WebPublishing.me

This is a guest post by blogger and roller derby girl, Lauren Morrill-Ragusea who founded Higher Ed Underground.

My blog, Higher Ed Underground, was conceived after a particularly rough week at my day job. I was tired, frustrated, overworked, underpaid, and just generally burnt-out. I needed to do something in my line of work that was fun, if for no other reason than to remind myself that such a thing existed.

After several years spent working in and around college campuses, plus an advanced degree in higher education administration, I started to have faith in my ability as an expert. Yes, there are people with more experience and more education, but those people tend to be older and boring. They also tend to be people than can barely text message, much less blog. Thus, Higher Ed Underground was born.

It hasn’t been all daisies and roses since I started the site. I’ve made quite a few mistakes along the way (and am probably still making mistakes as we speak), and I’ve decided to share them with you in hopes that your website dreams don’t come crashing down around you.

Starting my blog for the wrong reasons

As I mentioned, Higher Ed Underground grew out of a particularly tough workweek. As a result, my initial motivation was to grow a web presence large enough to rake in the cash, quit my day job, and love life.

Yeah … fantasy.

You see, launching a site thinking you’re going to make a good living off it is the same as sitting down to write your first novel and thinking you’re the next John Grisham. Making money off your site is HARD. So hard, in fact, that if money is your only motivation, it’s going to be damn near impossible to put in the effort required to see a single red cent.

I’ve been blogging for a while on my person blog, Derby Girl, about my life playing roller derby. It’s been easy to keep up with it, because I do it just for myself. I do it because I genuinely enjoy hitting the “post” button each day. That blog has just over 2,000 pageviews a month, which isn’t too shabby, and that was with zero effort or promotion of any kind.

What’s the difference between Derby Girl and Higher Ed Underground? I started Derby Girl because I loved derby and felt like sharing it. I started Higher Ed Underground to make money. Which one do you think is more fun to maintain?

Thankfully, not long after I began working on Higher Ed Underground, this realization smacked me in the face. I threw out the serious, boring, advice-driven content and got back to what I like best: snarky commentary. The content was easier to come by, the daily posting was easier to maintain, and my pageviews jumped considerably. I also abandoned the sheer desire to monetize the site, and am having way more fun with it. It was right about that time that I made my first ten cents from AdSense.

The moral of that story? Find your voice, then blog.

Researching too quickly

If you’re really serious about growing a small business from your blog, you need to do the legwork up front. Research the market. Find out what sites already exist in your niche. Figure out how you’ll be different than the existing market, and if you’re the same, how you can do it better. Figure out what keywords are leading people to sites like yours, and see if you can maximize those keywords to drive traffic. I did all this, but I did it over the course of about three days. This probably wasn’t enough research, especially since I keep stumbling across sites in my niche.

Launching too soon

I still have my day job, and my day job is fairly demanding. There’s not much time to sit around surfing the internet during work hours, much less create meaningful, valuable content. When a site is new, it’s important for it to have strong content that updates frequently. I should have aggregated several weeks worth of posts (at a minimum) before I kicked off, so that when my paying job got crazy, I had content to fall back on. Nothing loses readers faster than infrequent posting or throwaway content.

Buying a theme

Let me be clear: I absolutely love Thesis Theme. It’s easy, customizable, and professional. But the truth is, I could have gotten by for at least the first six months on a standard WordPress theme. WordPress has some great skeleton templates that I could have taught myself to customize over time, and it would have saved me $89 during the whole site setup. This is another example of me diving in to the deep end before I quite knew how to swim.

There’s no need to spend money on your site (other than the domain name and hosting) until you’ve started to see a little bit coming in. Sure, you want your site to look professional, but until you’ve got a readership that demands professional, there’s no reason to put out any money to get there. The look of your site, though important, is not what will keep readers coming back. Invest your effort in producing quality content, and the rest comes later.

