What makes WordPress so special (and my blog platform of choice)? WordPress is your simple and easy way to set up a blog with minimal programming requirements. WordPress gives you thousands of theme choices, theme resources, and the ability to use images, and various blog designs and layouts. I can elaborate all day about the basic features and benefits of WordPress, but I must confess that my students (and I) all use WordPress for one simple reason. We use WordPress to make money.

Here’s a quick example of how WordPress can change the way you blog forever:

You have a few websites and already are earning some decent money from them so you have a full time programmer on retainer. You’ve heard about WordPress and how it would allow you to set up your blogs with little or no effort.

You like the idea but don’t want to pay the programmer so you decide to tackle it yourself. It’s easy to downloaded the pages and open an FTP connection to your website. You then uploaded the documents and set up the database connection. Within minutes, you are working with a WordPress setup on your website. It was that easy.

You can now set up all the theme, feeds, and template tags you need. All done within an hour. After this, you would simply copy this setup to other websites and change the header information to the match requirements at your other websites. You accomplish all this in less than 30 minutes.

Best of all you didn’t need to take up your programmer’s valuable time or wonder when she or he will “get around to it.”

You can then go on to embed Google Adsense ads and other advertising in the blogs. A few strategically placed links on pages that are already indexed and your blogs are up and running!

WordPress and high-end blogging tools like it can simplify the arduous process of setting up a blog or blogging system. WordPress is VERY easy. Below is my Marketing Small Business Magazine  blog I set up in less than an hour using WordPress.org and my own host!

 

How did I do it so quickly? First of all I use WECAIDomains.com WordPress Hosting (I use the economy plan which is only $3.99 a month!). That is because they have the wordpress.org platform already built into the hosting package. All you do is decide on a URL (or use one you already have) pay for the hosting, if the URL was purchased at WECAIDomains.com you don’t have to do anything else until they send you a notice that your blog is ready to be customized. If you purchased your URL from GoDaddy or another domain name seller, you will need to also go into that site and change the DNS (domain name servers). In that case it could take up to 24 hours for your blog to be available but in my experience it generally still only takes a couple of hours. That’s it! You are ready to get started adding pages, content, posts, customization, plugins and more.

In my all day hands-on Cashing in on Blogging Workshop we go through all those steps, including optimizing your blog for search engines, monetizing your blog and MORE!

Of course if you use another hosting company like Siteground or Bluehost, the setup process could be a little more complicated but still should not take more than a couple of hours, max. AND I tell my students if they have trouble to call the support line for their host. They can walk you through the process and make it as painless as possible for you. In that case, there are three basic steps to uploading the WordPress blog platform:

1. Go to WordPress at www.Wordpress.org (its free and you download the zip file and save to your computer for easy access to upload to your host. Instructions (Read them!)

2. Go to your host cpanel and read the instructions to Upload the WordPress files

3. Once you input your set up information, and your host says your blog is ready to go, you can login to the dashboard and start working on your site. Here is an example of what a dashboard looks like:

 

 

That is pretty simple!

By the way, if you are in South Florida and would like to attend my CA$HING In on Blogging Workshop, check out the details here:  https://redheadmarketinginc.com/get-your-blog-on-workshop/

 Stay tuned because I will be offering Online tutorials for WordPress soon!

Heidi Richards Mooney is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of WE Magazine for Women, a WordPress Web Designer, the author of a dozen books and a social media consultant and trainer. Heidi has interviewed hundreds of experts on Social Media Around the World. In 2003 Heidi was named one of 50 women shaping the Internet by the International Virtual Women’s Chamber of Commerce. In 2009 she was named a Twitter Woman to Follow by Only2Clicks.com. She works with solopreneurs, professionals and small businesses in ecommerce, direct sales and retail. Follow Heidi on LinkedIn.