As I am sitting on the couch for the first time all day I get a chance to watch Sex and the City reruns on TBS, but I start thinking about a conversation my husband and I had and it leads me to take an opportunity with BlogSavvy to invite everyone to walk with me through my virgin experience of blogging.

About 6 months ago my husband asked me to start a blog for our family.  Without hesitation I told him no!  Why would I want to start a blog, who is going to look at our blog any way.  My immediate family has no desire to go to a web site and look at photos of my family and read stories about us and I am not much of a social person so none of my 3 friends are going to check it out either.  The temptation my husband was pouring out was not getting sucked up by me.  He asked me if he could do it and I told him no because he would loose our pictures and write something insane about us.  Which obviously caused a fight between us.  But the conversation was over about our non-existence blog.

I recently learned how blogs can help me stay up to date on my community.  During a “girls night out” I find out that I am behind in the world.  A bunch of girls got together to play games, eat yummy brownies and basically just get away from our kids.  When we found ourselves playing bunco and gabbing about blogging.  Each women asking the other for her blog address.  My thoughts were why?  Where do you find the time to visit all these blogs and read about their lives.  I admit I would love to sit down and catch up on my friends life, but what about a phone call, texting, or good old fashioned email?  Is blogging the new form of conversation?

Whats Next

I will begin by posting a few times a week and I would like to invite everyone to travel with me through the journey of learning the ins and outs of blogging.  I will post my experiences on blog savvy on what blogging is all about.  My complaints, frustrations and joys of blogging.

Really Nice Shot, If you were trying to NOT hit the target then you are the best I’ve ever seen.  If you were trying to hit the target then. YOU SUCK!.  The problem is if I asked Blogger’s what their Target is most won’t be able to come up with anything specific other than: “lot’s of traffic”.  But what exactly does that mean.

Traffic

There are 3 types of blog traffic Direct, Referral and Search Engine Traffic.

• Direct Traffic

Direct traffic is from someone, anyone typing in your web address into their browser and coming directly to your site, this also counts for those who have your site stored in the Bookmarks part of their browser.  This traffic is specific to you, these are you everyday readers, they come to your site “often” to check out what’s new and to catchup on what has been happening.

• Referral Traffic

Referral Traffic, comes from many sources, but the most common is any link on another site to your site.  There are multiple ways of getting referral traffic and that will be discussed in length in a follow up post, but for now, know that it could come from a comment you left that intrigued a reader, they liked it they clicked on your name in the comments, if you remembered to add the URL to your name so they could jump directly to your site.  They could have come from a link, such as a blogger mentioned you, and but a link to your site within a post, simply put, Referral Traffic comes from other bloggers or websites.

• Search Engine Traffic

This ones a little more difficult to explain, let’s use an example:  you go to Google and type in “Blog consultant” you then choose a site based upon the information given, most of the time the user is going to select out of the top 4-6 links, depending upon relevance.  Then the user comes to your site, they are looking for the specific search term they entered into the search engine.  If they find it right away they check it out, if they don’t they “bounce”.

What kind of traffic are you aiming for?

That is the problem,most bloggers are simply aiming for one type of traffic, referral, and while this is a good source for the short term if you don’t convert them into regular readers all of the work and effort has been wasted.

Check out this post if you liked this one

While you might think you have a”Killer Title” you may in essence have nothing more than the leftovers, so how do you stand out from the crowd?  Simple you don’t follow the crowd, if they are writing about “Goldfish” for example, you should write about “Oscar fish eat Goldfish”. You can stay relevant to the “hot” topic without sounding like you simply read someone’s work and then paraphrased it.  Be original, that is the essence of a “Killer Title”.  Here are 10 other ideas to help you create an Olympic Gold Blog Title. (if there ever is such a thing)

1. Use a Famous Company in your title (Google, Nike, Yahoo)
2. Use a Famous Person in your title (Lindsay Lohan, P Diddy, Christoph Merrill)
3. Use a hot topic word (elections, olympics, NY Marathon)
4. Use these in combination (P.Diddy runs the NY Marathon in Nike’s)
5. Create Urgency (before you start swimming read this)
6. Create Value (How to change your life…)
7. Give a Short List (10 best…, 5 thing to…, 365 days to a…)
8. Use a random title (Something completely unrelated to the topic)
9. Offer something for free (e book, discount code, information)
10. The last one is crucial, TAKE YOUR TIME! (do some research, study it, develop a title

The list contains items used to develop a popular blog, the titles will create traffic and the traffic will be looking for the titles specifics,  IF and i do mean IF you can catch them within your post, you will hve a chance of creating a future reader. Good Luck.

It’s funny, blogging as it comes to mind create opportunities and gives you the ability to create something of value. Darren Rouse over at ProBlogger has a post today that I wanted to take the time and mention because it is something that makes all the difference when it comes to blogging.

The thought of just cranking out an article is great when you have something to say, but if that is what you tried to do everyday, it is no wonder why so many give up, trying to crank out a blog post every day would eat you alive. So Darren shares some great things to think about as you “Craft” a post, rather than just “punch” one out.

