plugin provides a very easy way to generate revenue from your blog using Google AdSense. It is a very simple and yet almost maintenance free way of generating passive income from your blog. After you install and activate the plugin, go to the widgets under appearance and then add the AdSense tool to the sidebar or any where you like on your blog.

Before you install this plugin, please ensure that you have an approved AdSense account from Google, which may be a painful process for some because Google mercilessly rejects your application if it thinks you are generating junk sites.

For more WordPress tutorial and SEO tools, check out Adam Short's Niche Profit Programs which offers countless video tutorials for the serious Internet Marketers in mind.

Website Creation - 4 Steps to Setup WordPress After a New Installation

You've got WordPress freshly installed into your hosting account, and you're ready to start posting content to the site and driving traffic to your content. Before you start that, there are 4 steps that you need to take after you install WordPress for the first time in order to extend WordPress' functionality.

These steps help you secure your website against spam comments, Add users and change the look and feel of your website. Here are the changes that you should implement as soon as you install WordPress to your hosting account: 

1. Change the default usernames, if any. If your hosting provider adds a user account named "admin" or any other pre-installed user into your WordPress installation, delete those users by going to the: Users control panel > select the user > click on delete under the user name
2. Configure the author, reader and comments defaults. If you want people to register before they can leave a comment, or if you want people to be able to register themselves to write on your site, you can set this up by going to: "Settings" > Under Membership > put a check mark in "Anyone can register" > Select a user mode for the new registrations. Be aware, that if you allow this functionality, anyone that registers on the site will be able to perform whatever function you allow them to. Be specially careful since people may be able to post spam articles to your site, if you allow them to
3. Configure your plugins. There are 2 plugins that you really want to have, one is akismet which is anti-spam the other plugin is SEO WordPress which will help you with your search engine optimization. There are others, but these 2 should be your primary ones. Before these plugins start working, you need to activate them. To do so, go to "Plugins" then select the plugin you want to install and select "Activate" from the menu on the right. You may need to obtain a WordPress API key, follow the instructions on the screen to obtain a key if you don't already have one.
4. Configure themes. Themes control the look and feel of your blog. There are many free and paid themes to pick from. Figuring out the look and feel of your site can take a lot of time, so make sure that you dedicate some attention to how your site looks. To change themes, go under: Appearance > Themes WordPress has a depository of themes that you can search through, but you can also perform an online search for "WordPress themes" and see if you find some that you like.

Thesis WordPress Theme - Mastering Custom Hooks and Functions in Thesis

Thesis is a very flexible theme. It can be customized very easily using what developers call "Thesis Hooks."

Thesis Hooks can change every part of your WordPress blog. In this WordPress tutorial, I'm going to show you how to modify your Navigation Menu.

You have probably noticed that the default installation always has the Navigation Menu on top of the default screen. You can change the default location by using Thesis hooks. By using Thesis Hooks, you can move the Navigation menu to appear below the blog title and blog description.

So, let's get started with using custom hooks and functions in the Thesis theme for WordPress.

Follow theses steps:

1. Access the User Guide
2. Find the support page
3. Click on Thesis Default Hook Usage
4. Access the Member's Area
5. Find, click, and read the page called "How to Customize Like a Pro with Thesis Hooks"
6. Access the link "Make Your Header Display Above your Navigation Menu"
7. Find the appropriate code, and copy it
8. Return to your WordPress blog
9. Paste the code in the entry box in Custom File Editor

Thesis Default Hook Usage:

Go ahead and access the Thesis Theme Member's Area to get started. On this page, you can access information about Thesis Hooks and which actual hooks are needed to achieve different looks on Thesis. Generally speaking, each function requires a pair of codes. The first code is called the function. The second code is called the hook. You need to enter both of these codes in order to build a custom function in Thesis.

Find the page called "How to Customize Like a Pro with Thesis Hooks." There, you will find a tutorial including real examples. Go ahead and click on the link to access the tutorial. Feel free to read through the entire page.

Next, find the link called "Make Your Header Display Above your Navigation Menu." Find the code, and then copy it. Next, return to your WordPress blog. You will paste this code in your Custom File Editor.

