Category: Build

Building an online business like most challenges has a lot to do with your tools and software.
Wordpress

Register your blog with Google

At this point in our Start a Money Making Blog series, you should have your blog up and running, looking great and have at least 10 high quality articles published.  A common mistake many bloggers make is to think that their blog will just suddenly get picked up by Google and a rush of traffic will arrive. Unfortunately, this is not the case.  Unless your blog is linked from another credible blog or website, Google won’t find you right away, if at all.  In lieu of getting a link from a credible site, one way to get your site on Google’s radar is to register your blog with Google.

Register your blog with Google

To register your blog with Google, we’ll use a site Google provides for webmasters (yes that’s you) called Google Webmaster Tools.  Just login using your Google account (if you don’t have one, create one) and you’ll be presented with the main home page.  Follow these steps to add your site:

  1. Click the Add a Site… button
  2. Enter the URL of your site and press Continue.  One note here, it’s very important that you use the right URL.  If your site is set-up to be preceeded by www, than enter the www, otherwise leave it off.  If you aren’t sure how your site is set-up, login to your hosting account and see how you set it up.  Most sites have the www.
  3. Now we’ll have to verify your site.  I recommend using Google’s recommended method which involves downloading an HTML file and uploading it to your server.  Just follow the instructions Google provides.  If you need a refresher on how to upload a file to your server, read over my What is FTP article.
  4. Once your HTML file is uploaded, click the verify button.
  5. That’s it, your site is now registered with Google.

Submit a Sitemap

Next you’ll want to submit a sitemap so that Google can easily find and index all that great content you’ve been writing.  A sitemap is a special file that is placed on your website that contains a listing of all the URLs to each of your websites pages.  So instead of Google having to find your content, the sitemap actually maps out all of your content for Google so that it can easily find it.  If you’re curious, you can view the sitemap for Side Income Blogging here.

The easiest way to do this is to install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.  Once installed and activated, head over to the settings page (Settings>>XML-Sitemap).  At the top will be text that says “The sitemap wasn’t built yet. Click here to build it the first time.”  Click the “Click here” link to generate your sitemap for the first time.  From that point on, the plugin will automatically update your sitemap and notify Google of your new content.

Now that we have a sitemap, we need to return to Google Webmaster tools and tell it about your new sitemap.  To do this, do the following:

  1. Login to Google Webmaster Tools
  2. From the home page, select your site.  You’ll be presented with the Dashboard for your site.
  3. Open the Site configuration menu to left by clicking on the + sign.  Select Sitemaps.
  4. Click on Submit a Sitemap.  When prompted for the location, your domain name will already be populated.  All you have to type is: sitmap.xml.
  5. Click on Submit Sitemap.
That’s it, your sitemap is now submitted.  Come back in a few minutes, view your sitemap and it should show a green check box indicating it was successfully processed.  If not, just follow the steps above again, you most likely typed something wrong or the Google XML Sitemaps plugin isn’t working correctly.

A little help

While registering your site and sitemap with Google Webmaster tools certainly doesn’t guarantee it will help your site, in my personal experience it has proven to get my sites indexed much quicker and results in seeing search engine traffic much sooner.  As we’ll explore soon, getting search engine traffic is critical for earning money from advertisements.  Getting search engine traffic is the key strategy we’ll explore to earn a side income blogging.  So stay tuned.

Those of you with experience has registering your site with Webmaster tools and submitting a sitemap helped your site?  Any cons that you can think of?  Join in, add a comment!

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Jon July 28, 2011 13 Comments
Wordpress

Don’t ever just shutdown a blog or website

I recently had a client that decided they were not longer interested in blogging.  As a result, they went to their hosting provider, deleted the site and canceled their hosting.  Seems reasonable right?  After all, if you’re no longer interested in blogging, why keep your site?  While in some scenarios this is the right thing to do, in most it’s not.  Websites and blogs are like real estate (well, what real estate used to be a few years ago).  In most cases, they begin gaining value from the moment you buy them.

