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Setting up your WordPress Blog? Part 1

by Mike Mueller- builder of Custom Facebook Business (fan) Pages

in Blogging

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: Image via Wikipedia

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 ”.

Part Two: Setup your WP Blog? Part 2

To be continued…

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