Creating a Simple One-Page Website (5 Steps)

The type of site you want to build makes all the difference in the world on how simple it can actually be (which goes a long way toward explaining why so much information exists on how to create a website). For example, a website with only one page is extremely easy to find hosting for, create and publish. It just doesn’t take that much, even for people who have no coding skills. If this is all you’ll need, here are your steps:

1. Go to W3Schools to learn the basics of CSS and HTML (not much of a learning curve to create a basic, one page site).
2. Using an HTML editor like Notepad ++ (free) and the information gained from W3Schools, create your page (if you only have one page, it needs to be called index.html).
3. Choose your domain name (approximately $18 – $20 per year).
4. Order the Basic plan ($4.95 – $7.95 per month, depending on whether you pay in advance or not).
5. Upload your HTML page, created in step 2, to your server.

Done! Of course, there will be some wait time, to adjust for learning, payment processing and site registration, but it’s that easy.

Um… – That Might Be TOO Simple of a Website

Okay, so you might need a little bit more than a single page. Understandable, but remember, there are literally hundreds of ways to create a site. The two ways we’re going to outline here describe the easiest ways to create a simple site – not the only.

Creating a Simple Personal or Business Website (3 Steps)

The differences between creating a personal site and creating a simple business site are few. In fact, the main difference is cost, because a business site, even a simple one, may need more space on the hosting server.

Simple Personal Hosting – Average cost, $80/year (if you prepay three years)

Uses: A personal website is typically used for online journals and blogs, virtual business cards (some examples of virtual business cards here) and small portfolios. Personal websites receive a low amount of traffic.

1. Choose your domain name (approximately $18-$20 per year).
2. Order the Basic plan ($4.95/month if you pay three years in advance, $7.95/month if you only pay one month).
3. Read about WordPress hosting and have ClickHOST do the rest OR use RVSite Builder (free – click the link for demo) to design your site.

Simple Business Hosting – Average cost, $108/year (with three year prepay)

Uses: A business website typically sells services or products, or makes money through affiliate marketing. Business websites grow to receive a large amount of traffic.

1. Choose your domain name (free for the first year).
2. Order the Better plan ($7.95/month if you pay three years in advance, $11.95/month if you only pay one month).
3. Read about WordPress hosting and have ClickHOST do the rest OR use RVSite Builder (free) to design your site.

Creating a Simple Website On Your Own Isn’t So Simple

Maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “You guys are making fun…” However, the truth is, there really is no simple way to create a website. This is about as simple as it gets. There’s no easy way to explain how to create a website, either, even when you’re using WordPress (we have 20 How To Use WordPress videos so far, and more that could be added). You can even take college courses on WordPress.

If you really want to have a simple website with the least amount of fuss, you don’t need to know how to create that website. You need to know how to find a simple hosting provider that provides you the tools to create your website. A simple hosting provider:

• Can help you match the needs of your website to the right hosting package.
• Is willing to help you get the most out of your chosen hosting package.
• Understands where you are with your knowledge level and can offer the support necessary for you to build your website.
• Provides more than one offer, so your website has room to grow.
• Provides security for your site once it’s built.

The biggest idea to grasp when it comes to finding a hosting provider is that they become silent partners in your online presence. It’s their job to support your website and provide the open avenues to grow when you’re ready. A good hosting provider works with you to help you meet your online goals. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.

The Brief Version of Small Business Web Hosting

If you don’t have a lot of time for the details, this is a quick look at what you need to find when searching for a web host for your small business::

• 1 – 100 GB Bandwidth: Think of bandwidth like the size of the front door.  The more traffic you expect, and the bigger the packages (files and video) coming and going, the more bandwidth you need.
• SSL Certificate, if you plan to accept credit cards
• E-commerce support, if you plan to sell products
• 1- 5 GB Disk Space: The more pages and large files you have, the more disk space you’ll need
• SQL Database (minimum 1)

Creating a business website is a completely different level of ownership and care than having a personal site. There are a lot of things to consider, starting with the best web host and including marketing, so let’s get started.

What Type of Small Business Website Are YOU Creating?

Business websites only come in four flavors: those that sell services, those that sell products, those based on affiliate marketing and a mixture of two or three. The flavor you choose defines the requirements of your small business hosting provider.

Bandwidth

All business websites need traffic (visitors) to flourish, and traffic, for the web server host, means bandwidth.

Bandwidth is the amount of information transferred from your site to the visitors’ computers. The more visitors there are and the bigger the files (such as video, audio and image files), the higher the amount of information being transferred. While 1 GB of bandwidth a month is enough for many, 100 GB will meet the needs of 90% of the small business websites out there (and seldom will any small business site reach the 100 GB cap).

Secure Sockets Layer

Usually, service-based sites don’t take credit cards or other sensitive information over the Internet.  Payments are usually rendered in person at the time of service, or through an invoice via Paypal or other payment provider. However, if you plan to take payments on your site, you need to securely protect your customers’ information.

A Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, adds a layer of protection to the transactions on your site. The information is encrypted and sent over a private channel, in order to keep it safe from the public eye (as well as from hackers attempting to gather the information.

E-Commerce & Shopping Cart Support

Most small business websites that are product-based (or e-commerce) will need some type of shopping cart solution.