Websites and blogs have value and grow

My client’s site was a site they actively wrote on for almost a year, then as their interest faded the site received less and less updates.  Regardless of how frequently it was updated, the site contained a large amount of content that was indexed by Google and receiving search engine traffic.  Additionally the site had a Page Rank of 2, not great, but not bad either.

As you may or may not know, Google gives additional credibility to sites that have been around for a while.  The longer the site has been live, the more credibility the site gets.  Credibility yields search engine traffic and search engine traffic yields income opportunity.

What I’m trying to say here is that my client just up and deleted a site:

  • A large amount of good content
  • A mature and search engine indexed site
  • A perfectly good domain name

Alternatives to deleting a blog or website

Instead of just deleting the site and throwing away more than a years worth of content and site maturity, here are some options that should be considered:

Just keep the site up

Instead of deleting it, just leave it running.  This is particularly a good idea if the site has advertising on it and is making money.  Overtime the site could continue to gain traffic even though it’s not actively being updated.  Sure it will grow slower, but it will still get traffic, especially if the content is good and targeted at good keywords.

Additionally, you may decide to come back and begin writing on it again.  I know for me personally, I can get a little burnt out writing on the same topics over and over.  But, if I take a break for a few weeks or even months, I’ll often get the itch to write again.  I’ve done that a bit here on Side Income Blogging.

You should also consider hiring a writer.  If you’re too busy or not currently interested in writing, hiring a writer might be a good option, particularly if the site is earning money or has the potential to earn money.  You can find writers and websites that offer article writing services for as little as $10 – $15 per article (actually some advertise $5/article, but I question the quality).

The only thing that would make me shy away from just keeping the site up and running is it was costing me more to run the site than I’m earning and I think it’s going to be that way for while.  If that’s the case, sometimes it is better to just cut your loses.  But before you do, consider the remaining options.

Sell the whole site

Many people are surprised to find that they can sell their site, even if it’s a fairly new site.  One of the most popular places to sell your website or blog is on Flippa.  Flippa allows you to auction your site off.  You can set a reserve price to insure you get a base amount.  Flippa provides potential buyers will all types of useful information about your site.

Of course Flippa is just one option.  There are many other websites that allow you to list and sell your website or blog.  You can also just publish a post on your site indicating you’re interested in selling.  Word of  mouth also works very well.  When I sold Gather Little by Little, I expressed interest in selling to some fellow personal finance bloggers and within a few days sold the site.

The trick with selling your site is determining it’s value, basically answering the question: How much is my blog worth?.  This isn’t an easy question to answer and there are multiple “right” ways to answer it.  The general rule, and the one I’ve used is: a site is worth 24 months of income plus some premium for the domain name and site itself.   Let’s say that your site is 1 year old and earning $100.00/month from Adsense and various affiliates.  The site has a decent domain name, a good page rank, and well written content.  The value of the site based on this rule would be $2400.00 + the premium.  The premium is where things get a little fuzzy, but I’d say maybe $500.00, making the site value $2900.00.  This is a good starting point.

The bottom line on site worth is that it’s really up to you.  You have to ask yourself, will I regret selling it afterwards?  That’s what the decision really boils down to.

Sell the content

Another option, albeit less popular is to just sell the content.  Many bloggers are always looking for ways to add good content to their blogs and will often be willing to purchase your content (aka articles) from you.

The best way to do this is to just contact successful bloggers in the niche for your site and ask them if they would be interested.  Determining value is difficult and there isn’t a real good rule of thumb here.  Just be aware that most bloggers can outsource article writing for as little as $10 – $15 per article.

Wrapping Up

I’m certainly not saying that just up and deleting a site isn’t the right thing to do.  I’ve done it numerous times, especially for sites that are getting little to no traffic, I haven’t put much time into, and aren’t earning money.   In many cases though, you can recover some of your investment by selling your site or your content.  Please don’t ever just up and delete a website or blog you’ve created.  Consider the options first.

