After a recent incident with my former blog being suspended by WordPress.com for a TOS violation, I am a strong proponent of using self-hosted blogs unless just posting content with no overt marketing intent.

Most people find the thought of self-hosting a little intimidating (as did I at first).  After finding the introductory Become a Blogger video series (www.becomeablogger.com), my inhibitions quickly waned.

Here is the first in a ten-part video series from Gideon Shalwick and Yaro Starak on setting up a basic WordPress blog on your own host account and how to become a blogger describing why use WordPress software as a self-hosted blog:

The balance of the click by click tutorial video series guides you through the rest of the steps to:

• obtain a domain and host account;
• transfer the WordPress software from WordPress.org to your host account and install it;
• find and upload the blog theme; install plugins to extend the blog functionality;
• create posts and pages; and
• set-up the RSS function.

Basically, everything you need to get your self-hosted blog site up and running.

You can access the “Become a Blogger” site directly by either clicking on the text links above or watch each video individually by clicking on the links below:

• BaB Video 2: How to Get Your Own Domain Name
• BaB Video 3: Hot to Get a Web Host
• BaB Video 4: How to Install WordPress
• BaB Video 5: How to Upload Files to Host Using FTP
• Bab Video 6: Choosing a WordPress Theme for Your Blog
• BaB Video 7: How to Install and Use WordPress Plugins
• BaB Video 8: How to Create Your First Post and Page
• BaB Video 9: What is RSS and Why You Need It
• BaB Video 10: How to Use FeedBurner to Enhance RSS

If you take the time to complete all ten of the tutorial videos, you will be ready to launch your WordPress blog on your own host site; Gideon and Yaro left nothing to chance when creating this series.

You should also visit the BaB site and request a “FREE” copy of “The Roadmap to Become a Blogger” that provides even more insight into establishing a successful blog.

The price is definitely right!

Wishing you the best in your blogging success …….

One of the major struggles many network marketing business owners encounter with Internet marketing relates to the lack of technical skill to create “traditional” websites. This is one of the main reasons why Internet marketing advocates often develop blogs as the medium of choice when delivering their message via the Internet. Learning blog basics along with more of the nuances of blogs and blogging is a key factor in driving traffic to those sites.

Blogs are designed to allow the author, who in this case is a network marketing business owner, to simply and frequently enter fresh material with the most recent entry being added to the top of the article list. Since blogs often allow your visitors to leave comments, it makes the site a dynamic environment, more socially interactive and establishes a sense of trust with the readers. Another reason why network marketers loves blogs; search engines love blogs! As a matter of fact, there seems to be a special relationship between blogs and Google; the king of the search engine realm.

Most blog platforms offer content editors with a “WYSIWYG” (meaning “what you see is what you get”) mode that allows the author to enter text, images, video, URL links, etc. via an interface structured like most word processors. Even the most technically challenged business owner can easily work with the various editing and site management controls to keep the valuable messages flowing to their customers and followers.

Once you are convinced that blogs and blogging is an option you want to pursue for delivering your message to the masses, you have to know where and how to set-up a blog. There are two different platform types that can be used to set-up your blog:

• Externally hosted blogs where you can use websites such as Blogger.com (free), WordPress.com (free to low-cost), TypePad (low to moderate cost), SquareSpace (low to moderate cost);
• Self hosted blogs where you use the “stand-alone” version of WordPress (downloaded from WordPress.org) and then uploaded to your web host with your own domain name.

The externally hosted options are by far the easiest to get up and running as well as maintain but have a distinct disadvantage for a business owner. Since a blog is actually a subset of external host’s overall website, you must abide by their rules and terms. If you violate the terms, the site owner reserves the right to shut-down your blog with little notice. If that happens, it could cost you sales or customers if the problem takes to long to work-out or worse yet, never gets resolved.

In the case of a self-hosted blog site, you not only control the content but also the domain, accordingly there is almost no chance of your site being shutdown (unless of course you are doing something illegal).

Admittedly, the set-up is more complex but there are some fantastic resources available to help you get the site up and running. One of those resources is a series of ten how-to videos prepared by two well-known and highly-respected professional bloggers, Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick.

Access to the videos can be obtained by clicking on the following link “becomeablogger.com“, providing your name and email to get instant video access (the ten videos are free), future access to their newsletter, blog and a free blogging report “Roadmap to Become a Blogger”.

The videos use step-by-step instructions covering everything you’ll need to complete to get your own WordPress blog running on a web host of your choosing with your very own domain name (web address).

And yes, the first ten videos are indeed free, so just click on the following link to check out the videos, blog and get a copy of the e-book.  Become A Blogger!

I believe you will be happy you did!