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Mobile Phone Chargers : Now With the Help of Wind Energy

2019-06-04T18:47:00.001-07:00

Mobile phone chargers are inseparable entity of any mobile phone. There is no mobile phone in the world which is free of its chargers. With the advent of new sophisticated mobile phone in the market, users of the phone are paying much importance to its chargers.

So, people would have witnessed in every public space there kept a place for mobile chargers. But, there comes a good news, the problem of keeping mobile phone fully charged when miles away from a conventional electricity source is being tackled by UK wind turbine specialists.

The Orange wind charger prototype uses stored kinetic energy to fully charge a mobile phone in up to two hours. Coming in only 150 grams, the wind generator gives answers to many solar powered phone chargers (which have limited functionality at night and in colder climates) and wind-up units.

The wind charger is attached to a rechargeable battery. Mobile phones can then be plugged into a control box on the unit for charging. An additional feature of this clever portable generator is that it can be mounted anywhere in any place.

Well, the lightweight wind generator is still in it's prototype stage, which specializes in making electricity generating wind turbines, was approached by global communications corporation Orange. After seeing the functionality of the work, Orange decided to commission a prototype wind charger to unveil at the recent Glastonbury Music Festival, of which they were a major sponsor. The prototype was completed in just four weeks and there are plans to mass produce these portable wind generators for release into the market in the near future. The cost of the units is not yet known.

9 Blogging Mistakes For The Beginnings Make Has A Bloggers

2019-06-04T10:58:00.003-07:00

If you are a professionally full-time blogger or part-time and earn your bread and butter from blogging, people think it is as easy to do as it seems.

But the scene behind this story is far different from that. It is true earning money from your blog is not a cakewalk. It takes a lot of effort and energy along with your patience to make it successful. However, many bloggers especially the ones new to blogging fail to carry on their blogging journey due to some significant mistakes they make at the very scratch.

Here you will learn about 9 significant blogging mistakes new bloggers make in the beginning and as a result, they are compelled to terminate their blog completely. You must be aware of these basic things first and mistakes before you start a blog.

Mistake #1: Getting Free Platform

This is yet another significant mistake new bloggers make at the beginning. Using a free platform like WordPress.com or BlogSpot impedes them from getting a professional look for their blogs.

Yes, if you are serious about blogging you have to invest some money for your blog to get a good custom domain.

Choosing a custom domain along with a hosting not only makes you look classic and professional but also boosts up your website ranking. So before you start a blog choose a platform like WordPress. WordPress gives you full freedom to do whatever you want to do with your site. Besides tons of plugins, classic themes, huge facilities draw many bloggers to it.

This idea recently came to my mind and I will very soon move to a custom domain from the free one. You can also choose an expired domain with high DA instead of a new one to speed up your website ranking quickly.

Mistake #2: Much Post or Irregular Posting

If you have come to blogging you have to maintain a regular posting schedule for your blog. Not maintaining a schedule casts a negative impact on your blog readership.

If you are a busy person at least try to take out as low as two hours for your blog. Whether you post thrice a week or twice a month doesn't make a difference; if you are able to write quality posts your audience and readership will increase gradually and you will be happy too.
So be consistent and regular in your writing both in quality and publication frequency.

Mistake #3: Choosing the Wrong Niche

choosing the wrong niche while coming to blogging is one of the significant mistakes new bloggers make at the very beginning.

What they do is that they grab the niche of what their competitors are writing on and start writing similar posts on them. They have probably read some of their articles and out of impulse they set in writing for their blogs. As a result, after publishing a few numbers of articles they lose the topic.

But if you want to ensure the long-term success of your blog you should hear your heart first, instead of focusing on others. First, find out in which niche you are interested and knowledgeable enough to provide your audience with the necessary information so that they return satisfied after reading your post. Then start developing your writing gradually.

Mistake #4: Doing Improper SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization helps your blog receive tons of traffic from search engines like Google and helps in getting a higher rank on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

Including proper keywords, Meta descriptions, tags, image alt and text, heading, etc. help in SEO hand-in-hand. Submit your blog posts to various search engines including Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster. For your convenience, I have given the website link here from which you can submit your blog to a lot of search engines with just a few clicks.

Additionally, submitting your blog posts to directory submission sites, forum posting sites, bookmarking sites, sharing them on social media will help you increase your site authority and become more visible to search engines. So, if you want to ensure your blog's success don't forget to research on proper SEO.

Mistake #5: Too Much Of Ads on Blog

A lot of bloggers dream of making money online by putting ads on their blogs. There is a wide range of popular ad-serving networks for bloggers to monetize their blogs, especially with Google AdSense.

The biggest mistake that many bloggers make at the early stage is they put too many ads on their blogs in expectation of making a lot of money overnight. However, this notion is purely flash. Putting too many ads on your blog irritates readers and heavily spoils the readership quality. This would not be a good thing for bloggers!

Too many ads on site hide the original content and confuse the readers. Hence, an ad above the post title and one in-article ad would be an ideal choice for new bloggers. So be judgmental next time you put ads on your site.

Mistake #6: Lack of Promoting

Lack of promoting blog posts is another biggest blogging mistake new blogger’s do at the beginning.

You are the first person who shares your contents. The more you share the higher traffic you will end up generating. Promote your contents after publishing on different social media, submit them to forum posting sites, PDF submission sites, many bookmarking sites, and directory submission sites to reach more audience. This will help you increase the visibility of your blog and derive a considerable number of engagements.

Mistake #7: Giving Up a Compelling Title to Blog Posts

more another big blogging mistake new blogger’s make is they fail in generating a good and compelling title for their blog posts.

The title is the first thing that draws a visitor to your site. If you give a dull or commonplace title for your blog post, you are likely to get lesser readership. Try to glue a catchy and compelling title to the very first of your blog post. This will make visitors attracted to your site and see what the inside holds.

If you want you can start your blog with some kind of questions that supports it. For example, you are writing a post on how to make money online from blogging. You can start the post by including sentences like who doesn't want to make money these days? Or maybe are you passionate about making money online? Etc.

This will trigger interest in your audience and they will definitely sacrifice some time to go through your entire post.

Mistake #8: Giving Up to Follow Passion

Blogging is all about patience and passion as I already said in my previous articles. If you are passionate about blogging you are fixed to achieve your dream as a blogger.

To be personal, blogging is my first hobby and at the same time a passion too. Most of my days I spend reading other bloggers, following what they are reading and interacting with others. Remarkably, many of them, like Harsh Agarwal, suggested every new blogger should follow and chase their passion first to come out successful in blogging. They asserted passion makes one love work by heart. And what is loved by heart always ends up being successful!

Mistake #9: Giving Up Too Early On Blog

This is the last but not the least mistake.

Many bloggers start blogging hoping to make money within a few months or even some think overnight. However, this is like building a castle in the air.

Pelt a glance at some of the most successful persons in the world like Bill Gates, Jack Maa, Thomas Alfa Edison, Albert Einstein, or Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of mouth-watering KFC - they all faced one thing in life which is a failure. Still, they were reluctant to give up. Their obstinacy and continuous hard work brought them where they are today.

So if you want to reach a well-established position with blogging never ever give up. Success so the result of continuous efforts. And you have not chosen blogging to give up eventually, right?

Hope these few significant mistakes will make you more conscious next time you start a blog. Have you enjoyed reading this? What experience have you got after reading this post? Do let me know in the comment.

Immortalise Kudirat Abiola, activists tell FG

2019-06-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

Pro-democracy civil organisations on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to immortalise the late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola who was killed 23 years ago.

She died in the struggle to actualise the June 12, 1993 election won by her husband, Chief Moshood Abiola.

The election was annulled by General Ibrahim Babangida.

The activists, who gathered at the Ikeja home of Chief Abiola to lay wreath and offer prayer to the fallen amazon, demanded for speedy conclusion of the case of those standing trail for the murder of Kudirat.

Chairman of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu said Kudirat Abiola sacrificed her life to make Nigeria better.

He urged Nigerians not to allow the sacrifice by Abiola to be in vain, calling on all lovers of freedom and democracy to live by the ideas she died for.

The NADECO chieftain said: “The most important thing now is keep her ideas alive.

“We call on the relevant authorities to ensure poverty is banished, security must be provided and others.

“Kudirat virtue has been extolled on many occasions, but I must say there was June 12 before June 4. Again June 4 came about because of June 12. We must not allow her to die in vain.”

Rights activist Femi Aborishade said government must end poverty to make the honour bestowed on M.K.O Abiola realistic.

He said government pronouncement on June 12 as democracy day fell short of expectations when the people have nothing to eat or shelter over their heads.

“I know of certain that the poor are united in this country but the power that or the politicians have been working hard to keep us divided.

“They killed Kudirat because they believed she would preserve the unity of the downtrodden.

“They killed her because they don’t her to provide the example for others to learn from, that you can actually confront them and demand for your rights.”

Read Also: Remembering Kudirat Abiola 23 yrs after: 11 things you probably didn’t know about her

President of Women Arise, Dr. Joe Odumakin said government should immortalise Kudirat by naming a national monument after her.

She added the slain activist should recognised as official First Lady, noting all insignia of office be given her posthumously.

According to her: “Kudirat Abiola died for humanity and to banish poverty. Her record in promoting democracy is unparalleled.”

Responding, Alhaji Jamiu Abiola, appreciated the efforts of pro- democracy group to keep the memory of Kudirat Abiola alive.

He said: “We see the pro- democracy groups as part of the Abiola family. Most of you have committed cash and kind to the struggle, just to keep the memory alive. This to us is the greater sacrifice.

“By this act, we call on everyone to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption.

“He cannot singlehandedly win the fight if other people stay aloof. We urge government official and members of the National Assembly to join had to deal with this monster.

“This is the major reason the people have continued to wallow in poverty.”

Eid-el-fitr: Prices of fresh food condiments skyrocket in Yobe as basket of tomatoes goes for N17,000

2019-06-02T05:05:00.002-07:00

Barely 48 hours to this year’s Sallah celebrations, prices of tomatoes, pepper, onions and other condiments have skyrocketed in Yobe State.