Enable your Thesis hook functions by changing WordPress settings:

1. Find the Thesis Options tab
2. Click on Custom File Editor
3. Select the custom_functions option
4. Click on Edit Selected File
5. Access WordPress using FTP
6. Click on wp-content
7. Click on Themes
8. Click on Thesis
9. Click on Custom
10. Access the custom_functions.php page
11. Right click the link
12. Choose File Permissions
13. Change the permissions to 777
14. Click on OK

The next step is to find the Thesis Options tab. Click on Custom File Editor. Then, from the drop-down menu, you can either select custom.css, layout.css, or custom_functions. For this purpose, you need to select the custom_functions category. Then, click on Edit Selected File. In order to run custom_function, you need to set up the correct file permissions on your WordPress blog.

Access your WordPress site using an FTP application. Then, click on wp-content. Click on Themes. Then, click on Thesis. Next, click on Custom. You will see the custom_functions.php page. Right click this link, and then choose File Permissions. Change the permissions to 777 and then click on OK.

Move the Navigation Menu by using Thesis Hooks

1. Return to Member's Area
2. Remove the Thesis Navigation menu using thesis_hook_before_header
3. Copy the code
4. Go back to Thesis Custom File Editor
5. Find entry box, paste the copied code
6. Click on Save
7. Refresh the page to verify settings

For now, let's return to the Members Area code again. In order to make the Navigation Menu move from the top to the beneath the header, there are two sets of actions that need to be completed. The first is a remove action, which is to remove the Thesis Navigation menu from the current location of thesis_hook_before_header.

The second action is to add the action back into the appropriate area on Thesis Hooks. Copy this code, and then go back to the Thesis Custom File Editor. Once you are on the Thesis Custom File Editor page, you will see comments and notes that appear by default. These comments and notes show you how to add custom hooks, or custom functions. Find the entry box, and paste the copied code exactly as it appeared in the Members Area example. Then, click the Save button.

After you have clicked save, it will confirm the changes. Refresh the page. Now, take a look at the changes. You can see that the Navigation Menu now appears before the header and beneath the blog title and description.

Remove the Thesis Attribution Link using Thesis Hooks

1. Click on the link "Get Smart with the Thesis WordPress Theme from DIY Themes"
2. Return to Member's Area to access the code format to remove a function
3. Find the specific Thesis attribution code link
4. Copy the code
5. Return to File Editor
6. Paste the copied function
7. Go back to Support Area
8. Click on User Guide
9. Find Thesis Default Hook Usage
10. Find and click on the pair of codes called Thesis Attribution
11. Copy the function
12. Paste the function into the entry box
13. Copy the hook
14. Paste the hook into the entry box alongside the function copy
15. Click on Save

In the next example, let's discuss removing the Thesis attribution link. If you want to remove the default Thesis attribution link, click on the link that reads, "Get Smart with the Thesis WordPress Theme from DIY Themes." Go back to the Member's Area to find the code format to remove a function. Find the code for the Thesis attribution link. Copy the code, and then go back to File Editor. Right below the body of text, go ahead and paste the copied function.

Next, find the correct hook name and the correct function to complete the process.

Now, go back to the Support Area. Click on User Guide. Then, look for Thesis Default Hook Usage. Once you have accessed the page, you will find a useful example as to the pair of codes that are needed to make this change work. Click on the codes, and then find the one called Thesis Attribution.

Next, copy the function. Then, paste the function in the entry box. Now, copy the hook. You will paste the hook into the entry box alongside the function copy. Click on Save. Then, you will be prompted with a confirmation message. To confirm the changes, refresh the page and the footer should be gone.

By using Thesis Hooks, you can virtually customize Thesis however you want. If you need additional help, you can use online support forums and the user guide. The forums are active with a lot of advanced WordPress and Thesis users. Using the available resources is helpful if you run into any customization issues using Thesis Hooks for WordPress.

How to Blog Tutorial - How to Write a Money Making Blog

Have you ever built a blog and later found out that everything was a waste of time and your were not pulling any traffic to your blog?

Keyword research is very important

This is how your readers actually find you in search engines. You just can't write the way you want and hope that you will get lots of readers. It doesn't work that way. You need to know what kind of keywords you should use. I get very good results with competition that has less than 20,000 pages. But how do you find low competition keywords. 

You search for your main keyword, then you download all the results and search again, using your first search results. This is how you dig deeper and deeper. Once you have built a huge list, head over to Market Samurai and filter out the best ones. Later I will explain how you can do that exactly, step by step.