Photo by: JOE MARINARO

 

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Jon May 18, 2011 2 Comments
hosting

What is FTP and why you need it for your blog

File Transfer Protocol, better known as FTP is a communications standard that allows you to move files to/from a server on the internet.  FTP is commonly used to install software to a web server or to copy files up to a web server to make them available on a web-site.

Thanks to many different software programs available, FTP is really rather easy these days.  Back in the day, you had to use FTP from a command line.  While not terribly complex it did require knowing the syntax along with some other cryptic information.  While those tools are still available, there are many easier to use tools available.  Using these programs, transferring files to and from your server is as easy as moving files from one folder to another on your home computer.

FTP Clients

FTP programs, more commonly called FTP clients are a dime a dozen.  There are literally hundreds of them out there, all offering different features and capabilities.  I’m going to mention a few but really just focus on one:

  • FileZilla – This is by far the most popular choice and frankly probably one of the best as well.  The great thing about FileZilla is that it’s free.  I’m all about free.   Version are available for Windows, Max OS X, and Linux
  • FireFTP – FireFTP is an FTP client that runs within FireFox.  If you aren’t using Firefox, you should be….go download it right now!  Many of the tools I’ll be highlighting here on Side Income Blogging will run within Firefox.
  • WinSCP – A Windows only client that supports both standard FTP and Secure FTP.
  • Transmit (Mac OS X Only) – Transmit is an awesome FTP program built by my favorite Mac Software shop Panic.  Transmit has a ton of really slick features.

My preference and the FTP client I use everyday?  FireFTP.    I do a lot of custom development and most of my transferring of files is supported by the development tool I use call Coda.  When I’m not in Coda I’m generally in Firefox doing something on the web.   I’m not particularly fond of switching applications, so I’d rather just run my FTP client inside of Firefox.  FireFTP does exactly what I need, and it’s free.  Again, I’m all about free.

How to transfer files using FireFTP

As I mentioned, transferring files using FireFTP is really simple.  The following sections will walk you through installing it, configuring it and show you how to transfer files.

Install FireFTP

Installation of FireFTP is easy:

  1. First, if you don’t have Firefox, download and install it.  If you’ve never used it before, just give it a try, I promise you’ll love it.  It’s one of my missions in life to convert everyone from Internet Explorer (ok, not really but Firefox is still great).
  2. Next, visit the FireFTP site and click on the Add to Firefox link.  A window will slide down.  Press the Install Now button and Firefox will install FireFTP for you.  Depending on your Firefox and computer settings, you might need to restart FireFox.
  3. Once installed, you now have a new menu option on the main FireFox Tools menu named FireFTP.

Run FireFTP and create a new connection

Now, Let’s run FireFTP and get it configured.  To start FireFTP, click on Tools, FireFTP. FireFTP will load in a new Tab.  Your screen should look similar to this (click on the image for a larger version):

On the left is a file browser for your local hard drive.  The blank area on the right is the file browser for the server you’ll be connected to.  At the bottom is a log window that will show you information about your activities.  In order to connect to a server, you’ll need to create a New Account.  Do this by performing the following steps:

  1. Click on the drop down box in the top left corner of FireFTP that says Create an Account. A pop up window will appear named the Account Manager.  This is where you will enter your new account information.  FireFTP keeps your account information for your various FTP connections so that you don’t have to re-enter them each time.
  2. At this point, you’ll need your hosts FTP information.  This would have been provided to you by the hosting company in the initial welcome email they provided.  If you cannot find this information, just contact your hosting company’s support area and they’ll provide it for you.
  3. By default, the cursor is located in the Host field.  This is where you will enter the hostname for the ftp server you want to connect to.  For your blog or website, this is generally your domain with an FTP on the front.  For example: ftp.myblogname.com.
  4. Notice that the Account Name field is auto-populated with the hostname your typed.  If you’re ok with this leave it as is.  Personally I like to use names that are a little more friendly.  To do this just place the cursor into the Account Name field and key in whatever name you would like.
  5. Next we can assign a category.  If you are only going to have a handful of ftp accounts, you can just leave this field blank; however if you’re like me and have a ton, I’d suggest assigning your connection to a category.  This is done by just choosing a previously entered category name or by keying a new one in the Category field.  My Categories are: My Sites, Client Sites, and Misc.
  6. Now place your cursor in the login field.  Enter the ftp login id.
  7. Move to the password field and enter your ftp password field.
  8. Press the OK button and your New Account is added!

