Creating a blog is a fast way to publish content online. It is much like a website except a blog is run by a series of scripts that generally publish and organize the content by date and categories.
Blogs are typically easier to setup than websites because most blog platforms come with ready-to-use templates and there’s no software or FTP needed to publish your content to the Web.
I use WordPress for this blog, and the theme (design) I use is called Thesis.
The easiest way to setup a blog is to choose a web host that has a WordPress install script. So all you have to do is sign up with hosting and install WordPress from the hosting control panel.
Instantly, you’re ready to begin blogging.
Blog or Static Website?
A static website is a series of pages that are manually put together using HTML and CSS. 2CreateAWebSite.com is a static site.
This is my main tutorial site and you may notice the content organization is more controlled and logical. It’s not ordered by date or category like my content here. It’s organized by steps so it’s easier to reference. The content is also not updated as frequently.
If you use WordPress, you can create static content, but it’s important to learn how to edit your navigation/theme to make use of those static pages and create a more logical navigation.
This blog is more like a journal/magazine where I just publish random articles related to Internet marketing. Since the articles are organized by category, it would be harder for people to follow if they wanted to learn how to build and promote a website. That’s why I reserve my blog for “latest news” and use my static site for teaching.
Most people choose blogs today because they are easy, dynamic and universal. I personally like having a static site as well because it’s easier for people to follow my tutorials.
You don’t need a static site and a blog, just make sure you organize your content in the most useful/logical way for delivering your content. Not every kind of site is best for a traditional blog format.
Many people tell me that blogs are difficult to navigate and find information. That’s because most bloggers don’t make good use of static pages. So their site just becomes a list of random posts in different categories, and the older content eventually gets buried. While that may be fine for some sites, others may benefit from a more static organization.
If you are creating a tutorial/reference site, visitors may get lost and have trouble finding the information they are looking for. That can be rectified by making use of more static pages. That’s really the key whether you accomplish this with a blog or static site.
How you customize your blog design with static content will depend on which blog theme you use. For example, Thesis easily lets you add static pages to your main navigation without editing the code. You can even create a drop-down navigation with ease. Free themes are often more difficult to customize unless you understand PHP and CSS.
Consider a Premium Theme
There are tons of wonderful free blog theme designs, but I am so glad I use a premium theme. The code is usually cleaner (loads faster), the design is easier to customize, they are more search engine optimized and you typically receive free upgrades for life.
Many new bloggers gravitate toward the free themes at first, but often struggle with customization and later discover the benefits of having a paid theme.
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Hi dele. I see your site is very new to the web. Blogger is definently the right choice to start a blog. See my site for example of how I have customised the look and feel of it,in my own style. Also later on you can also buy a custom domain,example.com or. net,as I have now just done for my sites. And of course create more blogs with your Blogger account. Good luck with your new site and have fun. Andrea.
am just starting blogging,i need your advice to be a better blogger
I find your info given on both your videos and sites useful. But I do wish you would give more credit to Google Blogger. Blogger are very flexable in that even if you dont want a custom domain,the allow you to change your page colors and even hide the navigation bars.And present your site as you want it to look and you can even change your blogspot url if you want.A lot of other blogging services dont allow this.Also the tools for creating a site are better,and the spell check is useful.Lisa,I thing Blogger deserves more credit,than it is given here. Andrea.
I Find WordPress too complicated and difficult to use.Also unless you upgrade your account to paid services,you cant for example embed videos or change your page color.I host on Blogger and recently bought custom domains for my blogs. Blogger and Google set it all up for me, I did not have to do anything.Also when readers click my old blogspot address,they still get redirected to my site. So I have not lost traffic.My above site is a blogger blog and my sites on custom domain ARE still hosted on Blogger so they will still be noticed easy.I thing Google Blogger gives you a lot of choice in how you can customise your blog in appearence and has better more genorus facilities than WordPress. But then everyones experience is different.As I write for fun not money, Blogger is easy for me to use and get along with. Andrea.
Great tips Lisa. I will have to check out wordpress. I have been using blogger for my web traffic blog but I am now interested in wordpress also after reading your praises of it.
Building blogs with WordPress is easy and fun. The tough part is coming up with exciting content.
I just want to know how.