Shopping carts are programs that help the shop owner add, delete and edit the various products in their online store, as well as keep track of sales, supply and so on. Not all small business web hosts provide this in their offerings. If you’re selling any products, however, the best small business web hosting package will offer shopping cart support (if not various programs themselves) for your use.

Examples of shopping cart solutions include:

osCommerce – osCommerce is a popular shopping cart with over 250,000 users. One of the reasons why it’s so popular is because of the available add-ons that allow you to customize the cart to meet your needs. It also has a highly active forum to help you build your online store.

Zen Cart – Like osCommerce, Zen Cart is a free, open source, shopping cart solution. It also has an active community and several add-ons, including over 70 store templates. As popular as osCommerce, they’ve created extensive Wiki, tutorial and showcase sections to help you on your way.

Magento – Magento offers free and paid shopping cart solutions, as well as a strong support team and several extensions. They want to make sure you get the best out of your Magento installation, and work hard to see that happen.

WP e-Commerce – A WordPress shopping cart plugin that you can install to enable your website to sell products securely. This nifty solution has been downloaded close to 2 million times.

SQL Database

If you plan to use a content management system, such as WordPress or Joomla, you’ll need at least one database. As well, product-based small business sites will need a database to manage those products. Therefore, you’ll need a minimum of one SQL database, if not two or more.

Okay, but… what’s a database?

Good question. Wikipedia has this great answer, about four pages long, that you can read if you want a really in depth version. The shorter version is this:

A database is created by a bunch of tables (think Microsoft Excel spreadsheet). Those tables consist of rows and columns with each one holding its own information, or data. A database differs from a spreadsheet in that it offers powerful functions, such as the ability to perform complex calculations, pull records that match your criteria, cross-reference data on several tables, and so on.

The very short version is that a database is a collection of organized information with a highly efficient retrieval system.

How Much Space Does Your Small Business Need?

A web server, just like your computer, has finite space available for use. However, most personal and small business websites take up very little space. For example, it’s rare for personal websites to exceed ClickHOST’s basic plan, which allows for 500MB of space.

Having said that, a small business website has different needs than a personal one. If, for example, you will be selling several products and have individual pages for each, you’ll need more space. If you’re selling digital prints or something equally artistic, it doesn’t take many large files to fill up 500 MB. For that matter, a few hundred products or so can quickly push 1 GB. When you talk to your web hosting provider, discuss your project with them – communication is key to getting the service you need.

Helpful Goodies – Deciding the Best Small Business Web Hosting for You

All of the above are necessities for the website you’re trying to create. If the hosting provider you’re surveying doesn’t have those things, they aren’t the right ones for you. However, the best small business web host will also have a few goodies along with their hosting package that can help make running a website much easier.

• FTP (File Transfer Protocol) accounts, which allow you (or your web developer) to easily upload files to your site and make changes
• Email accounts, so you can have the personal account you’re used to, and the business account (info@mycompany.com) to match the website and your new professional stature
• WordPress friendly, in case you decide to use the great content management system as your website platform
• CPanel , which is an easy-to use website control panel that allows you full access to functions like backing up your website, installing software and virus protection (you can test a CPanel demo here)
• Spam Control, to block spam before it hits your email accounts

Finally, the last thing to consider is – do you plan to grow? The Internet gives small businesses the chance to grow like no other marketing medium. Your small business website has the chance to grow exponentially, and you need a web hosting provider that can grow with you. Before signing on the dotted line, ask your chosen provider how they can help you grow.

• Do they have larger plans above the one you’re currently purchasing?
• Can you upgrade to more space, while keeping the same bandwidth?
• How easy is it to upgrade?
• Will they help you upgrade, or do you have to figure it out on your own?

A small business website hosting provider– for that matter, any hosting provider – should be as interested in the success of your new business as you are. Invest the time to interview, read and research; find the best hosting provider for your small business and start growing!

Ah, the comfort of sameness. We love to wear the same jeans, go to the same coffee shop, order the same entrée, even vacation in the same place. We all have our little comfort box, and when we are asked to go outside that box to try something different, the first reaction is usually to turtle deeper into the sanctity of our shell. Don’t mess with my little routine! It is working for me… But when it comes to your website, is it really working that well?

Maybe it is time for a change. Or maybe change has come to you uninvited, and you must find a new website host. In either case, there is no need to recoil. Think of ClickHOST as your full-support solution when it is time for you to make the move.

Moving can be simple, so here are your three tips to moving your domain:

1 Contact your current registrar

First, contact the company where your domain is currently registered, and ask them to unlock your domain, and to send you an EPP code (also called an authorization code). They will probably send you an email with this code within a few minutes. You don’t need to know what an EPP code is, so don’t freak out. You will just copy and paste this so ClickHOST will have permission to move your domain. You also need to unlock you domain, AND don’t forget to remove ID protection/privacy protection if it is currently on.

2 Transfer the domain to ClickHOST

Next click here: Transfer my domain, and start the process of moving that domain to ClickHOST. Enter your existing domain name  (Top Level Domain, like .com or .org). You will now enter the EPP Code (see step #1), and then click the services you desire. DNS Management offers the ability to redirect your traffic to another site, kind of like “call forwarding.” Your visitor could enter your domain, and they could be redirected to a site of your choice. ID Protection makes you as the owner of the domain invisible to those searching, such as using WHOIS to find out who owns the domain. After you complete these options, you will be directed to the shopping cart where you can review your selections and checkout. It is so simple. If you want to transfer more than one domain you can use our bulk domain transfer option.