It has now become a tradition in the state and around the country that, whenever it is a festive period, marketers have ways of inflating prices of commodities to the detriment of end users.

A market survey conducted by DAILY POST today in Damaturu Sunday market showed that the hike in the prices of these ingredients was as a result of scarcity coupled with high demands for the festive period.

Pepper is one of the condiments where its price has gone up as a measure now goes for N500 which was N100 before this period.

Ibrahim Idris, a trader at the market said, “There is absolute scarcity of the commodity (pepper) and the supply we have cannot gratify the needs of end users.

“The problem is not from us the petty traders. It is from the dealers who bring it in large quantity and even them (dealers) are complaining that the prices have gone up in places where they are the commodities.”

Another condiment that is untouchable due to exorbitant price, is tomatoes as investigations revealed that, a basket full of the commodity is sold at the cost of N17, 000, while a bag of 50kg of onions goes for a N6,500.

Pepper and tomatoes among other condiments are mostly grown and brought to Yobe State from Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa Kano and Benue States with the exception of onions, which are grown within the state.

The prices of all these commodities were very affordable before this period as it was gathered.

How to Find Plagiarized Content Using Google Alerts

2019-06-02T04:49:00.000-07:00

I love Google Alerts to find out when someone has stolen my content. It’s a great tool that is completely free and will warn you when someone copies your articles. But in order to be useful for catching plagiarists and content thieves, you have to set up your Google Alert properly.

Using Vanity Google Alerts for Name and Blog

It’s common for bloggers and those active in the social media arena to use Google Alerts for what are known as “vanity alerts”. This means the blogger creates Google Alerts to search for their name, and their blog name. For example my vanity alerts search for AngEngland, Angela England and Untrained Housewife (which yields some interesting results by the way).

Creating Google Alerts to Catch Stolen Blog Posts

When you create a google alert to monitor your content you want to set them up a little differently. Take a unique sentence from your blog post or article and make THAT statement your search parameter.

BUT (here’s the really important part) be sure to use quotation marks around the unique sentence or you’ll get total spam and unrelated results. So for example, if I were creating a google alert for this post I would put a unique sentence from the middle of the post in quotes and it would look like this: “For example my vanity alerts search for AngEngland, Angela England and Untrained Housewife (which yields some interesting results by the way).”

Here are some tips to keep in mind:

1-Take your sentence from the middle or middle-end of the post. Content thieves will often rewrite the title and intro paragraph and then cut and paste everything else over.

2-Search everything – News, blog posts, etc so you can catch plagiarism of your content in any location. I’ve found my articles published on college websites, customer newsletters, EBay sales pages….everywhere.

3-Don’t forget to use quotation marks so the search results will yield exact matches only. This will prevent your inbox from being flooded.

4-Once you’ve created your Google Alert, search Google.com using that same sentence IN QUOTATION MARKS to catch any current theft (this would apply to posts more than an hour old) since google alerts will only catch additional plagiarism moving forward from the time you create the alert.

Using google alerts can be a great way to monitor your blog posts for stolen content and help you fight plagiarism of your work. It’s an epidemic but there’s a lot you can do to stop thieves in their tracks. Tomorrow I’ll post how to handle things when you’ve found someone has taken your blog post or article.

What to Do When Someone Steals Your Blog Post

2019-06-02T04:44:00.000-07:00

If you’ve ever found your articles reprinted without your permission — and I’m talking more than what’s considered fair use — then you’ll love today’s article. Ang England explains what scraping is and how to approach a website that’s stealing your content. (Hint: You may be able to turn it into a lucrative opportunity!) Please welcome Angela as this week’s guest blogger and feel free to leave a comment about your thoughts or experiences with content theft. ~ Melanie

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Unfortunately in the blogging world there is one thing we’ll all have to deal with sooner or later — content scraping. This is when someone steals a post or article you wrote and publishes it on their own site.

While this used to have some serious SEO implications, these have been recently minimized by Google in new algorithms that help determine which post was the original and which is the duplicate. However, this content scraping is, quite simply, theft. Theft of your work. Theft of potential readers. And a sign of incredible laziness (or ignorance) on the part of the thief.

Perhaps you discovered the theft in a Google Alert you set up (and you should definitely be doing that), when a friend DM’d or emailed you to say “Hey — isn’t this your post you wrote last month?”, or just by pure happenstance. Whatever the method of discovery, I have some tried-and-true ways of dealing with content thieves you might find useful.

Stay Calm and Be Polite When Dealing with Content Thieves

My initial knee-jerk reaction is usually, “How dare they!?” but this is rarely a useful response. If this is a live human being, it’s probably better to try emailing them or using their website contact form if possible to inform them that you are the copyright holder of the post in question (Be sure to link to which post you are talking about). My initial email or comment usually goes something like this:

“Hi! My name is Angela England and I’m glad you found my article about lavender essential oil useful, however this article is protected by copyright and cannot be republished without permission. You can remit a one-time reprint fee of $XXX via paypal to . Alternatively, I am available to create an original piece on this topic specifically geared towards your audience for $XX. Otherwise this article needs to be removed within 24 business hours. Thanks so much! “

There are a couple of important things to notice in my sample email above:

I used a statement rather than a question. A question can be answered negatively and legally can be ignored. Had I asked, “Would you mind taking it down?” They could have replied, “Yes I mind”. You must say “This article needs to be removed….”
I invited the content scraper to hire me or pay me. Obviously you can only offer a reprint fee option if that option is available for that particular post. However, I generally charge about $50 more for a reprint fee than I offer for creating an original article for that person. I would rather them hire me to create a new piece than to have duplicate content floating about all over the web. Besides, lots of people don’t realize that blog posts and websites aren’t a free-for-all. Educate them by offering to hire yourself out. This not only creates a potential win/win situation, but also makes it very clear that your words have VALUE and aren’t up for grabs.

Filing a DMCA Complaint Against Content Thieves

One time out of 10 I get a new job when I send that email. One time out of 10 I get a reprint fee paid to me. Five times out of 10 the articles disappear — usually without a single word of acknowledgement to me at all. So what happens the other three times when there is no response, no reply, and most importantly, my article is STILL up there?

Sometimes, especially if it looks like a legitimate website, I will actually just send an invoice via Paypal. In the invoice I price it higher than my initially stated reprint fee (call it a pain-in-the-butt tax), and will include a notice that payment needs to be remitted with 48 business hours or else the stolen article at http://yourthievingwebsite.com/mystolenpost/ needs to be removed. Sometimes this will work, but sometimes it won’t.

If that doesn’t work, you move to filing a DMCA complaint. I usually will do a WHOIS search and find a contact email address and resend my request to that email. I will also contact the host of the site with an official DMCA complaint. And I will contact Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. It’s not hard to fill out the form and it is, in my opinion, important for bloggers and writers to protect their work. The more often content scrapers “get away with it”, the more the problem will continue.

Depending on how much time I have and my feistiness level, I will contact any advertisers on the website as well. All ad networks have rules in place about the type of content that is permissible, and illegally obtained content isn’t usually approved content. Sometimes the ad networks will remove ads before Google gets to the DMCA complaint — either way, mission accomplished. (Usually I only contact a website’s sponsors if someone responds to me with an ignorant email saying something like “But it was on the internet and everyone knows if it’s on Google it’s free to use”.)

I hope this helps you as you battle content thieves and scrapers. Don’t be afraid to contact them and tell them your posts need to be removed. Your words have value and deserve to be respected.

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Angela England’s mission is to empower and educate others about blogging, freelance writing, and social media. She is the author of 30 Days to Make and Sell a Fabulous Ebook. You can read more of her helpful articles at AngEngland.com and Untrained Housewife.

Beginning Blogger Checklist: 5 MORE Mistakes to Avoid

2019-06-02T04:39:00.000-07:00

1.Â Choosing an uninteresting or redundant blog name.

If you are starting a blog, whether you think you might be in it for the long haul or not, please consider your title seriously. Try to avoid words like musings, ramblings, thoughts, mommy, etc. Trust me when I tell you it’s been done. Your goal should be to set yourself apart from the crowd. Choose something reflective of your personality and niche, but be creative.

Some things to think about when naming your blog:

Is the title flexible? Does it allow you to grow your niche if you decide to? For instance, if you are starting a mommy blog and your title is My Pregnant Belly, what happens when you’re still blogging in 18 months and you’re no longer pregnant? The entire focus of your blog has changed, but your title hasn’t and it no longer reflects your topic.
Does the title reflect the blog’s topic? Your title is a great way to increase your SEO if you choose your words carefully to reflect your blogging niche.
Does the title match your domain name? Your URL should match your blog’s name. It’s terribly confusing and hard to remember if your blog is called The Nelson Three but the URL is maxlovespie.blogspot.com. They are totally unrelated.

2.Â Not owning your domain name.

Your domain name is the URL, or address, of your blog. For example, yourblogname.comor yourblogname.net. There are several reasons to own your domain:

It’s less than $10/year to own your domain and it’s an incredibly easy process.
It’s easy for your readers or new contacts to remember your blog’s name & how to find it.
As you build your blog, you build your brand. Your URL is an important part of that branding.
Like it or lump it, people take you more seriously if you own your own domain name and use a .com or .net URL.

When you buy your domain name, it’s best to buy the .com and the .net. Most people are used to typing in the .com, but the .net is a close second. If, for some reason, you can’t secure the .com, go with the .net.

3.Â Your header is huge.

Digital scrapbooking is wildly popular and I understand that. However, blogging is not digital scrapbooking. I see so many blogs (particularly mommy blogs) that have a header that takes up most of the homepage. The reader has to scroll down several times just to get to the content. In a book you have a title page; on a blog you have a title bar. The title bar should be visible and eye-catching, but it is not the thrust of your blog. Keep it simple and small. Focus on your content.

4.Â Not considering privacy issues.

It’s important to consider how transparent you want to be online. It’s impossible to tell whether your blog will take off or not. If you’re insanely popular in a year, do you want people to know your child’s real name or where you live? For some people out there, it’s a game to see if they can figure out specific, private things about your family or your life. It’s creepy and it can be dangerous. I say this not to scare you, but to make you aware of the problems that can occur when you give too much to your audience.

