Wordpress

Top 4 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Your Hosting Account

On the surface, it’s easy to think of web hosting accounts as little more than storage solutions for our sites, a simple set up quietly ticking over in the background as our entire online presence does its thing up front.

It’s easy, because when you strip away all the bells and whistles and get right down to their very core, that’s precisely what web hosts do best. Yet that’s not all they do, nor is it all they do well.

Acting more and more as a complete resource for website owners and entrepreneurs than as a mere storage facility, many of the web’s best hosting companies are fast becoming as integral to the success of the websites they host as anything their customers splash on their homepage.

So it’s fair to say then, that if you’re still only using your hosting account for the primary purpose of housing your website’s files, you’re unlikely to be getting the best value for your money.

Here’s just four things you may not know you could with your hosting account.

1 – Build your website

Long gone are the days when building a site meant grafting away on a bunch of pages stored on your computer before negotiating your way around an FTP client and uploading it to the web.

Nowadays, it’s actually far easier, and much less time consuming, to create your site online using free tools and applications provided by your hosting company.

You could do this simply by taking advantage of one-click WordPress installation, or equally-as-easy set up for other content management systems like Drupal or Jooma. Alternatively, you may decide to use your hosts in-built website builder, customizing pre-designed templates and adding all the functionality you need to best serve your customers.

2 – Improve your search engine rankings

Popular hosting providers like GoDaddy have been making some big advances in recent years towards helping their customers really do more with their websites, including providing tools and support to help increase their web traffic. [Read more…] about Top 4 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Your Hosting Account

How Do I Get A Unique Design For My Blog?

By Christian

Question: How do I get a unique design for my blog without paying a lot of money?

Many people start off writing a blog because of “easy money” and the allure of making money online and avoiding the day-to-day struggles in the corporate world. But make no mistake, deciding to make a living from a blog is just as intense as starting a traditional business. The good news is you don’t have to jump in all at once, you can ease into it and grow.

For a traditional franchise, you would look at a franchise fee and then a start-up fee, many times in excess of $250,000 and up. By thinking of a blog as a business, you will soon realize that having a good-looking, professional blog is definitely worth $500-$5,000 for a unique design.

But if you are just getting started, and want a unique look without the unique price, there are templates available for wordpress and other popular blogging platforms that are pre-made, and available to purchase.

These templates usually come “out of the box” ready to upload to your site, but you can also customize them to meet your needs. In fact, the templates featured here on asktheblogger.com over the years were purchased and modified. Paying a designer or company to customized a WordPress template is most of the time a lot cheaper than commissioning one from scratch.

The following are some of the most popular template sites:

Templatic

Templatic hosts a wealth of Premium WordPress themes, including the popular Consultant theme popular with many bloggers and speakers. You can purchase themes either one-by-one or the entire suite of themes for $299.
Templatic Premium WordPress Themes

Studiopress

Studiopress templates are not only premium WordPress themes, but an entire framework as well. Their templates are built on the framework called Genesis and are easily customizable. You can purchase themes one by one, as well as an entire developer package with an unlimited license for $249.
Get Genesis with StudioPress

Template Monster

Template Monster is one of the oldest and largest HTML and WordPress theme galleries around. They also have themes for just about every web application/CMS you can think of. You can spend hours going through the themes. Their themes are available for download and use, and you can pay a premium to remove it from the sale to the general public and make it exclusively yours. (except for the ones that have already been downloaded of course.)
View Template Monster Themes

Be sure to read the terms and conditions of themes and templates before you buy. Template right vary to one-time installations to developer (multiple) installations.

Check back soon for a guide to custom WordPress developers.

How Can I Blog On My iPad?

By Christian

Blogging on your iPad can be done in several different ways. The three basic ways to blog from your iPad include using Safari to open up your blog through the web browser, using the WordPress app (if you are on a hosted or standalone wordpress app) or using your blogs email features to write a blog post through email.

The most common way to write a blog post is to use Safari to simply open up your blog’s control panel like you normally would do on a computer with Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer or any other browser. You can access all the functions of your blogging platform through the web browser like normal.

If you have a hosted WordPress (wordpress.com) or a standalone WordPress installation, you can download and install the WordPress App from the iTunes store. While there are some bugs in the app (one that keeps popping up for me is a scrolling issue), it is an efficient editor. If you are writing blog posts to post later, be sure to set the post status to “Draft” instead of “Local Draft” or you won’t be able to access it on your blog later – it will only be on the iPad.

The third way is to use an email->blog function of WordPress or your blogging software. By configuring the settings, you can set WordPress to check a POP mailbox for blog posts, so you can simply send an email on your iPad, phone, or anywhere and it will automatically post to your blog. We’ll cover setting this up in another Q&A this coming week.

Using these three methods, your iPad can become a powerful blogging tool. You can also use any text application to edit your post before publishing, to do spell check and other fine tuning. I took only my iPad to BlogWorld Expo and it was light and easy to post updates with.

Happy blogging!