3 Approve the transfer

After completing the checkout, you will receive a few emails from ClickHOST, and likely you will also receive some communications from your former domain company. Read these emails carefully, as you will be asked to approve the transfer. The following email is very important and you need to click on the link to indicate your approval of the transfer to ClickHOST.
 

 
After you have handled this approval, then wait patiently for three to seven days, and you are all set!

You’ve just made a great choice to switch your domain to ClickHOST. Now don’t forget that we offer hosting, too! And best of all, we are here to help you through every step. For help with domains, just click here to send us an email now. Don’t let a single question get in the way of your move. ClickHOST is the right place for you to be now!

Don’t give up on the quest for knowledge. WordPress is easier to learn about than you might think. The problem isn’t the amount of information (it really isn’t that much); it’s the fact that it’s not all in one place. Well… it wasn’t.

Read on, first time website builder, and find out the facts about WordPress and WordPress hosting!

WordPress – The Simple Version

WordPress is one of the top publishing platforms, used by tens of millions of people. It’s the largest content management system used on the Web today. In fact, many well-known brands use WordPress for their Internet presence. Now let’s go over what that really means in plain speak.

A publishing platform allows you to share content on the Internet: pictures, text, diagrams, music, etc.

A content management system (CMS) helps you add, edit, and delete the information you share, whether you have 2 or 200,000 words.

If WordPress is “one of the top”, that means there are others, right?

Right. So, why is it so popular? Lots of reasons, such as:

• Free or low cost – WordPress itself is free, and thanks to the type of license it has, is required to always be free. WordPress hosting can be cheap (although you have to be careful with providers that offer cheap web hosting). For example, hosting for a personal blog will only cost about $5.00 a month, while hosting for a busy company site can cost as much as $25 a month or more.
• Ease of use – It takes most people less than a half hour to learn how to use WordPress. The learning curve is extremely short (who wants to spend their days learning software, anyway?).
• Easy to customize – WordPress isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of platform. It’s a you-don’t-like-that-look?-cool-here’s-this-one kind of platform. It’s extremely flexible; almost any design and function you want can be achieved.
• Large support community – If you want to spend your time learning software, dig deeper into WordPress and learn how to create some amazing designs (themes) and functions (plugins) for others to enjoy. The support community is one of the most active, because people fall in love with WordPress and want to help others share in that enjoyment.
• Scalable – WordPress can be used as a personal blog, a personal site or a large, high traffic company website.

Long story made short, WordPress is so popular because it’s easy to use, scalable, flexible and inexpensive.

Choosing the Best WordPress Hosting for You

There’s WordPress, and then there’s WordPress hosting. Like any computer, your hosting provider’s server is set up with a specific operating system, programs and so on. WordPress is a program. So, just like the computer you’re reading this on, there can be compatibility issues between the program and the computer. Your job, when choosing the best WordPress hosting, is (of course) to make sure you have a hosting provider than can properly handle WordPress.

When shopping for the best hosting for WordPress, ask these questions:

Do you use WAMP or LAMP?

WAMP and LAMP are the two most commonly used server software bundles (called stacks) for WordPress. These acronyms stand for:

• WAMP = Windows, Apache, MySql, and PHP
• LAMP = Linux, Apache, MySql, and PHP

Choosing a hosting provider with the right software bundle is essential to having a quality WordPress installation. One of the main reasons WAMP and LAMP are most common, is because Windows relies heavily on PHP. This leaves other common server stacks such as WISA (Windows, IIS, SQL, ASP) out of the equation. As well, Apache is considered much more secure than other options – a concern for burgeoning business owners.

While WordPress can, and does, run on both WAMP and LAMP configurations, LAMP provides the best performance. If you have a choice between the two, we suggest LAMP.

Does your WordPress hosting allow for growth?

Most of the time, a small amount of space on your provider’s computer (server) is all you’ll ever need – a few Gigabytes, at best. However, if you want to share a lot of video, audio, flash files, large images or a lot of pages, you will, eventually, have to upgrade to more space. To prepare for this eventuality, make sure your chosen hosting provider has allowances for growth.

What type of security do you provide?

Make security a priority. The average hosting package is secure, in that the company is required to maintain security on their system to prevent hackers, malware and all those other goodies from ruining clients’ websites. However, you want to ensure your chosen web host is willing to help you harden your WordPress installation. Like any program, it can be hacked.

As well, not all themes and plugins are secure, and some may have holes that make your site vulnerable to malicious code. Because of this, you need a hosting provider that offers security checkups, multiple account backups, antivirus software and SSL certificates.

Do you allow add-ons?

The best WordPress hosting allows for change, as well as growth. For example, if you aren’t currently interested in selling anything, you don’t need a shopping cart. However, you might change your mind in the future. As another example, you might get interested in how many people are coming to your site; in this case, you’ll want some form of analytics to track this information. Rather than switch hosting providers to gain these capabilities, the best hosting already has these capabilities available.