Monetizing too much, too early

Don’t clutter your page with ads. Yes, it’s hideous and distracting, but it also makes you look like you care more about money than content. Once you have a dedicated readership, they’ll understand why you put ads on your site. They won’t mind, because they’ll be conditioned to pay attention to your kick ass content. But if the only thing readers see when they visit your site for the first time is an AdSense banner, affiliate links, and those stupid in-text links, you’re pretty asking them to click away. You look like you’ve created your site to steal their money, and they won’t stay, much less come back.

So there you have it. Feel free to let me know of other mistakes I’m making. One thing I’ve learned from entering into the world of blogging is you have to have a thick skin. You’re going to post silly things, make typos, or simply draw the ire of a reader or two. And guess what? Someone will probably send you a nasty email. It happens to the most well-intentioned blogger. So if you don’t think you could put all your mistakes out there like I did … well, then blogging just isn’t for you.

Lauren Morrill-Ragusea is the guru (ha!) over at Higher Ed Underground, where she blogs about college life, admissions, news, and academic success. She also blogs at Derby Girl Blog and is a roller derby blogger for Skirt! Please hire her so that she can quit her job, write, and play roller derby for a living.

There are a lot of web publishing sites that offer you tips on picking domain names, but not many of them point out the pitfalls that you need to avoid. Rest assured I’ve been in your shoes before. I’ve got a degree in creative writing, not Internet publishing. That means I’ve made almost every mistake on this list, and I’m still learning today! If you’re not quite sure what a domain name is, read my post, “What is a Domain Name?” If you’re ready to buy your first domain name (or your 100th), here’s what not to do when picking your very first domain name:

1) Never buy a domain name that infringes on someone’s copyright. Not only is this is a slimy tactic, but there’s actually a Federal law against it in the United States (the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999). Still, what exactly does it mean to infringe on someone’s copyright? Laws are murky on this, but, in general, cybersquatting refers to the act of purchasing a domain name with the intent of profiting off the brandability of the name and/or reselling the domain to the owner of the copyright. A good example of this might be someone purchasing www.google.net (a name that’s actually owned by Google.com), then throwing a search box on the site so people believe they’re visiting the real Google. When a user types in a search on the fictional site, they might be shown a number of ads relating to their site. That would definitely be illegal. On the other hand, if your site offers reviews and/or criticisms of Google’s policies, you’d be allowed to include the word, “Google” in your domain name. A good example of this is www.google-watch.org.

2) Don’t bank on typos when picking your domain name. This concept is similar to cybersquatting, but it’s actually called typosquatting. As in cybersquatting, there’s blatent bad faith on the part of the site owner to capitalize on the brandability of a copyrighted term. An example of this would be buying a domain like www.frigedare.com, then filling the site with ads related to refrigerators. Not cool. This will likely lead to a lawsuit (one you definitely won’t win). That said, there are instances where typosquatting isn’t illegal. If you discover a domain for a generic word (say, “donkey”), and  you’re convinced a lot of Web users interested in donkeys might type in www.donkee.com instead of www.donkey.com, you’re more than welcome to capitalize the traffic you get. There might be a few instances where this type of approach might work, but I tend to think it’s not worth the effort — especially since it looks like you don’t know how to spell the word that’s the very subject of your site.

3) Avoid names that sound cool but don’t really mean anything. This is a very common rookie mistake. Rookies like to think that if they create compelling content, Web users will automatically find their content. Having tried to find audiences for my work on other sites since 2005, I can attest to the fact that content isn’t everything. You’ve got to have a basic understanding of search engine optimization (the practice of optimizing your site through your HTML metadata — and the use of other technical tactics — to get the most out of your search engine ranking). One of the basics of search engine optimization (or “SEO”) says you should include keywords in your domain name. That means a site about organic restaurants would best be served by picking a domain name that has the words “organic restaurants” in the title (even if it’s something long like www.bestofthebestorganicrestaurants.com). That’s an extreme example, but it illustrates the basic principal beyond domain name selection: choose words that MATCH your content.

