Let me first say that I have nothing against RapidWeaver. I have found it to be an extremely useful website software platform and I actually use it on some of my websites.  But, due to the fact that the majority of my sites are self hosted WordPress, I have found it easier to manage multiple sites when they are all on the same platform.

As I searched the internet looking for information about changing from RapidWeaver to WordPress, I didn’t find much information about it.  So, I thought that I would post this instructional article to help anyone who may be wondering about how to do it.

Please read this entire post before attempting this procedure.

Before you do anything, back-up your website (of course) and save a copy of the back-up to your desktop.  You should be backing up your site on a regular basis anyway, but make sure to back it up before you attempt this procedure. Please note that you will be deleting all of the files in your public_html folder in order to transfer your site from RapidWeaver to WordPress. So back it up and make sure you have it saved on your computer before you proceed.

Another thing to do before you get started is to save any information that is currently on your site, meaning copy and paste anything that you want to keep onto a word document for future reference. (Like text, blog posts, photos, google analytics code, etc.) Unless you are making a completely new site, copy everything before proceeding!

First, go to your web host and log into C-Panel.

Go down to Files and click on File Manager

This Opens the File Manager

Go down the left hand side of File Manager and click on public_html.  This will open all of the files in the public_html folder.

Now this is the part where you delete all of the files in the public_html folder.  Now if you didn’t back-up your site, Stop everything and go back it up. Also double check that you have copied  everything that you want to keep on your original site, because, once we delete these files, they are gone!

Once you are sure that you have your site backed up and you have copied everything that you want to keep from your RapidWeaver website, you may proceed.

OK, now select the box on the left side of each file in public_html and click the delete button on top of the file manager.  This will delete the selected file.  Continue doing this until you have deleted all of the files in public_html.  Your screen will look like this after the files are deleted.

Now, it’s time to install WordPress. Go back to the main menu of c-panel, which should still be opened from your original login to c-panel.  Scroll down to Software/Services and click on Fantastico De Luxe.  You will come to this screen.

Go down the left side of the screen under blogs and select WordPress. This will bring up the new WordPress installation.

Click on New Installation. This will bring up the installation screen (Install WordPress 1/3).  The Installation location – Install on domain – should have your domain already selected.  Leave Install in directory blank.  Go down and enter your user name and password under Admin access data area.  Then under Base Configuration, enter your Admin nickname. Then click Install WordPress.

Your next screen Install WordPress 2/3 will automatically create your database and provide your website url. Click Finish Installation to continue.

The last screen Install WordPress 3/3 shows that your site is configured.  Enter your email to have the details of your installation sent to your email.  Your WordPress installation is now completed.

Now login to your site and clear your computer cache.  You should have your new WordPress Site.

A website heat map is a tool that allows you to see what parts of your pages are most frequently scanned by your visitors.  Numerous vendors provide software that allows you to make use of this tool and other web analytics.

The tools help internet marketers and website publishers judge the performance of their websites.  You must be able to accept constructive criticism in order to use these tools.

Computer programs cannot take your feelings into consideration.  They can only give you the facts.  You might be disappointed sometimes.

Of course, webmasters that feel their sites are perfect don’t make use of these tools anyway.  They are confident that what they have built is the best performing site on the internet.

The rest of us would like an unbiased “eye” (so to speak) to tell us how we are doing.  A website heat map could tell us if people are looking at the portion of our websites where the ads are located.  That could be important.

The maps can also help us decide where to place ads.  After publishing a site and attracting some visitors, the maps direct us to locations where our visitors spend the most time.

It’s not exact of course.  No web analytics are exact.  It’s not a good idea to rely on any tool too heavily or even to worry about them too much.  They are just good to have around.

Other web analytics can be used to gauge where your traffic is coming from.  80% of your traffic might come directly from the search engines.  10% might come from referrals.  3% might come from an email marketing campaign.

These are very important considerations, because it tells you where your advertising dollars are best spent.  Knowing that the majority of your traffic comes from the search engines might make you decide to become one of the “sponsored results”.

On the other hand, it could make you even more determined to improve your referral rate or try other marketing campaigns.  You might find out that most of your traffic comes from the search engines, but that most of your buyers come from other sources.

Web analytics can also tell you where your visitors are located, based on the location of their IP address.  This is not a street address, of course.  You can see the cities or countries that your visitors reside in. This would help you decide if you need to add a second language, among other things.

What’s the bottom line?  It’s worth your time to take a look at a website heat map, as well as the other analytical tools available today.

What is an RSS feed?  People don’t always agree about what the letters stand for.  Really Simple Syndication is how some people refer to it.  That describes what it is to a certain extent.

Basically, it allows website publishers and bloggers to reach their followers quickly and easily.  You might think of it as an up-to-the-minute newsletter.

Depending on the website, the information may be updated weekly, daily or more than once a day.  In a few cases, updates are made on a monthly basis or just when something interesting happens.  Most companies would choose to use an emailed newsletter for infrequent updates like that.

Celebrity news is one of the popular uses for Really Simple Syndication.  There is always plenty to talk about in the celebrity world.