Here is the list to consider:

Choosing a Topic – take a little extra time defining your topic and the post will flow better and you’ll develop something that matters to readers.

Your Post’s Title – perhaps the most crucial part of actually getting readers to start reading your post when they see it in an RSS reader or search engine results page.

The Opening Line – first impressions matter. Once you’ve got someone past your post’s title your opening line draws them deeper into your post.

Your ‘point/s’ - a post needs to have a point. If it’s just an intriguing title and opening you’ll get people to read – but if the post doesn’t ‘matter’ to them it’ll never get traction.

Call to Action – driving readers to do something cements a post in their mind and helps them to apply it and helps you to make a deeper connection with them.

Adding Depth – before publishing your post – ask yourself how you could add depth to it and make it even more useful and memorable to readers?

Quality Control and Polishing – small mistakes can be barriers to engagement for some readers. Spending time fixing errors and making a post ‘look’ good can take it to the next level.

Timing of Publishing Your Post – timing can be everything – strategic timing of posts can ensure the right people see it at the right time.

Promotion – having hit publish – don’t just leave it to chance that your post will be read by people. Giving it a few strategic ‘nudges’ can increase the exposure it gets exponentially.

Conversation – often the real action happens once your post is published and being interacted with by readers and other bloggers. Taking time to dialogue can be very fruitful.

Become a Craftsman

I have taken this to heart long ago, as it is easier to “Craft” a post, instead of trying to figure it out in 15 min. Too many times we as information providers want to create something, and in order to do so, we need to provide Value, or so enough you will have a little audience to provide you useless information to. So, That being said, you need to think of your self as a Craftsman, instead of just simply a blogger, while the idea of blogging is unique and has it’s place, such as this post, that was done after readying Darren’s post.

The majority of posts need to be Crafted and developed over a period of time, while it doesn’t make sense to take a month to write every post, and while some posts come directly from inspiration, and can be done quickly and give value, most are going to take time.

Develop a Blog not just a bunch of posts

Part of developing your blog should be the idea that it is more than just a blog it is a Blog, and has inherent value in it’s name, the site, the content, you as a contributor, etc, etc. You should keep in mind that if you ever hope to make any money from your blog you will have to create demand. Just as Problogger has done, can you think of a stronger Blogging brand? Other than BlogSavvy of course! You can’t ProBlogger has developed his entire business model into one large revenue stream. Think of the whole picture give you the sense that Blogging is more than just making posts.

I want to challenge your perception that these are communities, despite what it says on their home page. All they are is proximity; they’re places where there are people in the same place, or associated to the same thing, But I don’t think that that’s what defines a community.

I know alot of people have written about the great online community, and I’m not going to copy what they have said, except to highlight some points. Many talk about the relationships and the exchange of commonly value things, among other things. Some talk about common interests, frequent interaction, identification, and a few talk about articulated patterns of relationships, roles, norms. These accounts of community are pretty typical, they’re pretty widespread, and you can find them in most of the online community.

Benefit # 1

The first benefit i want to draw your attention to is the idea that there is a network, a large group of individuals, looking out for themselves, and possibly looking out for you. I say this as my old theory goes, “every one will feed their family first even if it mean you not feeding yours”. I not mean to go off on a tangent, however it must be recognized that within every great community there are those who “give” and there are those who “take”. The great benefit of a Blogging Community is the atmosphere that “most” are there to “give”. Needless to say, you should be aware and cautious until you full understand a persons motive.

The ability to network with one another is a huge advantage to community blogging, You never know who you might bump into or who you might meet that can help you. There are a myriad of ways this manifests itself, the most common is employment. You meet someone and they either are hiring or know someone who is hiring and after a few interactions they refer you and “bam” you have a better job, and without the community your new connection and position would have gone to someone else.

Benefit # 2

Drama, while it might sound like you are back in high school, the fact remains that we as adults, still want to feel like we know what is going on, it makes us feel connected, and important, while the negative attribute won’t be discussed here, they will be discussed later. One large part of being part of a community is celebrating the success of others, and sometimes celebrating failures. It’s similar to high school, every Monday morning you would find out, who’s dating who, who slept with who, who broke up with who, who did what and essentially it gave a sense of purpose, while the meaning of the word might sound incorrect, the action is true, purpose, was the fulfillment of the activity, to become a part of the community.

Yes i’m being serious, shut up and blog, too often I hear people talk and talk and talk about how they wish the blogged or started a business, or went skydiving or whatever. The sad part is in 5 years from now they will still be talking about how they will or should do … insert your own unfulfilled promise here. Simply put talk is cheap, which is why most people do a lot of it, acomplishment has value, both of what you put in and what you get out. Ask anyone who has done something you admire if now that they look back on the journey to do this amazing thing, if the learned anything, chances are they will say somehting to the effect of more than I will ever know.