4) Don’t pick a domain name that’s difficult to remember or difficult to spell. Ever since the advent of spellcheckers, our ability to spell out complex words has deteriorated (that’s my theory anyway). So, if you decide you want to buy a domain name, stick with something that’s spelled phonetically (the way it sounds). That way, people won’t get frustrated when they try to revisit your site. You’ll be lucky if they try more than twice. The same concept applies to domain names that are hard to remember. If your user can’t remember your domain name, they’re not going to come back.

5) Don’t choose short domain names over quality domain names. If you’ve been researching how to pick a good domain name, you’ll likely run across articles that say things like, “stick with a dotcom name no matter what, and make sure it’s short and snappy.” I even ran across one article that recommended only buying dotcom domains with seven characters or less. Welcome to 21st Century. That’s not really plausible anymore. Finding a dotcom that’s remotely related to the content of your site is going to be HARD — even with 15 characters or less. If you want a domain that’s seven characters or less, you’re going to have to pony up some cash. So, I say ditch that advice. Pick a domain that has valuable keywords in it, even if that means it’s going to be long. My last word on this? Definitely avoid names that include excessive hyphens or numbers. Getting a user to remember lots of hyphens or numbers (i.e. www.babyreptiles4less.com) is like asking them, “Who was the 12th President?”

6) Don’t be afraid of domains that have extensions other than dotcom. Have you ever heard of the dotnu (.nu) extension? Probably not, but it ranks in Google alongside any dotcom site. In fact, the lifestyles blog www.haha.nu receives roughly 160,000 visitors a month. As the Web grows, domains with extensions other than dotcom are going to become a fact of life, and I’ve heard nothing definitive that says Google penalizes such sites. Other factors like incoming links (links to your site from other Web sites) are infinitely more important than your domain extension. In any case, you can see that I’ve put my money where my mouth is: I’m running this site on a dotme (.me) domain — www.webpublishing.me — and you found it, didn’t you?

7) Don’t register a lot of domain names then duplicate your content. This tactic is picked up by search engines, which might delete your sites from their rankings all together or else add only ONE of your domains to their index. You also shouldn’t buy a bunch of domains then use them to link to one another in an attempt to get higher search engine rankings. This will likely to your sites being labeled “domain spam,” and you’ll again be punished by search engines. As a caveat, it is possible to do this for legitimate reasons (i.e. protecting your brand name by buying domains with different extensions — i.e. .biz or .net — or buying common mispelling or common search terms). Linking those legitimate sites your main Web site will require a bit of technical savvy. You’ll have to use an “IP funnel.” IP funnels push all of your registered domains to a single single server and hosting account. Then, you can push all of these redirections to a different server and hosting account without being penalized by search engines. I learned a lot about this particular tactic at BruceClay.com.

8) Don’t rely on your business name to determine your domain name. A lot of people make this mistake, and they damage their chances for widespread traffic by using their business name when they pick their domain name. Business names are often associated with difficult-to-spell names, cutesy phrases or hyphens and apostrophes. Always think about what people are going to be searching for when they try to find your service. For instance, if you own a dog washing business in Cincinnati, Ohio, chances are, someone’s going to type “dog washing, cincinnati, oh” into a search engine. Knowing that, www.cincinnatidogwashing.com, would probably be an excellent domain name (if it’s available — in not, pick something similar).

9) Don’t pick a domain name without doing some keyword research. One of my favorite tactics when trying to pick between a handful of domain names is to visit Google Trends and determine which keywords are the most common. Google Trends won’t show you actual search quantities, but it will show you which search term is used more on a percentage basis. Simply visit the site and type in two sets of keywords separated by commas; Google Trends will take care of the rest.

10) Don’t be afraid to pay for quality. There’s an entire online industry called “domaining” that’s devoted to buying domain names simply for the “type-in” traffic — people who type diamonds.com directly in their browser navigation bar instead of going to a search engine and seeking out a site on diamonds, for example. If you’ve got some cash, you can buy one of these high-traffic keyword domains and exponentially increase the traffic to your site. Two of the most popular auction houses for these domains are Afternic.com and GoDaddy.com.

