Simply Wordpress

The most important part about hosting any website or blog is reliablity. I have used numerous hosting companies in the past and there are a few a trust more than others. Host Gator is by far my favorite web host, especially when it comes to hosting WordPress blogs. Host Gator offers unlimited domain hosting for as low as $7.95 a Month.

The main reason I reccommend Host Gator is for the ease of WordPress Installation. They offer what is called Fantastico web application installations.
Fantastico De Luxe is an amazing cPanel/PHPbased Web application. It integrates with cPanel and gives you and your clients the ability to automagically install below listed popular Open Source Applications. With Fantastico the installation procedure of all of the following scripts takes only seconds and can be performed by novices without the need of setting up MySQL databases, importing structure, chmoding files and without the need of other tasks usually associated with installations.
Since I promised I would make this tutorial beginner friendly, here's what all this means: If you were to set up and install WordPress on a host who does not offer Fantastico installs it could take you a couple of hours to install WordPress, create your database and fix any problems you might encounter. With Fantastico auto-installs database creation as well as WordPress installation are managed in a mater of minutes.

So, before doing anything, you need to decide what you want to name your blog. A unique URL (web address) is necessary for ease of user navigation and SEO (I will explain Search Engine Optimization later). You want your Website URL to relate to the content which your blog will contain. In other words if you are going to create a blog which only contains content relating to golf, you don't want to name your blog www.baseball-blog.com. Come up with a few ideas and then CLICK HERE to sign up for your hosting account with Host Gator.

Now you have a decision to make. On the Host Gator Page you will find three hosting options (Hatchling, Baby and Business). The two options that you need to consider are the Hatchling and Baby packages. There are a few differences to point out: First off, the Baby package allows you to host an unlimited number of websites or blogs (so if you think you may want to have more than one website or blog down the road, this is the package for you). Alternatively, the Hatchling package only offers hosting for one domain (website or blog). Once you have decided on which package is right for you, click the order now button pertaining to your package choice.

Host Gator will now provide you with two options. Assuming you don't already have an active domain you will need to tic the 'Register a New Domain' box. Now you will need to enter the domain name you have chosen for your WordPress blog. If your domain name isn't already taken, then you will have the option of choosing how long you would like to register your blog. After selecting your domain name you will be asked about your hosting package. The longer you opt to keep your hosting package for, the cheaper it becomes on a monthly basis. Before leaving this page, you should search for 'HOST GATOR COUPON CODES' on google you should be able to find some web coupons which will save you some money on your hosting package :).

Now enter your payment information and you are in business. You should receive a confirmation email from Host Gator soon after your purchase is complete. I would suggest you print this out, since the information will be needed later on in this tutorial.

Congratulations you are one step closer to having your WordPress Blog up and running.

Okay, you should have received you email confirmation from Host Gator. Now we are ready to install WordPress on your Host Gator Domain.

In your browser type your domain name followed by /cpanel. It should like this: http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel -- your selected URL should be entered in place of yourdomain. Once you have entered this correctly, you should see a login screen which asks for a user name and password. This information can be found in your welcome email from Host Gator.

After you have logged into your cpanel you will see an overwhelming amount of information. Don't fret, it's really not that complicated to get your WordPress blog online. Just scroll down and find the Software/Services header. Under that you should find an icon called Fantastico. Click on the Fantastico icon. Once opened, you should see a number of options on the left side of the screen. Under the blogs header you will see a few options, obviously you want to select the WordPress option.

Now it's time to install your WordPress application. Find the following link: New Installation. Now you will have to fill out the WordPress installation information.

• Install on domain: this should be left the way it is. The domain/URL of your site should be visible in the dropdown box.


• Install in directory: leave this blank. This ensures your WordPress blog will be visible via your domain.


• Administrator Username: You can make this what ever you want. Just make sure you write this down or you will be unable to log into your WordPress control panel.


• Administrator Password: Again, this can be any password you like. Make sure this is written down as well.


• Admin Nickname: For now, enter your first name. This can be changed later.


• Admin e-mail: You can leave this as is or you can use another email address. It's really up to you. It has no bearing on the installation.


• Site Name: This should be the title of your blog. This also can be changed later.


