Using the same headings as in the list of tasks to be done which were set out in module #3 , here is what I accomplished.

Use the Forum to get Familiar with Blogging

One of the very useful additions to this course is the forum that Alex has set up for his Students. Alex has invited some of his former students to help out. There is a good community spirit and anyone who wants to help   those who need help, can do so.

I have spent some time on the forum. It is a place I will want to keep coming back. It is good to see the progress of the other students and their blogs taking shape.

I am making steady progress visiting the other blogs but there are a lot more to go and even now a lot have students have not got their blogs listed in the forum.

It is interesting to see how others have compiled their blogs and I took a while deciding on what WordPress theme to choose.

 

Setup Hosting and Install a Blog

My hosting account is already chosen and I easily can add a new domain, all I had to do was choose a domain name for my blog. I decided to go with DavidLouisMonk.com. I found by searching Google, that if I used both my forenames,  I could not find another name the same, whereas there are many men named David Monk; also, I found a David L Monk. At least for the moment I have a unique name and I do not have to hyphenate the name to get the domain I am happy with.  Not everyone can get their ownname.com as the name is already taken.

 

Installing the blog is straightforward, especially following the video tutorials provided free by Matthew Wolfe for the other students. Matthew has set up the website: http://www.thewordpressclassroom.com/  . The most time was taken looking at various themes and making up my mind what theme to go for. I knew I wanted a theme in which I could vary the width of the page and the columns so eventually decided to go with the Flexibility2 theme that you see named at the very bottom of this page.

 

Prepare a Plan of Attack for your Blog

One of the first tasks to do once my domain was up and the WordPress theme installed was to add content and write  my first post. Of course I also wanted to decide on my layout of my pages. You will see by looking at this page and my home page, the layout I decided. By the time you are reading this, I expect to have made changes to the way the site looks.

One of the things Alex encouraged us to do was to visit other student blogs and leave a comment, thereby linking our sites with other students’ sites. This all helps get the site established so that when visitors from outside the Alex mentorship community come to our blogs they will have been seen to have had visitors and a site worth bookmarking and reading. I have made a start but is is going to take a time to look at everyone’s blog and leave a comment.

 

Install the “Traffic Network Builder”

One of the members has provided the code to be installed as a widget. Once installed it presents a list of links to other students’ websites. You will see a list to the right of this page. Once WordPress is set up on the server, it becomes quite an easy job to install widgets like Traffic Network Builder.

 

Add Google Analytics

I had not used Google Analytics before, but once the account was set up which was not difficult, it was easy to set up and add this website. The advantage of using WordPress for my blog is that it is Google friendly. It is best to follow the video tutorials that show you how to install WordPress on the server and install a theme. Once the theme is installed, the theme can be customized.

In the side bars can be placed widgets and text and adds etc such as you will now see on the side of this page on my blog.

There are plenty of widgets available for installation in to the theme.

Besides widgets there are also additional plug-ins for WordPress. One such plug-in is Google Analytics. You can search for plug-ins from within the theme and having selected a plug-in you can easily activate it.

I slipped up by trying to install a Google Analytics plug-in and was told an error occurred. I later found out after asking Matthew that my theme already had the Google Analytics installed.

I can say more about Google Analytics in a later post but for now Google Analytics gives you a report as to how many times your blog has been visited and where the traffic came from. This is a valuable tool as it tells you whether your site is getting the hits.

 

Adding a Sitemap

This was not part of the homework but adding a sitemap was something I wanted to do. As my blog consists of more than just the homepage I wanted to have a sitemap that would Google help Google index my site. I made the mistake of following the videos so closely that when I installed the sitemap plug-in an error was reported. I emailed Matt with my problem. He replied to say that it might already be installed as some themes automatically give you the sitemap installed.

When I checked this is the case. That will teach me to look more closely at what facilities this Flexibilty2 theme has to offer. The good news is that within a couple of days I can see the traffic or the number of visits my site has had; thought no sign ups so far.

 

I will be reporting on the next module soon.

 

If you have found anything I have had to say useful in this post, please leave a comment.

 

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