I started compiling this list when I started setting up my newest site, http://AreWeConnected.com
WordPress.com says
Takes seconds, costs nada
You can get a blog started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence.
And that’s true.
But to fully get the best results out of WordPress you need so much more.
So I put on my consultant hat and thought about what needs to be done and how to do a complete job .
Here’s what I came up with.
The Basics
Domain Name Registration: You’ll need to register the domain you want. Do NOT use GoDaddy. Did you know the amount of time you’ve registered the site for has an effect on your Page Rank?
Website Hosting: Once again, let’s not GoDaddy, ok? There are much better hosting sites out there. Did you know WordPress requires a specific kind of server?
Gmail Address: With your hosted domain will also come branded email addresses as in mike@AreWeConnected.com . That’s great and you can use it for all your marketing but you still should have a Gmail address to hold specific files. I’ll cover these more in the plugin section. Did you know that if your hosting server fails, sometimes your email server will go with it?
Blog Platform: For the beginning blogger a BlogSpot.com site may be the easiest. Second might be TypePad but the best, the best blogs out there run on a WordPress platform. If just for the sake of the newest and greatest widgets and applications – I recommend a WordPress platform.
Blog Design: You’ll need to decide on the general look and feel of your site. Two column? Three? Colors, text sizes, etc. I suggest starting with a general design theme or template . That’s the starting point. Now step back and fill in the blank, “I like this design except _________”. That where the real design work starts. I’ve adapted Blogger themes and put them into WordPress sites and visa versa. That’s a lot of work and not recommended.
Google Analytics: Nothing out there that’s free (and even most paid systems) even come close to what Google Analytics does. Every blog should be running Google Analytics. To setup your analytics account you’ll need to have your site named and hosted.
While that’s the end of The Basics , it’s really just the beginning, just the tip of the
next we’ll tackle the “outside applications ”.
To be continued…
This post brought to you courtesy of Mike Mueller.
Feel free to ReBlog or ReTweet as you like as long as you credit the source (him).
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Thanks for the tips, Mike. I'm preparing to set up a blog and need all the help I can get. I've subscribed to your blog to help me stay informed. Thanks.
John – Thank you!
Stay tuned as this is only Part 1 of a 10 Part series. Just the tip of the iceberg.
The easist way to start from scratch with a WP blog and probably the cheapest solution too is at bluehost.com. You can get a free domain with your hosting and it uses simple scripts to install a WP blog. It would take 20 seconds to have it running once the name servers are up.
Wow a 10 part series, this is quite the committment I am about to make. One of the questions I have is we are about to create another outside blog other than Active Rain and should we do it on wordpress platform or go with this new platform that Active Rain uses? What are the pros and cons of the Active Rain platform?
Shane – That true. Then what? That's kind of my point. If you stop there you are missing so much of what WP can do.
Morgan – To be honest, I haven't had enough experience with AR's newest offering to give you a real opinion. I'm all for having a outside blog of some sorts.
Mike,
Could you elaborate on your GoDaddy comments? I use GoDaddy for domain registration and hosting and have never had a problem. They also provide WordPress as a free add on. I've disabled it for now to give the Active Rain custom blog a shot. Is there a particular issue I'm missing with GoDaddy?
Rich
I too wondered why you recommend against GoDaddy for domain registration. What in your opinion are they doing wrong in that regard?
Liz
Richard – Good question. I don’t want to don’t want to get too deep into the GoDaddy argument. I will say this though. GoDaddy works very well for some folks because they have made things easy for the novice to use.
While the public facing tools are one thing, they are week and hollow. It’s the behind the scenes real tools that are lacking.
Maybe an AOL analogy might work best. Remember back in the day when you had an AOL account and it was really cool? Have you graduated to Outlook or something better? You probably have because you’ve learned to use the more powerful tools. I’m not sure if that makes sense or not.
For a peek into other GoDaddy issues see: http://forums.nodaddy.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=f870368fa1f6de460b232f3dc86cee3c&board=2.0
Maybe the take away is this. While GoDaddy is fine, there are much better alternatives out there. That’s all.
