BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info Disclaimer The content of this eBook is copyright protected by Carolyn A Smith and BlogMillion.com 2010. No part of this guide may be shared, copied or sold without prior permission from BlogMillion.com. Every effort has been made to ensure that the contents of this guide are accurate, so BlogMillion.com takes no responsibility for any damage or loss as results of using the tips and information in this book. The guide includes promotions of some affiliate links throughout the book, and we appreciate if you’re using them if you decide to purchase any of the tools/software/plugins we recommend. It helps us tremendously and enables us to provide more quality content to share with everyone. We sincerely hope that the content of this book will aid your blogging business endeavors. To Your Success! -BlogMillion BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info INTRODUCTION Many people have heard about how everyday people are finding financial success by blogging online. Blogging is as easy as writing a diary but many have turned it into money making online job opportunity. This eBook is written for the beginner as a guide to blogging since many don’t know where to start. Just like you use a GPS to navigate your car from point A to point B the Blog GSP Navigation System will give you A to B instructions on starting your blog. In this free eBook you will learn from what a blog is to having all the knowledge and tools you need to start a blog of your own and generate income all from sharing your thoughts with the world via the internet. I created the Blog GPS to help my team members create blogs of their own. We belonged to a very lucrative MLM Opportunity which provided a state of the art turn-key website what that really means is it was a cookie cutter site. The problem with having these websites was that most of them were exactly the same. First of all they were subdomains, a duplicated template, and who ever posted their url onto the web first gained that coveted position. By creating personalized individual blogs my team and I were able to break away from the pack and generate unique content and posts on the internet promoting the business opportunity. So if you are in an MLM, Affiliate Program, or just want to know how to create a blog this beginners guide is perfect for you. To Your Success Carolyn A Smith -Blog Million BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info WHAT IS A BLOG? A blog is an online personal diary and for the men you can refer to it as a journal of thoughts. In this personal place you write about the things that interest you and what you would like to talk about. BY DEFINITION So you may follow what I mean I have listed a few key words you will need to know to help you follow this eBook easily. A person who owns, posts, and maintains a blog is a blogger. The duty of posting the information for others to read is blogging. I know it sounds funny to say the blogger is blogging on his blog but it will make sense by the time you finish reading. Blog – a diary or online journal. Blogger - a person who writes a blog. Content - The actual text of the most recent post. Comments - An area for readers of the blog to add their comments. Archives - A link to view the archive section which contains older posts. Subscriber – A person who chooses to receive updates to your blog as they are published. BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info WHY BLOG? You may be wondering what the big deal is about blogging. I believe that anyone who feels they have something to say have now found by creating a blog the way to say it. Bloggers do not face the negativity of “trying” to share what they think and hope it’s received properly. They just do it! (Looking for my Nike endorsement) A blog can be therapeutic, it can be informative, dramatic, entertaining, or it can be a daily ranting that you personally don’t have an audience for. The Internet is the perfect venue that allows you to share your voice. You would be surprised by how many people who may feel just like you! Bloggers have the opportunity of reaching thousands globally each and every day. Blogging has become a popular hobby with the average person on the internet just like you and me. The range of blog topics runs the gamut from how to clean a fish tank to understanding science formulas. I do not personally suggest blogging about your personal life in “detail” because of obvious reasons; but to share a passion, opinion, or hobby is the safest idea. At this point you know what a blog is and that average people all over the world are reading and writing blogs of their own. BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info Acquiring GPS Signal……. PLEASE START DRIVING GETTING STARTED Publishing your thoughts is easy and free. It takes a few minutes and a couple of easy to follow steps and you will be a blogger in no time. You need a home on the Internet to put your blog. This place will also provide you with an address for finding the blog on the internet which is your Url. This is known as "hosting". Here are a few blogging websites to choose from: https://www.blogger.com http://www.blog.com/ http://www.wordpress.com http://Livelogcity.com http://Livejournal.com http://Squarespace.com BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info FREE VS PAID HOSTING For this eBook I am going to show you how to use free hosting; but will touch on the difference very quickly of what a paid hosting service can provide. Have you ever heard the term “Nothing in life is for free”? Well there are advantages and disadvantages to using a free hosting service for your blog. DISADVANTAGES: The downside of using a free service is that you maybe limited to the full features the host can provide a paying user. Some services will only allow one author on your blog but will allow unlimited authors if you pay for the service. A free host will place advertising in or above your blog. Why would they do that? Why wouldn’t they? You are using their hosting site for free; so they will help keep it affordable by showing their clients advertisements on your page to your viewers. This advertising may be in the form of a banner over the top of your site or along the side or bottom. Using a free host your domain name will be part of another domain, perhaps www.casmith.blogspot.com vs. www.casmith.com this is known as a subdomain. We will cover domain names later in the eBook. ADVANTAGES: The obvious advantage is it’s FREE! As a beginner this is a great way to start blogging because you can try it out and see if you have what it takes to be a blogger. If you find it is not something you like, what have you lost? Nothing except a few minutes of your time. If you become a dedicated blogger, you can upgrade your service options when you feel more comfortable. BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info BLOG BASICS Most blogs contain the following components: Header – What Your blog is called. Subject- What your blog is about. Title- What will create interest on the internet. Content – The text you create for your blog including video and images. Time/Date Stamp – Shows how current your posts are so that your reader knows they are receiving the most current information. Comments – If you allow your readers to provide a comment this is where they will post it. BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info We will use Blogger.com as our host site for this eBook example. CREATE YOUR BLOG Go to www.blogspot.com to create your blog. You can take a tour of the site, view a video