Not All WordPress Hosting Is WordPress Hosting

Not every web host that claims to support WordPress actually does, and not all of them support WordPress well. Research is crucial. Find out HOW they support WordPress, with questions like those above. Do they offer any assurances, such as weekly backups or security maintenance? Not all web hosts plainly state such information.

ClickHOST strives to provide the best in service, support and hosting solutions. WordPress is our main content management platform, and we prove it with the best WordPress hosting available. See how ClickHOST supports WordPress. What are you waiting for? Give your WordPress site what it needs to thrive!

How? When ClickHOST had the opportunity to become a main sponsor of WordCamp Atlanta this year, we couldn’t resist. What better place to be than in room with hundreds of fellow WordPress afficionados? Best of all, we knew this would be a chance to connect with the Atlanta businesses and bloggers who use our favorite publishing platform.

So, to all, please join us at for WordCamp Atlanta 2012 on Feb 3-4, 2012 in Midtown Atlanta at the Atlanta Campus of SCAD on Peachtree. What is WordCamp you ask? WordCamp is a two-day exploration and sharing of the wonders of WordPress. World class WordPress experts like, Dre Armeda, Lisa Sabin-Wilson and Mike Schinkel will be speakers as well as a great many involved in the Atlanta metro WordPress scene.

$1 WordPress hosting

Now for the best part. We are so excited about our attendance and sponsorship of WordCamp that we decided to offer $1 hosting to all WordCamp Atlanta attendees. This offer is good for ClickHOST’s BETTER annual plan and includes one FREE domain name for a year. You get $120 in value for just $12! Please don’t tell our CFO about this. He’ll fire me.

WordCamp Atlanta Resources:

Here is the full line-up of all the WordCamp Atlanta 2012 speakers and all the WordCamp attendees. No worries, if you won’t be attending this year, we hope to learn a lot and share with you on the ClickHOST blog. You can follow the event on Twitter by using the hashtag: #WCATL. If you don’t follow us already, use: @clickhost on Twitter.

Will you be at WordCamp?

We really like the full page article in the NY Times and we agree with this: Internet giants against SOPA

If you want to learn more about the proposed bills, then here are a few good links:

• Mashable on a potential Internet blackout
• Wikipedia & SOPA and PIPA learn more
• BBC SOPA and PIPA in pictures

If you feel like you need to support SOPA then here is our “Top 10 reasons to support SOPA”

1. You misread and thought it said: don’t support SOFA. You like sofas.
2. You live in the woods and don’t use the Internet.
3. You’re a politician and thought this would be an easy way to garner votes.
4. You are godaddy.
5. You think you are “Al Gore” and you invented the Internet.
6. You like to take a bath and thought it said “support SOAP”
7. You have an idea to develop software that you can sell to companies to monitor their SOPA compliance.
8. You like to see black boxes all over the Internet.
9. You hate Google and want them to blackout for 24 hours.
10. We couldn’t think of another reason? Can you?

1 – Why it matters

As of now, Google+ has about 50 million users.  That sounds great, but in all it’s only about 1/16 the size of Facebook.  So why bother with it?  For Google search. Your company undoubtedly thinks that it’s important to rank well on Google, and you possibly even spend money with Google AdWords to help draw in more visitors.  As time goes on, Google+ is becoming increasingly important to help you rank well.  Here are a few reasons why:

• Your friends on Google+ greatly affect your search results. When you search for something in Google, if any of your friends have shared or +1′d a relevant page, it’ll show up much higher in the search results for you.  This goes the other way too, so building relationships on Google+ will have a direct impact on your search traffic.
• Links from Google+ are “followed”.  One of the basic pieces of SEO is to get more in-bound links to your site.  Over the years, though, many sites (including Facebook and Twitter) have been “nofollowing” their outbound links, meaning Google doesn’t count them.  Google+, at least for now, isn’t doing that with any of their links.  If someone is talking about your business on Google+ you get the double bonus of direct clicks and SEO juice.
• Authors on Google+ get their image next to their search results.  This will help your site to stand out more when listed with other sites on Google, as shown here:

The other big edge, especially for your business, is the first-mover advantage.  Companies that join social networks earlier tend to acquire more fans than those that join later.  On Twitter this is very clear, as in most industries the first companies to join tend to have the highest number of followers.  The same holds true on Google+.  Even after being on Twitter for four years, and tweeting nearly 6,000 times, I already have more than 3x the followers on Google+ simply because everything is new and exciting and it’s easier to gain traction.  As people settle in, it’ll take more work to establish yourself.

2 – How to get started

Similar to Facebook, you’re not allowed to create an “account” for your business, but your account can create a “page” for your business or organization.  Accounts are only for people, but once logged in you can create a page for your business. Head over to plus.google.com, and log in with your Gmail account (if you have one).  If not, you can sign up from that page.  Be sure to use your real name for your main account, and not the name of your business.  If you name your personal profile “Acme Hardware”, Google will delete it.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see five buttons along the top of your screen, seen here:

They are:

• Home: Get back to the start page.
• Photos: Manage and view your photos.
• Profile: View your profile, set privacy settings, etc.
• Circles: Rather than simply “following” or “friending” people, you group them into circles based on their role in your life, such as “friends”, “family”, “co-workers”, etc.  It works similar to Twitter in that you can circle anyone you want and they choose to circle you back if they want; no mutual “friending” is required.
• Games: Play some games.  The neat thing here is that games are kept in this area and don’t ever make their way into your main stream.

