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Lesson #9: How to Create and Use Web Signup Forms on Your Blog

I jumped a little out of order on this video lesson. One of my subscribers actually asked about this and so I decided to do this video right away. She wanted to know how you do one of those sign-up forms you see that pop into view and partially obscure the web page.

They’re called “hover boxes,” and, although some people hate them, they are two to three times more effective than most other types of sign-up forms.

Like almost everything else associated with blogging, they are also super-easy to set up and use. If you can copy and paste this sentence, you can set up a web sign-up form. That’s about all the computer skills you need.

Anyway, check out this new video lesson. I bought a new mic and you can actually hear me now.

Need website in a hurry?

If you need to get a professional-looking blog or website up in a hurry… and don’t know ANYTHING about website design… and don’t want to spend HUNDREDS of dollars on a professional web designer… here’s what you need to do.

You can get a very professional-looking, easy-to-use website up and running in ONE HOUR. It will cost you about $7.95 per month for the web hosting and nothing else.  What’s more, each ADDITIONAL website you create will only cost you $10 per year.

Here’s how.

Step 1: Sign up for a web hosting account with BlueHost.com. It will cost you about $95 for a whole year but you can get it for as little as 3 months, if you want something temporary. This price INCLUDES the cost of the domain name… unlimited email addresses… and, if you want to create another website, the additional website is only $10 for the whole year (including domain name). This step only takes about 5 minutes.

Step 2: Install WordPress on the BlueHost account. If you don’t know how to do that, watch the video below that explains everything in just 21 minutes. The actual amount of time it takes to install WordPress on the BlueHost system is about 1 minute.

That’s it.  The beauty of this approach is that it lets you create unlimited websites for just $10 per year… including the domain name AND webhosting.  You can’t beat that.

Step 3: Pick a FREE WordPress template that you like from the hundreds that are available through WordPress.  We will cover this in a future video.

Step 4: Design a professional-looking BANNER for the top of your site. This, too, will be covered in another video.

Step 5: Create the pages and posts you want for your site. These can include products and services, sale items, contact information, you name it. Use the blogging (center) section of the WordPress template to write regular updates.

That’s it! This entire process should take no less than about 30 minutes, tops.

Writing a Blog Post

Blogging for Your Business

It’s almost a given now that if you have a website, you also have a blog. The question for small-business owners is: Is blogging, twittering, etc., really worth your time?

A lot of bigger companies have decided it is. Just check out this list of 50 companies and how they are using social media. In these examples, I think you can find what TO do and what NOT to do when it comes to promoting your business with social media.

Check out British Airways’ Twitter account. It looks like the subject lines of items in your junk mail folder. Why would anyone follow you to see that? Those who would are more likely to be annoyed than intrigued. What’s worse, there’s no touch of any kind of human voice to these entries. A machine is cranking these out, for all we know.

That’s fine for a big company like British Airways, but a small-business owner does not have the time to write and post things that nobody reads. If you treat your blog as an advertisement, no one will read it, because people don’t seek out advertising. They seek out interesting and thoughtful content. That comes from having a personal touch and displaying your expertise on your subject matter.

THE GOOD

Here’s the blog of Marriott Hotels CEO Bill Marriott.

Notice how it’s written in first person, like an actual blog that someone would seek out. Notice the use of pictures—again, content that people would seek out. Most importantly, it’s about subjects that are interesting and beyond the scope of the company, like John McCain and the Beijing Olympics. OK, so the post from September 8 resembles the adspeak that you do NOT want to do, but looking at the blog as a whole, I think it’s pretty good.

Instead of outright promoting your company on your blog, if you write about interesting subjects in your own voice, it will actually get read—and that’s what actually promotes your company and makes social media worth your time. Read more

Lesson #2: Exchanging the Boring Default WordPress Theme for an Exciting, Professionally-Designed One…

Well, after no less than three attempts, I finally recorded the second video lesson. It demonstrates how you log on to the WordPress Control Panel (very easy) and then, in the second part, shows you how to REPLACE the boring default “theme” (template) that WordPress provides with one of the thousands of professionally-designed, free themes you can find on the Internet.

