Archive for April, 2008

Writing articles is a great way to get your website visible to the world, visited by people who are interested in what you have to say and indexed by the search engines. Putting those articles on your blog decreases the time it generally takes to start getting visitors. This article will give you the basics of getting started with blogging.

There are many blogging platforms from which to choose, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Having a blog on your own website has many more benefits than most of the others. The two main benefits are branding and control. You want the link to your blog be one that people remember and relate to you, such as your own domain name. Control is important so you can do anything with your blog that you want, without the fear of having the site removed due to inappropriate content.

Once you decide on a blogging platform, which is hopefully WordPress since it installs on your own website, you need to get some things in order.

1) Create a Good Name and Tagline for Your Blog.

You should put some thought into your blog title and address name. You want something easy to say and type so that when you give out the address to other people, they will easily remember it. You also want your title to help remind people what you are blogging about. If you are mainly writing about yourself and your daily activities, find a catchy name that helps draw people in. If you are writing about business-related issues, make sure the main keywords are in the blog title, tagline and if possible, in the domain name itself.

2) Select Your Theme Template

Test multiple templates until you find one that works for your purposes. Sometimes having all the cool gadgets right away takes away from other parts of your website. I have found that most people look at your top two most recent posts and only venture into clicking on your blog roll and other fun gadgets if they are regulars to your site. I think the simpler and aesthetically pleasing your blog is, the more you will find people sticking around. I personally do not like sites with tons of flashing ads, links and text everywhere because it distracts the readers from what you are really trying to do there. For some good WordPress themes to start with, visit Weblog Tools Collection.

3) Choose Your Blogging Style

Content blogging focuses on informational articles within a certain niche, filled with content that helps inform your readers about a specific topic (typically something you know something about). Journal blogging is a collection of your daily activities and what your opinions are on all kinds of topics. You have to be exclusively one or the other, but you should have a focus one way or the other to establish consistency.

4) Write Your About Page and Profile

Your first post can be a practice run to say a little bit about yourself and what you hope to do with your blog. Create it as a page instead of a post. That way it will always show on the menu bar. You can refine it as you go along. Having a good About page very important. Use your real name, let people know what your interests are, how you got started with your business, what you like to do for fun, etc. Let your readers get a good broad picture of who they are dealing with. My about page is the second most popular page on my blog, because people want to know a little bit about who this writer is.

5) Get A Contact Page

You can find plugins for contact pages in WordPress which makes it really easy for people to contact you. Whether you leave a link to your email address, or have a contact page, it is really important to make yourself easily accessible to your readers.

Dustin Diaz is a User Interface Engineer for Google and author of JavaScript Design Patterns. He wrote a nice contact plugin for WordPress.

6) Find and Link to Other Blogs

You can learn how to blog and what to write about by reading other bloggers. You can find great blogs by searching Google.com for blogs in your industry or topic of interest, or by going to specific blog search engines like technorati and sphere. That is really important, especially if you are focusing on a content blog, to find other bloggers who are writing about your topic. It is good to engage with people who both agree and disagree with your points of view.

7) Set A Regular Blogging Schedule

How often you write is not as important as how consistent you are. If you post once a week for a while and then wait a month, people will stop checking your website. Being regular in your writing will help engage your readers and keep them interested.

Experiment With Writing Style and Content

Experiment with different types of posts, content, template styles, and see what works best.
Do not expect to get it perfected and remember that it takes time to get interaction on your site. Play around with ideas and topics. Going through your website traffic stats each week will help you see how people are using your site and which pages are most popular.

9) Let Others Know You Are Online

Send out a friendly email and tell all your friends and co-workers about your new blog. Inviting people into your conversation is a great way to get started. Also announce it on social networking sites like MySpace and Twitter. Commenting on blogs like Problogger (http://www.problogger.net) will get some people to click over to see who you are and what you are about.

10) Get Additional Training On Using Your Blog

When you order blog hosting from Website Managers, your blog is set up with some of the most popular and beneficial plugins. You are also offered training on how to use your blog and manage the plugins. By the end of that training, you will be ready to get started blogging on your own and generating traffic to your website.

I hope this has helped guide you through getting started blogging. Your comments are welcome.

Jim Hutchinson
Website Managers

Transferring files to and from your website normally requires an FTP program, of which there are many. Some are easier to learn than others, but have fewer options. If you are familiar with Windows Explorer, then you can use a program built into cPanel called Web Disk. This article will show you how to get started with Web Disk.

Alternate URL to cPanel Web Disk Introduction Movie

Inside your cPanel website control panel, there is a link to Web Disk. Note that you must be using cPanel version 11 or higher with the x3 theme. In the Files section, click the Web Disk icon. On your first visit, you will Create Web Disk Account. Enter a username and password.

If you have trouble creating a password or want hints on making a more secure password, there is a big button named Generate Password. The default is 12 characters with upper and lower case, numbers and symbols. You can change and one of those options. Longer passwords are more secure. When you are happy with the generated password, click the Use Password button to put it into the two boxes.

In the Directory box, the default is to access the root folder for that site, signified by a forward slash (/). You can enter any other folder to access upon connecting. When done, click the Create button and your new Web Disk is created. You will be asked to download a file to your desktop. That is a shortcut to the folder you selected. You can choose between standard or secure login. I recommend the secure option if your server has it, although the connection could be slower.

A new icon will be listed on the Web Disk page in the Web Disk Account Management section. It will show the Login username, the Directory to access and a button to Access Web Disk. You can access Web Disk from there, or from the icon you downloaded to your desktop. That is a quicker method and bypasses the cPanel login.

One thing I noticed is that the security warning box shows up behind the Explorer window. You have to minimize the window, click OK to close the warning, then enter your username and password to log in.

Once you log into Web Disk, you will see that the interface looks like Windows Explorer. To transfer files, click the Folders icon on top and navigate to your files. You will see the default folder being NetHood. That is a listing of all the folders and files on the website.

To see both your computer and the website files, minimize the current window and either double click the Web Disk icon on your desktop again, or open Windows Explorer. That will open a new window so you will be looking at the files on your computer. Resize the two windows so they are next to each other. In one window, usually the left side, navigate to the folder on your computer where your local files are stored. In the right window, you should see the files on your website. You can then turn off the folders view so the files lists will be next to each other.

The thumbnails view on the server side will not show icons like they do on your computer. Instead, either use the List or Details view by selecting it from the button bar. If you choose Details view and see the Internet Address column, right click on that column heading and deselect it. You already know which Internet Address you are accessing, so make that column will disappear.

To transfer files, just drag and drop them where you want them to go, just like you do in Windows Explorer. When done, close the server-side window to log out.

Web Disk is a good option to access your website files through secure connection. It is easier to learn than some of the FTP programs. If you do not have cPanel, ask your web host to install it, or move your website to a website hosting company that has it already.

Jim Hutchinson
Website Managers Web Hosting with cPanel

<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">