On a lighter note, if you write about your family or personal life, you may wish to use pseudonyms. As you choose these names be aware that your baby is going to grow up. Calling them SweetPumpkin on your blog isn’t going to go over well when they’re old enough to know you’re writing about them and have a pet name for them. I called my children Max and Wild Thing (after characters in my favorite children’s book). As my second child grew older, she took exception to being called Wild Thing and insisted I change her name. You’ve been warned.

5.Â Allowing blogging to become a chore.

When you begin your blog, you have the energy and the ideas for fifty posts. You have a shiny new toy and you’re ready to jump in with both feet. I say harness that energy and write those posts. Then put those posts on auto-publish and give yourself a break. As you write more posts, add them to the queue. If you only write your posts the day before, you may end up (as so many of us have) resenting the fact that you have to write a post or you’ll lose your readership (which isn’t really true). Finally, remember that blogging isn’t life. Many a blogger has found that she’s so wrapped up in blogging her life that she forgets to focus on the people in her life. Step back every once in a while and take stock of how things are going. Adjust as necessary. If you’re hitting a wall and can’t think of anything to write, allow yourself to take a break (just don’t apologize for it when you come back).

I have many awards that are on my sidebar and I wanted to create a separate page on my blog for them. Can you tell me how to do that?

2019-06-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

Moving these awards and graphics off your sidebar is a good idea–it will help declutter your design! (Pay no attention to my own sidebars; do as I say, not as I do!)

TypePad
TypePad offers a feature that allows you to make a page instead of a blog post. Pages are great for things like blogrolls, listing awards and recognition, or anything else that is fairly static but may need to be updated periodically. Pages also allow you to choose a specific name/permalink. For instance, if you are making a page for your awards, you can choose to call it awards/. The name is descriptive and easy to remember. It’s worth noting that Pages do not show up in your blog’s feed.

Go to the Compose Tab.
Click New Page.
Compose your page as you would any other blog post. You can add a title, headings and sub-headings, graphics, and links.
Scroll down to the area below your textbox (where you compose your post). You should see a box with Filename above it.
Type the filename you’d like your page to have (e.g., awards). You don’t have to type / because that will automatically be part of the URL.
Save your page.

Blogger
From what I can tell, Blogger does not offer a way to make a page like TypePad does. However, you can get around this.

Compose a new post listing your awards. You can put the award picture, a link, whatever you think is appropriate.
Save and publish your post.
Find and copy your new post’s permalink.
Go to the Layout tab.
Click on Add a Gadget in your sidebar.
Choose Link List by clicking on the + sign.
Paste your post’s permalink in the New Site URL box.
Type Blog Awards (or whatever title you want that page to have) in the New Site Name box.
Click Add Link.
Click Save.
Move the new gadget/link list to its proper place in your sidebar (simply click and drag up or down in your sidebar on the Layout tab).
On the Layout tab page, click Save.

Blog Design For Dummies – Book Review

2019-06-02T04:31:00.002-07:00

I have the perfect book recommendation for you guys: Blog Design For Dummies by Melissa Arce Culbertson of MomComm.

I have a list of the things I’ve been meaning to do for this blog and some others I have. It’s a long list. I haven’t gotten to it yet. Then Melissa asked if I’d review her new book,Â Blog Design For Dummies.Â Y’all this was the kick in the pants I needed.Â I’m not only working on my list, I’m excited about working on my list. I’ve gone through this book twice already and I currently have 20 pages bookmarked.

I know writing and editing. I know understanding your audience. I know usability (which is one of the things I’ve been meaning to update). But what I don’t know is design.

Melissa, on the other hand, knows a thing or ten about design and usability – two topics that can be daunting even for experienced bloggers. She has over 12 years experience with marketing communications. She got started with a personal blog (Adventeroo), but quickly discovered she was strong resource for the blogging community and created MomComm. Her regular series of blog critiques is wildly popular.

Getting Started with Blog Design

“Before you embark on designing your blog, you and your blog need to sit down and have a little chat.”

If you’re just learning about blog design or this is your first time considering usability, there’s a lot of information being shared in this book. It could be overwhelming, but don’t let that deter you. Melissa helps you easily prepare for the process of designing your blog by suggesting three key exercises in Chapter 3: Getting to Know Your Blog (Even Better):

setting goals
defining your writing – including choosing a niche (or not)
understanding your audience

Approaching Blog Design the Right Way

“Decisions, decisions. Blog design is full of decisions.”

If you’re most interested in blog design, skip to section two: Choosing the Visual Design Elements. This section in particularly is meaty. It covers the specifics of how to approach design from creating mood boards to using Google Analytics, and from choosing fonts and colors that compliment each other to creating a blog layout that helps your readers find what they’re looking for. Then Melissa ties it all together by helping you with some basic coding to get you started.

In Choosing the Visual Design Elements, Melissa shares five tips for defining your blog design (each one with its own chapter and complete discussion):

gathering design ideas (Tip: Check out Chapter 18 too; it lists 10 well-designed blogs that may inspire you.)
selecting fonts and colors
developing your overall blog layout
customizing your blog’s header, footer, and background
customizing the design with coding basics

Believe it or not, most bloggers have already started choosing their elements without even recognizing it. If you’ve ever made a note about another blog’s header that you love or a color combination that speaks to you, you’ve started creating a mood board (check your Pinterst boards — you probably have some things already there!).

Understanding Usability in Blog Design

“No matter how awesomely designed a blog looks, visitors won’t stick around if a blog is hard to navigate.”

If you’re just starting to think about usability but aren’t quite sure what it is or how to implement it, then section three of Blog Design For Dummies is your home. For those of you not quite sold on the idea of usability or think it’s too much work, consider this: Good usability = good SEO (flip over to chapter 10 to learn why).

When your users can easily find what they’re looking for, they’ll come back. This is especially important for resource blogs. And if you think you’re not a resource blog because you talk about fashion, food, or home decor, think again. When someone sees a great idea on your site, they may not bookmark it or pin it right away. Â But later, when they’re ready to use that idea, they’ll return to your site and try to search for it. If they can’t find it, they’ll move on to another place that may have similar information.

The Importance of Using Pictures on Your Blog

“Think about it. Would you flip through a magazine if there were no images? Probably not. Like magazines, blogs come alive with images.”

Any part of good blog design is going to include images. Flip to section four, Creating Design-Friendly Content, to learn:

how to choose images to use on your blog
where to find pictures to use legally use on your blog (and how to attribute them)
how to edit your own pictures

This isn’t one of my strong suits so I’ll probably spend a lot of time referring back to this section.

The Parts of Ten – My Favorite Part

Finally, like most Dummies books, you’ll find the Parts of Ten in the back of the book. I love the Parts of Ten. It’s where you find quick lists of the best resources. Blog Design For Dummies shares 10 places to extend your design (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, printables) and 10 well-designed blogs that follow the tenants shared throughout the book.

Recommendation: Buy Blog Design For Dummies

In Blog Design For Dummies Melissa explains design and usability with easy-to-understand tutorials and discussion without being condescending. That’s a talent I can appreciate since many of the topics she covers can be fairly complex.

Whether you’re just getting started blogging or you’re a blogging veteran, I can’t over-emphasize how useful this bookÂ is. It’s a great tutorial for beginners, but it delves into each topic in ways that are satisfying for bloggers who’ve been around the block a few times. Buy Blog Design For Dummies and use it as a resource — flip around, mark what’s useful, and get started tweaking your blog design!

You can find Melissa’s Cheat Sheet on the For Dummies website.

Other For Dummies Books You May Like:

Facebook All-In-One For Dummies by Melanie Nelson
Online Community Management For Dummies by Deborah Ng
Klout For Dummies by Andrea Updyke
Web Hosting For Dummies by Peter Pollock
Raising Digital Families For Dummies by Amy Lupold Bair (review coming soon)

6 Ways to Get a Free Domain Name in Less Than a Minute

2019-06-02T02:30:00.001-07:00

A domain name is commonly known as a website address. It has three parts, including a website name, a dot (or period), and an extension like “com” or “net” like fitsmallbusiness.com. Some domain providers offer truly free domain names, while others offer a free domain name as part of their paid hosting packages.

Here are the six best ways to get a free or almost free domain name.

Option 1: Get a Free .com Domain With Affordable Web Hosting

Bluehost offers a free .com domain name if you purchase one of its web hosting packages. Because .com URLs are in high demand, it isn’t possible to get one completely free. However, you can get an excellent deal with Bluehost by signing up for a hosting plan that costs only $2.95 per month, which includes a free .com domain.

When it comes to choosing a domain name for a website or professional email address, most people are looking for a .com URL, such as www.yoursite.com. This is the most common and professional-looking domain extension, so choosing a hosting provider that includes a free .com domain name — included with a website and a business email account — is best.

Bluehost is a great option for this. You can buy hosting starting at less than $3 per month that includes a .com domain, a professional WordPress website with easy installation and customization in under an hour, and up to five professional email accounts. In other words, you not only get a domain of www.yoursite.com, but you can create a high-quality website and get up to five email addresses that use the same domain. Click here to sign up for Bluehost.

Visit Bluehost

Option 2: Get a Free Website Domain for One Year Plus Site Builder

Wix offers a .com domain free for one year when you pay for a Wix website builder package. For solopreneurs, the $11 per month Combo package comes with 2GB of bandwidth, 3GB of storage, and a free domain. The small businesses $14 per month Unlimited package gives you the free domain, 10GB of storage, and unlimited bandwidth.

The limitation here is that, once that year has passed, you do have to pay a fee for your domain. The pricing for this domain will depend on the type of domain extension you chose, the number of years you’d like to pay for at one time if you’ve added privacy protection, local taxes, and more. You’d have to look in “Billing and Payments” in your Wix account, then find your “Subscriptions” tab to learn what you’d pay after the first free year.

