Create a Professional Blog
and Get Found Online

I need to get to work. I’m behind in everything
you mentioned and see now that I have no choice
about whether or not I need to pay more attention
to marketing. Thanks for sharing all those great, free
tools and the creative ways you use them.
I had no idea I could do so many things myself.
Todd Bethel
KMG Media Solutions

Why This Training is Important
With over 72 percent of people finding what they need online, you must get found. A blog offers the following benefits.

Promote what you know. A business blog gives you a platform to share your expertise and establish yourself as an expert in the marketplace.

Describe and build your brand. Your brand represents what people know about you or think of when they hear of you. Focusing your blog on your expertise will help promote your brand.

Boost search engine rankings. As you continue to offer tips, insight, and advice to people who need what you have, you’ll give the search engines what they crave – fresh, quality content.

Reach the masses with less effort and money. Search engines, links from other sites, integration with social media tools, and Google Alerts are just a few of the ways a blog can help you reach people you never would have otherwise. You could start to attract potential customers, clients, journalists, and industry giants seeking fresh ideas.

If you need more convincing why blogging is so important, you have got to read this article from Anita Campbell's Small Business Trends blog, "42 Million U.S. Women Use Social Media: Blogs Most Influential."

"But I've heard blogs are free and
easy to set up. Why do I need training?"

Yes, it's true. You can easily create a simple blog at sites such as Blogger from Google. But if you want to become a serious blogger and take advantage of customized designs and plug-ins that will boost your search engine rankings and virability, you'll want our advice and training. You'll want a self-hosted WordPress blog with powerful functionality that makes it easy to share and get others to promote.

With a self-hosted blog, you will:

• Have complete control over design, functionality, and virability.

• Be able to add any number of the thousands of free plugins that make your blog easy to share and promote, thus boosting your search engine rankings.

• Host your own content and easily move it from one host to another if you ever need to.

• Easily create full backups of all files.

• Be able to monetize it by selling your own products.

• Upload as much content as your hosting package will allow.

Here is an article that award-winning blogger, Peggy Duncan, wrote that will convince you to start with a professional, self-hosted WordPress blog so you won't have to backtrack later and change it. A few months later, her blog won Top Business Blog from FastPitchNetworking.com.

"I have a newsletter that I email regularly.
Why do I need a blog?"

It's a good idea to collect email addresses and send your subscribers valuable information regularly. But if that's all you're doing, how will Google and other search engines know? The only people seeing your newsletter are your subscribers. When you add your expertise to a blog, it'll get picked up by the search engines and exposed to the world! So do both.

What You Will Do During This Training

This training is hands-on, and you'll actually perform the work being taught throughout the day. When you leave, you'll have a self-hosted, WordPress blog loaded with the right juice to attract Google and site visitors who are looking for your product or service.

Class Outline

Add Design Theme

• Choose and activate your Wordpress theme.

• Tweak theme design to match your needs.

• Change defaults to improve functionality.

Add the Juice

• Register your site with the major search engines for free.

• Select the right keywords to sprinkle throughout your site and in the page properties.

• Add popular, free plug-ins to increase your blog's functionality, visibility, and virability.

• Add a blidget that shows where visitors come from and where they go on your site in real time.

• Set up an RSS feed to make it easy for readers to subscribe.

Administrative

• Back up your blog the free, easy way: set it and forget it.

• Set up Google analytics for free and learn how to track your traffic.

Help Desk (Optional)
Additional topics and assistance after the main workshop.

Mandatory: Easy Pre-Work You Must Do Before This Training.
You Can Not Procrastinate
About Doing This. After your successful registration, you will receive a confirmation email that will have a link to this easy, mandatory pre-work.
 

What You Will Need

• A laptop - ours or yours. Most students prefer to work on their own laptop and that's great as long as it's Internet-ready (wireless card-WI-FI). You should also bring an external mouse and mouse pad.
  
  If you don't have a laptop or access to one, you must let us know in advance so one of ours can be assigned to you.
   

• All your passwords and UserIDs from the accounts you set up according to instructions above.

• Comprehensive handout is 34 pages. All attendees will receive this PDF 1-2 days prior to the training. You can print it and bring with you.
  
  You will also receive access to how-to videos you can refer to later. These will be developed later and we'll email you the links.

Who is This Training For?
This training is designed for computer savvy professionals and business owners who want to improve their search engine rankings and develop a way to promote what they know. You absolutely must be computer savvy to take this class. (Computer savvy is: you know what right-click means. Absolutely no prior Web development experience is needed.)

"I already have a self-hosted WordPress blog but
don't know how to get to it or update it because
someone else did it. Should I come?"

Yes! We'll teach you what to do. However, if you don't have any passwords, etc., you'll have to follow the instructions we'll email you after registration as if you have nothing. You'll be able to copy and paste your articles from your current blog to the better one.

"I already have a self-hosted WordPress blog and have complete access to it. I haven't updated it because I never learned how. Should I come?"

Yes! If you already have a WordPress.ORG blog (self-hosted), come to the training and we'll teach you how to do everything you need.

"I already have a blog and have complete
access to it. Should I come?"

Yes! A WordPress.COM blog is not self-hosted so you will follow the instructions we will email you after registration as if you have nothing. If you have any other brand of blog (TypePad, Blogger, etc.), you will also start from scratch and should follow the instructions we'll email you after registration as if you have nothing.

Very meaningful and timely. You are so gifted ...
You take the complex and make it simple.
Donna Lang
Atlanta Life Coach

JB Brathwaite will teach you how to build a professional WordPress blog from scratch and enhance it with some of the most popular plug-ins that will increase its functionality. He is an Internet strategist, WordPress blogging expert, and Peggy's teacher. He'll work with you to build your self-hosted blog from scratch or will take what you already have to another level with more functionality.