Sorry for the thousandth post on this topic in the blogosphere, however as this is a blogging magazine it has to be covered when the ultimate blogging platform does a complete revamp :)

First off - the actual upgrade. I didn’t do it myself, as I’m always scared of breaking things - anyways, a friend did for me, but from what I’ve heard it’s fairly simply. All you have to do is backup the database, upload a couple files, run a couple things and you’re (apparently) done. If something goes wrong, hit the forums for support as I cannot help :)

As for the interface… well, I’ll be honest with you - I preferred the old one, but I’ll probably get used to this one in time. It is far less cluttered up than the previous version, and the look is more “Web 2.0ish”, however a couple things are missing that the previous version had - the ability to go direct to websites of commenters from the dashboard, as well as the comment count. However, these are miniscule - improvements include a cleaner layout as well as a one-click upgrade for out of date plugins.

Would I have upgraded?

I thought not after doing so, however I’m growing to like this - the post in which you type posts is a lot better looking that the last one, and it’s now easier to publish.

To be honest, I was forced into the upgrade - Adii released an updated version of this theme which fixed a few bugs, and the thing was that the theme update only worked with Wordpress 2.5 - damn! Anyways, I’ve upgraded, and I recommend the theme to anyone, as they’ve made it even easier to use - there is an auto image resizer and more options in the killer backend, which means a technical newbie like me doesn’t have problems working it. If I can do it, so can you. Get the theme here.

I have also gotten a forum added to the website, which you can access here - it is new, but will be thriving soon enough, and if you get in quickly you can start building links and discussion. Thanks for helping me out :)

Buying a domain is just the first thing a blogger has to do when getting up their blog… the next step is getting hosting. When deciding upon hosting, you want hosting that is cheap, yet reliable enough not to leave your website down every thirty seconds.

Ask a group of twenty bloggers and they’ll all give you different services… Hostgator, Liquidweb, Hostican, Bluehost, Dreamhost, GoDaddy, Hawkhost… the list drags on. For every positive review, you’ll find two negative ones… which is why you should pick one that you think looks best and just run with it. You WILL have problems, unless you’re very lucky - although I haven’t had problems with my main host, I have had immense problems with hosting I’ve taken in the past, mainly because I tried to be cheap and save money.

My biggest suggestion for those looking at starting is not going for an unknown cheap option, rather a more expensive, yet reliable hosting service… the time you’ll save is worth the couple dollars extra a month. Most people with a computer should be able to afford the $10/month hosting costs, and if they shouldn’t it is fairly easy to work online (even if you have to do boring jobs) to make that amount. Once you’ve worked on hosting, you can concentrate on the bread and butter of a blog - content.

This may seem like a paid review, but this is how happy I am with their service - if you’re going for hosting, Hostican rocks. The amount of problems that bloggers have had with Hostgator and Godaddy is unheard of anywhere else, however most internet marketers continue to push Hostgator despite knowing better, mainly because of the $100 affiliate commission it pays.

I will not deny that Hostican pay a decent affiliate commission (yet another reason you should use their service :razz: ) however from personal experience, they are easily the best hosting company I have ever used. I’m so happy with them in fact that I decided to move to this swanky new dedicated server, one that houses my flagship blog as well as this blogging magazine.

By using their Tera-Host package (which costs just $100 a year if you use the coupon code University-12 and pay up front for a year), you leave yourself open - whenever you want to get up new websites, you can do so without a worry as they offer unlimited domains and unmetered bandwidth/space. Also, they will move your websites from your current hosting if you have any and help you set things up - they generally reply within a day to the questions I’ve had.

Although I’m waxing lyrical about Hostican, and will continue to do so until I find something I don’t like about them, there is no way you should trust only my opinion - do a Google search for the hosting companies above, see how they’re viewed and make your own decision. You should be looking for a decent amount of space and bandwidth, although you probably won’t use too much of it in your first month - look for as many reviews as possible, and it would be better if you had someone already using hosting with the company you’re thinking about that assures you that they have good support.

If you have any questions, just send me an email and I’ll try to sort you out :)

So, you’ve decided upon your niche, but you still need an address on the Internet before you can go live. Picking a good domain name can be extremely tricky, as remember, you’ll be stuck with this for quite a chunk of time if you decide to take up the blogging route seriously. I have two serious tips when starting up a blog that you’re going to run for an extended period of time. 1) Pay for your domain. Do NOT get a wordpress.com or blogspot.com subdomain - it not just looks tacky, but also shows that your not serious about your business. If you are serious about your blog, you can afford to pay $7.15 per year for a domain. In fact, if you can gain access to a computer, you can afford that fee - and if not, do some small labour until you make that. By starting out on a free subdomain, you run the risk of losing everything when you move to a proper domain. Also, your blog is worthless on a subdomain, as essentially you do not own it. I will talk about hosting tomorrow, but for now, let the point be (hopefully!) drilled in - having your own domain is vital. 2) Get a .COM. You NEED a .COM domain. If the ones that you’re thinking of are all taken, you aren’t thinking hard enough. .COM domains only cost $7.15/year at GoDaddy with the coupon code OYH3 and although other extensions may be cheaper, the .COM works best. You see, once you start your website, it’s quite possible that others will remember the name of it, but not the extension. And we all know that the first thing we do when we forget the domain is type in the name of the website followed by the .COM… isn’t it? By choosing a domain extension where the .COM is already taken, you are letting other people have the traffic that you deserve. It’s not that hard to be innovative and come up with a domain no one has taken - if you can’t think, ask someone for help or try adding a “The” in front of the domain you want. When selecting a domain, you should look for two things - 1) that it is as short as possible and 2) that it is memorable. Sometimes the former may be ignored if you find an easy to remember long domain name, however those two are the things you should generally look for. Try to make sure that your domain passes the “phone test” - someone should be able to write it down without any errors after hearing it and never use slang, as it not just degrades your brand, but also makes it harder to remember. Before you make the purchase, make sure you run it through a friend or ten; I’ve many a time bought domains that I thought were brilliant only to find out that no one else felt the same way when asking for feedback. By asking for feedback before you make the purchase, you can save quite a lot of money… trust me, it adds up. Good luck with choosing your domain, and make sure you follow the above tips. There will be an article on hosting tomorrow.