The beauty of Wix is that it offers a highly customizable website you can edit with no coding skills via drag-and-drop tools. It best serves small business or solopreneurs looking to avoid web design costs and need an intuitive site builder they can use themselves. You can also click on the “Features” tab on Wix’swebsite.

Visit Wix

Option 3: Get Free Domain Name & Limited Web Builder

DreamHost offers a free .com domain name for one year when you choose its annual Unlimited Shared or DreamPress hosting plans. The annual Shared Unlimited plan starts at $5.95 per month, and the annual DreamPress plan starts at $16.95 per month with a cloud-based server for better website reliability and faster performance.

DreamHost is pricier than Bluehost for a small business website but comparable for a solopreneur or starter website. Because its shared Unlimited plan offers storage that’s shared with other businesses, speed can sometimes be unreliable. Its Remixer website builder, included in both plans mentioned above, isn’t as customizable as Wix’s but can be used to import a website design into WordPress for additional customization.

DreamHost is best for companies that want a free domain name with affordable hosting, a drag-and-drop builder able to create very basic websites, and one-click install of content management systems like WordPress and Joomla. You can learn more about DreamHost’s hosting packages by clicking on its “Hosting” header menu tab, then “Hosting Overview.”

Visit DreamHost

Option 4: Get a Free Subdomain From a Website Builder

Weebly can help you build your simple website with a free site builder and sub-domain (a website address that includes the host-name as well as your site name, such as yoursite.weebly.com). This is a great option for solopreneurs or early-stage startups. With Weebly’s website builder, you drag-and-drop shapes and photos to design your site as you would to design a PowerPoint presentation.

The only catch is that the builder is somewhat limited at the free level. Storage and features are truncated, and you cannot remove ads placed by the website builder. Further, the included subdomain is a bit clunkier than a custom domain name. For more information, read our article on comparisons of the best website builders.

The Weebly free plan offers a subdomain (www.yoursite.weebly.com), 500MB of storage, and a footer link ad for Weebly. By upgrading to the paid $8 per month plan, you get a free domain name (www.yoursite.com), unlimited storage, and no footer link ad inviting visitors to also sign up for Weebly. For information on setting up your site, read our free guide on how to create a website with Weebly.

Some of the other big website builders include Wix and Squarespace (although Squarespace doesn’t have a free version). Weebly is our favorite among the three for its simpler editing tools and faster speed. Get started with a Weebly plan that includes a free subdomain or purchase a paid plan with a free custom domain by visiting its web hosting plan pricing page.

Visit Weebly

Option 5: Get a Free .Tk Domain Name

Powered by Freenom, the website dot.tk offers .tk domains (www.yoursite.tk) completely free for up to a year. It also has .ml, .ga, .cf, and .gq domains available at no cost, but it offers no site builder or additional hosting features.

With dot.tk, you get a clean URL like www.yoursite.tk. It’s also free to transfer the domain to a hosting service to create your website or professional email address. The catch is that dot.tk only lets you register the domain for up to a year at a time. In addition, dot.tk domains don’t rank as well as more common extensions like .com or .net. While renewals are currently free, we can’t guarantee it will remain that way in the future.

If you’re looking for a domain you can use in the long term (two or more years), it’s wiser to pay the small fee for a .com domain instead. After all, this looks more professional and is generally more trusted by visitors. On the other hand, if you only need a temporary domain and aren’t too concerned about appearances, dot.tk provides a simple and free alternative.

Visit dot.tk

Option 6: Get a Free .Co.nf Domain Name

At Biz.nf, you can register a .co.nf domain name (www.yoursite.co.nf) completely free. Unlike dot.tk, which only allows you to register one year at a time, biz.nf lets you own the domain for an unlimited amount of time, provided you only use it with its website hosting services.

To help solopreneurs and small businesses get started, biz.nf provides a free website hosting and domain package. You get 5GB of traffic per month, although there are some significant limitations, like no files more than 15MB can be uploaded.

Another key limitation is that you cannot transfer your free domain name to another host like you can with Bluehost or even .tk, although this is likely to be available in the future for a surcharge. Also, unlike dot.tk, .co.nf is technically a subdomain owned by biz.nf. While this makes little difference to visitors besides the slightly longer URL, it does mean you will lose the URL should biz.nf ever discontinue service.

If you’re looking for a long-term solution, a low-cost hosting plan with providers like Bluehost or DreamHost that offer a .com URL is a wiser option.

However, if you’re looking for a simple informational website and aren’t particularly worried about expanding or keeping it up for long, biz.nf provides an impressive free service. Click below to sign up.

Visit biz.nf

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What Is a Domain Name in a URL?

A domain name has three parts, your website name, a dot or period, and an extension like “com” or “net.” For example, in the URL www.fitsmallbusiness.com/marketing/, the domain name is fitsmallbusiness.com.

What Is the Difference Between a Paid & Free Website Domain?

A free website domain has either uncommon extensions like .tk (versus common extensions like .com) that don’t rank well and lack credibility or require a sign up for other paid services like web hosting services. Most small businesses can get a free domain name with a credible extension for a few dollars a month or for free by signing up for quality hosting services like Bluehost.

Which Free Domain Name Is Best?

The best free domains are ones with credible extensions readers or customers trust, like .com, .org, .net, and .edu. These make your readers feel more at ease by offering a professional look that puts your website in the same class as reputable organizations’ and businesses’ websites. To get a free, credible domain name, you can purchase web hosting packages with a company like Bluehost that include a free domain name.

Can You Buy a Domain Name Outright?

Since registering a domain name means you are leasing the name, it cannot be purchased outright. Just like renting a house, you have possession of a domain for a certain period of time. However, some providers allow you to register a domain name for anywhere from one month to 10 years before having to renew it.

How Can You Create a Domain Name in Less Than a Minute?

This depends on your domain name provider. For Bluehost, for example, register for an account by clicking “Create account” on the homepage. Select the hosting package you’d like by clicking on the green “Select” button under your package description. From there, enter the domain name you’d like under “New Domain” and the extension you’d like (we recommend .com). Enter your contact and credit card information, then click the green “Submit” button.

The Bottom Line

A domain name is a website address made of a website name, followed by a dot, then an extension like .com. You can receive a free domain by purchasing web hosting packages or via domain registrars with little-known extensions like .tk allow people to access business websites and are best for entrepreneurs and small businesses that rely on an internet presence for sales, brand awareness, or content marketing.

If you’re creating a website for your business, we strongly recommend paying the small fee for a .com domain instead of a free domain like .tk. You get a more reputable domain name and don’t have to worry as much about price increases or service interruptions. With Bluehost, you can get a domain name, website hosting, and a professional email account for $2.65 per month. Click below to get started.

10 Best Free Domains Sites | Free Domain‎

2019-06-02T02:28:00.000-07:00

Web Servers and the Internet

The Internet is nothing more than a large collection of computers attached to a telecommunications network and a set of protocols that establishes the rules for data to be sent and received by them. Most computers are linked to the Internet through a modem that directs traffic to and from a local phone or cable company. An Internet service provider (ISP) directs the incoming and outgoing data through a local hub to regional hubs.

All the data that makes up a website is located on one or more specialized computers known as servers. Servers can be expensive to purchase and maintain, so companies, known as domain hosts or website hosts, lease server resources to subscribers in return for monthly fees. This allows most anyone to create a website that is available to the public on the World Wide Web (WWW), which is the collective network of all websites in the world that can be accessed through the Internet.

In order for computers to understand each other, universal codes and protocols have been established. One of the most important of these protocols for websites and domain hosting is hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). It is this protocol that allows queries to be sent to specific servers so that the websites on those servers can be accessed.

To direct a request for access from a client computer to a website server, a system of names attached to Internet protocol (IP) addresses is in operation. The physical location of the server of a particular website is embedded in the name, which is also known as the uniform resource locator (URL).

Names and IP Addresses

The first step in acquiring a host is to register a name. These are regulated and maintained by name registrars, which ensure that there is no repetition. The actual registration can be done directly through the registrar but most likely will be done by a third party like a hosting service. They are easily readable by people, but for computers to understand them, domain names have to be linked to binary IP addresses through special servers called domain name servers (DNS). This system allows for a them to be transferred to another server should the webmaster decide to use a different platform.

Registrars and Website Hosts

The registrar may be the same company as the host, or it may be a totally different company. Most companies will allow customers to perform a name search & register it there. In fact if you choose a package first it is likely to get it for free for one year. Because the equipment required by registrars is so similar, most companies engage in both activities. Many companies marketed as registrars offer domain packages to those that use their name registration services, and other companies marketed as website hosts offer free or discounted registration for subscribers to their packages.

Find a host first or start with a search on a registrar. However, if it is already registered, you can subscribe to nearly any other hosting service. All you have to do is tell the host the names of the servers where the name information is stored.

Hosting Packages

Several different packages are available from hosting companies. Each package has a different set of features, and some may be more important to you and your website than others, but free domains for one year are common & you shouldn’t accept a package which doesn’t include this. Following are the most common types of packages:

Free hosting – Some companies offer free service. This service puts several subscribers onto a single server, and the resources of the server are shared between them. Free packages usually have very few features.
Shared hosting – Can also be a paid subscription service. Fee-based shared packages provide subscribers with more features than free hosts, and service guarantees may be available. Free names add a lot of value to these cheap packages.
Dedicated hosting – Subscribers who want their data to have the highest level of security and who require all the resources of a server can lease private servers that can be accessed and used only by them. These are the most expensive packages, but they provide the most power and flexibility.

Understanding which package will work best for you requires some research. Every domain host provides different features in their offered packages, and prices vary widely.

Champion League: Mourinho, Wenger blame one Tottenham player for 2-0 loss to Liverpool

2019-06-02T01:48:00.001-07:00

Former Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger and ex-Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho have blamed Harry Kane for Tottenham’s defeat to Liverpool in the Champions League final in Madrid on Saturday.

Kane was named in the starting XI nearly two months after suffering ankle ligament damage in the Champions League quarter-final first leg against Manchester City.

The Englishman struggled to get into the game in the first half, with Jurgen Klopp’s side taking a 1-0 lead into half time.

