Using WordPress – Creating a Post With an Image and a Video

  • December 19, 2011

(See detailed video instruction at the bottom)

A Post or article entry in your site or blog always looks better if it comes with a picture and a video. First, make sure to write your article in a word document so your spelling and grammar is checked as you type. Once you’re ready to paste your article from the word document window to your blog’s text editor, be sure to pass it through ms notepad first to strip the article from the hidden codes of ms word, so it won’t cause some problems with wordpress’ text editor. Then from notepad, paste your article into your wordpress text editor.

To add an image, we recommend you use an image that you personally own. You can always get images from Google but you might get some complaints from the owner of the image in the future.

To add a video, just get a video from you tube if you still don’t have your own video server. Right below the video in you tube’s site, click “share” then “embed” copy the exact html code and paste it in your wordpress text editor. Be sure to set your text editor to “html” so it can accept the html code.

If you are recording your own video, be sure to upload it in you tube in FLV formal so it uploads and plays faster. If your video is in AVI format as usually is the case with common video recorders, you can use a free software such as freestudio. Once the video converts to FLV, then you can easily upload it to you tube.

If you want to record your screen like if you are doing a tutorial video, we recommend you use debut. It is currently offered as a freeware since it is still on beta. Another option is camstudio, but it only works best if you are on Windows XP. If you are on Windows Vista or Windows 7, your computer must have a reliable video card for it to work.

Please see detailed video guide:

Please email us at info@freewebcoach.org if you need any assistance. We’d be glad to help you out for free…

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Using WordPress – How to set standard settings for your WordPress Site

  • December 19, 2011

(See detailed video instruction at the bottom)

Blogging or putting content in your site is so much fun. It is like running your own magazine or newspaper and if your content is good, then you can easily monetize your site by adding ads on the sides. Here are standard settings for a WordPress blog that we suggest you do.

Themes – Choose the best that fits your content. Always go for the one with minimal graphics or effects so your site loads faster. White background is always best even if it’s not your favourite color. Psychologically, black text on white background sets the mood for reading.

Categories – Setting up categories in your blog helps you organize your content. It also helps search engine spiders to map your site.
Pages – For most themes, pages become the “about”, “contact us”, “home”, etc. tabs just below the header. You can also use a page to become your static front page. Add as many tabs as you can fit below the header banner.

Posts – Posts are like your journal entries to your blog/site. Your posts become the main content of your site.

Settings – Under settings, you can find “general”, “writing”, “reading”, “discussions”, and “permalink”
General settings – This is where you can set your site title, tagline, admin email, time zone and time format. Pay special attention to what you say in your tagline as this helps to optimize your site.

Writing – You only need to set the number of posts to appear in your front page in this setting. If your posts contain multimedia, I suggest you keep your number of posts in the front page to maximum of three posts or as few as you can to make your site load fast.

Reading – In this setting, you can choose to set your front page to display either your latest post or a static page.

Discussions – It is in this setting where you can set to allow comments to appear below your posts or not. You can also choose to get email notifications whenever a comment gets to your post.

Permalink – To help you optimize your site, you should set your permalinks to default at “post name”. If you are still using an older wordpress version, just use the code /%postname%/ as the custom structure.

Header – In the header, you can choose the graphical background or banner. You can also choose your text font, colour, and size. Be sure though to choose the one that best fits your content.

Header image – Choose the header design that you feel is the most appropriate for your content. Most themes usually provide up to 5 or more choices for the header banner graphic. You can also upload your own graphics to your header using a file transfer protocol (FTP) such as Filezilla. Since there is a chance that some other websites may be using the same design as yours, then you should upload your own banner design graphics. Just go to Filezilla and download the “client” version. A detailed instruction is in the video instruction.

Header Text – Choose the header text font that best fits your overall theme.

Colors – The colors you use for both the header image and header text must blend perfectly with the themes standard colors. Go to  Colorlovers to get the perfect color blends

Plug ins – There are plenty of plugins to choose from. Before installing one, do some research in Google about its performance and effectivity. For starters, install a plugin to manage your comments and another plug in to better your SEO.

Please see detailed video guide:

Please email us at info@freewebcoach.org if you need any help. We’d be glad to help you out…

Permanent link to this article: http://freewebcoach.org/using-wordpress-how-to-set-standard-settings-for-word-press/

What is Search Engine Optimization?

  • December 18, 2011

Search engine optimization or S.E.O. is the process of constantly improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines such as Google via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. In Google, a paid search result or an ad is highlighted in pale yellow.

Sites appearing on top of the page result normally get more traffic, and this is why website owners spend huge amounts of time and money in both ethical and unethical SEO techniques.

There are several factors to consider when writing content for a website or blog. Search engine “spiders” constantly crawl or search for content in websites and analyze it for indexing in the search engine’s servers. When a search is made, the search engine shows results in the computer screen based on its indexing of related content from various websites. So the primary job objective of SEO is to make sure there are no barriers within its website contents from the search engines’ indexing activities. Optimizing a website involves but is not limited to editing contents and HTML and associated coding to both increase relevance to specific keywords. Promoting a site to increase the number of “backlinks”, or inbound links, is also a common SEO technique. A site is said to be well optimized if other sites or websites constantly refer back to it, through links, for reference in their contents. A very novel strategy in SEO is to create 3 or more sites, hosted in different servers and linking back to each other, or pointing references to a common site. This technique has been attributed by most of the successes of top internet marketers.

SEO is taken into consideration right when the website is being coded or built. SEO tactics must be incorporated into the development and design of a website. A site is said to be “search engine friendly” if its design, menus, content management system, images, videos, shopping cart, and other elements have been optimized for search engine exposure. There are companies who specialize in SEO and they offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign.