3 – How to add your business

Once you have your personal profile rolling, it’s time to create a page for your business. Getting started is easy:

• First, head over to the Google+ “create page” section, found here.
• Choose your category on the left, and walk through the steps from there.

• Add your photo/avatar.  This will likely be your company logo.
• Post good content!  This new page is worthless without quality content, so try to get on there every day and share insights and tips related to your industry.
• Tell people about your page.  Mention it in a blog post on your site, or perhaps share the page with your followers on Google+.

To access your page in the future, go to the Google+ home page and look in the upper-left corner, near your avatar.  There will now be a small arrow below your name that leads to a drop-down menu.  That menu allows you to toggle between your personal profile and any of your pages, as shown here:

Keep in mind that you completely “become” your page when you select it.  Once you choose your page, you can go around on Google+ on behalf of the page (rather than acting as your personal profile).  This allows you to find great content to share on your page, leave comments on other posts, and interact with other users.  At anytime you can click the Google+ logo to go back to your home page and then use the drop-down menu to shift control back to your personal profile.

Google+ business pages are still very new, but they’re already becoming a big deal.  The earlier you can get started, the better off you’ll be, so go create your page today!

Check out the ClickHOST.com Google+ page here: clickhost.com/+

This post was written by Mickey Mellen of Green Mellen Media. Thanks to the ClickHOST team for allowing us the chance to share this information with your readers.

So what’s the difference between these cheap web hosting companies and a reputable hosting provider, such as ClickHOST?
The difference is service. The disk space may be the same, but will there be anyone there to ensure quality of service? Will they be around next month? Next year?

Here are 5 Reasons NOT to Choose a Cheap Web Hosting Plan

1. Customer Service
Cheap web hosting companies offer their services at such a low price that being able to provide quality customer service becomes practically impossible. A good web hosting company will be able to provide you with top-notch customer service, whether for a billing inquiry or for technical support. If you need help with your web hosting account, will your web hosting provider be there for you?

2. Reliability
Offering reliable web hosting means ensuring that the web servers being used are mechanically sound and all software is up to date. That requires man-hours, skills and money. If your website hosting costs only pennies a month, how much money is being spent on making sure YOUR website is going to work when it needs to? A quality web hosting company works hard to ensure that all of its web servers are in top working order so that YOUR website is working properly at all times.

3. Speed
If your website comes up as little as 5 seconds slower than your competitors, you can potentially lose customers. Many cheap web hosting companies pack thousands of websites on to one single web server. The result is slow web pages and numerous time-outs.

4. True Price
Some cheap web hosting companies offer you extremely low monthly hosting prices, but then charge you a premium for services like MySQL or PHP that other reputable, professional web hosting companies already include in their hosting plans. Make sure you read the hosting plan to ensure that includes what you need now and what you might need later.

5. Emergency Response
All web servers online receive hundreds and sometimes thousands of attempted hacker attacks each and every day. Maintaining security and dealing with those attempted attacks is an ongoing job that can cost thousands. Every now and then, one of those hacker attacks makes it past the latest security measures and does its best to cause havoc. A professional web hosting company is prepared to deal with that potential crisis. They have the resources available to make sure your website is back up and running as quickly as possible. Some cheap web hosting companies do not maintain backups for cost reasons and keep a skeleton staff at most. Would they be ready to get your website back in action?

If you find a cheap web hosting company, make sure you read the fine print. You get exactly what you pay for.

ClickHOST is a professional web hosting company with almost a decade of web hosting experience. ClickHOST offers various types of web site hosting. Take a look at our various web hosting plans.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

The grandaddy of all keyword tools and quite often the only one you ever need, the Google AdWords Keyword Tool generates keyword ideas based on words you type in. Not only that, it tells you whether the competition is high and the number of monthly searches. I tested the phrase, “wordpress hosting” and saw that an average of 14,800 monthly global searches were done by people searching the words-all potential clickhost.com visitors

Google AdWords Traffic Estimator

Just below the keyword tool, the Google AdWords Traffic Estimator lets you take your new keyword ideas and see how much they cost, assuming you want to bid on them in Google AdWords aka paid search. Knowing how much the words are going for in paid search lets you know how valuable getting visitors searching for them could be to your business. I couldn’t help but notice that our phrase from above, “wordpress hosting” costs a company like ClickHOST an average of $17.39. Now, that in itself is an argument for using SEO to get so-called free traffic.

Google Insights for Search

Want to know how many people in Atlanta, Georgia are searching for “wordpress hosting” vs people in California? The Google Insights for Search tool makes this possible! If you have a great many people in a certain part of the world searching for your website’s product or service, then it might be worth building a special page to capture traffic for those types of searches. This tool comes in handy for dealing with unscrupulous SEO salesmen who brag about their ability to rank for “web hosting in Antarctica.”

