This page is for all those newbies planning to start blogging to make money online. If you are not a beginner, the information on this page will be useless to you.

Overview

It is also to give you an overview of the sequence of action to be taken. But to  become adept at making money through blogging, you need to take up one of the suggested courses.

Now that you have decided to put up a blog to make money online, how and where do you start ?

I would like to make few suggestions here based on my experience.

We all know that people all over the world are constantly searching for information on various topics. We also know that they are willing to pay money for such information if they find what they are looking for.

So the first step is:  Research and decide on which niche to promote

So it follows that, as a blogger who wants to make money online, you should look for a topic which is in high demand and provide information or products pertaining to that topic, through your blog.

One point to keep in mind is that when you pick very popular topics like dog training, golf, weight loss, etc. you will be facing stiff competition as hundreds of other people would also be promoting the same.

So do we give up now ? Not at all ! What we need to do is to dig down into popular topics and find small niches within these topics which have demand but not much competition.

So how do we find out about the demand ? Simple, if you use the following Google tool:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Use this tool to check out the number of searches that are taking place for your chosen keywords pertaining to the niche that you have chosen.

Keywords

A keyword is a word or words that you would normally type into a search engine when you are searching for information on whatever topic you are interested in.

Get Training

Now if you are with me this far, its time to take some video based training so that you will be able to go forward in a systematic manner. If you haven’t been to the Video Tutorials page yet, please go there now, select your training and come back here for more information.

The WordPress Set Straight training program (with over 100 vidoes) is quite comprehensive for an aspiring blogger, as it provides a lot of must have information on basic internet marketing, wordpress, blogging, marketing, etc.

There are other training programs too and so the choice is entirely yours.

So now what are these topics that you have to look at to make your choice of the product or products that you would finally promote ?

To make your job easy, I have provided below some topics for you to consider:

Suggested Niche Topics

Art * Advertising * Addictions * Antiques * Arts & Crafts * Aviation * Baby Showers* Back Pain * Bad Breath * Books * Body Art * Camping * Cars * Clothes * Computers and Internet * Construction * Credit Cards * Dating and Relationships *Debt * Diet * Dog Food * Education * Electronics * Employment * Family Budget * Finance * Food * Furniture * Fishing * Games * Guitar * Health and Beauty * Hobbies * Home and Garden * Health Insurance * Home Business * Hospitality * Hotel * Homeopathy * House Decorating * ID Theft * Indoor Games * Immigration * Insurance * Insomnia * Apple iPads * iPods * Jewelry * Loans * Music * Musical Instruments * Meditation * Online Jobs * Parenting * Pets * Piano * Publishing * Software * Real Estate * Self Development * Shoes * Sports * Spyware and Virus Removal *Tools * Travel * Trucks * Web Hosting * Weight Loss * Wedding Planning * Wines & Spirits * Yoga

If you need more ideas, visit http://www.clickbank.com  and click on Marketplace at the top and checkout the numerous categories and sub-categories on the left hand side of the page and you will find the niche or niches that you are looking for.

Yahoo Answers is another good place to check for the number of searches that are taking place at any given time for a topic that you have chosen. Go to http://answers.yahoo.com/  ,  type in your niche word(s), refine your search using the drop down menu on the left hand side of the page and in the results page, scroll to the bottom and you will get the information that you are looking for.

Choosing a good domain name

The domain name that you wish to use must have at least one of your chosen keywords in it. For more information on how to arrive at a good domain name, you can visit this website and then come back here.

Domain Registration

Next, you need to decide on a domain name which has your chosen keyword(s) in it. Once that is done, you need to register you domain with a Domain Registrar. I personally use a registrar called NameCheap.

I have found them to be very reliable and they also provide live support.
Please note that if you have never registered a domain before, don’t worry as it is all clearly shown in the training videos.

Web Hosting

Next, you have to host your domain name with a web host. Now, it is very important that you pick a host whose charges are reasonable and whose server can support all the software and programs that you are going to use on your website.

Any internet marketer will tell you that Hostgator is the hosting company to use because of the many advantages for the marketer. 

In addition to being a great web hosting company, Hostgator now offers coupon codes, when used, will get you the first month of hosting for just $0.01/-.Yes, you read that right, for just one cent ! I have no idea when these coupons would be withdrawn and so I suggest that you hurry up and take advantage of this facility immediately.  

 Their current coupon code is:

 hgc25

Enter the above coupon code in the box below after entering your domain name on the order page. I am not going to ramble on about its features and benefits. Check them out yourself here.

What you would need is their Baby package.

DNS (Domain Name Server)

It is always better to register your domain with one company and host it with another. The reason will become clear to you after a while. After you obtain hosting, the hosting company will send you an email with your cPanel address (Control Panel for your website or blog), your userid, password  and name server information which will usually be (ns1.hostingcompany.com and ns2.hostingcompany.com) . So you will enter the information the hosting company gives you after ns1 and ns.2 in your domain account at the domain registrar’s website.

The name server information will have to be entered into your domain registration account. It’s a simple affair. Watch the video below.

WordPress Installation

Installing WordPress is next and very simple through the cPanel provided by your hosting company. There are videos to take you through the simple process. Hostgator provides cPanel, but if you are using some other web host, ensure that cPanel comes with the hosting package.

Theme Installation

The delay is only in your choosing your ideal theme. Installing it is simple through the WordPress admin panel. Video tutorials are available for this process also. You may go to the WordPress Themes  page and select your theme.

Once you have chosen your theme, paid or free, it has to be downloaded to your computer, usually as a zip file and then uploaded to  your WP blog  through its admin panel by a simple process.

Plug-ins

Next you would need to install plugins which are scripts that enhance the functionality of your WordPress blog. There are ever so many of them available and to start with, you need to install only the following. Later on, you can add whatever you feel is necessary. Once you locate these plugins, you can easily install them through the WP admin panel.

Click here for a list of plugins. Initially you need to install just these four:

• All in One SEO Pack

• Google XML Sitemaps

• Akismet

• Google Analytics for WordPress

Adding content, articles, videos and affiliate links or own product information.

Now you have to set up your blog and install the necessary plug-ins after which you have to populate your blog with search engine optimized useful articles for your visitors, that is, the information that they are desperately looking for.

Traffic

Once your blog is all set up for business, your next job will be to bring traffic or visitors to it. There are many traffic generation courses available and at this stage, you must concentrate mainly on marketing your blog to the world.

What I have given above is a broad outline of what has to be done to provide focus and direction. The important thing for you to do is to take up the suggested training to enhance your knowledge by learning and putting what is learnt into practice.

After going through the tutorial videos, you should also experiment with the programs taught, to understand it fully. If it is a tutorial on how to install a WP plug-in, you can watch the video in parts, pause it at different sections and take the required action and then carry on till you complete installing it.

On the Resources page you will find information and links to software and programs that you can use to add content, video, products, etc. automatically to your blog. Check them out.

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