Both Wenger and his old rival Mourinho spoke on beIN SPORTS studio.

Wenger noted that Kane did not look fit enough to play.

“He doesn’t look ready and overall only Son [Heung-min] looked dangerous, especially going in behind [Trent] Alexander-Arnold,” he said.

And Mourinho agreed with the former Arsenal boss that Kane slowed things for Tottenham.

“The reality is that Tottenham had 61 per cent of ball possession but had zero shots on target,” Mourinho said.

“They missed lots of passes, they couldn’t link play.

“Harry Kane was hidden all the time.

“They missed lots of passes, they couldn’t link play.

“Harry Kane was hidden all the time

“He normally drops back, normally comes in-between the lines, normally he’s the link player.

“He receives the ball from one side, he goes in-between the lines, he turns, plays with the other full-back of the other side, he arrives in the box

“Nothing of this dynamic [has happened],” he added.

NEWS‘Release Dasuki, negotiate with El-Zakzaky’ – Sheikh Gumi tells Buhari govt

2019-06-02T01:39:00.001-07:00

Renowned Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, has called on the ‎Federal Government of Nigeria to release former Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (Rtd) from prison.

The Islamic Scholar also called for the release of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, Leader, Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.

Sheikh Gumi made the plea while closing this year’s Tafsir Lecture at Sultan Bello Mosque Saturday in Bauchi State.

He said the government should obey court orders to set the two persons free from detention.

Sheikh Gumi also said there was no basis for their continued detention since they have been ordered by court to be set free.

He said the Federal government should also dialogue with Sheikh Zakzaky instead of keeping him in detention.

“Here in Nigeria, I will like the government to look into the case of Colonel Sambo Dasuki and release him with immediate effect so also the Leader of shiites, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.

“They are not holding him ( Zakzaky) because he is Shi’ite. They should release and negotiate with him. Government should understand that it’s not right to disobey court orders.

“The government must lead by example by releasing them especially Colonel Sambo Dasuki,” he said.

IMN extending its terror activities beyond Nigeria – CSO reacts as Shi’ites burn US, Israeli flags in Abuja

2019-06-02T01:39:00.000-07:00

The Coalition in Defence of Democracy and Good Governance has condemned the burning of the American and Israeli flags by members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), better known as Shiites in Abuja.

DAILY POST reports that Shiites ablaze the national flags of the US and Israel during a massive protest in Abuja on Friday.

The protesters, who converged on Wuse market junction, described both countries as enemies and oppressors of the people of Palestine.

Abdullahi Musa, secretary of the academic forum of the movement, said the flags were burnt to show anger against the countries over their “oppressive tendency” against Palestine.

But reacting, CDDGG said IMN was extending its terror activities beyond Nigeria.

According to a statement by Gabriel Ajibili, Executive Secretary, the recent burning of the flags of the United States of America, as well as that of Israel by members of the IMN, was an indication of a more significant threat in the pipeline as posed by the IMN, whose history is replete with violence, aggression and complete disregard for constituted authorities in the country.

The statement called on the authority to designate IMN as a terrorist organization in the interest of peace and tranquility.

The statement added, “The Coalition in Defence of Democracy and Good Governance views such act as highly provocating and an attempt to drag Nigeria into a diplomatic row with the United States of America and Israel.

“The IMN has clearly shown to the world that it is indeed a violent organization with backing from an international network that continues to fund its activities and consequently dictates to it acts to carry out such as burning of the flags of the United States of America and Israel.

“The Coalition in Defence of Democracy and Good Governance condemn in its entirety the actions of the IMN and calls on the relevant security agencies to throw their searchlight on the IMN to identify their sponsorship network.

“The Coalition in Defence of Democracy and Good Governance states in unequivocal terms that the IMN by its recent actions is indeed acting on behalf of some interest groups that are bent on seeing the disintegration of Nigeria.

“These interest groups having identified the IMN as a violent and extremist organization have decided to discreetly carry out their plot to destabilize Nigeria as evident in the posturing of the IMN in Nigeria in recent times.

“The Coalition in Defence of Democracy and Good Governance condemns the burning of the flags of the United States of America and Israel by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and views such as acts of terrorism.

“The Coalition in Defence of Democracy and Good Governance consequently call on the United Nations to act swiftly in the overall interest of Nigeria by designating the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, a terrorist organization.

“The United Nations would wish to note that the history of the IMN in Nigeria has been replete with acts of terrorism that have led to the death of hundreds of innocent Nigerians. The IMN has also continued to harass and intimidate innocent Nigerians through their nefarious activities.

“The Coalition in Defence of Democracy and Good Governance views the threat posed by the IMN in Nigeria with great concern and therefore states that unless urgent steps are taken, the terrorist activities of the IMN might consume Nigeria and by extension sub-Saharan Africa.

“The Coalition in Defence of Democracy and Good Governance believes that the time to act is now by designating the IMN as a world terrorist organization as there is sufficient evidence that suggests the IMN is acting on behalf of an international conspiracy by burning the flags of the United States of America and Israel.

“The Coalition in Defence of Democracy and Good Governance states that the urgency of now requires the United Nations and other critical stakeholders in the act of ensuring the entrenchment of peace all around the world to take proactive steps in addressing the menace as posed by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.”

Trump announces choice to replace ex-British Prime Minister, May

2019-06-02T01:30:00.000-07:00

US President, Donald Trump, has said Boris Johnson would be an “excellent” choice to replace British Prime Minister, Theresa May, days ahead of a state visit to London.

“I actually have studied it very hard. I know the different players,” he said in an interview with the Sun tabloid.

“But I think Boris would do a very good job. I think he would be excellent.

“I like him. I have always liked him. I don’t know that he is going to be chosen, but I think he is a very good guy, a very talented person.”

The US president also said other candidates in the race to replace May, who will step down as leader of the Conservative party on June 7 after failing to push her Brexit deal through parliament, had also sought his endorsement.

“I don’t want to say who but other people have asked me for endorsements, yes.

“I could help anybody if I endorse them. I mean, we’ve had endorsements where they have gone up for forty, fifty points at a shot,” Trump claimed.

The president also criticized May for playing a weak hand in her Brexit negotiations.

“I think that the UK allowed the European Union to have all the cards. And it is very hard to play well when one side has all the advantage.

“I had mentioned to Theresa that you have got to build up your ammunition.”

Adsense Auto Ads : Benefits, How To Place Code On Blogger, WordPress and View Reports

2019-06-02T01:11:00.000-07:00

Google has officially unveiled Adsense Auto Ads; a system that uses machine learning to not only determine the types of ads people see on blogs, but how they’re placed. The AI technology will decide how many ads are appropriate for a page and where to put them.

If you are a blogger, Adsense Auto Ads will make smart placement and monetization decisions on your behalf, saving you time. Place one piece of code just once to all of your pages, and let Google take care of the rest.

Once you enable and place the Auto ads code on your blog, auto ads will now start working for you by analyzing your pages, finding potential ad placements, and showing new ads when they’re likely to perform well and provide a good user experience.

Benefits of Adsense Auto Ads

Some of the benefits of Auto ads include:

Optimization: Using machine learning, Auto ads show ads only when they are likely to perform well and provide a good user experience.
Revenue opportunities: Auto ads will identify any available ad space and place new ads there, potentially increasing your revenue.
Easy to use: With Auto ads you only need to place the ad code on your pages once. When you’re ready to use new features and ad formats, simply turn them on and off with the flick of a switch — there’s no need to change the code again.

How To Get Started With Adsense Auto Ads

Sign in to your AdSense account.
In the left navigation panel, visit My ads and select Get Started.
On the “Choose your global settings” page, select the ad formats that you’d like to show and click Save.

On the next page, click Copy code.

Paste the ad code between the < head > and </ head > tags of each page where you want to show Auto ads.

Auto ads will start to appear on your pages in about 10-20 minutes.

NB :

All users that used Page-level ads are automatically migrated over to Auto ads without any need to add code to their pages again.
If you’ve manually placed Adsense ads on your blog, there’s no need to remove them if you don’t want to. Auto ads will take into account all existing Google ads on your pages

How To Place Adsense Auto Ads Code On Blogger and WordPress Blogs

After you’ve generated the ad code for your Auto ads, you’ll need to place the code once on your blog. You should place your ad code in the tag.

For Blogger/Blogspot blogs, navigate to “Theme” > “Edit HTML” and paste the Adsense auto ads code above the

For WordPress, you can install “Insert Headers and Footers” plugin and paste the auto-ads code in Scripts in Header box.

How To View Earning Reports of Adsense Auto Ads

Sign in to your AdSense account.
In the left navigation panel, visit My ads and click on the graph icon as seen in the screenshot below:

I hope this helps.

If you’ve enabled Adsense auto-ads on your blog, kindly share your experience.

Transfer: Manchester United make promise to Matthijs de Ligt

2019-06-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

Manchester United have made a promise to Ajax youngster, Matthijs de Ligt in order to lure him to Old Trafford.

United, according to the Telegraph, have vowed to give De Ligt a starring role should he reject Barcelona move.

Ole Gunner Solskjaer’s side are keen to hijack Barcelona’s deal for De Ligt.

The 19-year-old helped Ajax win the Eredivisie title this season and also starred as they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.

The player has long been expected to swap Ajax for Barcelona, with the La Liga giants already signing his team-mate Frenkie De Jong.

The Telegraph reports that Manchester United are aiming to secure the services of the player and have promised him a starring role at the club.