Hopefully these tips will help you on your way to making money online. If you have further questions, email me at fred(at)webpublishing.me. If you’re still a Web newbie and you need advice on building your first Web site, visit my post, “A Guide for Newbies: How to Build a Web Site in 6 Easy Steps.” Want more ideas for making money online? Return home, or sign up for our email newsletter.

I’m assuming you’re savvy enough to throw up a blog posting using a free online service like Blogger.com or Wordpress.com.  This guide is written for people who want to go a step further and have their own “domain” name: something like, fred.com or webpublishing.me (not fred.blogger.com or fred.wordpress.com). Once you can do that, you’re on your way to becoming a professional Internet entrepreneur :). Without more ado, then, here’s the Web’s Simplest How-To Guide for Building Your First Web Site:

1) Buy a domain name. In order to get a site like webpublishing.me functioning, I had to purchase rights to the domain through a provider. Common options are registrar giants like GoDaddy.com or Register.com. Both are large enough to offer competitive pricing and large support forums to help you over the inevitable roadblocks when lauching your first site. When you “buy” a domain, you’re typically granted you two years of ownership with the option to renew. A common rule to keep in mind? Pick a name that contains keywords that match your content. That’ll help your Google ranking, and that’s one of the most important factors in driving traffic to your site. Prices for domains start at about $8 per year. Want more detailed advice on how to pick your first domain name, visit my post, “How to Pick a Domain Name that Ruins Your Web Site.”

2) Get a Web hosting company. Once you have a Web domain, you’ve still got work to do. You’ve got to find a “server” that’s connected to the Internet. This server will store your files so that when someone visits your domain, they’re readily available for download and viewing in someone’s browser hundreds (or, perhaps, thousands) of miles away. I recommend www.hostgator.com (my wonderful host), or a domain registrar like GoDaddy.com, which allows you to bundle your domain purchase with your hosting service. I always recommend going with a dedicated hosting company, though (i.e. a company that only handles hosting — not domain registrations). They’ll be much more responsive when you have a technical problem — which you probably will when launching your first site.

Buying hosting services ranges from $5 to $100 or more per year — depending on the bandwidth you’ll need. I currently pay $10 per month with “unlimited” bandwidth at hostgator.com. Bandwidth describes the amount of traffic your site receives. The more visitors who view your site, the more file requests you’re feeding your server. Since the amount of traffic a server can handle is static, you’re going to have to pay for it if you use a lot of bandwidth — especially since the costs of maintaining a single server can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

3) Associate your Web domain with your Web host. If you’re one of the lucky ones who bought your domain name at the same place you plan to host it, you probably can probably skip this step, but if you decided to go with a host that differs from your registrar (the place where you registered your domain), you’re going to need to update your domain’s nameservers. Do this by logging into your hosting account and searching for the “nameservers” provided by your host. These are the specific servers where your Web files will be saved (typically there are two — a primary server and a backup). Copy the nameserver names, then visit your registar. There, with a little bit of searching, you’ll be able to figure out where you need to update your nameservers. Paste in the information you obtained from your host. This action will link your domain name with the specific server where your files are served, so that browsers know where to look when they get a request to visit your site.

4) Decide whether you want to use a Web template or write your own HTML code. If you want to use your own HTML code, visit Step 5. If you want to build your first Web site using templates (which I strongly recommend), visit Step 6.

5) You’re one of the brave and proud who wants to code your own site? Great. You can do it easily with a simple text editor like Notepad. Just paste the following code into Notepad and save it with the filename index.htm (sorry you can’t name it anything else):

<html>
<head>
<title>Your Simple Web Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello World! This is my first Web Page.</p>
</body>
</html>

Now, that you’ve got an index.htm file saved, you’ve just got to upload it to the root directory of your server. You can do this by visiting your Web host, and finding the file manager for the domain that you purchased. This might require some rooting around, but you’ll eventually find the spot where you can upload files directly to your server. Unfortunately, the “root directory” isn’t called the “root directory.” It’ll likely be labeled with a simple slash: /

Once you’ve uploaded your index.htm page to your root directory, you should be able to visit your domain name (fred.com or some other such name), hit refresh, and — presto — you’ll have your first Web site. Keep in mind, there might be some lag time. If your site doesn’t show up right away, do something else for an hour or so, and try again. It sometimes takes a while for your nameserver changes to propagate across the Web.

