How to Start Blogging for Beginners
I’m often asked how one goes about starting a blog. It’s not hard, but it can seem overwhelming until you jump in and start writing your first one. I recently ran across a great set of free video tutorials on the absolute basics of how to start blogging for the complete beginner.
My mentor, Yaro Starak, and his friend, Gideon Shalwick, put together a free series of 10 short videos (5-15 minutes each) that take you from square one - knowing nothing about blogging - and teach you everything you need to know to set up and start posting to your own WordPress blog.
These free videos are a gold mine of information I wish I’d had when I started. I watched all 10 this afternoon and I learned a few things I didn’t know. It never hurts to review the basics, especially when you learned them by the seat of your pants!
Here’s a summary of the 10 video topics:
- Why you should use WordPress
- How to get your own domain name
- How to get a web host
- How to install WordPress with one click
- How to upload files to your web host using FTP
- Choosing a WordPress theme for your blog
- How to install and use WordPress plug-ins
- How to create your first blog post and blog page
- What RSS is and why you need it
- How to use FeedBurner for supercharging your RSS capabilities
Here’s the link to the website containing the free videos:
After watching the videos, you have the option of signing up for Yaro Starak’s Blog Traffic Tips Newsletter and downloading his Blog Profits Blueprint, a free report that tells you everything you need to know to eventually make a living blogging. I’ve read it and work by it, and it’s not an over-night success, get-rich-quick gimmick. It’s solid information that will require you to put in a lot of work if you want to earn at least part of your living blogging. You may become able to quit your day job after your blog(s) take off.
Again, signing up for the newsletter and Blog Profits Blueprint are optional and completely free.
So have a look at the free videos and maybe take a gander at your own blog, even if it’s just something you want to produce for your friends and family to stay connected. You don’t have to share it with the whole world if you don’t want to 
Here’s the link again:
I wish you all the blogging success you desire,
Sherri Joubert
Blog Mastermind student and Blog Profits Blueprint follower
If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed!
In terms of running a successful blog, is it okay if I build a site for the specific purpose of encouraging others to pirate copyrighted material, so that I can earn money for click throughs and other methods?
Seems like a pretty good way to earn money, but I just want to get your take on both the ethics and the legality of my plan. I figured since you run a blog on “being the change I want to see” and aspire to someday earn your own living by writing, what I assume will be copyrighted material, I’d really love to hear your take on this.
Comment by coolguy3000 | March 29, 2008
Sherri:
Do you consider it a positive career move to give up 18 years in a technical industry for hanging around the computer begging for loose™ change?
“If you enjoyed this post please buy me a coffee: $1 for regular, $4 for a latte.”
Comment by coolguy3000 | March 29, 2008
Can you give us a few pointers on how to be a “successful” blogger? How many times a week would you recommend updating a blog?
How is the coffee/latte fund working out for you?
You haven’t written anything new since March 25th, is everything OK?
Comment by cassandra | April 1, 2008
Sherri
Help me out here because I am confused. What is the difference between this blog and this one http://mythirtydaychallenge3rdyear.com/95/twitter-updates-for-2008-03-30/ ? How many different blogs do you have?
I’m confused about where I should post comments and ask questions.
Comment by cassandra | April 1, 2008
@coolguy3000: I would not recommend pirating other people’s material if it’s copyrighted. If it’s in the public domain, it’s fair game, but encouraging pirating is morally wrong, let alone illegal. It troubles me that you would consider such a path to earning a living. Why pirate when you could sell cocaine and make a lot more money if moral and legal questions don’t bother you? I’d find something legal to make money. There are a lot of legitimate business ideas to choose from.
I didn’t give up a 20 year career, it laid me off and there are no jobs in industry around here. Believe me I’ve looked long and hard. I have too much experience. I now teach chemistry, physics and math and it pays pretty well. I also enjoy it more than lab work. I make a difference in kids lives.
I also don’t beg for spare change. The buy-me-a-coffee widget is a way for people to make a donation to the blog in the form of paying for the price of a cup of coffee. Many bloggers use it. It’s another way to monetize your blog. If you don’t want to buy me a cup, don’t. I don’t live and breathe by how many coffees are purchased. It’s just a little something extra and pays much better than Adsense. Asking for a cup of coffee is also legal and moral.
@cassandra: On being a successful blogger, you need to get in the habit of writing daily, even if you don’t post daily. You need to get in the habit of writing quality articles of about 1000 words each and that needs to happen 3-5 times a week. You can get Yaro Starak’s Blog Profits Blueprint free of charge at http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com. It’s packed with great information. I’m a blog mastermind student, but that program is currently closed. It will reopen this year. Keep coming back or join the email list because I’ll announce it as soon as Blog Mastermind is available again. It’s been worth every penny to learn to be a much better blogger.
I currently have 7 blogs, and My Thirty Day Challenge 3.0 blog is all my notes from last year’s 30 day challenge. I post my twitter updates on it currently but haven’t been writing content for it lately.
Check out Yaro’s website for beginning bloggers for more tips and read his Blog Profits Blueprint. They’re free and you’ll be a better blogger if you follow his teachings on blogging.
I would install the buy-me-a-coffee widget just because people will buy you a coffee from time to time. It’s sort of social thing more than a money-maker. When I’ve really enjoyed a fellow blogger’s post, I will buy them a coffee because I would do so if we were sitting across from each other having a conversation. And every dollar you earn is an addition to your blogging income.
Sherri
Comment by joubess | April 5, 2008
Thanks for the answers, Sherri. Very informative.