So Get Going

Now that we have an understanding that blogging will be tough, and that there will be work involved, how about you do some of that, yeah i mean work. It doens’t have to be 5 posts a day to start off with, it can be as simple as 1 post a month. Commit to something, anything and then keep your commitments. Most people fair not because they didn’t try, most people fail because they were commited to that failure was an acceptable outcome from the beginning. If that is your mind frame, please do you self a favor ad disreguard my advise, do not start blogging. To you: I say just sit right there on the couch.

What next?

What’s next you ask, it’s simple, commit yourself to “doing” and then DO. I know it sounds way too easy to simply be just that, but honestly it is that simple, yet most people will think I’m full of it and won’t do this simple thing that will essentially provide them all that they are wanting and then some, and to you who doubt, I wish you luck because luck is all your going to get.

Step 1 – First things first.

Chose a domain. This is going to be the most difficult part, as most assuredly the one you really want is already taken, so be creative, use part of the name and part of something else, one of my favorite company names is OGIO, short simply and until they chose it for their domainname it hadn’t been used before, so branding could be developed to create the brand, since there wasn’t one before. The other option is to purchase a domain that is for sale or you if you find that the domain name youreally, really want isn’t for sale you can always use whois to find out who owns it and contact the with an offer to purchase it.

Step 2 – Register your Domain

this one is simple, use BlueHost. I used Bluehost to register my first domain and currently

they are hosting 45 domains for me all with one account, and heres the great part they charge $6.95 per month and you get:

UNLIMITED Hosting Space (NEW!)
UNLIMITED File Transfer (NEW!)
Host UNLIMITED Domains!!!
2,500 POP/Imap Email Accounts
SSH (Secure Shell), SSL, FTP, Stats
CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
2000/2002 Front Page Extensions
Free Domain Forever!
Free Site Builder (NEW)
24/7 Superb/Responsive Sales/Support

So i have 45 domain names registered and hosted with one account so i pay just 6.95 per month! It can’t get any simpler than that.

Step 3 – Setting up WordPress

Now that you have found a domain name, registered it with Bluehost and have a Bluehost hosting account you are now ready to set up your WordPress blogging database. Why WordPress you ask? WordPress is simple to navigate, simple to operate and there are tons of free Themes out there to give you your style, and if you really want to brand your self have Blogsavvy help you to design a custom theme. Now login in to your Bluehost cpanel and scroll down to the bottom of the Bluehost cpanel and look for a program similar to the logo below.Click on it and once inside of the program you will see a just how simple it is to install your WordPress blogging software. Below is exactly what you should see, simply click the button, new installation and in 3 simple step it will setup your blog for you! It can’t get any simpler.

Short description: WordPress is a blogging software with a focus on ease of use, elegance, performance, and standards with a huge selection of themes and plugins.
Homepage: http://wordpress.org/

WordPress support forum
(We are not associated with the support forum)

New Installation (2.5.1)
Disk space required: 5.63 MB
Disk space available: 1535718.5 MB

Now you will set up which domain you want to install the database on, select your domain, leave the install in directory space blank, now you will create your administrator User name and Password, this will be your login info into WordPress, then give the Admin a nickname, and enter an email address, this one is used only for the Administrator of the blog, then click Install WordPress,

Install WordPress

The next screen will tell you where it is coing to install it and what the name of the database will be called. Simply click Finish Installation and your ready to begin blogging!

Install WordPress (2/3)

The MySQL database and MySQL user milliot1_wrdp6 will be created and used for this installation.

- You chose to install in the main directory of the domain gettomonkey.com.
- The access URL will be: http://gettomonkey.com/.

Click on Finish installation to continue.

Step 4 – Begin blogging

Now that your blog is set up go to http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin and you will see a screen similar to the one below:

Use you Administroator Username and Password and your done. Now take a look around and you will see that it is very user friendly and if you get brave write a post and send me a link to it in the comments and i’ll check it out.

Congratulations you are now blogging!

This is a joint project between Andrew Billits and myself that aims to find a way to provide complex custom plugins, materials, hacks and support for WordPress MultiUser (WPMU) for a fraction of the amount you’d have to pay a developer.

It’s already stuffed full of goodies; there’s the multi-database code that’s used on Edublogs (happily supporting 50,000 blogs on the one domain), mu-plugins to give you the lowdown on all your user activity (active users, posts, comments and more!), unbranded support videos for you to use on your WPMU site and a new bumper theme pack with uploadable headers a gogo.

And lots, lots, lots, more… which we’re going to be adding to all the time.

Plus there are comprehensive support forums to back up all of the code there.

Oh, and you can suggest projects that you’d like to see, and if they’re feasible we’ll look into developing them… not bad huh!

Sure, in an ideal world we’d like to be releasing all of this for free, but an *enormous* amount of time has gone into developing it and we’d like to get a system going whereby we can actually support ourselves (and eventually others?) in providing an equal amount of ongoing development and support… while being able to afford to eat.

So, here you have it… let us know what you think and, um, tell all your friends

So why don’t ya go and make a bunch of kiwis very very happy by proposing a paper, poster, praxis or workshop… beautiful Wellington combined with a quick scoot round the island sounds like a good way to spend the middle of March to me!!!