• Description: You can enter a short description of your blog here or you can leave it blank and add a description later

As you probably gathered from the information above, the important categories are: Install on Domain, Install in Directory, Admin Username and Admin Password. If you have all of your information entered as explained above, click the Install WordPress button at the bottom of the page and your new WordPress application will be installed. You will see a new screen with a little bit of WordPress information. Pleas click the Finish Installation button. On the next screen you will need to find the following link: http://yourdomainname.com/wp-admin/. Open this page and you will now have to login to your WordPress application using the Admin Username and Password you just wrote down. If you you see a login screen you have done everything right and your blog is now online.

To see what your blog: type your URL into your browser and you should see a simple version of your blog. Sigh a collective sigh of relief and get some rest.

Now it's time to learn a little bit about the WordPress administration panel. You will need to login to your administration panel. Now that you are logged in, it's time to take a look around.

THE WORDPRESS DASHBOARD

Once you have logged in you will be sent to the main administration screen for you WordPress application. On this screen you will notice a few things. At the top of the page you will find the name of your blog followed by a Visit Site button (this is version 2.6.1), things might change as WordPress comes out with newer versions. At the time of this writing this it what you should see.

Visit Site Button: Any time you make a change to your blog and you wish to see if the changes suit your liking, you can check it out via the Visit Site button.

Just below your sites name you will notice 4 tabs (Write, Manage, Design and Comments). These four tabs are the guts of your blog.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE WORDPRESS TABS:

• WRITE: This tab carries a few sub tabs or links which give you the ability to create a new post and publish it your blog, create a static page (which we will talk about in detail later), or add links to your blog.


• MANAGE: Them manage tab allows you to edit posts, pages, links, tags, link categories and more. some plugins, when activated will also be visible under this tab.


• DESIGN: Fairly self explanatory. The Design Tab is where you can create your blogs unique look. By editing a template, adding widgets and much more.


• COMMENTS: This tab is used for managing comments left by your blog readers. You can approve comments, mark them as spam or delete them.

Moving on to the right side of your screen you will find three more links: Settings, Plugins and Users.

• SETTINGS: This is where you make your WordPress application operate like you want it to operate. The settings link enables you to change your blog title and edit your tagline. You will also be able to set your blog membership controls, tell the application what search engines to ping and how many posts you want to display on your home-page.


• PLUGINS: WordPress offers a wide variety of free (open-source) utilities, which make blogging with WordPress a lot of fun. This is where the true flexibility of WordPress comes into play.


• USERS: Under this link you find a list of all the individuals who have subscribed to you blog. You can edit each user permissions here (ie. if you want someone else to be allowed to create posts on your site, you can set their permissions to author).

Title: Membership Software: Beginners Make the Right Choice

Membership sites can be a great source of recurring income. Unfortunately, some of the membership software it takes to run these sites can be quite expensive or complicated or both. As such choosing membership software can be daunting and may scare off the beginner. Consequently, I wrote this article to help you make an informed decision.

The big question: Do I want to invest a little or a bunch in my membership software?

There are alternatives ranging anywhere from thousands of dollars to essentially free. On the upper end of the range is a membership software company called Member Gate. This is definitely the Rolls-Royce of the industry with lots of bells and whistles. Problem is - it is cost prohibitive for most beginners with packages ranging from nearly $4,000.00 to over $15,000.00.

In the mid range of cost is membership software from A member. This software is around $300 and you must host the software on your own server. I use this software for one of my membership sites and I am fairly happy with it. Problem here is it fairly costly for a beginner and in my opinion the membership software is rather clunky and NOT intuitive. That is, the learning curve for using it is fairly steep especially if you are not technically inclined.

At the low end of the investment range is using open source content management software like WordPress. In fact, using WordPress with available plugins you can have your own membership site up and ready to accept paying members in 2 hours or less and you can essentially do it for FREE. And here's the best part, you can have the same powerful functionality as the more expensive membership software.

Namely, you'll be able to:

* Start accepting payments with PayPal so you can make money right away.

* Email your members from within your membership site so you save time and hassle.

* See members and guests on your site so you always know who's there at any given time.

* Offer free content and yet protect premium content so you can make more sales by allowing free browsers a hint at what's available to them in the premium area.

The challenge with using WordPress and plugins for membership software is there is no real roadmap that describes how to set-up the WordPress software and how and where to find the needed plugins. That being said, it is definitely doable with Google searches and significant trial and error.

Alternatively, you can check out 'How to Create a WordPress Membership Site and sign-up for FREE WordPress tips, tricks and insider details for making a WordPress membership site wildly profitable.