Choosing a topic Basically I would recommend you choose a topic that you you enjoy the most instead of choosing a topic that pays the best... Find what you like (etc cars, sports, fitness, nutrition, computers) and stick to it. My first site was about finance, due to it being a high paying niche, although i found it really hard to get the site going and have the drive to turn it into something.. so thats why I went into the fitness niche, as I live and breathe bodybuilding. Importance of the right domain In my opinion this is probably the most important thing. When choosing a domain I would recommend you spend a lot of time on finding the perfect one for your site. The goal is to create one that is: a) Catchy b) Low number of syllables c) Professional sounding d) Unique Design Your site should be designed in a way where it abides to the following principles: • Easy to navigate • Clean • Professional • Unique A good example would be Mashable.com... the site is very famous for its easy to use navigation and simplicity. Hosting This is also a very important factor aswell, and I would recommend you go with Hostgator... as they have very cheap prices and also free 24hr chat support, which has been extremely useful, I can tell you that much. Whenever my site had an error or i had a question about the servers or anything at all, they are always online to answer your questions. Since you are beginning I would recommend you use the cheapest plan they offer as it also includes 1 click wordpress installing which is also very handy, and if you need help on doing that Im sure they will install it for you. Wordpress is just an amazing piece of software... and has endless possibilities and thousands of useful plugins. If you do create a site i recommend you use wordpress. My whole site is on the wordpress platform and I have found that it was so easy to build, add content to and maintain by just using wordpress. Basically if you can use microsoft word then you can use wordpress, thats how easy it is once you know your way around it. My favorite/must have plugins All of these plugins I currently use, and they have literally helped me in so many ways and saved me a lot of time and the best thing is they are all free plugins/downloads. I tried to also add mini images for most of the plugins. 1. WP Supercache Makes your site go faster, "nuff said" http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/ 2. WP Optimize Another way to speed up and optimize your site. Very easy to use and effective http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-optimize/ 3. WP Poll Great way to implement polls into your site, and a great tool to use in competitions with many features http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-polls/ 4. Askimet Akismet is the comment spam fighter that comes built into WordPress and it does a mighty fine job. Activate this plugin and you won’t need to moderate or captcha your comment submissions. Akismet does 99% of the work for you. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/
5. Linkwithin Integrates Related posts with thumbnails.. extremely useful plugin & easy to use http://www.linkwithin.com/learn 6. WP PageNavi Those ‘Older Posts’ and ‘Newer Posts’ links are boring. With WP-PaveNavi you can get page buttons so users can go directly to whichever page they want. Plus they look a lot better than plain little links. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi/ 9. WP Security Scan Better to be safe then sorry! This plugin helps me sleep better at night http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-security-scan/ 10. Nextgen Gallery NextGEN Gallery is a full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with a slideshow option. I have been using this plugin for years now and it is truly something special http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/
11. All in one SEO pack Optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization). http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/ 12. Wibiya Toolbar http://www.wibiya.com/ 13. WordPress Related Posts http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-23-related-posts-plugin/ Generate a related posts list via tags of WordPress 14. Broken Link Checker http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/ This handy plugin can performs checking on your outgoing links and list out those dead links. 15. Google XML Sitemaps http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/
Theme I would recommend you either buy one or download a free theme for your wordpress site. There are heaps of good free ones out there, but if you want to invest in a premium theme, there are some cheap ones online which look sensational. I just used a free theme and then edited it.. (theme i used – scarlett theme) Here is a list of sites with free templates: Free wordpress themes: http://www.web2feel.com/ http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ http://wordpressthemesbase.com/ http://www.freewordpressthemes.com/ Premium Themes (paid) http://www.wpzoom.com/ http://templatic.com/ http://www.premiumwp.com/ http://www.elegantthemes.com/ Content I use to pay ametur writers to write articles for me, but i realized they were very low quality, so I just emailed well known authors in the industry and asked for permission to repost thier content on the site in return for exposure/backlinks etc The only downside is that you cant really SEO these articles although the upside is that it is free content that is high quality... Also once your site gets more popular you will find that you will get authors emailing you asking to write for your site.. but you must be careful as some can be very ameturish. Content - Interviews Another way to get content is via interviews.. these are really good as they are free content and also answer peoples questions.. etc Also another great thing is that they will help you promote the interview aswell, posting it on all thier networks (etc facebook, and forums) Traffic tips Facebook Fan Pages I highly recommend everyone makes one of these as they can be very beneficial to your website & reputation & credibility of your site.. Theres a million ways to promote them and there are to many to list, but all i can say is take notes from these helpful articles (below). Also I highly recommend you create a landing page on your facebook fan page as conversions of visitors will increase resulting in more fans. Articles to help boost your fan page http://www.scopeformoney.com/8-killer-tips-to-get-more-fans-for-your-facebook-page http://hubpages.com/hub/15-Ways-To-Get-More-Facebook-Fans http://www.gadgetcage.com/16-proven-tips-to-get-more-facebook-fans/7196/ http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2010/10/facebook-marketing.html How to use FBML (Creating Facebook landing page) http://socialwebschool.com/?p=500 Contest Ideas (for fanpage) http://mashable.com/2010/02/25/facebook-fan-page-ideas/ http://buzzmedia.com.my/article/facebook-contest-ideas http://www.allfacebook.com/5-contest-strategies-skyrocket-facebook-fan-base-2009-08 Quality Content Another way to benefit from traffic is creating quality content... and you will notice that other people will be sharing your content for you.. via forums, social sites (facebook/twitter) and via email etc. Also on forums be seen as an authority figure who represents their site properly.. the worst thing to see is the complete opposite.. etc Overweight personal trainers.. Creating a logo This is actually pretty easy.. All you have to do is keep it: Simple to read Effective Pro looking Neat Include an image (optional) How to make a logo? Simply use these resources below.. search for an image related to your niche in the icon search sites.. and then create the text experimenting with many different types of fonts and see which one looks best. Useful resources: Icons: http://www.iconfinder.com/ http://findicons.com/ Fonts: http://new.myfonts.com/ Final points... At the end of the day, your site will only last if the content is of high quality and very useful... An old quote is, “Quality is King and Traffic is Queen†Also whatever you put in is what you get out and that will determine how successful your site is Please note: I made this at 11pm half asleep so if there are any spelling errors or grammar errors please excuse them and dont forget the sky is the limit.. Most of you guys who are reading this are very young.. and i wish i got into this at a younger age. If you have any questions, feel free to post below Also if you need help on picking domain names, post your niche/topic below and i can try help out
I guess you also posted this crap over at http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?p=586585013 and http://pastebin.com/YdgpDrM6
Thanks buddy for this long long article. I have read these things many a times The only thing i found usefull was 2. WP Optimize 12. Wibiya Toolbar Thanks bro for these 2 tools