If you have just joined in on the blogging series, you can go HERE to catch up.

By now you should have your blog up and have some article written and waiting to post. At this time you can add your ‘About Me’ page. To do this, go to the left sidebar in your dashboard and click ‘Add New’ under ‘Pages’. Then just add your About Me article that you have already written.

You are also going to want to add a ‘Contact’ page. If you installed the Contact Form 7 plugin then you can use the following code along with something like this-

Questions? Comments? Send me a message:
contact-form 1 “Contact form 1″ <———place in [  ]

Then go to the settings for your Contact form and make sure to fill in the e-mail address that you want messages sent to.

You can also add your first article that you should have written describing your blog. Make sure your readers know what your blog is all about and why they should follow you.

You are now probably noticing that your sidebar seems pretty empty. The rest of the week you are going to focus on setting up some Google accounts and learning how to use Widgets.

How to Manage Your WordPress Widgets

Your widgets are items that go in your blog’s sidebars. To manage your widgets:

1.  Click “Appearance” in your Dashboard (on left hand side)
2. Click “Widgets”
3. Drag the widgets of your choice into the appropriate sidebar. If you want to add html codes then use a ‘Text’ box.
4. Add a title if desired
5. Click “Save”
6. Now go to your blog and you should see it there!

Here is a list of Accounts & Sites that you should set up-

1. Feedburner- We now need to set up your RSS feed. Feeds are a way to distribute your content beyond just the visitors to your blog. Feeds give your subscribers automatic updates through readers or e-mail. You can set up a free account through Feedburner.  For some step by step instructions to Feedburner head over to Wpbeginner. You can add a feedburner icon to your sidebar as well as an e-mail subscription box.

2. Google Analytics- You are going to want to set up a Google Analytics account to be able to track and analyze your blogs traffic. Find out who’s coming, from where they are coming from, which pages they are visiting and how long they are staying.

3. Google Friend Connect- Adding GFC to your blog is a great way to show social proof that your visitors have come to the right place. After setting up account, add the widget t your sidebar for visitors to join.

4. Google AdSense- If you are wanting to make money from your blog then you may want to consider setting up a Google AdSense account. This program enables publishers in the Google network to display ads that are targeted to your site and content. They can earn revenue for you either on a per-click or per-impression basis. You are allowed to add up to three different ads to your blog and one to your feed.

It will take some time before you start making money with AdSense and some trial and error on the placement. I have had the best outcome with one 728×90 ad in the header, 300×250 ad on the top sidebar and 160×600 ad in the lower sidebar.

5. Google PageRank- You may also want to add a PageRank checker to your blog to display your current Google PageRank. Pages are ranked from 10, being the best to 0. Your PageRank is the value that Google has given to your blog. Increasing inbound links to your blog will help increase your PageRank.

6. Submit site to Google- HERE

This Weeks Homework

~Add ‘About Me’ page
~Add ‘Contact’ page
~Publish first article
~Set up Accounts
~Continue writing.

Join me next week when we will be monetizing your blog.

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