In order to read the feed, you need RSS reader software.  It can be downloaded on to your desktop or laptop.  You can use the web-based versions.  Or you can get an application for your mobile phone.

The logo used for the application is an orange square with a dot and two arcs.  It is meant to resemble radio waves.

Radio shows were the first type of broadcast syndications that did not consist of material printed on paper.  Eventually, there were syndicated television programs.  Now we have syndicated web casts.

The simplest way to share the latest info is through RSS feeds if you are a website publisher.  If you are a web-user, the best way to stay up-to-date with your favorite blogs or websites is to sign up for their feed.

The feed may be designed to provide full content or summaries.  In most cases, the information is shared in a text format.  A few websites send out videos or photos. Signing up for the webcast is usually a simple matter of clicking on the logo.

If you are a website publisher and you would like to make RSS feeds on your site, there is software available that makes it easy to do.  The rss reader software is typically used for building websites for e-commerce, blogging or affiliate marketing.

Files can be shared in this manner, too.  This is sometimes referred to as broad-catching.  Your clients sign up to receive notifications when you have new files available for download.  They are usually bit-torrent files.  Bit torrent applications are a little more difficult to implement.

What is an RSS feed?  Simply put, it is the latest news about whatever you might be interested in.

There are thousands of WordPress themes floating around on the internet.  Some of the basic templates are free.  One of the problems that people run into with these templates has to do with compatibility.

Every time that WordPress releases a new version or makes security updates, people become concerned about whether or not their templates will be compatible.  A Thesis Theme takes the worry out of it.

Created by Chris Pearson and first released in 2008, the system has been updated regularly since that time.  Because of Chris’ plug-in-like functionality, you never have to worry about what will happen when you upgrade to the latest version of WordPress.  Thesis always works.

As of the writing of this post, 1.7 is the latest thesis theme version.  There are a number of new features.  Many users say that the new dropdown navigation menu is their favorite new feature.

One advantage of Chris’ system is the how-to videos.  Whenever he adds new features, he creates a new how-to video.  You always have access to the videos for as long as you use the program.  Other programs may come and go, but this one is here to stay.

The newest videos make it easy to learn how to create your menus and modify the standard design to suit your own preferences.  That’s another difference between Pearson’s programs and the others.

Most WordPress themes are not customizable.  To most of us, that means they are boring.  Blogging is supposed to be fun.

You might be blogging to earn some extra money or to establish yourself as a writer.  Even if that is the case, you should still be able to have fun doing it.  Thesis Theme 1.6 is so much fun.  It’s almost addictive.

You can see how often the other WordPress themes have been used.  Some have been downloaded nearly 10,000 times.  Who wants their blog to look exactly like 10,000 other ones?

If you are trying to earn money by blogging, some of the Thesis Theme tutorials were designed with you in mind.  There are tutorials about using AdSense targeting.  Others are about search engine optimization and keyword research.  Those are things that can help you get more visitors and earn more money.

Chris also offers a free newsletter and email updates even for people that are not customers.  So until you decide that this is the right program for you (which you probably will), you can find out what’s new in the world of WordPress themes for free.

AffiliateProfitResources.com runs on Thesis Theme

This search engine optimization tutorial or SEO do’s and don’ts was created for beginners.  But, even if you have been publishing websites for a while, it never hurts to refresh your memory.  First, you will see a little basic information, followed by my suggestions.

SEO is short for search engine optimization.  There are tens of millions of websites published on the internet.  Most people use the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) to reach them.

The search engine operators have robots that scan the content, the keywords and the meta-tags on each page.  The page titles and domain names are recorded in the search engine database, along with other relevant information.

In the early days of the internet, the keywords were the most important aspect of search engine optimization.  There were few competing websites.  The site that used their keywords frequently on their web pages would get the highest rankings.

Some publishers even “hid” the keywords in lightly colored text at the bottom of the page or in background images.  The search engines caught on to this tactic.

Today, if the keyword or words appear in the content excessively, the robots tag the site as spam.  So, there’s your first “don’t”.  Don’t use your keywords excessively.

Another of the SEO do’s and don’ts is to choose your keywords carefully.  The competition is fierce.  If you choose vague or generic keywords, you will never be able to compete.  Find a niche and look for keywords that are being used by few competing sites.

Your niche is made up of the customers you are trying to attract.  You start with the vague generic topic and then narrow it down until you have something more specific.

A lawyer, for example, might start with keywords like “legal aid or help”.  To that, he or she could add his specialty.  “Criminal legal aid” might be an example.  The niche would be further defined by where the lawyer is located.

Here’s another of the SEO do’s and don’ts.  Make a complete sitemap.  Some of the better software programs automatically create a sitemap for you.  The program may ask if this page is to be included on your sitemap.  The answer should always be “yes”.

Not only do sitemaps help the search engines index the information on your site.  They also improve SEO and help users navigate through it.

Another suggestion is to invest in a good website promotion software program, if you have not already done so.  Some programs come fully equipped with lots of SEO do’s and don’ts.  They make website publishing and search engine optimization easy.