BlogSire

OK, now just before we upload the Wordpress files we need to start up a database for your new blog.

1: Log into your Lunar Pages Customer Account Pages

2: Click on the ‘Control Panel’ Icon

3. Click on the ‘Go to cPanel ‘ tab

4. Click on the MySQL® Databases icon

5.Find the are where it asks for New Database: and enter your database name, I suggest the name of your blog, and then click Create Database. Then click ‘Go back’

6. Now you need to create a Username for your database so place your username in the box and next add your password then click create user. Then click back.

7. Now to add that user to your database. You do this in the Add Users To Your Databases: section by pointing the user you have just created to your new database. Remember to click ‘All’ for privileges and then click the ‘Add user to database’ tab. Ok, That should be it.

If you haven’t already done so, unzip your Wordpress files and then open the wp-config-sample.php and fill in the following details.

define(’DB_NAME’, ‘putyourdbnamehere’); // The name of the database you just created
define(’DB_USER’, ‘usernamehere’); // The username you just created
define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘yourpasswordhere’); // …and password
define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // You won’t need to change this

Once you have done this save the file as wp-config.php and then you are ready to upload the files.

If your blog has the same name as your domain simply upload everything inside the wordpress directory (not the directory itself) to your domain. These files should be placed in the public_html directory. This may take awhile depending on your transfer speed. Once completed start your browser and point it to yourdomain.com/wp-admin/install.php and the self install will start. Everything being OK, you will have your new blog up in minutes.

I have a blogging friend who has taken the wise step of hosting her own blog and has chosen Lunarpages to be her host. Unfortunately like many first timers she has found the myriad of instructions all too confusing. I am hoping that these instructions help her and others to achieve their goals of becoming self hosted bloggers.

The first thing you need is an FTP client to upload the Wordpress files to your new domain and I recommend FileZilla. Once you have unzipped the file, we are ready to configure it.

Open Filezilla and Click File (top left hand corner of page), and then Site Manger. Now Click on ‘New Site’ and it will have opened up a set of tabs, the current one being the ‘General Tab’.

Hostname: Enter yourdomain.com If your domain is myblogrocks.com then that is what you would enter. Leave Port blank.

In Server Type choose FTP File Transfer Protocal which should be default.

Logon Type is normal

Username: Enter your cpanel username here.

Password: Enter your cpanel password here.

Now click on the ‘Transfer Settings’ tab and in transfer mode select active.

That should be it, now click connect, and if all is OK you should have logged into your account. It should like something like this image

if it does we are ready for step 2.

A brand new prospect is now available for all bloggers to join, one that will open another avenue for us to make money doing that which we love. Although still in Beta LoudLaunch is set to give serious bloggers that extra incentive to share their thoughts with all cyber space visitors. It is their first week and they are looking for bloggers as well as advertisers to join their program.  Naturally they will be accepting established blogs over ones that have just been started. This is a requisite that many companies hold to so I urge all serious bloggers wishing to enter the blogging for money game to set one up at your earliest opportunity. Remember to make regular entries and to follow what we have spoken about before in regards to promotion.  

Once again personally hosted blogs seem to take preference over public ones and if you are looking for a cheap and reliable host you should consider LunarPages. For those interested you can see my first paid post for LoudLaunch on my Well Blog Me! blog.

You have probably got your blogs up and running by now and though you have probably signed up to sites such as blogitive etc., they probably haven’t been accepted yet. This takes time and is the main reason why you must promote your blogs. The thing is you don’t need to wait for acceptance to start monetizing your blog.

The first thing you must do is to join Google Adsense which you can do by clicking the Google icon in the right column. Once a member you can then place Google ads on your blog. This is a great way of generating passive income. You will generate an income everytime someone clicks on your Google Adsense and every certain amount of page impressions.

You could also consider Adbrite and Software AdsNow which are Google type adsense ads. One that I highly recommend is checkmystats which allows you to select form hundreds of merchants to advertise on your blog. You can even choose to have rotating banner ads which is basically a banner which changes with each page refresh. This is an example of such an ad.

Kontera  similar to Google Adsense is another company you should join. Once their code is added to your site it selects keywords on you website/blog and hi-lights them. When a user hovers their mouse over the word a description comes up and if they click on it you get paid. The words on this post that are hi-lighted in blue are kontera ads.

I recommend joining some affiliates and promoting them in your blog. This can be done either editing your templates or recomending it in one of your posts, or even by placing a link at the end of your post. A good affiliate to join is LunarPages which is a webhosting company. Everyone who is serious about making money needs somewhere to host their site/blog and LunarPages is one of the best. They will pay $65 for anyone who purchases a package after clicking on your link.

For more affiliates you could join, check this site. One thing you should keep in mind is that you should not have to pay to join an affiliate.

Probably the next most important step is to promote or get exposure for your blog. Obviously the best way of doing this is to write good content as this will bring not only return visitors but may also lead to them actually linking to your blog. These one way links are highly prized by Google.

Submit your blogs to as many directories as you can. You can find a whole heap of them here. If you can get blogs that also have RSS feeds like Wordpress I highly recommned these as they are easier to market. RSS is short for Real simple syndication and is an easy way to distribute content via the Internet.  This is the RSS feed for this blog and you can see how it is a more simplified version of the blog.

You need to let these services know that you have updated your blog and you do this by pinging them. Once notified by the ‘ping’ they then crawl your blog and update their database.

Build a link base with other blogs and websites. it’s easier to swap links if you have a link directory such as Reciprocal Links Pro. There is also a great free version from Duncan Carver. If you don’t host your own blog, you need one such as Blogger that will let you add links to blogs. Unfortunately this is not the best option as by adding too many links you detract from the look of the blog.

Visit other blogs and leave good quality content with your blog address as your signature, this not only provides a link back to your blog but may well lead to visitors of your own. This can be also done in forums etc.

It may take a little time but it will be well worth it!