Problogger recently wrote a post about a ‘Video Group Project‘ - an idea I found pretty interesting. Although being someone that is too lazy to buy and then find out how to work a camera (and thus involve myself in video-blogging), I thought the topic of the Group Project was an interesting one, one that could be followed by anyone. Anyways, here’s my text response to the Project, where the topic was “Why I Blog”

1) I Blog To Express My Thoughts

I always thought that having a diary where I stored thoughts was a bit too chick-like for me; having an online blog just seems a lot better, even though it’s essentially the same thing :P. Having a place that will stay up as long as I keep it up is pretty cool, especially as at any time I can go back through my archives and see what I was doing a day, a week, a month ago. I can also keep track of thoughts I had; rather than forgetting the next killer idea I thought of, I can write it down on my blog and it will stay there unless someone deletes it. Far better than writing stuff down on scraps of paper that will inevitably get lost :)

2) I Blog To Network

Apart from expressing yourself, blogging puts you in front of thousands of people if you market it correctly… people with similar aims to yourself, and people that you’ll find extremely interesting and helpful to talk with. By blogging, I provide similar minded people with a means to see what I’m capable of and easily approach me if they want to talk about anything, either business or just to build a relationship. I have met countless numbers of people through blogging, people that I wouldn’t have otherwise - starting a blog is one of the best things I ever did to get my name out there in the online business world and the relationships I have established in the industry - ranging with some of the smallest people around (in terms of power) and even some of the “A-listers” will be of extreme help in the long run.

3) I Blog To Make Money

Although I didn’t make a cent from my first couple of months blogging, the money is slowly beginning to pour in - blogging is becoming a more and more profitable venture. The original goal was just to pay off hosting, however nowadays I earn enough to do far more than that, and I have no doubt that this will increase as the various metrics of the blog do so as well. While breaking into the “Problogger” mould (earning a full time living off a blog) is near impossible, most will be content to make a few hundred dollars off a blog that they own, and now they can do that.

4) Blogs are easier, and cooler than normal websites.

I’ve always wanted to run a website online… the problem is, I have huge deficiencies in both creating design and tweaking code. With the amount of free, extremely customizable themes out there, as well as some killer premium ones (like the Premium News themes for example), I can develop a decent looking website without ever having to touch a single line of HTML (or little of it, if needed); with simple content management systems like Wordpress, you’ll soon find yourself loving blogging. Also, a blog is usually just so much cooler than your average website - it’s hard to make a website look anywhere half as good as a highly pimped out blog.

Those are my reasons; how about you? Why do you blog?

Before you get a domain, before you get hosting, before you start selecting a theme that you’d like to use for your blog, you’ll have to decide on a topic, one that you will stick to and blog about. Choose a topic that is too narrow may mean that you run out of post ideas after less than a week, while choosing a topic that is too broad may see you struggle to compete with the giants dominating your niche. Although bloggers often start out with a lot of enthusiasm, this may die out soon if they do not start with a blogging topic that suits them best - what should you look at when deciding upon what will be your blog’s main focus?

Topics You Like

This is pretty simple, really - choosing topics you like will see you most eager to keep on blogging, as nearly everyone loves expressing their opinion about the topics they love. Be it football, ballet or even how quickly the Earth rotates around the Sun, writing about something you love (and thus know a decent amount about) can help you, blogging as a newbie retain the beginner’s joy that you have when you start out.

You writing about something you love to write about will not just make things easier for you, but it will also for your readers; everyone that stumbles across your blog will see your posts and realise the passion you have, and who knows - they might even come back once or twice after that to see what you’re up to and become regular readers.

Topics that are easy to talk about

Conventional wisdom says that trying to break into a saturated niche like making money online or politics is near impossible as there is no way you will be able to compete with the top dogs unless you have a) a lot of funding or b) a lot of luck. However, what if you don’t want to compete with the elite of your industry? Picking a broad topic means that there will be plenty of readers constantly on the look for new blogs, new content and new viewpoints to read, and all you have to do is aim at securing a small proportion of the population online that are interested in your topic - for example, get 1% of those that follow football to visit your blog and make a comment, and you’re in business.

Topics that are personal

If you have an interesting, dynamic personality you might want to not focus on a topic at all and just run a personal online diary where you talk about everything and anything in particular; although people do not like ramblings on a niche blog, they somewhat even expect it on a personal blog. Depending on how charismatic and innovative you are there is no reason you cannot make it big running a personal blog - there are personal blogs out there with millions of readers monthly and with the right attitude there is no reason you can’t do the same.

The great thing about a personal blog is that you can get family and friends involved; in the previous two instances, they may not be likely to follow what you’re talking about as no matter how big a soap opera fan you are, it is pretty likely that those in your family would not like to read about you drone on about it for days and days; with a personal blog however, you are writing about what happens in your life, and your family and friends should be interested to finding out more about you - there’s always things that you don’t know about people, even those that are close to you, and reading a blog written by them is a great way to learn more.

Remember, you can change at any time during the startup of a blog if you realise that you don’t like your topic and would rather write about something different - I’d advise that you make the change as soon as possible though, as you don’t want to develop a blog with hundreds of subscribers and then suddenly up sticks. Good luck!