brand, build & sell - small business, blogging and entrepreneurship Part 54

How to Install Joomla Manually

Oct. 9, 2009 • Tutorials • 456

You can follow these instructions if you want to perform a manual installation of Joomla for your web site. Continue Reading
Read More »
How to Install WordPress Manually

Oct. 5, 2009 • Tutorials • 341

To be sure, much of the difficulty of installing WordPress has been eliminated by the Fantastico installer – a utility that is available on most hosting accounts. With Fantastico, all you need to do is answer a few prompts such as what directory to install WordPress in, and boom! – you’re done. Although I heartily recommend using it, and you may want to get on with your web marketing, I think a user should go through the manual install process at least once, to get familiar with how WordPress operates behind the scenes. Let us look at the process of installing WordPress manually:

1. Open www.wordpress.org in a browser. From there, click on the blue bar that says “download WordPress x.xx” – it will show the latest version. Right now, it is 2.8.4. (You may have to click on a second link to get it). Save this to your desktop or somewhere else convenient, and extract all files from the zip archive into a folder called “wp”.

2. Using an FTP client, connect to your domain – the hosting company will have given you the correct username and password when you signed up. Once connected, look for the “www” folder (also named “public_html”. Open this folder on the server (in the “remote” window in your FTP client) and in the “local” window, open the “wp” folder that you extracted the WordPress files into. Copy everything from “wp” into “www” and close your FTP client.

3. Log in to your domain’s Cpanel by entering www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel. Enter your username and password and scroll down until you see “MySQL databases”. Click on this and it will prompt for the name of your database. Use something short like “wp”, because it appends your username to it. Click “create database”, go back and scroll down to “Add new user”. Choose a username for your database – you can use your cpanel username and password if you wish, or a completely different one. After creating the user account, click “go back” and scroll down to “Add user to database”. Select the username and the database as above – not that your cpanel username is now stuck on the front of it. Click “add” and “all privileges” on the next screen. Then close the window – you’re done with setting up the database.

4. In your FTP client, right-click on the “wp-config-sample.php” file in the “www” folder. You need to change 3 things here – the “MySQL database name”, the “MySQL database username” and the “MySQL database password”. Just replace what’s inside the single quotes with your own details, close the file and save it as “wp-config.php”.

5. In your browser, open the address www.yourdomainname.com/wp-admin/install.php. If you get an error message here, it usually indicates that one of thenames in wp-config.php is wrong. If all is well, you will then be prompted for the blog name, and your email. Pick a name that contains all or part of your keyword, enter your email address and click on “Install WordPress”. Take note of the admin username and password on the next screen, and log in with those details.

6. You are now in the “back office” of your blog or website. This is where you add content, set up new pages and change the appearance. To see what your site looks like, click “visit site” on the top left corner. You have done it – you have installed WordPress!
Read More »
Create a Niche by Branding Yourself

Sep. 26, 2009 • Brand Your Website, Recent Blog Posts, Social Media • 868

Branding yourself is a term used to describe a process. It is the process of uncovering your unique and valuable strengths as an individual. We all have strengths, never sell yourself short. Everyone is an expert in something. To brand yourself, you then use your unique strengths to establish yourself as a well-known expert in those areas. By identifying yourself as an expert, you create a niche, or single area of focus. The purpose of finding your niche and branding yourself is to develop a following of people interested in your specific area of expertise. You want to present yourself as a reliable source of expert information in your brand.

What are You Good At Doing?

The first step to branding yourself is of course to discover what you are good at doing. If your strengths are not obvious to you immediately, ask some of your friends and family what they think you do well. They will likely have several answers. Consider which of these strengths you want to pursuit as your brand. Once you have discovered your brand, you should develop a branding statement. A branding statement for an individual is like a corporate mission statement. It is a clear, concise and well thought out statement of exactly what you plan to accomplish with your brand. The purpose of a branding statement is to allow you to see in black and white your goals and purpose. Consult your branding statement regularly to keep from losing track of your purpose as you develop your brand.

So How Do I Brand Myself Online?

Now that you have developed your branding statement, it is time to establish yourself as an expert. The best way to do this is online. The internet allows global users to see your work, your talents, and discover you as an expert 24 hours a day. There are several ways to be seen online including creating a website, or blog, writing articles, and commenting in other blogs, or forums. As you do this, remain focused on your niche. You do not want to include things in your writing, blog, or comments that are not within your area of expertise.

The Good and the Bad

Realize that branding yourself online takes time. The most common mistake is to rush. If you rush to publish articles, make blog posts or leave comments, you will likely make mistakes that lead to poor quality. If you want people to see you as an expert, you must continually make quality posts, quality comments, and quality writing. Take the time to develop well thought out work. Do not leave vague comments solely for the purpose of posting a link. This will discredit you online.

Using Social Media to Promote Your Brand

Social Media is a great way to help get the word out about your website, blog, and articles. There are numerous social networks you can use to promote yourself and establish your personal brand. Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Myspace are just a few social networking sites where you can link and promote to your work.

When you use social media, it is best to begin with the accounts you are already using. If you have a network of Twitter followers already established go ahead and promote your online content there. You will want to clean your online profiles of any information that isn’t specifically related to your brand. But, using already established social media accounts will help you kick-start online promotion of your brand.

It is important to participate in these social networks rather than simply using them solely as a method of promotion. You can also answer questions on answer websites such as Yahoo answers or Answers.com to establish yourself as an expert and refer readers to your online content.
Read More »