Building blogs with WordPress is easy and fun. The tough part is coming up with exciting content.
hi i have a few questions if i get a account with word press does it cost money an if so how much an also the ads do you get them for free or something and if not how much does an ad cost to start making money i just really want to try and make sense of making a blog before i start it i dont have alot of money at all i really dont have any i am trying to find something where i can do what i like an make some extra money i know nothing is free but that would be great but anyays i dont know nothing about blogging or starting a blog or anything it is very confusing thank you
wordpress is the best and most complete blogging platform. It also a lot of addons that help to fight against spam too.
hello,
Ive been reading the comments previously posted but have a question. If I set up a free wordpress blog can I later decide to convert it to one with a different host so it doesn’t have the wordpress in the address. Or will I have to start again, thereby losing all my content?
Appreciate your help!
e
HI Lisa
I aM thoroughly moved by your writeups and completely agree with you that Success does not come over night..
I am also planning to start one .. suggest me some good ones..
I like wordpress because think this is more modern and pretty than blogger. But the blogspot still is a great platfor for a blog in internet. Mentalidade
Hi Lisa, I am soooo new at this (blogging)!!!
I am having problems using Serendipity, would you be able to help????
plz help me click my web sites nad give me comments.
Dear Lisa,
Please help me on how i can host a blog on my own domain name and run a self hosted blog.
Thanks Lisa!
Hi Lisa,
I was just wondering if it is okay to start a blog in blogger and connect it to your own site by using a sub domain and masking???? I currently use godaddy as a host and I dont know how to set things up like you did in the video for a blog. Will you PLEASE help me out? Thanks a bunch!
Christopher
Hi Christopher
Yes, you can. It’s pretty simple. Just login to your godaddy account and go to the domain management area. Check the domain you want to forward/mask and click “Forwarding” tab. Follow the instructions and enter the URL your domain will forward to. (This will be your blogger address)
I just registered a domain named called aleadersheart for the purpose of creating a blog and afterwards there was no “your applications” button to select to choose a blog. HELP!!!
Did you buy a hosting account? You need that for a blog. After you purchase a regular hosting plan, you login and “Manage” your Hosting Account and there will be a Your Applications tab and you can choose to install WordPress. I’m positive it’s there because I just logged into my own account on Website Palace to check.
I totally agree that WordPress platform is much better that Blogger platform, for its ease of use and variable functions.
Are you sure you cannot put Adsense on a WordPress blog? Here is a counter example – you can see Google Adsense ads on this WordPress blog…maybe WordPress now supports Adsense?
http://steviethek.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/who-the-is-billy-mays-and-why-is-he-screaming-at-me/
I must be missing it. I’m not seeing any AdSense ads.
I could have sworn that page blog had Adsense!! I had several blogs open at a time and was confused as to which one had Adsense!
You probably know this but Adsense can now be displayed on RSS feeds.
Yep. I even did a blog post about it awhile back.
https://blog.2createawebsite.com/2008/08/15/finally-adsense-ads-for-feedburner/
Thanks for the heads up, though. There may be others who may not know.
Hi Lisa,
Your information was very useful to me. It will help beginners to promote their websites. Continue your good work:).
I’m trying to build my website up, I just launched it 3 weeks ago, I’m ASTONISHED at how much PAGE RANK you have on ALL pages of your blog, how on earth did you get so much page rank.
rock urself
Thanks for explaining the difference between WordPress & Blogger, Lisa!
I want to know in blog sites is it important to add feedback link
Lisa:
You are great help for people like me. Information you providied are very user friendly.
I hae several questions, but I will ask one thi time?
-If I haeve multiple affiliate products to market, do I sign up multiple WordPress accounts becasue I would need multiple blogs? If so how ?
So, I just now signed up to wordpress. Lots to learn! Great info here in this blog from everyone. Have to read more of’em.
Yes I am using 2.7 but all 10 of the ones I downloaded do the same thing. Thanks for trying it looks like you haven’t run into this before. I will try and use full xampp and reinstall all including s.7 and see if that does it. I may just take an axe to the laptop. lol just kidding.
Tks agn for taking the time Lisa you are too kind. Yes I have the themes in thier own folders in the themes folder they are all visable as a blog on display but when I click on one for my theme it gets a large box with a grey screen and a header line above it on the right is the activate theme button. If I chosse that with nothing showing I end up having to restart the box and delete that folder before I get the dashboard back. Maybe someone out there can help. If I chose the standard themes they load just fine.???? go figure.
Sounds to me like there’s a bug with the theme you’re using. Perhaps it’s not compatible with the version of WordPress you’re using. For example if you’re using WordPress 2.7 and the theme is only compatible for 2.3 or lower then that could be an issue.
