Setup for Dummies

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  jackcain270 · Member · Sep 17, 2007 at 11:40 pm

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  I have written a book on the subject of surviving grief. I want to establish a blog to promote the book. I am a total beginner on blogs, and have no idea where to start. I just established an account on wordpress.com, and that’s as far as I’ve gotten.
  How do I start from scratch, setting up the opening page?
  Thanks,

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  trent · Member · Sep 17, 2007 at 11:56 pm

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  There are some great resources in the FAQ and Timethief started a blog with great beginner resources that Raincoaster currently runs at:

  http://bloggersblurt.wordpress.com/

  Trent

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  timethief · Member · Sep 18, 2007 at 12:28 am

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  Here’s another link http://faq.wordpress.com/2007/08/16/im-new-to-blogging-where-do-i-start/
  and welcome. :)

  {wave to Trent}

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  mymyspacelayouts · Member · Sep 18, 2007 at 6:55 am

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  Start by getting listed on search engines:

  * Submit your sites directly to:

  http://www.google.com/addurl/

  http://submit.search.yahoo.com/

  http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx

  At Yahoo where it says to submit your site feed, all WordPress.com blog’s RSS feeds end with /feed/

  * Get an account at http://technorati.com/ and claim your blog there. I did the post claim. I took the code they gave and made a new post on my blog and placed their code where we make a new post and also just wrote Testing on the subject title. This process might take a minute. And also place Technorati’s buttons on your sidebar.

  * And make sure to ping your blog when you’re done updating for the day. I ping my blog at both http://technorati.com/ping and http://www.pingoat.com/

  * And try emailing other similar sites like yours for link exchanges on each other’s blogrolls. This will help you with getting more traffic and possible higher pagerank.

  * The best way to get listed on search engines is to try to get your blog on at least one person’s blogroll that is already listed on Google. This way when they get indexed, your site will then be indexed. It might take a few days to get listed. In my experience it’s taken less than a week.

  * NEVER buy links. They say you’ll get more traffic but what good is more traffic if you get kicked off Google and other search engines. Just concentrate on building your blog and getting an audience the old-fashioned way.

  * And last piece of advice is if your blog isn’t a private or adult blog, go to your Dashboard, click at the top right My Profile, and make sure the link to your blog is placed under Contact Info. This way when you post on the forum or other people’s WordPress.com blogs, then your name will be clickable helping you get traffic and exposure. Click Update Profile and you’re all set.