How You Can Do it Better And 10 Mistakes I Made Publishing My eBook

2019-06-02T00:59:00.000-07:00

Back in 2008, I started this blog with the idea that I could post a lot of advice for freelance writers, and that eventually, I could expand that into an ebook.
It sounded so empowering. No editor! No waiting!
Just write it, have a designer pretty it up, and poof — I’ve got an ebook. And I can start earning money from it.
So I set out to write one.
It sorta took forever.
But in 2010, I finally did it — Make a Living Writing, the 21st Century Guide came out.
I was so excited.
There was only one problem…

I had no idea what I was doing

So I made a lot of mistakes.
Don’t get me wrong — I have sold a decent number of copies of the MALW book, and made several thousand totally appreciated dollars off it.
It was the tiny beginning of my journey to diversify my income and develop multiple sources of income. The first step toward my goal of providing better financial security for my family through my writing.
The sad truth is, I could have made much, much more on my ebook.
I’ve got plans for redoing my ebook in future — and readers of this blog will be the first ones to hear about those, later on — but for now, I’m stuck with what I’ve got.
In the meanwhile, I thought it’d be useful to other writers to hear my sad tale of ebook publishing gone wrong, so you can avoid my mistakes.
Here are ten things I screwed up in putting out my ebook:

It’s too long. This sucker is 220+ pages! I didn’t know that ebooks were better off at a shorter length. People don’t tend to read for hours on end on a digital screen, and they tend to go for shorter ebooks for that reason.
It’s too expensive. At $36, it offers great value given all the stuff I packed into it, but people are used to paying less for ebooks. Even worse, by blowing out all my info in one book, I had no followup book to upsell the writers who bought the first book. I wasn’t creating a sales machine, like you want. I just had a one-off product. Again, I probably would have done better publishing a smaller ebook at a lower price.
It should have been split. The book has three sections — how to write for publications, copywriting, and blogging. Duh! I could have created a cool Make a Living Writing ebook series, strengthened my brand, and had more products to sell. It’s always better to have more products because then you can bundle them in different ways or offer them as freebies to incent people to buy other products. Also, splitting it up likely would have gotten the first one done faster and allowed me to start earning sooner.
Not enough specifics. I’ve learned that writers need to be told very specifically, exactly how you do something. For instance, one I got recently: “If I’m contacting a charity about doing a pro bono sample, what exactly should I say to not seem desperate?” You can bet the next version of this material will have a lot more granular detail and answers to these nitty-gritty questions.
No setup for sequels. My title says it covers this entire century. What was I thinking? If I’d called it Make a Living Writing 2010, I could have published a new and slightly updated version of it each year, like What Color is Your Parachute? does, and created a franchise. The release of the new edition would have generated new interest and sales each year.
No related Webinars or classes. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about writers, it’s that you love free stuff. You also love live trainings, where you can get your personal questions answered by experts. I found there is much more interest in my one-on-one coaching and my classes than I ever saw from the ebook, because the ebook wasn’t presented as part of a suite of comprehensive learning help. (Look for me to create ebooks from some of my courses and Den bootcamps in the future to rectify this problem.)
Next to no marketing. I really had no idea how to market an ebook. OK, I built a little interest with a few blog posts about the content. But honestly — I did no contest, no giveaways, I wasn’t on Twitter yet. It was pretty minimal. I didn’t have a bunch of big bloggers contribute to it so that there’d be a team of people ready to help me market it. I look back now and I can think of 20 ways to promote it that I didn’t yet understand. So there was no big explosion of initial sales.
It’s only a PDF. I did not have the vaguest idea how to digitally publish an eBook. Rather than try to figure it out, I wanted to just do a PDF. I knew how to get a designer to make me a PDF, so I did that. The world of digital publishing for the Kindle and Nook and all the other ways completely confused me. So I ignored it. The problem is, the Kindle format is just exploding. I kept getting inquiries from writers about whether I had a Kindle version — and I had to tell them no, I didn’t. Who knows how many sales I lost.
Formatted wrong for digital. After doing the PDF, I learned you need very specific formatting in order for a book to transfer to Kindle and other popular eBook formats. Of course, I didn’t bother to learn those specs and use them in creating my PDF. Given that, I would have needed to get someone to reformat the whole thing and re-paginate it, which sounded like a massive headache. So I just passed on the whole opportunity. Now I realized it was stupid not to make the effort to get it converted.
No sales funnel. Let’s face it — at this point, if your eBook isn’t on Amazon, you are missing a huge automatic sales funnel that could be sending you customers while you sit back and do nothing. Your ability to promote it on your own tiny blog is nothing compared to the exposure it gets on one of the biggest sites on the Internet, just from people doing searches in their “book” tab.

The whole time I’ve been selling my ebook, the Kindle phenomenon has just been growing and growing. Now, it’s too big to ignore.
My writer friend Sean Platt says 18 months from now, there will only be digital publishing. We’ll see if he’s right. But I’m not taking any chances with it. I’m going to learn about Kindle publishing now, so I can get on this bandwagon. I recommend you do, too.

PSG star, Neymar in rape scandal

2019-06-02T00:30:00.000-07:00

A woman has accused Brazilian footballer, Neymar of raping her in Paris, according to a Sao Paulo police report seen by Reuters.

She was alleging that the world-renowned sports star drunkenly assaulted her at an up-market hotel in the French capital.

The accusation was the latest blow for Neymar, who last month was stripped of the captaincy of the national team and has seen his international reputation suffer amid incidents of indiscipline.

The Brazilian’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Globo website, which first reported the news, said a representative for Neymar declined to comment, awaiting details of the allegations.

Neymar’s father, Neymar Sr., said in a local TV interview: “If public opinion is not cleared up, and if we can’t show the truth rapidly, this will snowball.

“If we have to show Neymar’s WhatsApps and the conversations with this girl, we will, because it is clear that it was a trap.”

He added that they were living “difficult moments.”

According to the police report, the unnamed woman told investigators in Sao Paulo that she met Neymar on Instagram.

She claimed he then suggested they meet in Paris, where he plays for Paris St Germain (PSG).

Neymar’s assistant sent her plane tickets and on May 15 she checked in to the Hotel Sofitel Paris Arc Du Triomphe, according to her account.

The Sofitel hotel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The woman told police that Neymar arrived at the hotel that night “apparently drunk,” and that they talked and “caressed.”

“However, at some point, Neymar became aggressive, and through violence, practised sexual intercourse against the will of the victim,” the police report says.

The woman told police she returned home to Brazil two days later without telling French police about the alleged rape.

She said this was because she was “emotionally shaken and afraid to register the facts in another country,” according to the report.

Neymar is currently in Brazil, training with the national football team ahead of this month’s Copa America.

Late last month, the country’s football federation replaced him as captain for the tournament with his PSG team mate Dani Alves.

Earlier in May, Neymar was banned for three matches by the French football authorities for hitting a fan after PSG’s French Cup final loss to Rennes.

He was also reportedly involved in a dressing room fracas with his PSG team mates.

PSG did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Brazil’s football federation (CBF) also declined to comment.

29 Latest Online Money Making Opportunities In Nigeria (2019)

2019-06-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

Five Mistakes That Beginning Make In Blogging But You Can Fix

2019-06-02T00:12:00.002-07:00

Congratulations! You’ve decided to join the ranks of bloggers. You’re going to love it! Before you get too far into it, though, I’d like to help you avoid some common beginning blogging mistakes. These mistakes are almost a rite of passage, but why waste that time with mistakes you can easily avoid?

1.Â Auto-loading music.

Please. I beg you, your readers beg you: ditch the auto-loading music! Auto-loading music is not only annoying and surprising, but it’s a bandwidth hog. It makes your blog load slowly. Do you really want to lose a reader because she couldn’t wait for your site to load? And if she waits for your site to load, will she be annoyed because she didn’t know there would be music, accidentally had her speakers on high, and a sleeping husband (or child) right beside her? I can tell you this: She won’t be back.

2.Â Using a design with a dark background & light text.

This issue is less about your aesthetic (though that is part of it) and more about usability and readability. Reading online is harder on our eyes than reading traditional paper. Using a dark background with light text makes it even harder on your readers’ eyes.

3.Â Too much sidebar clutter.

A sleek, uncluttered design goes a long way with readers. The less clutter, the more white space you have. You can use this white space to help lead your readers’ eye toward specific content. Your images and headlines will stand out more.
Are you proud of your awards, badges, and various trinkets and show them off on your sidebar? That’s OK, those things are a rite of passage too. You don’t have to get rid of them, but why not put awards on their own page and link to it from your main page? You’ll trade 20 links for just one link and de-clutter the sidebar. De-cluttering your sidebar eases navigation for your reader. When there are fewer items competing for your reader’s attention, they’ll be drawn to what’s important.

TIP: Want to learn more about how light backgrounds & clearing clutter affect how your audience uses your site? Blog Design For Dummies is a great resource. I highly recommend it.

4. Accidental plagiarism (even with photos).

Very few legitimate bloggers plagiarize on purpose. Most likely a new blogger won’t realize what they’re doing (but that doesn’t make it OK). Plagiarism applies to using any content that isn’t originally yours, whether it’s words, photography, music, pictures, or anything else.
Many new bloggers will Google a picture, then save it and use it in a blog post. That’s plagiarism — even if you cite where you found the picture — because you haven’t asked the owner if you can use it.

TheÂ U.S. Copyright Office bluntly says:Â “Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.”

So take a minute to find out about and understand the issues of plagiarism and copyright. You may also want to know about Creative Commons.
What about your words being used without your permission? You can check to see if anyone has copied your content with Copyscape. And if you find that someoneÂ has used your content without your permission, click over to What to Do When Someone Steals Your Blog Post.

5. Using “click here” instead of keyword phrases for links.

Choose your link words carefully. When you are writing a post and need to insert a link, consider how you are going to write that sentence and where you will include the link. For example, which of these is more effective (potential links in bold)?

We can help you find information on the most popular blog hosts.
For information on blog hostsÂ click here.

The top sentence is more effective because it has a keyword phrase that helps with SEO and is more descriptive for readers. The words “click here” or even just the word “here” linked to other files or pages are everywhere on the web. When was the last time you did a search for “click here”?
Wait, there’s more! Here are five more beginner blogging mistakes to avoid.

Blog Design: Keep It Clutter-Free and User-Friendly

2019-06-02T00:09:00.001-07:00

As Time.com reports, 55 percent of users spend fewer than 15 active seconds on a web page. If you’re going to capture readers’ attention and keep them engaged, what do you think will do the trick first?

Is it your catchy headline?

Is it your first line of text?

Is it that killer content everyone is telling you to write?

While quality content definitely does something for your blog, it isn’t the first thing that’s going to keep web users on your page.