Disclaimer: Being a Warm Blooded American Male I really want to like GoDaddy, but some things are more important.
Thanks for starting this thread. I'll be very interested when you get to your list of favorite widgets!
I have always used GoDaddy, but when I set up my outside blog I used an iTheme template with WordPress. A technology geek brought in by mu office suggested BlueHost.com. Awesome, awesome company! Great prices, stellar service and great interface. Customer service is #1.
Ironically, I have a blog on every platform you mentioned. BUT, I do have all my domains through GoDaddy. So I do have a domain from GoDaddy pointing at my WP blog. I think you need to clarify something though. Are we to assume you're talking about a paid WP blog? Because the free ones don't really require any hosting. They're alread on the WP server... or whatever they use. And I don't know why, but the last 2 times Active Rain made changes to the system, I lost more SEO. And my Word Press blog has gotten better and better SEO, without me even trying. But now, am pointing more links toward it.
Vickie – Thanks for the input. I have a favorite web hosing company and my sites sit on the same server as do some heavy hitters. By being on a server with a heavy hitter you risk Denial of Service attacks but you are also on the newest and best equipment - and the most monitored by the IT dept. Widgets are coming. And Plugins too!
Lisa – When you say paid, what do you mean? Paid as in Wordpress.org? WP.com is free and comes with the hosting you mention. WP.org supplies the platform and you have to host thesite on a server of your choice.
Mike and @Richard - I recently set up a new WP blog and was trying to do it through godaddy. It was a nightmare. Two days of frustration and hours wasted. Finally via Twitter I found somebody that helped me set it up (the godaddy auto set up didn't work) I tried the free hosting via godaddy. Well once it was said and done - come to find out the free hosting via godaddy shows their ads on my new blog - arghh.... Long story short - I ended up having Sean set up the WP for me via dreamhost and it was piece of cake. I need to write a post about the excellent job he did setting it all up for me. Also set up are google analytics etc. now I just need to add a few things and a bunch of posts. I will stay tuned. ~Rita
Mike just toured your wp site (again) - like it a lot! must have because I signed up to be a crash test dummy :) - really wanted to comment on you being a "Social Media.ist"...among other things -love that title.
Hi Mike - I'm working through some of this right now, only using wordpress.org. I haven't even used Google Analytics, but know I have to do something, so will check into that. I'll be looking for part 2 to see what else I need to be doing next.... ;-)
Ann
Mike, great stuff. WP on a self-hosted platform is great. There are some exceptional themes available... and few of them are free. Also, there are better analytics than Google... even free. I use Clicky. But the thing is that to properly use a self-hosted WP blog, it takes more work than blogging on A|R or Blogger or even WordPress.com.
The great part is that with the right tools, WP can be a full featured website, not just a blog.
Mike, I'm emailing this post to a colleague. It's got some excellent information that can help him out. And 9 more posts on the way? Wooo hoooo.
Excellent information Mike...Still trying to absorb it all. Thank you and looking forward to reading the next in your series.
Mike, one other thing I wanted to add was that once you get comfortable with building a WP blog, it also makes a killer platform for a single property website... and if you have a good hosting plan, there is little or no additional cost to builf a BUNCH of single property websites.
Lane – That's a great point! (it was the topic of a future post) but if you have a site as in
http://SusieSells.com
you can also easilly set up a subdomain on that as a single property as well
http://123EasySt.SusieSells.com
Or you can register the domain http://123EasySt.com (if it's available) and host it under your existing host plan.
Another solid effor Mike. Ready for the "to be continued" when you are. I need to set up a word press blog and I'll follow along with you.
Mike, when are you going to blog on the outside applications and plug-ins? I anxiously await part two of this series.
Brett & Vickie – Part Two is due to publish this Monday.
It'll first show up on my http://AreWeConnected.com blog Look for it here on Tuesday.
Thanks for the words of encouragement!
Mike, I will be interested in follow this series. Can you feed your WP blog into AR?
Jay
You are so right about wordpress as the way to roll.
So if you don't like GoDaddy, what do you like. I just started a wordpress blog, but i want to get a domain name that makes more sense than a .wordpress subdomain. Your thought???