I haven’t launched yet, I have followed your instructions and installed wordpress on my computer. I even had the guts to try Joomla momentarily. lol Lisa I have watched all your vids and read most of your blogs twitters and bables. I am stumped however on one thing. I have install what they call free templates in the themes folder and they all show up , however when I try to change my theme to one of them all I get is ablank screen that I could active thepage with but it screws up my word pressuntil I delete the template. any ideas?
Hi Pat, when you uploaded the “free templates” to your themes folder, are they all located in one folder or do you have the themes in separate folders?
Very Nice. Want to use one itself.
Nkoli,
Do a google search for AdSense WordPress plugins. There are many plugins you can install to make adding your ads easier. I don’t use AdSense on my blog anymore and I can’t remember the plugin I used to use. That’s the best way to go about it.
People can subscribe to your RSS feed. Your template probably already has a link to the Feed URL somewhere on your blog.
Get the All-in-one SEO pack plugin. It automatically creates a sitemap for your blog and submits to the engines. You don’t need to submit your blog to any engine. The plugin will notify them.
First focus on building up useful content for your blog. Then read this article http://www.problogger.net/how-to-find-readers-for-your-blog/
Merry Christmas to you too!
Hello people,
Thanks a lot Lisa and Linn for trying to help me out when I tried installing my blog several months ago. I actually gave up on it and tried again last week. It turned out I was installing it well but there was some sort of technical problem that needed sorting out. It took a couple of mins to fix when I contacted hosgator’s technical team.
So my blog’s up and running now……..though I’m totally lost at what I’m actually supposed to put (plug-ins) and remove.
Lisa, I picked a lot from what you told Ron cos I’ve been wondering what to do with the pages I see on my template. Now I understand it’s the categories that I should be working with.
Got a couple of questions though………How do I add adsense adds to my blog? Do I need an adsence template? Which plug-ins are impt to start with? How do people know I’ve updated, do I need to submit each post to the search engines? How can I go about building traffic for a virgin blog……..or do I just focus on blogging?
Hope I didn’t ask too many questions?
WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BRIGHT YEAR AHEAD 🙂
how to create my own webpage
Hi Ron,
Let me clarify a bit on how a blog works. You can create categories for your posts. So I would create a category for computer filings, setup, virtual offices, etc. So every time you post a new topic you select the appropriate category and that will keep your posts organized.
How much content you need on each post will vary and is up to you. There’s no right or wrong, it just depends on how much you think you need to get your point across.
As far as leaving room for questions, I’m not sure what you mean. Each blog posts has a section for people to leave comments. So when people leave comments/questions you can just respond to them like I am doing with you now.
Again I thank you Lisa for the insperation I have recieved from you here and I finaly started my blog on a host and domain that was sitting idle. I learned how to add new theams and just started my first page but have a question on this.
When starting out a blog how have you decided to seperate the pages and ideas you wish to present? My blog is about the home office, its setup, the reasons on having one set up properly, the physical and virtual offices, paper combined with computer filings, ect ect.
Should I seperate each lesson on its own page even when they all are related to each other? What about the amount I place on each? How much room for questions should I give? Should I give as much infermation that most questions would already be answered or leave some blanks to get others to ask and comment on?
I did warn you I will be asking questions…grin. Again thanks for the added insperation.
P.S. How do you add links as well. I want to add a link to here.
I don’t mind the questions here as long as they are relevant to the topic of the post you’re commenting on and in this case it is. My pet peeve is people who post comments/questions that aren’t related to the post. 🙂
OK, I like this idea better… especially since it sounds like it’s something you have a lot of information on. My theory is that there is an audience for almost every idea. So it’s not usually the idea. It’s how you implement it. The key is always finding people who need your information and presenting it in a way that is useful, relevant and unique. So if you can do that then go for it!
Don’t worry about being verbose, that actually may help you in the long run. Just make sure you learn when and how to section and segment your articles when necessary. Make sure you read the free book Make Your Word Sell http://myws.sitesell.com
The Blog I am thinking of is not on the money making side of the home based business but more on the home office, business attitude, scheduling, interruptions, ect ect. I agree the market is saturated , however, most businesses are saturated. There is idea I wish to share with you and others, I hope you do not mind.
“Do not worry about your competition until your competition needs to start worrying about you.” I am going to get and start to learn word press today in the hope I can get things started as soon as possible. I do know of one huge flaw I have and I am sure you have noticed right away from my post here, I am a tad verbose.