Note that in the connection drop-down where it previously said Create an Account, it now has the name of the FTP server we just entered.

Transferring files using FTP

Now that we have an account created, it’s time to connect to the server and transfer some files!

  1. In the connection drop down in the top left corner, choose the account you want to connect to.  If you only have one, it will be listed by default.
  2. Just to the right of the drop down, press the Connect button.  In the bottom window, you’ll see information FireFTP provides as it’s connecting to your server.  If successful, the right side window will show the file structure for the server you connected to.  If you get a pop-up asking for your login ID and password, than the information you provided for the server name, login id or password when you created the connection is incorrect.  Use the Edit option to make changes.
  3. In the left hand window (your computer) navigate to the directory where the file exists you want to upload (source).  In the right hand window, navigate to the directory where you want to place the file (destination).  Make sure the source and destination directories are highlighted.
  4. Select (highlight) the file on your computer in the left hand pane.
  5. To copy a file to the server, click the green arrow your local machine window and your server window that’s pointing to the right.  To copy a file from the server to your local machine, click the arrow pointing to the left.  Yep, it’s that easy.

That’s it, you just transferred a file using FTP!  To move whole directories, instead of highlighting a file highlight a directory and follow the same process, the directory and all of it’s contents will be automatically transferred.

Why do you need FTP?

FTP is useful for  number of reasons:

  1. If you have a text editor installed on your computer, like Notepad++ on Windows or the default text editor that comes with a Mac when you right click on a file on your server you can edit that file and when you save it, FireFTP will save it back to the server.  This is REALLY convenient for editing theme files, robots.txt files or your wp-config.php file.
  2. Use it to do a manual install of WordPress.
  3. Upload downloadable content to your website.
  4. Backup files.

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Jon July 30, 2010 5 Comments
hosting

How to install WordPress on HostGator

I’m assuming since you’re reading this article, you decided to host your blog with Host Gator.  If not, you’re in the wrong place.  Visit the How to install WordPress parent article and choose the right install WordPress article for you.

Installing WordPress on Hostgator

Installing WordPress on HostGator is incredibly easy and is one of the many reasons I recommend hosting with them.  HostGator uses a software package called Fantastico.  Fantastico is a commercial scripting library that automates the installation of web applications to websites.  Fantastico is used by HostGator and they have a script that automatically installs WordPress for you.  Here’s how you do it:

  1. Login to control panel for your HostGator account.  This information would have been provided to you by HostGator when they set-up your account.
  2. Find Software/Services, then click on the Fantastico De Luxe icon (it’s a blue smiley face)
  3. When the Fantastico screen opens, click on the WordPress link located in the left hand menu.
  4. In the left hand window, some information on WordPress will appear.  This will tell you the version being installed.  Click on the New Installation link.
  5. Next, the installation screen will be displayed.  Choose the domain that you would like WordPress installed to.  If you have only one domain on your hosting account, than only one will be listed.
  6. For the Install in directory field, leave it blank if you want WordPress installed to the root or enter a directory if you want it installed to a sub-directory.  In most cases you’ll leave this blank; however, if WordPress is only a portion of your site you should install it to subdirectory.  For example, if you already have a site on your domain and want to add a blog using WordPress, you would install WordPress to say the blog directory.  Again, for most of you, this field will just be left blank.
  7. Next we’ll complete the admin access data.  The admin account is the primary administrator account for your new blog.  Put whatever name here you would like in the Administrator-username field.    In the Password field, enter a password.  Use something that is easy for you to remember.  Personally I suggest using a combination of letters and numbers as this makes the password harder to guess.
  8. Next we’ll fill in the Base information.  For Admin Nickname, either put the same admin name you entered above or you can chose a different name.  For Admin Email, enter your primary email address where you want emails from your WordPress site sent to.  These emails include comment notifications, new user notifications, etc.  For Site Name, put the name of your blog.  For my blog it would be: Side Income Blogging. Then enter a description or a tagline for your blog.
  9. Click Install WordPress.
  10. The next screen will show a summary of the installation.  If everything looks accurate (it should be), than click on Finish Installation.