What is, then? The answer is your blog’s design.

Forbes.com says that in business interactions, we have all of seven seconds to make a good first impression. The concept can also be applied to your blog.

If your blog’s theme seems less than professional, it will turn readers away instantly the same way your clothing might when you enter a business meeting. What if your content is cluttered and readers are pulled in every direction, unsure what to look at first? If a reader can’t find an answer to his or her question or can’t navigate your website well, you can bet he or she is going to get the heck out of dodge no matter how good your content is.

So, you know your blog design matters in order to make a good first impression. What techniques exactly can you use to improve your design?

Utilize Whitespace

Whitespace is the area around your paragraphs, texts, and graphics. Essentially, it helps break up your content and direct your readers’ eyes down the page. Having a generous balance of whitespace and content on your blog can give it a clean appearance and reduce the overwhelming effect of too many graphics and crammed text.

Whitespace also creates the concept of “chunking.” With space between each section on your sidebar, for instance, it shows readers that each piece is separate. This makes it easier for a reader to find what he or she is looking for.

Format Your Text for Scan-ability

Let’s face it: Most blog visitors aren’t going to read your content word-for-word. If you’ve made it this far in this blog post, then congratulations! You’re a member of a very elite group.

Instead of reading word-for-word, most people will simply scan a page for the most important information. That’s where your whitespace can come in handy; it makes scanning different chunks easier.

Other methods you can use to promote scan-ability – or the ease at which readers can scan and read your text-include:

Using subheads to highlight key points.
Keeping your paragraphs short.
Breaking up your content with lists like this one.
Bolding important points sparingly within your text.
Offsetting prominent quotes.
Using contrasting colors sparingly.
Making important sidebar text bigger.

Minimize Your Color Scheme

Too many colors, or too much of the wrong color, can throw off a reader. Using every color of the rainbow can look great in theory, but then how does the reader know where to look first? Too many colors overstimulate the senses and make your site feel crowded.

Similarly, you’ll want to use colors strategically. If you want to draw attention to one aspect on a page, such as a newsletter signup form, then it’s best to keep your main colors minimal and then highlight that particular section with a bold color.

It’s best to stick with 2-3 main colors on your site. Above all else, be sure that your text is easy to read. A dark color on a light background is usually best.

Clear Your Sidebar

An overly active sidebar will only confuse your readers because they won’t know where to look first. Furthermore, if you have widgets on your sidebar that you don’t need, it only clutters your content and makes it less visually appealing. A few things worth having in your sidebar include:

A search bar
A subscription form
Social media links
Links to categories
Contact information

You can also put ads in your sidebar, but avoid placing too many where it becomes a nuisance.

It is worth getting rid of calendars, recent comment widgets, stats widgets, and other similar sidebar options if none of your readers use them.

The bottom line is to limit your sidebar to what is most important and useful to your readers to make navigating your website easier.

Organize Your Navigation Tabs

Instead of cramming all of your pages into a several lines of tabs at the top of your website, organize your navigation tabs strategically. This simple tip will help simplify things for readers and help them quickly find what they’re looking for.

Start by choosing the most important pages to display on your top navigation panel. Your home, about, and contact pages are among the options you should keep visible. You can set other relevant pages as sub-pages that appear in a drop-down menu when a user mouses over that tab.

Remember that not every web page on your site needs to appear in your navigation panel. This will make it a lot easier for users to find what they’re looking for without having to weed through these pages on their own.

Use a Mobile Responsive Web Theme

Mobile technology is growing so fast that in 2014, people were using mobile apps to access the Internet more often than they were using desktop computers. With more web activity going mobile, it is time to make your blog mobile-friendly, too.

Why? Mobile users have a hard time navigating desktop-only websites, so they’re more likely to abandon your site if they can’t read it or click on links from their mobile device.

A responsive theme is one that detects what type of device a reader is using and then adjusts the look of the website to work best on that screen. A responsive theme might resize images, adjust the navigation bar, and move the sidebar widgets around so that reading your content is easier for the user no matter if theyâ€™re accessing your site via tablet, smartphone, or laptop.

Setting up a responsive website can be as simple as installing a new plugin – such as WPtouch Mobile Plugin – or redesigning your site with a theme that’s built for all devices.

When you only have mere seconds to create a lasting first impression, directing your readers’ eyes to the right places and making your blog feel welcoming can have a positive impact.

Start with the tips above to keep your readers engaged in not only your content but in your blog and business as a whole.

His there any free software I can use to make my own graphics, buttons, and banner?

2019-06-02T00:04:00.001-07:00

As a blogger, the time will come when you’re looking to make a custom banner, button, or other graphic. In fact, you’ve probably seen the custom images that other bloggers create and have wondered how you can do the same without spending heaps of time and money on it.

Let’s face it. Not all bloggers are graphic design students who have the eye for making banners out of scratch or the money for the programs to create complicated but eye-catching designs.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a graphic designer or have experience in the field to make custom graphics for your own blog. Even better: you donâ€™t have to have any money.

You might start out with simple programs already installed on your computer, like Paint. If you’re looking for something with more options but less work, check out this list of free software to help you create the custom graphics, buttons, banners, and more that you need for your blog.

1) Canva: Create Ads and Social Media Images

Once you’ve discovered Canva, it may become your go-to tool for creating graphics. Start at Canva.com, where you can instantly sign up for a free account. Next, choose the template you want to work with. Canva’s template options range from Facebook covers to blog graphics to business cards and much more. If you donâ€™t like those options, create your own custom dimensions.

Then, choose from a variety of layout options, add your photos, and arrange your text. Canva offers both free and upgraded options on all of this. As an added bonus, Canva is also available as an iOS app.

2) Da Button Factory: Develop Your Own Buttons

If all you need is a simple “Click Here” or “Buy Now” button, then Da Button Factory is a great place to start. Just choose your text, pick a font, and adjust your colors. Then, you can download the button as a .png file. Simply upload it to your site as you would a regular photo, but be sure to add a link to your buttonâ€™s landing page.

3) Piktochart: Make a Custom Infographic

If you’re interested in developing infographics for your blog, then Pictochart is a great place to start. While you can upgrade your account for more options, a free account will give you access to templates and icon options to create beautifully crafted infographics.

With resizable canvases and other customization options, Piktochart makes it easy to create a one-of-a-kind graphic. Use your infographic to turn regular stat-driven blog posts into something visually appealing or to share company-specific reports with your readers in an easy-to-digest manner.

4) Animoto: Develop Eye-Catching Videos

With a free account at Animoto, you can start creating incredible 30-second videos for ads or just for fun. Animoto isn’t your regular video software where you maticulously piece together different images and text. Itâ€™s a lot easier than that, yet you’re likely to get a more appealing video than you could make from scratch.

Start by choosing a video style, and then browse Animoto’s library of images, music, and video clips. You can also upload your own images and add custom text. Then, simply share your video or embed the video into your own website. You can upgrade to $5 per month (cancel at any time) to increase the length of your video and to download the video onto your computer.

5) Prezi: Show Your Content in an Interesting Way

Are you looking to turn your blog posts into something more interesting by using graphics? Prezi is a great online program to get you started. Prezi helps you create unique presentations that, instead of going from slide to slide like PowerPoint, zoom in on different areas of your canvas.

As a Prezi user, you can start with pre-designed templates that already have an attractive visual appeal. Otherwise, start from scratch and use the images, shapes, and text tools to completely customize your canvas. Even if you do start with a pre-made template, the options are fully customizable to help you create a one-of-a-kind presentation.

Use Prezi for:

Creating interactive infographic-like content
Developing self-guided presentations
Turning old blog posts into something new
And more!

While you can pay to upgrade your account, you can sign up for free, although all your presentations will be public. One cool thing about Prezis is that you can embed videos directly into your presentation. When youâ€™re ready to present, simply embed your Prezi into your website.

The mentioned free online software programs can turn the novice blogger’s site into something more visually appealing. This alone can boost your social shares and follower conversion rates.

Did we miss a program that youâ€™ve used in the past and liked? Let us know in the comment section what free programs help you create custom graphics for your blog.

An Advice for Blog Design and Blog Goals

2019-06-01T23:59:00.001-07:00

I recently found some notes I took from an interview Darren Rowse (Problogger) did this summer with The Blog Squad and thought I’d share them with you. He has some basic, but unbelievably useful tips. The following are my notes and thoughts from his interview in August. His key points are the bold bullet points. My thoughts follow that bold type. When the notes say I this or that, they are referring to me, Melanie.

Blog Design

Think about what is showing above the fold. (Above the fold means the content you see when you first view the blog. It’s anything you don’t have to scroll to see.) You should be showing recent content above the fold. I see many mommy bloggers in particular who have large title banners that take up the entire space above the fold. I would suggest making these banners smaller and focusing on providing your audience with as much info as possible above the fold.
Make your blog sticky. Sticky means you are encouraging people to return to your blog. To make your blog sticky, create a path to more of your blog with backlinks to previous (relevant) articles. The more they read, the more likely they are to subscribe to your RSS feed. Another way to make your blog sticky is to invite readers to subscribe to your feed and make your RSS feed available with the click of a button.

Blog Goals and Advice

Find a niche. It’s true that there are blogs on every niche. However, if you look, you’ll see that there are holes to be filled. Find a need and fill that need. I started Blogging Basics 101 (at the urging of Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer) because there are many intermediate and advanced tech sites for bloggers, but there wasn’t a place for beginners.
Don’t be afraid to self-promote. I think many bloggers (mommy bloggers in particular?) find self-promotion difficult at first. The key is to find a balance between promotion and humility. If you’re in blogging for the long haul and want to make some money, you have to put yourself out there. You’ll need to use Twitter, Facebook, and other social media to bring attention to yourself. You will have to comment at other blog posts and become part of relevant blogging communities. You will have to toot your own horn sometimes. Be careful not to spam your friends and readers with too much, but don’t be afraid to draw attention to yourself when it’s warranted. Why do you think businesses have commercials?
Build on what works. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new weekly columns, placement of ads on your site, or guest posts. Use your statistics programs to gauge your readers reactions. If you can’t garner information from your stats program you should a) ditch the stats program and try something new and b) ask your readers for feedback on what they like and don’t like. Then implement any ideas you receive.
Look for ways to extend your blog. Problogger suggests considering forums, job boards, newsletters, podcasts, and videos as ways of extending your blog’s reach.
Content is King! Everyone says it and it’s true: without compelling and well-written content, your blog will go nowhere. Yes, blog design is important, but they’ll stay if you have great content they need (and that ‘need’ can encompass learning or entertainment).