Two more things, if you don’t mind:
1. Are you continuing your coursework in the on-line university, towards obtaining your CFP?
2. Given your rather unbending stance on infringement of copyrights, how do you square that with your using the “Invader Zim” site to try to earn money for yourself without paying a royalty to the copyright holder? I realize you are not personally ripping the source material to web video, but you are clearly promoting that activity, providing and facilitating the activity of making it available to people who have not paid, and you are hoping to profit from the activity. I am not a lawyer, but at a minimum that would appear to be ‘accessory after the fact’, ‘inducement in the commission’, and/or ‘facilitating copyright infringement’ (cases have been brought and won.) Good luck!
Comment by coolguy3000 | April 5, 2008
I find it confusing to try and navigate from one of your blogs to the next. Why do you have so many? I would think it would be easier for you to combine the content of each blog and update more frequently. I think your blog would be more interesting too!
I’ll be the first to buy you a cup of coffee (latte’s are too fattening) the minute you write something that makes me laugh! How’s that for a challenge?
Comment by cassandra | April 5, 2008
@cassandra, I don’t expect people to read across my 7 blogs as a cohesive unit. They are each distinct with different topics. Please don’t read them as though they are related directly. I do cross-reference between them, but that’s no different than referencing something in a book to another book. It just happens to have a link so you can go to the references much more easily if you choose to.
In this blog, much of what I have to talk about isn’t funny. If you want to laugh, please visit my Invader Zim blog and watch a Gir compilation video. Those are hilarious!
@coolguy3000
I am not continuing my CFP coursework. I’m in the process of closing that business.
I’m working Dave Ramsey’s plan and he doesn’t encourage minimum wage jobs to get out of debt, which is why I’m not getting up at 5:30 to be a cafeteria lady. I get up at 5:30 to work on my online business. At 2 or 3 in the afternoon I head off to the library Sunday through Thursday for 5-7 hours of tutoring students in algebra, geometry, chemistry and physics. During mid-terms and finals I work 7 days a week. I pick up extra hours pretty regularly from homebound students who don’t have as regular a schedule because of illness. I get done tutoring each day at about 9 p.m. I make $19/hour tutoring when I do it for the company I work for and $45/hour when I get my own clients. Then I sit back down at my computer and work some more on my online business.
I have a job, and a damn good paying one at that. I’m really getting sick and tired of people telling me to get a job when I have both a job and a business, and I do odd jobs as the opportunity comes along. I’m having a very tough time understanding why the words “I have a job and a business” don’t equate to I earn money, and I’m earning more each month. What’s up with that? I have a tough month and that’s not acceptable? Tough shit.
My parents did instill in me to work, which I am doing very hard. But they weren’t able to teach me what to do in the modern world of no employer loyalty, being over-qualified and they didn’t have a business so they didn’t teach me about striking out on my own. My business failed, and I’m working on closing it. It takes work to properly close a business, and I’m getting it done as quickly as SEC law will allow.
During the summer I will be delivering pizzas 6 nights a week. It pays really well. The next time you order a pizza to be delivered, ask how the delivery person is. If he/she answers “better than I deserve” please give them a really good tip because they are working their way out of debt.
And I will be continuing to work on my online business, which doesn’t take a bunch of education. It just takes guts and a desire to learn how to do it. At first I thought I wanted the passive income model, but now I find I want to write and be more active in my online business.
I’m sorry you don’t find my content to be compelling, but I am learning to be a professional author and I know I have a lot to learn and a lot of practice to put in to improve it. That’s why I blog. It’s great practice and I learn. Thank you for pointing out that you find my content to be well kind of boring. I’ll make more effort to be less boring in the future. As I get more practice under my belt, I hope you’ll see improvement in my content.
This blog is a personal diary blog and won’t be spectacular for awhile because I am struggling with the subject in my off-line life. My other blogs contain better content, IMHO anyway.
About my Invader Zim blog, the videos I host are in the public domain and I can legally embed them into my blog. I don’t obscure any original copyright information and I don’t block any original credits or subsequent credits of people who made compilations. I don’t sell those video clips and I don’t buy them to put on my blog either. I’m an affiliate of both Amazon and eBay, and I promote the sale of legitimate, paid for downloaded episodes, DVDs, and branded merchandise. People can view the public domain videos and then purchase legal copies and branded merchandise through legitimate businesses. There isn’t anything wrong with that as far as I can see.
Oh, and “Don’t be a bum” is 4 words, not three. Maybe you should learn to count. If you need math tutoring I charge $45/hour.
Why are you calling me a bum? I don’t understand that. I’ve paid over $10,000 in the past 12 months toward my debts and I’ve paid 6 of them off. I have a new business and I have a job. How is it that I’m being a bum because I was ignorant about starting a business with credit? I’ve written it many times in posts on this blog: I’ve done stupid with a lot of zeros on the end. That’s not illegal or immoral, it’s just stupid. Unfortunately I can’t go back and undo “stupid”. I fully intend to pay all my debts as I am able.
I haven’t declared bankruptcy. I will be forced to if debt collectors start garnishing what wages I earn because I won’t be able to feed my son, keep a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs. Unless or until that happens, I can survive to work and pay debts another day. I won’t file until I have no other choice.
If I had no intention of paying it back, why did I start this blog and why am I trying to pay my creditors when I could see a lawyer this afternoon and file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy? I’m qualified and I have the certificate. This blog is 9 months old and I’ve been working Dave Ramsey’s plan for a year now.
There will be good income months and months where we may not even barely get by for a little while as I take on more students and ramp up this business.
Thanks for the tough love, but no thanks. I suppose you’ve never had a tough break in your life? I’d like to see your personal P&L statement and balance sheet before you throw stones at mine.
Comment by joubess | April 7, 2008
[...] a previous post, How to Start Blogging for Beginners, I discussed the basics of becoming a blogger and posted links to free material to teach you how to [...]
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