That’s it!  Yes, it was really that easy.  Like I said, HostGator makes the process simple.

Now that you have WordPress installed, we’ll get it set-up and ready to go.  I’ll walk you through the set-up process in my next article in the Start a money making blog series

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Jon July 14, 2010 6 Comments
Domains

How to update your name servers

Now that you have your own blog name and domain and hosting set-up, there’s one little thing we need to take care of: pointing your domain name to your hosting company.  First a little background.

What are domain name servers?

You use domain name servers each time you access a website, click on a web link or send an email.  Domain name servers work magically behind the scenes.  Every server on the internet is given an IP Address.  An IP Address is unique number in the form 999.999.999.999.  Right now while reading this article, your computer has a unique address assigned to it.  The address is used to know where to send data too.

Can you imagine having to memorize these unique addresses for every website you want to visit?  Fortunately domain name servers solve that problem for us.  Domain name servers map IP Addresses to names we recognize like: SideIncomeBlogging.com, CNN.com, and Google.com.  When you enter a web-site name into your browser, that name is mapped by domain name servers to the IP Address for that web-site and that IP address is then used to contact the server and return a web page to your browser.

Neat huh?  I know this is a bit technical, but it will make sense in a second.  See, when you set-up hosting your hosting company set-up a server for you and assigned that server an IP address.  You also have a domain name, but right now your hosting company and domain name aren’t associated with each other.  We need to update the domain name server database so the internet can map your domain name to your server and people actually see your website.

Update your name servers

Seeing as you’re now a domain name server guru, it’s time to log in to your domain registrar (the company you reserved your domain name with) and update your domain name settings.  Unfortunately each domain registrar has different screens for updating your domain name servers.  I’m going to walk you through how to do update them using MyDomain, the company I use.  If you elected to use GoDaddy, you can find instructions here.

To update your DNS settings using MyDomain, do the following:

  1. First find the welcome email sent to you from your hosting company.  In that email will be 2 or 3 of the hosting companies domain name servers.  For example, mine are ns1.mediatemple.net and ns2.mediatemple.net.  Keep these handy, we’ll need them in a minute.
  2. Access MyDomain, and login using your ID and password.
  3. After logging in, you’ll be at the Manage Domains screen where all of the domains you own and that are registered with MyDomain will be listed.
  4. Click on the domain name that you want to update.  You’ll now be on the Domain Details page.
  5. In the Name Servers section, click on Update Name Servers.
  6. You’ll now be at the Name Server Update screen.  Here’s where you will enter the domain name server names provided by your hosting company.
  7. Enter the first name, the one proceeded by ns1 first and hit the Add button.
  8. The second one will default.  Verify that it’s the correct one and press the Add button.
  9. If you have a third, enter it as well, but most hosting companies will only have two.
  10. If you would like a confirmation email sent to you, enter your email address.
  11. Press the Continue button to apply your domain name settings.

That’s it, your done!  In generally takes 48-72 hours for your domain server changes to fully propagate across all of the domain servers in the internet.  You’ll know when your settings have propagated when you enter your domain name in your browser and you get a default page for your hosting company rather one for MyDomain or GoDaddy.

Once your domain name is propagated, you’re ready to install WordPress

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Jon July 11, 2010 0 Comments