Do you think this would hurt or benefit me in blogging? it’s a completely new concept for me but I am learning from you and I greatly thank you for that. Also, when I do get started on my Blog would it be okay to add a link to here? This is a great source for information that would supplement what I have to offer.
Thanks Lisa
P.S. On questions I am sure I will have in learning and developing, would you prefer for me to post here or E-Mail you? Personally I like the open posts so others who may have the same questions may also benefit but that is up to you.
Thanks Ron,
I think the home based business niche is very saturated and much harder to break into because of all the competition. I’m not saying don’t do it but if you do go the home based biz route be sure you work on making your blog stand out in a way others don’t and work on developing a personal touch. It’s really best to tackle this niche AFTER you have had success because it’s easier to build up credibility and respect. Otherwise your site ends up being lumped in with all the other “how to make money” or “start a business” sites.
Greeting Lisa
I just want to thank you greatly for your site and your blog, it has inspired me greatly. I have been attempting to create a online auction site myself but am at a huge boulder, need seller to attract buyers but also need buyers to attract sellers. Needless to say after all the hard work I have been doing and all the learning as well, it can be daunting and at times depressing. I am glad I found your site and blog because it gives me hope again. I am going to now start a blog on home based business, starting on the home office and the hurdles I have faced in building such.
My question to you is this. Would such a blog to tell what I am learning as I go and my hope for others to share what they learn as well to help me build and also help each other build a home based business be a good idea as a lead in to my auction site in the future?
I am new to all of this but am learning a lot by trial and error. You are absolutely right that it is a lot of work but it is rewarding work even before you start creating a income.
Any suggestions?
Nema,
My wordpress blog is only 11 months old but the actual blog itself is over 2 years old (it started out on blogger but then moved to WordPress) But the reason the PR is so high so fast is because it’s linked from my older, more popular site 2createawebsite.com. That helps a lot.
I’m trying to build my website up, I just launched it 3 weeks ago, I’m ASTONISHED at how much PAGE RANK you have on ALL pages of your blog, how on earth did you get so much page rank.
Is your blog SEVERAL years old and linked from thousands of blog resource websites?
Hi Pankaj,
You sure can but you need to sign up with a web host. Preferably one that has cpanel like Hostgator. Installing wordpress with their plan is so simple. You can export your old blogger posts right into WordPress.
Hi Lisa thanks for giving great information, lisa recently i have purchased domain from google blogger. I am new in blogging field and learning HTML AND CSS, Dreamweaver. By reading of your article i have decided to go with wordpress. but can you tell me can i use domain same domain with wordpress which i have purchased via google blogger (custom domain).
t
Hi Lisa,
I just want to say, bravo!…you have done an absolutely fabulous job with both your websites, and your blog. I can see the impact that Ken Evoy of sbi has had on you just by reading your content. Your articulation is excellent.
everything is just perfect. I spent over an hour going over your website the other night for the first time, and all I could do was chuckle when I switched back to mine. nice job on over delivering.
hi i want to use adscence guide me
Hi Lisa, I found your website so useful. I’m a newbie to the Internet Website / Affiliate marketing / blogging business. Considering this, you will pardon me if I make a statement that I will probably get shot for. As a total newcomer, one gets swept away by all the hype about WordPress. One is told it is so easy, even for someone without experience! It simply is not true!.
I went through the whole process, registered a Domain Name, joined a Hosting Company, got WordPress downloaded & WHACK! I’m stuck, I don’t even know where to start. The interface is not a friendly one, I don’t even know where to look for the WordPress Version.
I don’t find it a intuitive interface at all, it’s not something you can just “pick up” as you go along. I now have to spend hours & hours reading WordPress Manuals, beginners 101. It may be a great tool for users with a design background but professing that beginners can just design themselves a blog is, in my view, very misleading.
Sorry folks, just another view, perhaps not a popular one.
U should recommend CMS like drupal , joomla. one can hv a dynamic and powerful websites with those.. nevertheless wordpress do got lots of pluggins and stuffs..
nkolika,
i just recalled, if you install manually..
oh, did u perform this yet?
http://www.yourdomainname.com/where_wordpress_is_extracted/wp-admin/install.php
manual install needs to complete by executing install.php file
if done already and if u installed from fantastico, uninstall first, and then, you can re-install again..
hope that helps