Blogging for a Living - Perfect Small Budget Project

Some motivation and inspiration for you!  In this video we look at 3 blogs in very different niches.

Before you begin, you need to decide what to blog about. Even if you already some ideas, it's a good idea to watch this lecture first.

Many niches are very broad, therefore it's often a good idea to drill down and find a smaller sub-niche

Almost any niche has the potential to be profitable, but there are ways to make sure that your chosen niche is a viable one

There are some niches that are more difficult to work with.  This lesson discusses those niches and the reasons why you might want to avoid them.

Your blog domain name is important. This lecture will show you how to choose the right kind of domain name and which domains to avoid.

Get low cost and reliable hosting for your blog, plus a free domain name

Set up your new hosting account. This will be your blog's 'space' on the Web.

Continued - Set up your new hosting account. This will be your blog's 'space' on the Web.

First time log in to your new blog dashboard

How to access the new email account that you set up earlier

Here's the easiest way to get help and support for your hosting account

In the future if you want to set up a second blog/website on the same hosting, this is how it's done

Get your blog set up correctly from the start - Split into easy to follow bite-sized lessons - Part 1.

Get your blog set up correctly from the start - Part 2

Get your blog set up correctly from the start - Part 3

Get your blog set up correctly from the start - Part 4

Get your blog set up correctly from the start - Part 5

Get your blog set up correctly from the start - Part 6

How to come up with the best title and tagline (sub-title) for your new blog

A few simple tasks and decluttering :)

A quick lesson to explain what you can expect moving forward

This short video explains who should watch this section of the course.

Logging in to WordPress for the first time

A quick walkthrough, and overview, of the World's most popular blogging platform.

Let's complete the basic settings before moving on to the next step.

It's time to tidy up the blog dashboard, and learn how to clear the WordPress cache.

How to create a title and sub-title (tag line) for your blog.

Using the recommended hosting, you can create free professional email addresses for your blog.

How to choose and install a high quality, free, design theme.

An overview of how design themes work.

Set up an author profile, and, if you prefer, create a nickname to use in place of your real name.

Use a free add-on to create a contact form, and add it to a new page on your blog.

Every blog or website must have a Terms & Conditions page.  We'll be adding one in this lesson. Sample page provided.

Every blog or website must have a Privacy Policy page.  Learn how to edit and activate the built in Privacy page.

It's time to set up the first navigation menu on your blog.

If your blog gets any visitors from Europe, you will need to install a consent plugin.  This is a free add-on.

The cookie policy page goes hand-in-hand with the cookie plugin.

Give visitors a way to easily share your posts on their social media accounts :)

After installing the social sharing plugin, we need to add a few snippets of text to the Privacy Policy page.

The SEO plugin helps to configure your blog posts and pages to get free traffic from Google and the other search engines.

Widgets are content areas on your blog.  In this lesson we take a look at how to use them, and what we can put in them.

Most design themes have a footer menu, but what if you've chosen a theme that doesn't have one?

Create your own blog header image using a versatile, free tool.

Create your own unique logo, or get one made, cheaply.

The search engines can't read images,  so it's important that we tell them what our images are about. Here's how you do it.

It's time to start tweaking the design theme.  We'll be doing more of this later on :)

Continued - It's time to start tweaking the design theme.  We'll be doing more of this later on :)

Where to get ideas and inspiration, plus where to look for content that you can re-write as your own.

Learn how to compose post titles that will get your reader's attention.

Know the basics of writing good blog posts.

How to get your first post ready for publishing on your blog.

In these lessons we go through the process of adding your very first post, including optimizing the post for your readers and for the search engines.

Continued - In these lessons we go through the process of adding your very first post, including optimizing the post for your readers and for the search engines.

The final part of adding your very first post, and optimizing it for readers and for the search engines.

Learn how to use a free app to correct grammar mistakes, and improve the readability of your posts.

The WordPress editor is feature rich, and easy to use.  This lesson demonstrates how to use it, and how to get familiar with it.

PLR stands for private label rights.  PLR articles are articles that you can purchase, very cheaply, and use without any copyright issues.

Learn how to create your posts in advance, and schedule them to be published on a future date.

If you want to set up the slider on the Home page of your blog, here's how it's done.

This free add-on allows you to create sliders and place them in widget areas, or posts.

In this lesson, we build out the main navigation menu by adding links to categories, posts, and pages.

Some themes have a Home page link on the main navigation menu, but some don't.  If your theme is missing the Home page link, here's how to create one.

Internal links are an important part of SEO (search engine optimization).

Let's tidy up the blog, and get it looking more presentable.  We will be doing more of this later on.

It's time to allow search engines to index your blog!

Learn about a free tool that integrates with the WordPress editor to give you more flexibility with the design of your blog pages

If your blog is allowing comments, you will need to prevent comment spam.

Let's go through the free Jetpack settings to help speed up and protect your blog

Learn how to redirect visitors who land on a 404 page on your blog.  It's good for SEO, and good for user experience.

In this lesson we are going to set up tracking.  Tracking allows you to see how many visitors your blog is getting, where they are coming from, which posts they are reading, and more.

Go back and add important images in the SEO plugin settings.

Some quick maintenance, and a check up!

It's a good idea to let plugins update automatically. This ensures that your installed plugins are always completely up to date.

Round two of the blog tidy up.  We're getting close to the end of Level 1 now :)

Optional - add links to your social media accounts.  Don't worry if you don't have any accounts yet, because you can come back and do this step later.

Congratulations, you now have a fully fledged blog!  So what's next?  Watch this lesson to find out.

Install and set up the Woocommerce plugin if you plan to process orders and payments directly from your blog - Part 2

Install and set up the Woocommerce plugin if you plan to process orders and payments directly from your blog - Part 3

Install and set up the Woocommerce plugin if you plan to process orders and payments directly from your blog - Part 4

Install and set up the Woocommerce plugin if you plan to process orders and payments directly from your blog - Part 5

Level Two is all about driving traffic (visitors) and monetizing your blog. Discover what you will learn and what you will have achieved by the end of it.

Go through these quick checks to make sure your blog is ready for visitors.