I have more to share with you. Stay tuned this week!

How To Start a Blog easily– Beginner’s Guide

2019-06-01T23:55:00.001-07:00

So, you want to start a blog huh? Great idea!
But…how the heck do you get started? There’s so much info out there on the web, and everyone’s telling you to do different things. Who do you listen to? Where’s the starting point?
Damnit, maybe you should just forget it – it’s too confusing!
Well, hold up. I used to be a blogging newbie too. I had the same problems. I started my blog (BloggingBasics101.com) way back in 2006, and I knew less than nothing about blogging. In fact, it was only the week before I’d learned what a blog was.
Now I know a ton about them, and my blog’s doing pretty well – I receive more than 300,000 unique visitors per month which makes me consider myself someone you could listen to and learn from when it comes to building your own blog. I’m not some sort of Guru, but I certainly do know the basics.
I promise it’ll be simple, relatively easy, and definitely easy to understand (no stupid jargon). Sound good?
Awesome, let’s move on.

Why you should create a blog and join the blogging community

So below, I’m going to outline exactly what you need to do to get started and set up your own personal blog. Before we dive in though, I really want to talk about WHY you should build a blog.
Note: If you already have a solid idea of the whys, then skip this and go right ahead with the guide.

Blogging has quickly become one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news. There are literally millions of blogs online (don’t worry, you can make yours stand out and get noticed!).
It’s a great way to express yourself and also a fantastic way to share information with others.
You become a better person and a better writer.
The best reason? You can make money doing it!

I bet you already knew all of that, but it’s nice to be reminded.
One very last thing before we get started:

Creating your own blog can take a little while, probably up to 30 minutes. So grab yourself a coffee or juice (whatever you fancy) and let’s get stuck in. If you need any help during the set-up process, get in touch with me here and I’ll help as best I can and answer any questions you might have).

Disclosure: This guide to starting your own blog contains some affiliate links. If you purchase any service through one of these links I may earn a small commission, this is at no extra cost to you.

The Steps Covered In This Blogging Guide

It’s nowhere near as difficult as setting up a website from scratch (there’s very little technical ability needed here). In fact, there’s no coding required by you. Good news, huh?

How to Start a Blog in 5 Steps:

There are five main steps you need to do in order to start a blog. If you follow this guide exactly, you’ll have your own blog set up in 30 minutes or less.

Choose a great blog platform
Choose a web host for your blog
How to Set up a blog on your own domain
Design your new blog
Useful resources for blogging

So, we made it. Phew. Better late than never! So, without further ado, let’s jump into step 1.

Step 1 – Choose your preferred blogging platform

Choosing where you want to build blog is pretty much the first thing you have to do. I’m going to take a leap and assume you’ve heard of WordPress, and this is the platform I advocate. It’s massive.
It’s by far one of the biggest blogging platforms in the world, with countless plugins and add-ons and almost infinite ways to design and layout your blog.
There are more than 82 million active users of WordPress = a lot, basically.

There are other alternatives, however, and they are listed below:

Blogger – Definitely the next best thing to WordPress.
Tumblr – Half social network, half blog. Interesting, and very simple to use.

Even though WordPress is bigger (and probably better) than those two, here are my reasons why you should still go with WordPress:

Super easy set-up and is free to use
Tons of free themes and layouts (I’m not kidding, there are gazillions).
There’s a massive support forum in case you get stuck (you won’t, but it’s nice to have it there if you need it).
Your blog will be insanely fast and it’ll also look Functionality and form – perfect!
People can interact with you easily. Your content can be shared, commented on, and so on.

Here’s an article about different blogging platforms (including WordPress), give it a read:
How to Choose a Blogging Platform – (updated for 2019)
Now, Step 2 (see, we’re moving fast now!)

Step 2 – Self-hosting or a free alternative?

Whoa, slow down there! This is the biggest decision you’ll have to make before we go any further. You need to decide whether to pay for your blog or grab a free one.
WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger all offer free blogs for anyone. Awesome, right? It’s perfect for those of us who aren’t super serious about blogging. But it does have downsides:
1) You won’t be able to get your OWN domain name
On a free blog, your blog’s web address (your URL) will be butt-ugly. Like, really ugly. In short, create a free blog with any other the above free blog services and it’ll look like this:

yourblog.wordpress.com
yourblog.blogspot.com
yourblog.tumblr.com

I know, ugly right?
2) Limits and more limits
There are some limits to free blogs. You can’t fully monetize it, and you don’t have the possibility to upload all those videos and images you want to show everyone – it’s all limited. Worse still, you won’t even have access to the free themes offered by WordPress.
3) You DON’T OWN your blog
It might sound silly at first, but you don’t actually own your blog. It’s hosted on someone else’s web property and they can delete it if they want to. They have done so in the past, and keep doing it in the future. Which means all your hard work on your blog, all those countless hours of writing blog posts might have vanished within seconds. Sad…
On the other hand, with a self-hosted blog on your own domain name – you are the REAL owner of your blog. You’ll be able to name your blog whatever you want, for example, “YourName.com” or “YourAwesomeBlog.com. You can end it with .com, .co.uk, .net, .org, or virtually any other web suffix. Add to that unlimited bandwidth for videos, images, and content plus the free themes and you have a winning combo.
So how much is hosting and a domain name? Not as much as you’re thinking, fortunately. It usually works out to about $5 to $10 per month, depending on your hosting provider which is less than a couple of coffees.
If you still have questions, here’s some further information for you to look at:

Should I Choose a Hosted or Non-hosted Blogging Platform?

Step 3 – Start a blog on your own domain (if you chose self-hosting and a custom domain)

I’m going to push ahead based on the premise you’ve chosen WordPress, and if you haven’t, you should. Seriously, it’s the best.
If you’re still a little confused by what a self-hosted blog is, allow me to explain and how you can go about setting one up for yourself.
You’ll need to come up with a domain name you like and also choose a hosting company that can host your blog.

Domain: The domain is basically the URL of your website. Examples: google.com (Google.com is the domain), Facebook.com (Facebook.com is the domain). See? Simple!
Hosting: Hosting is basically the company that puts your website up on the internet so everyone else can see it. Everything will be saved on there. Think of it as a computer hard-drive on the internet where your blog will be saved.

Disclosure: I recommend using Hostgator for web hosting. If you click through one of my links and make a purchase, I will receive a commission, which helps me keep bloggingbasics101.com up and running.
Personally, I use Hostgator (for my blog domain and hosting), and I’ve got nothing but good things to say about it.
It’s probably one of the cheapest (less than $4 per month) hosting providers out there. A domain name will cost around $10-15 a year, but with Hostgator, you can get that for just $5 for your first year with my exclusive coupon code BB101.
If you do sign up with Hostgator be sure to use the coupon code BB101 as this will unlock the maximum discount they offer on all their hosting packages.
:). Big smiles for that!
They’re the providers I use for all of my blogs, including the one you’re reading right now.
If for any reason you don’t want to go with Hostgator, feel free to choose your own hosting company. Most, if not all of them, should have a “one-click” WordPress install solution on their admin panel.
That button will automatically install WordPress on your blog. Did I say it was simple or what?
All you need to do is sign up with Hostgator (or your chosen provider), choose your hosting plan and a domain name and look for the one-click WordPress install button on the admin panel.
If you are getting stuck at any pointÂ this guide may help as it has screenshots.
WordPress essentials aren’t often needed, but I’d recommend whois privacy (that will keep all your personal details private) and definitely automated backups (that’ll save your website just in case anything fails or disappears so you won’t lose any or very little of your blog).

Start a Blog with Hostgator today and get an exclusive 60% discount with coupon BB101

Once WordPress is installed on your website, all you have to do to start blogging is go to your WP-Admin page usually www.yourblognamehere.com/wp-admin and start writing by adding a new post.
At the start, the layout looks confusing, but it gets very understandable quickly. Don’t worry!

Step 4 – Designing your WordPress blog

Now, the fun bit.
Let’s make your blog look exactly how you want it to. To choose a new theme, you can either head to Appearance > Themes and install a free WordPress theme or you can head to a premium theme website like ThemeForest.net and buy a theme for around $40.
I usually choose something that looks professional and pretty easy to customize. WordPress also has this awesome feature that allows you to change themes with just a few clicks. So if you start getting tired of your current blog template, you can just switch to another one without losing any precious content or images.

Remember, your blog’s design should reflect both you and your personality, but also what the blog is about. There’s no point having a football-orientated theme if your blog is about tennis, understand?
On top of that, it should be easy to navigate if you want people to stick around. If it’s tricky and difficult to move around it, people won’t stay. After all design is a subjective art; meaning everyone likes different things.
But no one likes ugly websites, and they especially hate websites that need a university degree to navigate. Make it easy for them.
For more reading, I’ve put together 3 blog posts about designing your blog. Feel free to check them through.

Last step! Woo!

Step 5 – Useful Resources For Beginner Bloggers

Bloggers come to blogging arena with varying degrees of online and social media experience, but we’ve all made more than a few newbie mistakes – there’s always room for more learning and improvement, whether you’re a beginner or you’ve been blogging for years.
These articles may help you avoid some of the growing pains when it comes to your first blog – enjoy!:

And that’s it! I’m more than confident that your initial blog set up should now be finished and ready to go, and all that should have been really damn easy (unlike my first time, lucky you!). If you are having any problems installing WordPress on Hostgator then this guide may help.
If by some unfortunate circumstance you get stuck or have any questions for me about how to create a blog, just get in touch with me or leave a comment below. I’ll help you out with any problems.
Enjoy your new blog!