This is probably the most difficult lesson of all for complete beginners… because it involves getting into the file structure of the blog through BlueHost and FTP-ing (file transfering) the themes you find elsewhere on the Internet.  (In case you don’t know, I recommend BlueHost as a web hosting company because it throws in domain name registration for free but most of all because, once you’re a customer for one blog, every additional website/blog is only $10 a year, including domain registration.  GoDaddy charges $6.95 a year just to “lock down” the domain name… so if you want to do a few blogs/websites for business, BlueHost is a better deal.)

But if you follow along with this video closely, you’ll see that swapping out the WordPress themes is actually very easy — and I guarantee that when you see how dramatically the design of your blog can change literally with the click of your mouse, I think you’ll be very excited.

So: check it out! Click on the video above to get started (if it hasn’t started automatically). The sound is a little iffy now and then but persevere. I think it will be worth it.

Create a Professional Looking Internet Blog in Under One Hour and Learn How to Promote It!

Are you interested in launching an Internet blog or website but don’t have a clue how to get started? Programs like Dreamweaver are notoriously complex – and free blogging sites, like Blogger, often look amateurish and are difficult to modify.

Join me (beginning blogger Robert Hutchinson) for an introductory, super-simple one-hour class on setting up a professional-looking blog and (just maybe!) launching your own Internet business. I started just six months ago and am only two steps ahead of being a complete beginner myself. But I can show you…

• How to open up a web hosting account for as little as $6.95 a month – and then add as many websites as you want for just $10 a year each!
• How to set up a WordPress blog – and then switch to FREE professionally-designed templates (themes)… provided with the class.
• How to go inside your blog to modify the CSS code (horror!) to get the blog to look the way you want it.
• A simple and inexpensive way to create professional-looking banners for your site using a $39.00 program…
• How to create unlimited email addresses for your site.
• How to get your blog listed on the major Internet directories and search engines.
• How to “ping” the web directories so Google will track your blog posts. And MORE!

This is an introductory “beta” class for complete beginners who only know how to access the Internet and use a web browser.

If want, you can bring your own laptop and a credit card to the class and set up a blog on the spot.

The LIVE class is limited to just 10 to 15 people. The cost is $20 for one hour.

Future one-hour classes will also cost $20 each and will cover: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics for ordinary people… how to add social networking upgrades to your blog (like Digg and del.icio.us and Stumble)… viral marketing techniques and refer-a-friend scripts… how to add Adsense and affiliate ads to your blog… Google Adwords strategies… and other stuff.

The class will be held at a hotel or restaurant meeting room the second week of August and September in or near San Clemente (if I can find one with wireless Internet access). If you’d like to attend, please fill out the interest sign-up form below or email me at: bob(at)blogclasses.com

If You’d Like to Attend This or Future Classes, Please Fill in the Form Below and Push the Submit Button.
Name:
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Address:
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Make Money with Blog

New free report reveals how to make money with blog home business.

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Are you interested in launching an Internet blog or website but don’t have a clue how to get started? Programs like Dreamweaver are notoriously complex – and free blogging sites, like Blogger, often look amateurish and are difficult to modify.

Well, now you can get started and make money with your blog. A new special report reveals how you can set up a professional-looking blog and (just maybe!) launch your own Internet business. I started just six months ago and am only two steps ahead of being a complete beginner myself. But I can show you…

* How to open up a web hosting account for as little as $6.95 a month – and then add as many websites as you want for just $10 a year each!

* How to set up a WordPress blog – and then switch to FREE professionally-designed templates (themes)… provided with the class.

* How to go inside your blog to modify the CSS code (horror!) to get the blog to look the way you want it.

* A simple and inexpensive way to create professional-looking banners for your site using a $39.00 program…

* How to create unlimited email addresses for your site.

* How to get your blog listed on the major Internet directories and search engines.

* How to “ping” the web directories so Google will track your blog posts. And MORE!

This is an introductory “beta” report (delivered in a series of separate emails) for complete beginners who only know how to access the Internet and use a web browser.

Free Domain Registration

Here’s one of the best-kept secrets on the Internet: You can register your domain name for FREE if you know where and how to do it.

I’ve been blogging for more than two years now and until recently I was spending an INSANE amount of money on domain name registrations — like $35 a year! Each!

Here’s what you should know.

First, if you just want to register a domain name in case you MIGHT use it for a website, you can’t beat GoDaddy.com. They charge as little as $9.95 per year to register a domain name.

