Blogs, Articles & E-BooksPresented by Michael Jones; NVP, AmeriPlan®

How to Set Up a Blog

Today, we are going to set up a typical blog using a free internet account. The account we’ll be using is Blogger, and its web address is www.blogger.com. Use of this account requires a gmail account. We’ll begin there.

1.) Go to www.gmail.com and register for a free gmail account.

The gmail account creation screen looks just like this:

Notice the lower right portion of the screen that says “Create an account”.2.) Click on that and follow the account set up instructions.

You should now have a gmail account.Remember your username and password.

Now go to www.blogger.comIt should look like this:

Follow the simple set up instructions for step one by filling in the blanks.

Step 2 of the set-up will bring you to this screen:

See where it says “Blog Title”?This is where you’ll name your blog. So, give it a name. Don’t worry; you can change it later if you don’t like it or if you think of a better one.

Blog address. This is the web address for your blog. This one you can’t change later, but its no big deal, most people will never see this name. Some examples could be: janiesblog, or fransameriplanblog, or terrysjourneytosuccess. It’s whatever you want really. Simpler is probably better.

Word Verification.You just type in the letters on your screen.

Press continue.

Step 3 will bring you to this screen:

A template is a unified layout for your blog. They’re pre-made. Pick one you like.This can be changed again later too, if you decide you want a different look.

More template choices:

Once you chosen a layout, press Continue.

Done!

Click on “Start Posting”

Notice the 4 TABS across the top.They’re named “Posting”, “Settings”, “Layout”, and “View Blog”This is the Posting tab. This is where posts are created and edited.There’s a field for “Title” to title your post and the large box area is a text editor for editing and creating posts.You can save your post as a draft, or choose to publish the post from this screen.

The next tab is the Settings tab. The first field is for title. This is where you can change the title of your blog if you didn’t like the name you gave it when it was created. If you want to give your post a description, you do so in the second field.Notice the Third Field though. It says “Add your blog to our listings” Make sure it says yes.You can accept the default settings for the rest of the fields…

At the bottom of this page there’s a button to “Save these settings”. Click on that to save.

Scroll back up to the top and click on the “Layout” tab.This screen, will come up. This lets you change and add page elements to your blog page.

The “View Blog” tab will bring you to this screen and let you see what your blog will look like:

Once you’ve completed your blog layout, you can easily access important features and edit page elements and blog postings through your “Dashboard”.That page looks like this:

There are also news articles and current events that pertain to blogging in general.

So there you have it! You’ve set up your blog and created postings that are full of relevant content. This is a free way to increase your presence on the internet.

Some useful and important web site addresses.Free Sites:www.gmail.com free email account necessary for setting up an account in blogger.www.blogger.com your blogging communitywww.gutenberg.org A resource of public domain articleswww.DMOZ.org An open directory project. Lets you submit your blog directorywww.technorati.com A sort of “press release” for blogs

Paid siteswww.editavenue.com Spell checking and proof reading of your article and e-book content are important. Don’t neglect this step. If you write your own content, but are worried about your grammar or editing issues use this site for a quick turn around and reasonable rates.

www.elance.com Ask for a bid for an article (around 700 words) built around key words and key phrases. (Remember; Tell, Don’t Sell)

Articles and Article Submission

An article is a written composition on a specific topic.With only a little editing, several blog posts could be combined to create an article.Once you have written an article, and edited it for grammar, spelling and content, it could be submitted to various web-sites for inclusion on that site’s postings.

Some popular choices include:

www.articlewheel.com Not a free site. Costs are anywhere from $20 - $100 per article depending on the number of articles submitted.

www.e-articles.info A free site. Includes free translation of your article into 10 foreign languages.

www.articlesubmission.net Not a free site. Reasonable rates.

E-Books

Just as several blog posts can comprise an article, so too can several articles comprise an E-book! While many e-books are sold to an audience of readers as a source of revenue generation, we would strongly suggest that you simply give away your e-book. Your e-book should be rich with your web-site links to aid in traffic generation. And although you are giving it away you should at least require an e-mail address from your reader and hopefully other contact information such as names and phone numbers. With those, you can follow up with your readers and turn them into prospects.