You can spend literally hours in these keyword tools getting ideas and checking their value. Keyword research can be fun at times, but can easily turn into a drudgery after a while. Many website owners simply don’t take the time or have the discipline to find their best keywords. Spending time in keyword research tools like the above will help you make smarter decisions, get more traffic and grow your website.

Thanks to Carel and the ClickHOST team for allowing me to express myself here and for the pleasure of working with the team on some exciting SEO projects. Stop by and visit me at Clickfire.

1. Before Starting a Blog
2. What’s your Blog About?
3. Do you have the time to write?
4. Where is the Content Going to Come From?
5. How Much Money are you going to Invest?
6. Planning the Launch
7. Hosted WordPress vs. Free WordPress
8. WordPress.org and WordPress.com Advantages and Disadvantages
9. What Kind of Hosting do I need?
10. Web Host Servers: Which one is right for you? (MS vs LAMP)
11. cPanel Control Panel
12. Themes
13. Plugins
14. Conclusion
15. Resources

Before Starting a Blog
Stop! Sit back for a few minutes and picture yourself as a blogger one year from now.  You have poured your heart into your blog and created something you’re truly proud of. You have a great design, numerous blog posts and a growing group of subscribers who sometimes even leave comments. You’ve earned the title of “Blogger.” Are you happy?

One of the biggest downfalls of starting a blog is the task of updating it frequently. If you feel you don’t have time to commit to it properly and you just blurt out a post every other month then you shouldn’t bother getting started. Hundreds of blogs are created daily, however a large percentage of those blogs end up failing. If you don’t have any expertise or an active opinion, then don’t bother starting a blog. You may be able to keep it going for a few months, but what happens when you’ve run out of things to write? Some blogs can only stray a small distance from the starting point.

The most important aspect of starting a blog is the planning stage. You need to have a plan, and I can’t stress how important planning is and how it can benefit the creation of a blog. Let’s assume you’ve found a relevant niche in which you have plenty of knowledge in, you will need to begin planning out pre-written content, setting up social media accounts, secure domain names, make sure your web hosting provider can handle your potential traffic; the list goes on and on. Create a plan and spend a lot of time tweaking it until everything looks perfect. Blog launches can go terribly wrong without a well-structured plan, so before you start doing anything at all, write out the plan first.

The Goal of your Blog
We’re talking specifically about starting a blog but please understand that WordPress can be used for many types of websites including online shops, galleries, and forums. In fact, according to a survey mentioned by Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, 92% of developers responded that they use WordPress as a CMS (content management system). This means that when someone asks them to build a website of any sort, developers most often turn to WordPress. So, you might say that WordPress has transcended blogging.

What do you want your blog to achieve? If you want your blog to succeed, make sure it sticks to the goals you’ve set. Be it a part-time or full-time endeavor, the reasons people start blogs are very diverse. Let’s have a look at a few popular ones:

• Making Money Online – Do you want to earn money from your blog? It’s not too terribly difficult; however it isn’t a walk in the park either. There are many ways to earn revenue including sponsored posts, advertising and affiliate marketing and so on. You must understand all available routes that will help you achieve your goal and make sure you know everything about them. If you don’t do this, you are at major risk of losing revenue. Darren Rowse, one of the early “MMO” bloggers remains candid about how he makes money online with his blogs.
• Impressing Potential Employers – Many freelancers want to showcase their skills to their potential employers, thus create a blog. This allows them to display all their previous work and write about the career they are involved in. What does this help them achieve? It helps them gain exposure to potential employers. Starting a blog as an online résumé puts you a level up from everyone.
• Business Blogging – Simply put, many companies set up blogs on their website as a way to commutate with their customers. It also allows them to inform their customers of anything important happening from within the company, such as announcements. It’s also a good way to showcase promotional offers to potential clients and display testimonials from satisfied customers. It can also act as a medium for receiving feedback so companies can improve their services. Check out some examples of top business blogs and why they are successful.
• Expert Blogging – Some people blog to proclaim themselves as experts in their profession. Let’s take this from a perspective of a web designer. Let’s say a web designer earns his fair share of clients, has a stable monthly income and has an enormous amount of knowledge in design. This would be the perfect opportunity to create a blog to teach others what you know. Not only will it help you gain your status as a career expert, it will potentially help your business too. If you start a blog that is magnetic enough to attract large numbers of subscribers, you will be taken seriously as an expert by new visitors.
• Blog for Fun – Enough about the commercial side of blogging; a lot of people want to blog just because they enjoy it. Some people may work a regular 9 till 5 job and want a little freedom outside of the workplace. Starting a blog is a great way to ensure you don’t get burnt out and stressed on your day to day life. Blogging gives you the freedom to write about whatever you’d like to write about, which many people see as an enjoyable hobby.

What’s your Blog About?
Most people have certain topics that they are deeply interested in. Readers will be able to tell quickly if you have a passion that inspires them. Think of several niche areas that you would enjoy writing about and learning more about as you go along. Next, try and get a sense of their popularity. If you were looking to set up a technology blog, the competition would be fierce as there are hundreds of technology blogs out there. On the other hand, a blog about arctic vacations will have a smaller potential audience to attract. Google AdWords has a pretty handy tool that lets you see the potential competition you have for your relevant niche and the amount of global monthly searches it receives.