However, if you want to actually create a new website, then I think the best deal is with BlueHost.com. If you want to create a professional-looking blog and have your own domain name, then BlueHost is the best. Here’s why:

Reason #1: BlueHost has the lowest web hosting prices around — as low as just $6.95 a month.

Reason #2: BlueHost throws in the cost of the domain registration for FREE! That’s right: zero. Other web hosting places, like the one I used for years that charges $35 a year, make you pay extra for web hosting and still charge you for the domain name registration.

Reason #3: Many add-on services — such as “forwarding” someone from one website to another — are FREE with BlueHost but cost extra at many other places.

Reason #4: You get unlimited email addresses.

Finally, the most important reason of all…

Reason #5: Additional domain names and websites are only $10 a year! This is where BlueHost really shines. Once you set up a web hosting account with them with your FIRST website, every ADDITIONAL domain name/web site is only $10 extra per year. That’s incredible.

I have more than a DOZEN blogs/websites set up with BlueHost because of this final reason. I have about six for different businesses I own… one for my family… two for hobbies… one for my kids. Each one only costs me $10 per year.

The only thing that upsets me about BlueHost is when I think about how many hundreds, even thousands of dollars I was throwing away over the past few years on super-expensive web hosting and domain name registrations.

So, if you want to register a domain name AND set up a website right away, I recommend BlueHost.com.

(By the way, BlueHost also offers domain name registration for the same price as GoDaddy — just $10 per year — but you have to have a web hosting account with BlueHost to get that price. That’s why I say that, if you just want to “snag” a domain name and maybe not use it for a while, I recommend GoDaddy because GoDaddy allows you to do that. However, if you plan on using the domain name and setting up a website, then I recommend BlueHost. Transferring a domain name to another web hosting is a pain in the ass.)

Also, if you’d like to see a FREE video that shows you how to set up a BlueHost web hosting account… and INSTALL a WordPress blog… just fill in the form below (you can use fake names if you want but the email address has to be real for verification purposes).

Name or Fake Name:
Email:

Now, if you want to know more about domain registration, here is some more info below…

In computer networking, a domain name is a name given to a collection of network devices that belong to a domain which is managed according to some common property of the members or within a common administrative boundary. In particular, the term is used to describe the regions of administrative authority within the Domain name system used for the Internet (cf. DNS zone).

Domain names are used in a variety of contexts for identification, reference, and access to Internet resources. They can appear as components of Web sites’ Uniform Resource Locators (URL, ‘Web-address’), e.g. www.wikipedia.org, electronic mail (e-mail) addresses after the customary ‘@’ separator from the user’s name, or as any other part of a syntax that describes an access method to a device or service in an IP network.

Domain names are created out of a naming space and methodology that was first defined by Paul Mockapetris in IETF publication RFC 882 and RFC 883 (1983) and used in the first expansion of the ARPANET, a predecessor of today’s Internet. The model prescribed a tree-like structure of named nodes starting from an unnamed root node (cf. DNS root zone) that was only designated by a full stop (period, dot, “.”). The complete domain name of each node is the string of names of nodes leading to the root node, each separated by a dot. The sequence is written from left to right with increasing order of scope, e.g., node-d.node-c.node-b.node-a. When the full name path of a node is specified, the domain name is said to be fully-qualified (cf. Fully qualified domain name). This condition is often, particularly in the technical aspects of DNS), indicated explicitly by appending a dot at the end of the name (to indicate the root domain).

The DNS methodology confers a unique name to every resource or service participating in the domain name system. This name is referred to as the domain name of a device or Internet host. However, not all nodes in the tree system denote a specific device, rather they are parent labels of an entire collection of subordinate nodes. Such nodes are the domains of the Internet. They represent the spaces of autonomy that are delegated by a group of service providers, called domain name registrars.

These registrars are authorized and accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization charged with overseeing the name and number systems of the Internet. In addition to IANA, each top-level domain (TLD) is maintained and serviced technically by a sponsoring organization, the TLD Registry. The registry is responsible for maintaining the database of names registered within the TLDs they administer. The registry receives registration information from each domain name registrar authorized to assign names in the corresponding TLD and publishes the information using a special service, the whois protocol.