SEO is also a constantly changing discipline, since search engine algorithms and rules keep changing, to keep pace with current internet trends.

Permanent link to this article: http://freewebcoach.org/what-is-search-engine-optimization/

The Strangest Secret

  • December 18, 2011

Earl Nightingale’s “The Strangest Secret” reveals why some people repeatedly succeeds while others always seem to fail. To succeed in life, one has to establish specific goals. People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going. In The Strangest Secret, Earl reveals the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t. “We become what we think about”. Our mind is like a fertile land –it will return anything we want to plant.

The Strangest Secret has motivated and changed the lives of thousands of people.

When Nightingale was seventeen he joined the United States Marines. He was one of the 12 surviving marines onboard the USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor Attack in World War II.

After the war, as the host of his own daily commentary program on WGN, Earl Nightingale arranged a deal that also gave him a commission on his own advertising sales. By 1957, he was so successful; he decided to retire at the age of 35. In the meantime, Earl had bought his own insurance company and had spent many hours motivating its sales force to greater accomplishments. It was in the fall of 1949, when he was 29 that he realized that the six words he read in Napoleon Hill’s book – “Think and Grow Rich” were the answer to the question he had been looking for! That, “we become what we think about”. He realized that he had been reading the same truth over and over again, from the New Testament…to the works of Emerson. “We become what we think about.” “As ye sow, so shall ye reap…” When he decided to go on vacation for an extended period of time, his sales manager begged him to put his inspirational words on record for their employees to get motivated while he was away. The result later became the recording entitled “The Strangest Secret”. In 1956 he produced “The Strangest Secret”, and it sold over a million copies, making it the first and only spoken-word recording to achieve Gold Record status.

“The Strangest Secret”

Permanent link to this article: http://freewebcoach.org/the-strangest-secret/

How to Set Up a Website in 15 Minutes

  • December 16, 2011

(Video guide below)

So you want to build something BIG online… You’ve got something valuable to share to the world… Go ahead and build a website for it… How?

Here are 3 ways (Let’s assume you’ve already bought a domain and a hosting account):

a. Code it (will need more time) — If you know HTML and programming, you can build a website from scratch. If you don’t know HTML, it’s never too late to learn it –just go to www.w3schools.com . Some HTML knowledge would also be very useful for you, now that you’ve decided to build something BIG online.

b. Use a site builder – Most hosting accounts like Hostgator have a built-in site builder that is so easy to use.

c. Use WordPress – As a blogging platform, WordPress is one of the best today. They have hundreds of themes for you to choose from, and tons of plug-ins that you can use to optimize your site.

I recommend you use WordPress if you want to start-off with your website easily. Here are a few steps to take to build a website using WordPress:

1. Point your domain to your Domain Name Servers (DNS) – Just access your Go Daddy account, if you are using Go Daddy, and set your domains to point to your hosting account’s DNS. A DNS looks like this —ns6542.hostgator.com. Your hosting company usually provides 2 DNS addresses.

2. Go to your hosting account’s Control Panel (CPanel) then use “Fantastico Deluxe” to install WordPress. Just click “Fantastico” then choose “WordPress” in the Fantastico page. The next page you will see is a set up form for WordPress, and once you fill out the form, then you can access your brand new WordPress website using your browser, via the address “www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin”.

Please watch the video below to see the detailed steps:

If you need further help, please don’t hesitate to email us at info@freewebcoach.org , we’d be more than glad to help you out…

Permanent link to this article: http://freewebcoach.org/how-to-set-up-a-website-in-15-minutes/

How and where to get Webhosting for your Website

  • December 13, 2011

Getting hosting for your website could be a daunting task, but if you follow what most website owners are doing, then you could save yourself a lot of the hassle.

First off, what is hosting or web hosting? Simply, it is getting a medium or a computer to host your website content to the internet so that the visitors who type your www-dot-yourwebsite.com could see your website. The computer that will host your website is actually a server. Sure, you can host your own website but you’ve got to buy your own server, which is not cheap, so your website content shows up faster to the viewers. Yes, you can use an ordinary computer as a server but it might take several hours for your viewers to see  your website’s front page. Besides, you need to have a really fast internet connection and an uninterruptible power supply so that your website is up all the time. Now, if you can’t provide all those, then you need to get a webhosting company to host your website. Makes sense? I hope so…

To host your website we recommend Hostgator. Here are a few reasons why…

1. 99.9% uptime – This is not just what Hostgator is saying. This is based on experience.

2. Unlimited bandwidth and disk space – Sure other hosting companies claim the same but only Hostgator had historically proven this.

3. Very responsive customer support and ticket system – The first issue I had with them was when I forgot my password to my C-Panel, and I got help in just 3 minutes. Even their billing support can handle technical questions –that’s how flexible they are.

4. No contracts – They will let you get hosting on a per month basis.

5. Has superb affiliate program – This is especially beneficial if you plan to market their service.

6. Unlimited MySQL database – So you can add a membership script to your website if you’re planning to set up the next Facebook.

7. Unlimited email accounts – And each email account is provided with unlimited disk space.

8. Smooth account upgrade transition – Most other hosting companies will let you pass through several hoops on this.

9. Green Servers – They use wind power for their servers.

If you get curious and do your own research in Google, you’ll find that there’s a website that puts Hostgator as just the third best, but one of the biggest criteria for their rating is price. Sure Hostgator is not the cheapest out there, but the features and excellent customer support that goes with a Hostgator hosting account is sure worth the extra bucks…

Please watch this tutorial video to see how you can set up hosting with Hostgator…

On the next tutorial, we will show you how to set up your website with a few clicks using a site builder wizard and/or a wordpress prebuilt theme. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask us at info@freewebcoach.org…

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