If you choose a topic that is already covered by major publishers, then there is a chance that your blog won’t generate much traffic as there are many other authoritative resources available. Your style must be unique and shine through in each blog post you make. If you want to gain traffic for a blog relating to a popular niche, think outside the blogging box.

Do you have Time to Write?
Will you be able to set aside time each day to write an article? Time is dependent on your niche. For example, if you were to start a technology blog, you would most likely need to update your blog daily; however these updates won’t necessarily be lengthy articles. If you were to start a design blog, you could create an blog post once a week, as the article could be a lengthy and detailed tutorial. If you currently work a full-time job and don’t have enough time to commit to a blog, then this isn’t for you.

Where is the Content Going to Come From?
The amount of content you post is crucial. Quality over quantity is a major aspect in blogging. Are you capable of writing daily or weekly articles yourself that people will want to read? Determine how frequently you want to post and how long you want each post to be. Some bloggers like Darren Rowse schedule new posts to go live on certain days weeks or months out. WordPress makes scheduling blog posts super easy.

There are other ways to generate content for your blog such as getting experts or guests to post  content on your blog. Having an expert publish a guest post on your blog could potentially help you receive more traffic, keep your blog active and ultimately make more money for you. Sometimes, a panel of experts may be invited to weigh in on pre-determined questions as in this post about social media tricks at the DDIY blog.

Free guest blog services such as My Blog Guest offer an “articles gallery” to their community of bloggers who can connect directly with publishers to post unique articles that include a link credit. For some, this may be a real time-saver, yet for others, they may feel that their blog is an expression of their freedom. They love what they put into their content, therefore would only feel comfortable with like-minded people posting guest content on their blog. This matter mostly comes down to personal opinion.

Another example would be to interview others in your niche. Interviews are a very informative source of information and readers love to know more about their favorite bloggers.  Often, a well known interviewee will promote their interview on your blog to get more publicity for themselves.

How Much Money are you going to Invest?
Funding can play an important role in blogging as well. Yes, you can earn money through blogging, but you have to spend money as well. Well established bloggers can make some extra money through advertising, however new bloggers are often on a shoestring budget. At first, your blog won’t likely generate much traffic so spending a little cash on to get your name out is absolutely necessary. Several blogs allocate advertising space to showcase services, products and other bloggers. Next to this space, there is normally an “advertise with us” link sitting next to it. Bloggers will advertise your blog if you pay them a set amount of money per month. The cost is dependent on how popular the advertising blog is.

Planning the Launch
Lastly, upon launching your blog, you will need pre-written content. No-one will be interested in a new blog if it only has only a couple of posts. Create at least a month or two of content so you can easily update your blog when its time. Readers will assume you are serious about what you write. This will also give you the time to advertise your blog through all available mediums. Allocate time for writing posts, responding to comments, doing some minor WordPress updates and maintenance and promoting your blog elsewhere.

Hosted WordPress vs. Free WordPress
The vast majority of bloggers install WordPress onto their own domains via their web hosting provider. This is sometimes referred to as the WordPress.org option. We want you to know that there is a free WordPress that you can set up on the WordPress.com domain itself. Your blog address would look like this: yourblog.wordpress.com. This is a great no-risk way for WordPress newbies to test drive WordPress before getting serious.

Let’s break this down in to very simple terms to help everybody understand the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress itself is simply online blogging software that allows you to publish content. It is the most popular content publishing platform out there today. WordPress allows you to create any kind of website tailored to your needs, from a simple blog to a a company website.

Now that we’ve gotten the basics out of the way, let’s review the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is where you can download the platform and upload it manually to a website and host it yourself through a service like ClickHOST. This requires some intermediate knowledge about web hosting, domain names and online file management (FTP).

WordPress.com simply allows you to register a blog within the WordPress.com website. You don’t have to download anything, or worry about hosting. They host your blog for you. WordPress.com is in place for users who have very little knowledge about web hosting and essentially how to run a website or blog manually.

WordPress.org and WordPress.com Advantages and Disadvantages
Let’s start with WordPress.org.

WordPress.org Advantages:

• Complete control of your blog. You can edit it any way you like.
• Ability to upload as many themes/plugins as you desire.
• The website has a very helpful community who can usually help you with any issue you may face.

WordPress.org Disadvantages:

• You need to pay for your own web hosting and domain name. This could be expensive if you run a high traffic website.
• Requires some intermediate knowledge about web hosts and WordPress.
• You have to dispose of spam and create all of your backups yourself.
• You must update all your plugins, themes and WordPress upgrades yourself.
• High traffic spikes can cause potential downtime

Now, let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress.com:

WordPress.com Advantages:

• It’s free.
• It’s extremely easy to set-up your blog as you don’t have to upload any files or create any databases, etc.
• Updates, spam, backups and other important aspects are all taken care of for you.
• It uses SSL for secure log-ins
• It is very unlikely your website will receive downtime on their servers.

WordPress.com Disadvantages:

• You can’t use your own domain (at least not for free)
• You can’t use custom themes.
• You can’t upload your own plugins.
• You can’t edit any of the PHP files behind the blog if you wanted to.
• All of your content can be removed and your blog disabled without notice if you are perceived to have violated the terms of service. Spammers most often get taken down but sometimes legitimate bloggers become victims.