6) So you’re one of the brave and proud who wants to use a templating service to launch your Web site? No shame there. I’ve become addicted to these services over time. One in particular stands out: Wordpress.org. It’s important to note that wordpress.ORG is different than wordpress.COM. Wordpress.COM is designed for people who are OK with a web site that runs on Wordpress’s servers. That means the domain name will be something like fred.wordpress.com. Now that’s not very professional looking is it?

Wordpress.ORG is different. Here you can download a full suite of HTML (a language that browsers use to display content) and PHP (a scripting language) files that will allow you to create your Web site on the fly. You’ll be able to upload images, videos, sound clips … almost any form of media you can edit on your computer, and then you’ll have control over the display of it on your screen. Cool, huh? You’ll also be able to write your site’s content ON your server, which means you don’t have to mess with FTP accounts (explained below) after the initial setup process.

The first thing you should do (and the most fun) is pick out a Wordpress Theme. That’ll give you an idea of what’s possible with just a small amoung of technical skill. Download the theme to your computer, then, download the latest version of Wordpress. After you unzip those files, you’ll have to visit your Web host to set up an “FTP account.” FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and it’s a very efficient way of sharing files across the Internet. Your host should have instructions on setting up an FTP account (just be sure you save the user name, password and port you specify during the setup process). Now, you should download an FTP client, which will actually communicate between your computer and your host’s servers. I recommend the free service Filezilla.

At this point, things get a bit more complicated. You’ll now need to visit Wordpress’s “Famous Five-Minute Installation” in order to set up your unique wp-config.php file. This will also require you to set up a MySQL database through your host. When you set up a database, you’re simply creating a place on the server that can accept changes (or edits) on the fly, then spit them back out on your Web site. That’s what will allow you to edit pages for your Web site directly on your server. I won’t beat a dead horse here. Wordpress’s instructions for your wp-config.php file and the associated MySQL database are incredibly exhaustive, and you shouldn’t have any trouble setting it up. Still, if you’d like some advice shoot me an email at fred(at)webpublishing.me.

Now, that you have Filezilla, an FTP account and a MySQL database, you can begin transferring your HTML and PHP files from your computer to the Internet server(s) provided by your host. Open Filezilla and plug in the information you saved (user name, password and port) when you set up your FTP account. When you’re connected to your server, you’ll be able to transfer your files very quickly. Simply specify a target location (the root directory for your domain, which will be indicated by a slash: “/”), and then doubleclick on the files you want to transfer. If you’re using Wordpress like I recommended, you’ll want to transfer three entire folders (wp-content, wp-admin and wp-includes) directly to your root directory. Also, transfer the individual php files that you unzipped when you downloaded Wordpress in the same place. Do not place them in a folder.

Now, deep breath, you should be able to visit http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php (filling in your unique domain name where the above link says “example”), and begin the simple process of building your site.

Follow these tips, and you should have your first Web site up in no time. One of the best sites I encountered when I started trying to make money online was www.thesitewizard.com. It’s a no-frills site with down-to-earth advice that doesn’t beat around the bush. I won’t lie and says there’s no learning curve when you’re first getting into Web publishing, but thanks to the experts out there who’ve devoted their time to helping us along the way, it doesn’t take quite as long.

Hopefully these tips will help you on your way to making money online. If you have further questions, email me at fred(at)webpublishing.me. If you’re still a Web newbie and you need advice on how to pick your first domain name, visit my post, “How to Pick a Domain Name that Ruins Your Web Site.” Want more ideas for making money online? Return home, or sign up for our email newsletter.