tutorial, or read about blogger from posts made by blogger users. You will be asked to provide an email address. If you already have one with Gmail, Google Groups, or Orkut simply log into your account first; then create your blog because you can login to Blogger with your Google Account and now you have one less username and password to remember. To choose an available URL you need to think about what you want your internet address to become so that surfers will find your blog. The more relevant to the topic or niche the better. If you change your mind and want a different URL later, making the change is easy to do. Customize your template So that your blog is not a blank piece of paper, blogger provides templates for you to choose from. Pick the theme that you like the best. The blogs are editable so you can customize them to your taste. You can also add interesting widgets, photos, videos, slideshows, user polls, and AdSense ads! Blogger is very user friendly so you can adjust the fonts and text colors on the template with ease. Adding photo’s and video’s are a greet way to generate interest in your blog and drive traffic to your page. Once you have created the traffic I just referred to; give your readers the option to follow your blog by adding the follow gadget to your layout. When your readers click the "Follow This Blog" link this will add your blog to their personal dashboard in their Blogger/Google Reader account they now will know when you post new content and hopefully share it with others. BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info Add the share button to your entries for the ease of the reader to forward your blog to their friends and family. The comments feature/feedback for your blog can be turned on or off. It’s a bit of a gamble and depends on what your writing about and how open you are to others including competitors commenting on your page where others can read it. Always allow your readers an option of becoming a subscriber to your blog so they're notified whenever you publish a new blog post. GROUP BLOGGING With Blogger, it's easy to create a team blog, allowing multiple bloggers to contribute to a single blog. You select which team members have administrative authorization and those who are just going to be authors. You can also choose to make your blog private and restrict who can view it. This puts you in full control of your blog. Can I Write My Blog From My Desktop? Usually speaking blogging takes place right within your web browser. You log in to your blog, create a new post, just as you might write an email, providing a subject line or title, and then a body of text beneath. The problem with writing online is that browsers can and will crash, if you lose your web connection before saving it’s a wrap, all that work gone into cyber space. I am not trying to scare you but by using a desktop blogging application you avoid this happening. You type out your blog post first on your desktop then submit it electronically to your blog. [...]... sites such as Digg, Technorati, and Twitter The exposure this can generate for your blog is baffling! CLICK HERE Ping Optimizer Blog pinging notifies blog servers that your blog has recently published new content Your new content is shared across other BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info networks, increasing your blog' s exposure Abuse of the ping can get you flagged and you do not want to have that... they enjoy or have found value from One of the great things about blogging is that you do not have to be a professional writer to have a popular blog To make your blog popular make it honest, pleasing to the eye, and interesting enough for them to come back BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info THE TITLE Perhaps the most important part of any blog post is the title I know you think it should be the content... you post a blog post, it will automatically be posted to Twitter, Ping.fm and your entire favorite social networking sites you have enrolled with via Ping.fm.PS How’s that for maximizing your time! Make sure to follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/blogmillion BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info F Social Networking is the new way to make friends HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR BLOG Monetizing Your Blog In... will make your blog pleasing to the eye and make your readers more likely to stay on your page longer B Your blog is up and running, and once you hit “publish” it is live on the internet If you are interested in starting to make money with your blog content, you will need to promote your blog to as many people as possible PROMOTING YOUR BLOG Keyword search When you’re setting up a blog, you should... “Average”) These 5 keywords will be 5 of the categories in your blog BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info Do you see how this works? Provide what the searchers are looking for based on the terms they request in their searches online You are bound to be the blog they find! C You have researched the 5 words that will generate the most traffic for your blog to become the hottest on the internet DOMAIN NAMES There... easily allows your blog to be retweeted and it shows a live count of the number of times your blogpost has been tweeted CLICK HERE Get your blog/ website indexed at Google Go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools Choose “Add new site” – then enter your url address E By utilizing all of the plugins you are maximizing your blogging efforts and should see a tsunami of traffic POSTING YOUR BLOG Search Engines... Technorati's Blog Finder, increasing your visibility As a bonus you also have a chance at being the featured blog appearing on Technorati's home page BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info Facebook www.facebook.com Joining this social networking site is a must do – create a Facebook account for every blog and generate a following Squidoo www.squidoo.com the Google Search Engines love Squidoo, so make sure... content Not supported: tags, pings, multi -blog posting, and Twitter notifications http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/ There are many other desktop applications of great quality and they can be found on the internet for Mac and Linux users A At this point you've chosen where to host your blog, and you've set yourself up with a desktop editor BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info CONTENT What Should... sure that your content is always fresh The effort of maintaining your blog will be easy to do if your blog is generating additional income One of the best ways to monetize your blog is by incorporating Adsense, this advertising program works within any blog and it can generate a lot of money for you Adsense shows ads along side your blog which are compatible with the topic you have written about To get... for your free account You then choose what type of ads you want displayed on your blog Adsense is a cost per click advertising program, which means that every time a visitor clicks on an ad shown on your blog you get paid Cha-ching! Google does not disclose exactly how much you earn for each click BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info before you sign up, but you can track your earning daily, once you . a blog this beginners guide is perfect for you. To Your Success Carolyn A Smith -Blog Million BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info WHAT IS A BLOG? A blog. BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info BLOG GPS ©2010 www.BlogMillion.info Disclaimer The content of this