1. Install WordPress: This is pretty self explanatory. The first step should be to install WordPress on your host. WordPress has a great guide to follow so this shouldn’t hold you up. Some webhosts even have something called Fantastico, if your hosts does you are in luck! Fantastico will install WordPress automatically for you.

2. Login to your new site: Again self explanatory. The way I usually access my WordPress site is by adding a /wp-admin after my domain name in my web browsers address bar.

3. Make sure your email addresses are set: This is important because this is where you will get your updates and password if you ever lose it. There are two places to make sure your password is set. The first spot is in Settings->General. The other spot is in your Users menu – you will want to ensure your Admin email is correct.

4. Change your permalinks: I suggest this to all clients. In your Settings menu there is a Permalinks section. Open that menu and then choose your new style of permalinks. For the ultimate in clean URLs I suggest choosing custom structure and inserting the following string: /%postname%/. This will make the title of your posts be the web address.

5. Add your title and tagline: In General Settings once again add the name and tag line of your blog. The name is anything you want – keyword rich is best. The tagline is your site’s description.

6. Choose your theme: If you want to use a theme (you do) you can find a wide variety to choose by using your WordPress back office itself. Just navigate to Appearance->Themes and then use the tools they have to search for a theme. Once you find one to your liking download and activate it.

7. Install your plugins: Any plugins that you wish to add, do so now. Plugins are very flexible so you can add more later on if you discover one you need. Install whatever plugins you think you need. I would suggest that you definitely include All-in-One SEO and XML Google Sitemaps. They will both help with your SEO and each has fantastic support if you need to know more. I would also suggest Askimet but it comes installed already.

8. Activate Akismet: I think this should be done as soon as possible. Askimet is a great spam blocking plugin that ensures your site isn’t full of spam comments. As soon as you start adding content you will notice the spam beginning. Askimet has a huge database of comment spam so it can usually pick up and block any on your site. If it does make a mistake then you can manually override it for a particular comment and it will actually learn from that. The one caveat to this is you have to get a WordPress API key. To get that API key you have to sign up for a free account on wordpress.com. Not a big deal, but an extra step you might not be aware of.

9. Check your privacy: In your Settings menu there is a Privacy heading. Click it and make sure your blog is visible to everyone. If it isn’t, Google will not index any of your content!

10. Add your widgets: Under Appearance there will be a Widgets menu. You can use this to add functionality to your WordPress site using the sidebars. If you chose a widget ready theme (most are) you will have one or two sidebars (or more) on your site. In the widgets menu the sidebar will show up and you can drag and drop “widgets” into it. These widgets can be things like a search bar, an archive, a calendar, a recent posts list or a text/html box that you can put just about anything in. There are even more widgets than that available. There are even downloadable ones if the standard ones don’t do everything you need.

11. Create content: Now you can create some content! You can add pictures, galleries of those pictures, an about page etc… You can also start making posts – remember to create categories to keep them organized. Take advantage of the tag feature as that will come in handy when you have hundereds of posts. It helps with searches on your site as well.

That is the bare minimum to get started with WordPress. You will have to learn a lot more but when you do, you will be happy you made the move to WordPress. Happy blogging!

Social networking sites allow you to develop relationships to people worldwide and introduce them to what your business has to offer. If you have an online business and haven’t yet used social networking for your business then now is the time to start.

Here are the top ten social networking websites to use for your business.

1. Facebook – Facebook is probably the biggest social networking website and gives many opportunities to meet new people in the niche of your business. With Facebook you can create groups for your business where you can share your offers for some great results.

2. YouTube – This is also a huge social network site allowing people to connect through video. You can build a channel of video uploads that you can share with people worldwide. YouTube allows people to subscribe to your video channel so you can build relationships through video marketing.

3. Twitter – with Twitter you can follow your friends or colleagues and they can follow you. You can share micro-updates with people who follow you and if you do it right this can be a great way to drive people to your website.

4. Squidoo – with this website you can create your own mini website called a lens and you can write about any topic you like. This is a great site for sharing information and also bringing visitors through to your own website.

5. Hubpages – is very similar to Squidoo but you create hubs in which you can write about any topic and link back to your own website.

6. MySpace – MySpace was once the biggest social networking site but is not as popular as it once was. It is still a very good site to build up contacts and promote your business.