If you want more control over your blog without any limitations of any kind, then downloading the WordPress software itself from WordPress.org would be the way to go (many hosts such as ClickHOST allow automatic installation or will even offer to install it for you). However, if you’re really stumped on this and would feel much more comfortable having WordPress.com host your blog and aren’t that fussed about custom themes or plugins, then they would be a better fit.

What Kind of Hosting do I need?
WordPress requires two important technologies: MySQL for the database and PHP for the programming language. The good news is that you don’t need to worry about these server technologies. ClickHOST and most any web hosting service you choose already has this installed and  running for you.

Web Host Servers: Which one is right for you? (MS vs Linux)
If you are looking for a WordPress hosting service for your blog, keep in mind that there are typically two hosting solutions you can choose from: a Windows server or a Linux server.  You don’t really have to worry about this unless you’re at the stage where you’re looking for a web host.

The creators of WordPress generally recommend hosting on a Linux server, but why is this?

• Linux is an open source system therefore is cheaper to run than Windows.
• Linux is known to be more stable and crash less often.
• It is a lot faster at executing processes, as opposed to Windows servers.
• Linux also runs the popular, open source Apache server software.

Wondering now why some people choose to be hosted on a Windows server? The reason for this is that they can run certain software such as MS databases and Access. It also offers adequate programming environments such as ASP (Active Server Pages) and VBS (Visual Basic Scripts).

cPanel Control Panel
You may have heard of a control panel several web hosts use to allow their customers to easily customize their websites, among other things. This control panel is called cPanel. It one of the most used web hosting control panels and used by ClickHOST for all customers.

cPanel can allow you to do a very wide array of tasks, which include but are not limited to: file management, the creation and management of databases, e-mail accounts, FTP accounts, domain names, sub-domains and add-on domains, the ability to set-up external e-mail services, creating custom error pages, installing specific online software and much, much more.

Guess what else you can do with cPanel? You can literally click a few buttons and type in a bit of info to install the WordPress software on your domain! cPanel allows you to install content management systems, shopping carts and of course, blogging platforms as well.

cPanel has a software installer by the name of Fantastico or Softaculous. Click on either of these installers, and there should be a Blog or CMS  category. Click on the relevant category, and you should see WordPress as an available option. The installer will then guide you on installing the software. You will most likely only have to enter basic information such as your e-mail address, username and password and the title and description of your blog.

Your blog should now be set-up and available to use. Now, you can start posting away!

Themes
I have a WordPress blog and some great content to post, but my design isn’t great…Help! There are millions of Free WordPress themes available on the Internet intended for both personal and commercial use. If you have a budget set aside to have a custom theme built, then there are several talented designers ready to accept your dream theme project. All you need to do is find the right one for you and make sure they meet your specifications. Many hosting companies provide such services. In face ClickHOST is a WordPress friendly host that loves to help customers choose a suitable theme and select plugins to fit their needs.

If you have a little money to spend on a Premium WordPress theme, then your best bet is purchasing one from the many premium theme marketplaces. A few popular marketplaces include ThemeForest, WooThemes and ElegantThemes.

Plugins
If you’ve heard of WordPress, you’ve likely heard of WordPress plugins. They are adored by many; without them bloggers might be lost. Plugins are essentially PHP scripts that allow your blog to do specific tasks. They are super easy to install on your blog and are usually very easy to configure as well. There is a section on the WordPress website where you can browse and download any plugins of your choosing. Warning: you can spend literally hours there browsing and testing all the nifty plugins (there are more than 15,000 listed).

What types of plugins are there? Well, there are plugins that can block spam, optimize your blog for search engines, add galleries and slideshows add contact forms, create sitemaps; the possibilities are literally endless.

However, too many plugins can be a bad thing. For example, the activation of several plugins many slow down your website significantly, and may even cause your website to crash. Some may also pose as a security risk on your blog. Old, or poorly written plugins can be damaging to your blog, and often can conflict with one another, so remember to be weary when installing new plugins onto your blog.

Conclusion
With the right tools, expenses and knowledge, setting up a blog is a very simple task. It will certainly take time to get your blog up and running, and even more time to generate traffic. Being patient is extremely important. Launching your WordPress blog without any hitches shouldn’t be difficult. Make sure you have content ready, make sure you have a great design, make sure social media tools are set-up and that your website is optimized for search engines. Create a to-do list and make sure you have gotten absolutely everything down before launching.

Starting a blog is a fun and unique experience as it gives you the freedom to write about whatever you want. You have the ability to share unique content and thoughts with the world so take advantage of what blogging can give you and make sure you do it to the best of your ability.

References or Further Reading
If you would like to know more about WordPress, blogging, themes and plugins, web hosting and anything else we’ve mentioned, then please feel free to view the following resources. They may better your understanding of things you may be unsure of or don’t understand.

Blogging Resources:

• Basic Blog Tips – Ileane’s inspiring blog for WordPress beginners
• Problogger.net – Darren Rowse and fellow bloggers’ tips
• Copy Blogger – Excellent source for blog content marketing

WordPress Resources:

• WordPress.TV – Sit back and watch WordPress How-to videos
• WordPress Twitter – Follow the official WordPress Twitter feed
• WP Lift – WordPress news, guides and tips