Make a Blog vs. Make a Website
In my opinion, many web newbies get caught up in the whole blog vs. website debate while learning how to make a website. They are still confused as to which route they should go and I can’t blame them. With so much wrong information out on the web and arguments for both sides of the issue, which side is right?
There is no right side. All blogs are websites. Even if your blog only has one photo and a link to an email address, IT’S A WEBSITE! It would be a crappy website indeed, but a website none-the-less.
WordPress is considered blogging software, but in actually it’s not. WordPress is on the framework and core set of files which allows you to manage a website without an technical knowledge. To help better understand this concept and (of course prove a point), below is a list of 15 completely awesome websites that are powered by WordPress, but don’t resemble a blog.
Many websites online are quietly running the WordPress content management system in the background that aren’t typically categorized as blogs. Why? Because WordPress is free and the most popular open source platform to date. It’s easy to use with hundreds of tutorials online, quick to set up, there are thousands of good looking and free themes available.
International Screening Solutions
Free WordPress Themes for Download
This has been a hectic year and yet I have loved every minute of it. The sole purpose of this blog was to give back all the knowledge I acquired through the years as a web designer, for free. With that in mind I decided to collect some of my favorite Wordpres themes and have them available for download directly from my site.
As a designer, I come across hundreds of free quality themes and it’s only fair I pass them along to my readers. So download and enjoy! Check out the Free Templates section and let me know if you have any problems.
Currently there are only WordPress templates available, but I will be adding free Joomla, Blogger and Tumblr themes soon.
Coming Soon
Create a Niche by Branding Yourself
Branding yourself is a term used to describe a process. It is the process of uncovering your unique and valuable strengths as an individual. We all have strengths, never sell yourself short. Everyone is an expert in something. To brand yourself, you then use your unique strengths to establish yourself as a well-known expert in those areas. By identifying yourself as an expert, you create a niche, or single area of focus. The purpose of finding your niche and branding yourself is to develop a following of people interested in your specific area of expertise. You want to present yourself as a reliable source of expert information in your brand.
What are You Good At Doing?
The first step to branding yourself is of course to discover what you are good at doing. If your strengths are not obvious to you immediately, ask some of your friends and family what they think you do well. They will likely have several answers. Consider which of these strengths you want to pursuit as your brand. Once you have discovered your brand, you should develop a branding statement. A branding statement for an individual is like a corporate mission statement. It is a clear, concise and well thought out statement of exactly what you plan to accomplish with your brand. The purpose of a branding statement is to allow you to see in black and white your goals and purpose. Consult your branding statement regularly to keep from losing track of your purpose as you develop your brand.
So How Do I Brand Myself Online?
Now that you have developed your branding statement, it is time to establish yourself as an expert. The best way to do this is online. The internet allows global users to see your work, your talents, and discover you as an expert 24 hours a day. There are several ways to be seen online including creating a website, or blog, writing articles, and commenting in other blogs, or forums. As you do this, remain focused on your niche. You do not want to include things in your writing, blog, or comments that are not within your area of expertise.
The Good and the Bad
Realize that branding yourself online takes time. The most common mistake is to rush. If you rush to publish articles, make blog posts or leave comments, you will likely make mistakes that lead to poor quality. If you want people to see you as an expert, you must continually make quality posts, quality comments, and quality writing. Take the time to develop well thought out work. Do not leave vague comments solely for the purpose of posting a link. This will discredit you online.
Using Social Media to Promote Your Brand
Social Media is a great way to help get the word out about your website, blog, and articles. There are numerous social networks you can use to promote yourself and establish your personal brand. Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Myspace are just a few social networking sites where you can link and promote to your work.
When you use social media, it is best to begin with the accounts you are already using. If you have a network of Twitter followers already established go ahead and promote your online content there. You will want to clean your online profiles of any information that isn’t specifically related to your brand. But, using already established social media accounts will help you kick-start online promotion of your brand.
It is important to participate in these social networks rather than simply using them solely as a method of promotion. You can also answer questions on answer websites such as Yahoo answers or Answers.com to establish yourself as an expert and refer readers to your online content.
Google PageRank – A Guide for Virgins
I’ve been adding content to my site as usual, when I started doing some research for my newly added Intro to Google PageRank section. This “gem” was too good to pass by, so I created a post for it. The original article was written by Tony Connor from ArticlesBase.
I hope you enjoy and accept my apologies in advance if you are offended!
Google PageRank is very much like penis size:
- Everyone thinks it’s important.
- No one admits it’s important (unless you’ve got a huge one).
- Everyone is interested in the size of everyone else’s.
PageRank is one of the many factors Google takes into account when it returns the results for a search term. It is, in effect, Google’s evaluation of how important a site is. The main element in this is the number of sites linking to your site and their PageRank size. This can be viewed as a popularity contest with the sites with the bigger PageRanks getting bigger votes (ain’t that always the way).
The upshot of this is that sites with, shall we say, less than a handful of PageRank cannot get close to the top of the results when popular keywords are searched upon, and have to rely on more specific keywords to get traffic from search engines.
History of PageRank
PageRank was invented by Larry Page at Stanford University, and named after him. Page began the project in 1995, and worked on it with Sergey Brin. The project then lead to the prototype Google in 1998. Google Inc. was founded to manage the Google search engine, which used PageRank. Currently the trademark PageRank belongs to Google Inc., but the original patent for the PageRank algorithm is assigned to Stanford University.