7. LinkedIn – this site allows you to network with other business people within your industry. This is a great site for connecting with other people in the same industry or with similar business interests.

8. Classmates – this is a great social networking site that can connect you with friends that you went to school with and have lost contact with. This is a great way to rekindle friendships from the past.

9. Xanga – this is a fantastic blogging community where you can share photos, videos, blogs and more. You can network with people worldwide that share similar interests.

10. Weebly – this is another site similar to a blog where you can write about any topic and share information with other people worldwide. This is another great network site that can help you to promote your business.

These are our top ten social networking sites and there are many others out there. The most important point to remember when using any of these websites for marketing your business is that you abide by their terms of service. Your business can reach a whole new level when using social network sites for marketing so start joining some of these websites and watch your business and social life grow.

When you are using social networking sites to connect with other people you need to have an idea of the sort of person that you want to connect with. So open up a document on your computer or just get out a piece of paper and write the characteristics and specific qualities that you are looking for in the people that you want to connect with.

When you know what sort of person you want to connect with then you can create an account at the social networking and create your profile accordingly. You can post information about yourself in your profile and other members will be able to view this information.

So when you want to connect with a certain type of person then you want to create your profile including information that would be of interest to the sort of person that you want to attract either personally or professionally. You want your profile to be personal and to describe characteristics about yourself that will match those characteristics in the people that you are trying to attract. For example, if you are looking to connect with people that are interested in art then you should include in your profile that you like art.

If you are creating a profile to market your business you don’t want your whole profile to be about that business. You want to connect with your potential customers on a personal level first so leave any mention of your business until the end of your profile and even then only mention it briefly. When it comes to adult networking sites it is a good rule to get to know people personally first.

Some networking sites will promote networking for business and these sites can be very good for business. When people look at your profile they are aware that you are there to market your business so if they are attracted to your profile then there is a lot of potential for them to be a future customer.

You can also include a photo in your profile but if you do always have a photo that is professional. By having a photo in your profile you are reaching your customers on a personal level. You can also upload a video to your profile which can also be a very effective way of connecting with people on the network.

Social networking websites really do have enormous potential for your business marketing if you use them correctly. Remember to reach out to your future customers on a personal level and build a relationship with them and your business can grow in leaps and bounds by using social networking websites.

The beauty of looking for outsourcing professionals on the Internet is that you can benefit from a very wide range of budgets. Since it is people who are going to bid on your projects, you can select them according to what you can pay. You initially set a ballpark figure of what you can pay and most people will bid within this range.

Whatever your budget is, you are able to find good professionals to work for you within that range. Remember that you are looking at the global marketplace here, and people in other countries may work for much lesser or much higher than what they do for in your local area.

Different jobs have different money equations. It is quite all right if you bid a low budget project initially just to get the feel of the professional’s work. You can tell them that you will review payments after you have seen their work. This works well and it also keeps the professional motivated because of the better payments that are poised to come their way.

When you are posting your project on a jobsite, do take some time to check out similar projects that are posted by other people. This will give you a good idea of what you should pay. But, more importantly, you must keep your own budget in focus when posting the project.

Escrows

Escrows help the employer as well as the employed in an outsourcing equation. We shall learn more about escrows in the next chapter.

Online Banks

PayPal (http://www.paypal.com/) is the most popular online bank used by freelance outsourcers. It is followed (though not closely) by Moneybookers (http://www.moneybookers.com/). If you are going to outsource a lot, it is also a good idea to have a Payoneer debit card (http://www.payoneer.com/) since it is affiliated with most of the freelance jobsites including GetAFreelancer, ScriptLance and oDesk. Releasing money from these sites to this debit card does not attract any fees either.

Mobile marketing is the cutting edge of advertising right now. The term “mobile marketing” tends to refer to one of two ideas: the first one being marketing through mobile devices such as cell phones, and the second one marketing through physically moving objects, such as moving billboards or road shows.

For the intents and purposes of these articles, we’re going to spend most of our time discussing the first variety of mobile marketing. Getting on board with the second variety is simple enough – at its very base, you could just nail a sign on the side of a truck and that would fall under the second variety of mobile marketing.

The first kind of mobile marketing, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly popular and breaking into it as a startup company is one of the best ways to hit the marketplace with a bang. Mobile marketing has entered the stage where it’s still considered somewhat revolutionary and a definite novelty, but is also mainstream enough that most of the younger crowd will be receptive to the marketing.

