“How To Start A Blog From Scratch” An All-New, Two Part Webinar Series

If you have been waiting to start blogging because there were just too many unanswered questions, too many false starts, roadblocks or the project just seemed overwhelming, then you are in the right place. This two-part webinar will show you, in detailed step-by-step visuals exactly how to do it, the right way, without missing a single step!

To watch these webinars, CLICK HERE!

Don’t hesitate, get started on your blog training today!

Meta Descriptions Are Really Important!

What is a meta description? It is the part of your post that tells Google and other search engines what to put below the title in the their search engine rankings.

It’s the text below the title and above the green link at the bottom. So many times this text never makes any sense to us as searchers ourselves. But it can. Did you know that you can control that area of the search results? Did you know that you shouldn’t use more than about 138 characters to be safe?

This is an important area where searchers are looking for information to decide if your highly ranked link is the right one for them to click! You did all the work to come up in the search engines, so give it all you can to be successful. If you leave the meta description blank, then Google will pick bits and pieces of your post that contain the search keywords and aggregate them there into a nonsensical mess.

So here’s the social media training tip…use a plugin for your WordPress blog like the All In One SEO Pack and fill in all three areas provided by the plugin for each post, including the description. Fill it in with the search keywords that you are optimizing for with that post. Also, make sure you are selling the content on the other side of the link within that description! Make sure people know what’s in it for them if they were to click through. This is not a throw away opportunity.

Many SEO experts give no mention to the meta description any more because it doesn’t have a lot of importance to getting you ranked in the search engines. But what they are missing is its significance in getting you click throughs once you start to come up in the rankings.

This is an important part of your blogging strategy. Check out more information and other social media training tips in the Practical Social Media University’s Blog Training or SEO Training modules.

Publish Video Onto WordPress In Just A Few Easy Steps

Video Can Be Your MOST COMPELLING Content Medium

Video is an online phenomenon.  Video can help you get pushed up in the search rankings with a branded version of your expertise or products. Adding videos to your WordPress site a great way to get noticed.  This Blog Training article helps you get video published on your site through embed codes from video services like YouTube, as well as non-branded videos that you produce.

Video is recalled 65% of the time, whereas written content is only remember 8% of the time.  Video is also the number one way to make sure that visitors who arrive on your site are engaged immediately.  Plus, all you need is an inexpensive digital camera or screen capture software to produce video these days.

Even though the importance of using video within your social media campaign is clear, WordPress does not make it easy to put video up on your site.  This is very uncharacteristic of WordPress, a master at making site development and maintenance easy.  This article will take you through some simple steps to ensure that placing video on your blog is as simple as it should be!

Video Isn’t As Easy To Add To Your Blog As You Would Expect

You would think that it would be easy to put video up on your WordPress site. In fact, there is even a little video icon on the ‘page’ and ‘post content’ input screens that is there specifically to add video (see below). If you click on it, you are then prompted through some easy steps to find video files and then insert them into a post or page. So what’s the problem?

The result is simply a link to the video file so that you can download it or open it in an application that you have to specify from a list. And even at that, you have to wait for the full video file to download before the viewer can see anything. This is not user friendly at all!  Another problem is that you may not want to give the ability for any viewer of that page or post to download your video file. This all seems a bit crazy, to the point that we don’t know why WordPress has this “Add Video” option at all.

In this article we will show you multiple, easy ways to get video up and onto your WordPress site, maintain full control and make it extremely user friendly.

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Back to the Blog Training home page.

Making Your Business Blog A Web 2.0, Multi-Media Experience - Using the Thesis Theme And More

This Blog Training Webinar is going to extend your learning and ability to set your blog up and then manage it like a pro! We’ll show you great ways to customize and personalize your blog.

If you have not viewed the webinar on How To Create A Blog From Scratch, it is the first step prior to watching this webinar.

What You Will Learn From This Webinar

• Customizing The Look & Feel of your blog
• Adding Header Graphics
• Changing Background Colors
• Personalizing The Main Navigation
• Making your Posts Look Great
• Adding Images
• Working With Video
• Adding Video From YouTube
• Adding Non-Branded Video

We discuss all the top blogging best practices to customize how your blog looks and operates. By the end, you will be empowered to focus your time on the development of value through your content, versus the blogging platform itself.

The total length of the Webinar is roughly 34 minutes. You may have to wait 30 seconds to a minute for the video to start playing. Also, many members are finding it very advantageous to watch the Webinar all the way through and then keep it open in a separate window to review while executing the recommendations.

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Click here for more Blog Training resources.

How To Create A Blog From Scratch – A Two-Part Webinar Series

This Blog Training Webinar is going to give you everything you need to know to get your blog started and live on the web today!

Blogging is the number one place where most small businesses express the greatest volume of new content and thus greatest aggregation of value for customers and new prospects. It is proven that small business that blog have more pages indexed by the search engines. It is also proven that small businesses that blog have more links coming in from other sites, more visitors, and more leads.

Blogging is not just a “nice to have” component of the marketing plan, but a must-have lead generation tool that is also a beacon for your skills and expert reputation.

“Companies with blogs gathered 88% more leads than companies without blogs.”

If you follow expert advice, you are most likely focusing sufficient efforts on building your blog to gain Google rankings, larger readership, database collection, brand awareness and a stream of new prospects. In doing so, your blog is the central hub of your brand’s online activity. And thus, all social media activity should point back to your blog.

The two-part Webinar below is your one-stop-shop for creating a WordPress.org blog from scratch.  If you are serious about creating a social media marketing campaign, then you must be serious about learning from this Blog Training Webinar.

You may have to wait 30 seconds to a minute for either portion of the webinar to start playing. Also, many members are finding it very advantageous to watch the Webinar all the way through and then keep it open in a separate window to review while executing the recommendations.

How To Create A Blog From Scratch Part One

This webinar will teach you the following about the nuts and bolts of getting a blog up from literally, Step #1! Here’s what’s discussed:

• Why is Blogging so IMPORTANT?
• Creating a Blog from Scratch
• Registering a Domain
• Selecting a Hosting Company
• Choosing a Theme Recommendations provided)
• Installing a Theme

How To Create A Blog From Scratch Part Two

This webinar focuses on how to organize your blog and then the best ways to get new content up and accessible by your readers.

• Using The Thesis Theme
• Changing Your Blog’s Password
• Changing The Blog Title & Tagline
• Choosing Home Page Styles (Posts vs. Static)
• Choosing The Number Of Columns For Your Blog
• Creating Posts nCreating Pages
• Creating Main Navigation
• Using Categories & Tags
• Installing Widgets

Webinar Archive: How To Create A Blog From Scratch Part One (22:21)

Webinar Archive: How To Create A Blog From Scratch Part Two (30:21)

“I am excited for sure.  I went away from one of the sessions just floored with all the information, so much in fact I thought “OK, do just one thing and see what happens”, your team provides a wealth of information but sometimes it is overwhelming, but you want to do it all.

The next day I went into Google, did the key word analytics, changed the tag words in my website and signed up and posted the local search.  Started a twitter account and posted 1 message…. BAM, a week later I get an email from the Conde Nast publication Architectural Digest in Russia and they were discussing a feature of one of my tables, the Aztec Calendar.  It is a really cool piece, so I re-did the pictures, and sent them off.  This really proves that this social media stuff works!”

This is one of the biggest lessons in social media.  If you don’t start to participate online, then you won’t reap the benefits.  Getting started means taking the right steps with your keyword strategy, apply it to your sites and everything that you write.  Online marketing doesn’t have to be that hard.  And the rewards for your business can be tremendous.