Right plugins for your blog

One of the most important plugins for your blog is All in One SEO Pack. This will allow you to change your blog post title and add a description. There's a few more plugins that you can use to improve your blog, but make sure you have this All in One SEO Pack. Also make sure you go to Settings>Permalinks and select the custom option and write %postname%. 

This will change your blog post URL with your blog post title. This is also very important for search engine optimization. You can find more about how to blog successfully in my author bio.

Learn how to blog successfully from start to finish

Google AdSense Tutorial - Find The Money-Making Spots For Your Adverts

You could be making next to nothing or a fortune with your adverts, depending on how to place them on your site. This Google AdSense tutorial will teach you how to find the money-making spots on your site.

Do You Read Newspapers?

If you've ever held a morning paper in your hands, you'll know what I'm talking about, when I claim that it's difficult to read it. You either have to put it down on a huge surface, or you'll have to fold it to make it comfortable to read.

When you've folded your newspaper, you'll only see the text and pictures that are above the fold. This should be logical, unless you have x-ray glasses.

Visiting a web site is almost the same. You use your browser to go to a specific address, and you look at the site - or rather - the part of the site that's visible in your browser.

Actually, when we're talking about home pages, we also use the term 'above the fold', just like if it were a newspaper. In case of the home page, though, everything that's above the fold is what you can see in your browser, without having to scroll down or site wards.

First Rule: Place Your Advert Above The Fold

Your visitor might never go further than just to skim the first page he arrives on, so make sure he's given the option of seeing some advert, he can use to leave your site with, should he want to do so.

Don't expect him to scroll down to find your AdSense units. Put them all above the fold, on the visible part of your home page.

Second Rule: Place Your Ad Units Where Your Visitor Looks

Not only should you choose to put your adverts above the fold, but also at spots, you know your visitor will look at.

Your visitor will look at headlines, sub-headlines, menus, and pictures. If you can blend in your ad units with the text, below the headline, this is one of the perfect money-making spots.

Another one is to add a link unit near your existing menu links, either horizontal or vertical. You would be surprised to see, how much income these small links can provide.

Personally, I've had better results by wrapping the text around the advert unit than to have it stand alone and have the text below, but opinions are divided here, so you'll have to do your own tests, and tweak your ads to do their best.

Profit Blogging - Step By Step Tutorial

A lot of you guys out there have not started doing anything to actualize or even move in the direction of your dream. The dream of gaining financial freedom by owning your own home based business.

This is not for lack of aspiration but most often than not, its for lack of knowledge. I shall try in my own small way to share with you my personal experiences from time to time so that you can gain the basic knowledge required to start actualizing your dream. Not for anything in particular but for the fact that I have discovered that there is more money out there to be made than to be selfish about making it. The more financially independent people we have around, the safer our communities become.

In this article, I shall show you how to start your own home based business using a "blog" without spending a dime. The good news is that there is no special skills required to start. You become more skillful as you go along.

A blog is a mini site used to achieve the same basic aims of owning a website. That is to share, promote or sell ideas, information, products, services and what ever.

Below, are essential steps you need to take and.....Poom! You are there!!

SOME IDEAS YOU CAN MAKE MONEY WITH

1. Start a blog, do anything that will promote it there by generating a list of respondents also known as prospects. They are your prospective customers.

2. With your blog, you can make money from affiliate programs like Ebay, Clickbank, Amazon, Adsense etc.

3. You can setup an Ebay store and sell what you have there.

4. Setup a yahoo store, get stock using the wholesale/dropship model and make profit.

5. You also have an option to flip your blog for a niche profit by selling it off.

When you have decided on a business idea as suggested above, you then need to take the steps below to make it a reality.

STEP BY STEP ACTIONS TO START A BLOG

1. Research some long-tailed keywords that are relevant to your blog content and product.

2. Find relevant images or photo on Google images.com

3. Start a blog(just a simple one, no fluff needed) Wordpress, Blogger, Hubpages will do.

4. Post your photos with keyword rich titles and tags. Then insert your affiliate or product links.

5. Promote the blog with articles, forums, social bookmarking to create back relevant links.

6. Post content into your blog least twice a week to get crawled by the search engines.