Most forms of mobile marketing are centered around mobile phones. Part of the reasoning why mobile marketing has taken off so much in the past few years has been the advent and popularity of smartphones. With the technology of phones and computers merging as rapidly as they have over the past few years, it should come as no surprise that the marketing wave generated by the spread of personal computers and the increasingly ubiquitous nation of the Internet is starting to spread out into the mobile phone.

If you are a startup company, particularly one who is trying to market to the thirty five and younger set, taking a foray out into mobile marketing via cell phones and smartphones is an excellent choice if you’re looking to make your products and brand stand on the cutting edge. It’s important to keep up with the times when it comes to marketing, particularly when you’re working as a startup. It’s more important than ever to make a serious impression on the market when you’re first launching yourself into it as a business – and mobile marketing is one way to make that happen.

If your website is only a way to show vacation pictures to friends and family than getting a lot of traffic won’t be a concern of yours, but for everyone else this is a crucial issue. It can be the difference between success and failure.

This type of marketing revolves around the concept of doing anything possible so that the website ranks high in all the search engines: Bing, Yahoo and Google. When someone does a search using a certain word or phrase the search engine will bring up a list of returns. These returns are referred to as Search Engine Results Page, or SERPS, for short.

The higher on the list your site is ranked, the more free traffic you will get. People will usually click on the first 5 or so listings on the first page of results. When they do they will be taken to that website. If that is your website you have a lot of traffic coming to your site for free.

Another benefit is that you know that the visitors to your website are very targeted, they are interested in your product or service or they wouldn’t have done a search using that term.

To decide which of the billions of websites for a certain search term rate the highest, the search engines utilize a sophisticated algorithm to help it determine which sites are the most relevant to the search term. So if your site is about golf balls, the sites that are the most relevant to that term will be rated the highest and receive that coveted first page listing.

There are various tactics that a webmaster can use to ensure that the search engines recognize their website as being very relevant to certain search terms. So, to use the above example, if you are selling golf balls you would optimize your site for the term golf balls (along with other terms related to golf balls).

This may all sound complicated, and it can be, but some simple tweaks to your webpage might be all it takes. To a large degree how much time and effort you will have to put in will be in relation to how competitive your niche is.

No one really knows what the algorithms look for, it is a closely guarded secret, and they are changed and perfected all the time. For this reason, you should either incorporate some simple techniques or enlist the aid of a professional to follow all the changes and optimize your site as soon as possible after the criteria has been changed.

Search engine placement marketing is one of the best ways to ensure that your site gets a steady stream of highly qualified visitors.

1. Building a list is the key to success. If you have spent any amount of time looking into email promotion internet marketing, then you have probably heard people say, “the money is in the list.” The reason so many people say it is because it’s true. In fact, it’s so important that everything that follows revolves around this tip.

2. Opt in once, market forever. Sending traffic to your website takes a lot of resources. It’s necessary, but email marketing simplifies things. Here’s how: once people are at your site, you encourage them to share their email address with you. Then it doesn’t matter if they ever come back to your site or not. Instead, you can then market to them whenever the need arises.

3. Always provide value. One of the most common questions about email promotion internet marketing is how often to send sales messages, and how often to send informational messages. There is a myth that you shouldn’t send too many sales messages, but that’s not true. As long as you are providing value with what you are selling, then you are good to go.

4. Spend time crafting compelling subject lines. The subject is what the people will see in their email inbox. If they don’t like it, if it doesn’t make them want to see what’s inside, then they will simply delete it…without ever opening it. And that means no sales. However, if you can at least get them to open your email, then you’ll get a chance to present your message to them.

5. Don’t be tricky. Yes, there are some subject lines that will give you a much higher open rate, but you should never use them to trick people into opening the message. If you do, they will open your email, but once they realize that you have tricked them (read: lied to them), they will unsubscribe. A simple way to put it is to always make sure that the body of the email message delivers on any promises you make in the subject line.

These are only a few tips to help you with your email promotion internet marketing efforts. There are plenty of other things you can do, but these are a good start. The worst thing you can do is wait to build an email list. With all of the things it has going for it, every minute you wait is another minute you will be leaving money on the table.