by Wilfried Voss

ISBN: 978-0-9765116-8-7
Size: 8.5″ (W) x 11″ (H)
Pages: 58
Language: English
Binding: Perfect Bound
Interior Color: B&W
Publication Date: Feb 2010
Country: United States

A step-by-step guide to setting up a blog with WordPress, spam-protecting your blog, search engine optimization, and creating web traffic. This a very concise book with a “quick and dirty” approach; it will allow you to set up a professional looking blog within hours. The book has been written while creating http://www.myprofessionalblog.com. See the web site as a reference of what you can do.

Ordering Information

• Copperhill Media, the publisher offers the paperback and eBook version.
• Amazon.com
• Barnes & Noble
• Also available through Amazon in Great Britain, France, Germany, and other countries.

About This Book

As the title of this book implies – I am referring to the “No-Nonsense” part – I am trying to deliver you a concise description on how to set up your own, professional looking blog without the usual motivational bla-bla combined with superficial information I found in many other books. My approach is “quick and dirty.”

At the time of the writing I have set up numerous blogs, and I have investigated numerous scenarios of how to get a blog useful for one’s purposes.

In my personal case I am in the business of promoting my books, but I also looked into related aspects such as selling my books through my blogs, or even create revenues through my web site with paid advertisement. In the process I found a lot of useless books on the topic, and I deemed it was time to stop the nonsense.

Please be aware that all the information in this book in freely available through the Internet, or through many, more detailed books, but reading this book and following the instructions will save you a lot of time and, after all, aggravation.

This book will give you a crash-course in setting up your blog, and, if you need more than just a basic blog, I have tried to add as many exciting features as possible. I also put an emphasis on search engine optimization (SEO).

Please understand, everything in this book is designed to give you a concise description on blog features without the hassle of reading hundreds of pages, and thus saving you a great amount of time setting up your own blog.

I will not provide you all details, just enough to get you going. The manuals you need – just in case you want to investigate the blog features in more detail – are all available through the Internet, and I will point you to the corresponding web sites. This approach did not only save me a great deal of time writing this book, but it also reflects in the price you pay for it.

Let me stress again, that you do not need to read the full manuals to set up your blog. Just follow my description, and your blog will shine within a few hours of work.

Let me also add another “no-nonsense” aspect: I will deliver you many aspects of optimizing your blog, but I do not guarantee success. Especially, I do not promise a “path to riches” if you are in business to create revenue with your blog. The success of a blog or regular web site depends on many factors not related to the blog setup and operation. Success, just like in any other business, is primarily based on hard and continuous work. Perseverance will pay eventually in one way or the other, but, again, there is no guarantee.

Throughout this book I will refer to one particular web site, myprofessionalblog.com, which is the web site (blog) I designed to write this book, meaning I set up the blog, made screen shots of what I was doing and inserted them into this document.

Everything you see on myprofessionalblog.com is available to you with little effort. In addition, I will post further information, that becomes available after writing this book, on the same blog (And no, unlike many other books with associated web site, you don’t need to register there and/or pay for access).

This About This Book section is also part of myprofessionalblog.com. My intention is to provide sufficient information on my book to make you comfortable with the decision to buy it – or not.

This being said, if you are in business to find a totally free solution for your blog, do not buy this book! My book is primarily about creating a professional blog with little expenses (roughly $120 – 200 per year), but it is not totally free.

If you want your blog totally free I recommend setting one up through various services such as Google, Yahoo, WordPress.com, and others. Please be aware that these services will give you a free, but limited blog, i.e. without all the special features you see on myprofessionalblog.com. If you don’t need the special features, i.e. you just want to write posts, you will be just fine using these services.

Another reason, not to buy this book, would be that you already use an Internet service provider (ISP), have your own web site, but your ISP does not support WordPress. WordPress, an online blog development tool, is an essential part of this book.

If you have neither an ISP nor a web site, but want your own, professional blog, I will explain how to get there quickly and easily.

Last, but not least, let me explain that, while I am very familiar with setting up blogs, I am certainly not the top-most expert on the topic. If you have comments, new insights, and/or betterment suggestions, please feel free to post them on myprofessionalblog.com, and I will make sure your input will reflect on the additions to the web site.

Table of Content

Why WordPress?……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

The Two Versions Of WordPress………………………………………………………………………. 5

Get Your Free Blog Through WordPress.Com…………………………………………………… 6

How Do I Install WordPress?……………………………………………………………………………. 6

Which Service Provider Should I Use?……………………………………………………………… 7

Logging-In to Your WordPress Blog…………………………………………………………………. 7

First Settings……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

A First Step Toward Search Engine Optimization (SEO)……………………………….. 10

A First Step Toward Protecting Your Web Site………………………………………………. 10

Let’s Add Some Standard Blog Pages……………………………………………………………… 11

One Final Setting Is Necessary……………………………………………………………………….. 14

A First Look At The New Blog…………………………………………………………………………. 14

Changing The Appearance (Theme)………………………………………………………………. 15

Changing The Side Bars (Using Widgets)……………………………………………………….. 19

Editing Pages (Home, About)…………………………………………………………………………. 21

Editing Pages (Contact Us)…………………………………………………………………………….. 22

The First Blog Entry………………………………………………………………………………………… 26

Setting Categories……………………………………………………………………………………………. 27

Managing Categories………………………………………………………………………………………. 28

Add Your Tags!……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 29

Deleting Posts (Hello World)………………………………………………………………………….. 30

Let’s Fill Up This Blog!……………………………………………………………………………………. 30

Making Your Blog Spam-Free…………………………………………………………………………. 30

Search Engine Optimization…………………………………………………………………………… 33

The SEO Plug-In………………………………………………………………………………………………. 34

Creating Hyperlinks To/From Your Blog……………………………………………………….. 36

Registering Your Blog……………………………………………………………………………………… 36

Posting Online Press Releases………………………………………………………………………… 37

Participating In Social Networks…………………………………………………………………… 38

Adding Comments To Forums And Blogs……………………………………………………….. 39

Google Ads………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 39

Creating Income With Your Blog……………………………………………………………………. 40

Affiliate Programs…………………………………………………………………………………………… 40

E-Commerce…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 41

Further Blog Improvements…………………………………………………………………………… 42

Incorporating Affiliate Program Ads……………………………………………………………… 42

Add Video Clips From YouTube……………………………………………………………………… 43

Add Google Gadgets………………………………………………………………………………………… 45

More Cool Plug-Ins………………………………………………………………………………………….. 47

Adding A Slide Show……………………………………………………………………………………….. 47

A Cool Navigation Tool……………………………………………………………………………………. 50

Social Network Connection…………………………………………………………………………….. 52

Adding E-Commerce……………………………………………………………………………………….. 53

Help References………………………………………………………………………………………………. 55

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