Google has since grown to the largest search engine in the world, with nearly two thirds of searches made on Google. The PageRank algorithm is still one of the factors taken into account in Google’s search engine result ranking, and it is constantly followed by interested search engine marketing specialists around the world.
How is PageRank Measured?
PageRank is measured from 0-10. Sites can be out into three categories:
PageRank 0-2
New websites that are just starting out. Websites that have come to terms with the size of their PageRank and have given up trying to increase it (but secretly hope it’ll still grow over time). Bad boys who have broken the rules.
PageRank 3-6
Established websites that have proven they can perform. Niche websites that have a big enough PageRank to do what they need it to do.
PageRank 7-10
Some of these guys’ PageRank is so big it’ll knock you over if they turn to quickly in the communal showers. In order to compete with this PageRank, one needs to develop other techniques to establish your own area of specialist expertise.
How to Improve Your PageRank
In order to not get their PageRank laughed at in those showers, webmasters are constantly looking to increase it. Here are a few ways to stretch that PageRank.
Increase the Girth
By increasing the number of pages on the site, it increases the amount of PageRank the webmaster can play with. If those pages point internally then it can increase the PageRank of those pages for instance. As we all know, girth is a secondary factor when it comes to performance and you should be careful that you don’t create pages with no real value or content, as one can be punished for that (and not in a nice way).
Expose Yourself
Advertising your website is a core piece of your strategy. However, to really increase that PageRank, you need incoming, permanent, links not occasional pay-per-click ads or banners that can change day-to-day or week-to-week. Ways to do this include, writing high quality articles that get published on a number of sites (the author is still working on getting that one right), being active in fora associated with the subject of your website, and forming a group in one or more of the social websites. You certainly shouldn’t keep it in your pants, but over-exposure can be detrimental to your PageRank too, if you are deemed to be spamming.
Hire Some Prostitutes
There are some websites (the author is told) that will provide links to your website for a fee. Now, this is illegal in the United States of Google and there are severe penalties if you are caught. They rely on snitches to let them know it’s happening, so this kind of activity tends to happen on street corners and undesirable neighborhoods on the web. This is not recommended.
“Don’t Worry About It, It Happens to Everyone”
There is a small but vocal group that says you shouldn’t worry about the size of it and just concentrate on providing good content for your visitors. This is the equivalent of “the size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it Honey”, or a favorite of my ex-wife’s – “more than a mouthful’s a waste”. The reality is that people visit your website because of what’s on it, but they won’t visit if they don’t know it’s there – so a balance is needed.
How To Get Your PageRank Cut Off
There are also a number of things you should avoid that may shrivel your PageRank.
Getting Caught With Your Pants Down
Anything that Google prohibits (and there is a lot) can adversely affect your PageRank if they catch you in the act. So keep your nose clean and make sure you understand the rules.
Orgies
Simply exchanging links with other sites doesn’t really have an effect on your PageRank (although it still might generate traffic) and using “link farms” can have a negative effect. The author has never visited a “link farm” (to his knowledge) but imagines they are akin some sort of communal retreat for perverts, or like one of those swinging parties you never get invited to.
Flashing
Pop-ups are not actually banned but they are obviously unpopular. A number of directories are now banning sites that have excessive pop-ups, which will decrease the number of sites that will publish a link to your site if you do have lots of pop-ups.
In summary, PageRank is a very important aspect, but to obsess over it means you won’t satisfy your visitors in other areas, which might be important to them. If it is that important to you, you need to get out and meet people!
If it’s big enough to do the job, be happy.
How To Make a Website That Makes Money
Just my opinion here folks.
People ask me all this the time. How do I make a website that earns money? How do I make a websites so I can leave my crappy 9-5?
Typically I would use this opportunity to tell about my web design services and offer to help them create a website. But after I tell them how much I charge they almost always change their mind. Why? Because most people are cheap and lazy. Most web newbies tend to think if you create a website, then people will magically show up to buy their goods.
I wish! It’s true that tons of people have been able to make a comfortable living online after creating a website, but it takes hours and hours of work, research and dedication to achieve this.
So lesson 1 of How to Make a Website is, have REAL expectations. Don’t think that you can just sign up for hosting, pick a cool sounding domain name, install WordPress and create some content and the people will come. Your blog or website will be one of a billion online, so how will people find you? You want to make your own website, but what is it going to be about? What’s your topic?
Start by reading posts located on the right. Start with Getting Started Online and don’t stop reading until you reach the last line of When To Call A Professional.
What? You don’t like reading? How to do you expect to make your own website without first figuring out if you even need one?
Lesson 2 is read more. lol. Easy right? The easiest way to create a website is just read! There are tons of details tutorials, tips and tricks all over the web that will show you how to do this, including this site. Just stop by the tutorials sections and look for wordpress help.
Lesson 3, the final lesson, is the hardest – start working today! You never be a success in life if you are scared of failing. You want to know how to make a website but are too scared to try anything new. What if I create a website, then break it!
No problem. Build another one. Believe me, it goes a lot faster the second time around. I can’t you how many times I have created a website and done something completely stupid to mess it up. One minute it’s working fine, the next minute my site is gone! Frustrating yes! Helped in the learned process? Most definitely!
I know this post isn’t probably not what you thought it was going to be. It’s really just a rant hoping to inspire a generation of slackers and pessimists to get off the couch and do something.
Tis’ All!