In this context a domain name is sometimes referred to as a ‘product’ sold by domain name registrars. However, the rules of assignment specify that no legal ownership is conferred with such transactions, only the right of exclusive use and the authority to the name space. Once assigned, a domain name becomes part of the pool of registered domain names and is no longer available for use by anyone else. Colloquially, marketers incorrectly refer to domain names as “web addresses”, however, a web address is actually a fully specified World-Wide Web resource locator, such as http://www.example.com, actually pointing to a web site.

New domain names are usually registered through the registrar for annual terms with a minimum of one year. The maximum length of prepaid registration is often 10 years, but varies depending on the policies of the sponsoring registry of the top-level domain under which registration is sought. Registration periods may be extended, usually at any time, until the end of a grace period after the registration expiration date.

Domain names may be transferred between parties or advertised for ’sale’. This is often called the “domain name aftermarket” (see below). After a domain name registration and the grace period expire, the domain name is either returned to the pool of available names, or receives special treatment by the registrars and could possibly end up in the ‘aftermarket’.

The most basic functionality of domain names is to provide symbolic representations, i.e., recognizable names, to mostly numerically addressed Internet resources. This abstraction allows any resource (e.g., website) to be moved to a different physical location in the address topology of the network, globally or locally in an intranet, in effect changing the IP address. This translation from domain names to IP addresses (and vice versa) is accomplished with the global facilities of Domain Name System (DNS).

By allowing the use of unique alphabetical addresses instead of numeric ones, domain names allow Internet users to more easily find and communicate with web sites and any other IP-based communications services. The flexibility of the domain name system allows multiple IP addresses to be assigned to a single domain name, or multiple domain names to be services from a single IP address. This means that one server may have multiple roles (such as hosting multiple independent websites), or that one role can be spread among many servers. One IP address can also be assigned to several servers, as used in anycast networking.

By definition (RFC 1034), domain names are restricted to the ASCII letters a through z (case-insensitive), the digits 0 through 9, and the hyphen, with some other restrictions in terms of name length and position of hyphens. Since this does not allow the use of many characters commonly found in non-English languages, and no multi-byte characters necessary for most Asian languages, the Internationalized domain name (IDN) system has been developed and is now in testing stage with a set of top-level domains established for this purpose.

The underscore character is frequently used to ensure that a domain name is not recognized as a hostname, as with the use of SRV records, for example, although some older systems such as NetBIOS did allow it. To avoid confusion and for other reasons, domain names with underscores in them are sometimes used where hostnames are required.

Domain names are often referred to simply as domains and domain name registrants are frequently referred to as domain owners, although domain name registration with a registrar does not confer any legal ownership of the name, only an exclusive right of use.

The following example illustrates the difference between a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and a domain name:

URL: http://www.example.net/index.html
Domain name: www.example.net
Registered domain name: example.net

As a general rule, the IP address and the server name are interchangeable. For most Internet services, the server will not have any way to know which was used. However, the explosion of interest in the Web means that there are far more Web sites than servers. To accommodate this, the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) specifies that the client tells the server which name is being used. This way, one server with one IP address can provide different sites for different domain names. This feature goes under the name virtual hosting and is commonly used by Web hosts.

For example, as referenced in RFC 2606 (Reserved Top Level DNS Names), the server at IP address 208.77.188.166 handles all of the following sites:

example.com
www.example.com
example.net
www.example.net
example.org
www.example.org

When a request is made, the data corresponding to the hostname requested is provided to the user.

Below the top-level domains in the domain name hierarchy are the second-level domain (SLD) names. These are the names directly to the left of .com, .net, and the other top-level domains. As an example, in the domain en.wikipedia.org, wikipedia is the second-level domain.

Next are third-level domains, which are written immediately to the left of a second-level domain. There can be fourth- and fifth-level domains, and so on, with virtually no limitation. An example of a working domain with four domain levels is www.sos.state.oh.us. The www preceding the domains is a host name of the World-Wide Web server. Each level is separated by a dot, or period symbol. ’sos’ is said to be a sub-domain of ’state.oh.us’, and ’state’ a sub-domain of ‘oh.us’, etc. In general, Sub-domains are domains subordinate to their parent domain. An example of very deep levels of subdomain ordering are the IPv6 reverse resolution DNS zones, e.g., 1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.ip6.arpa, which is the reverse DNS resolution domain for the IP address of a loopback interface, or the localhost name.

Second-level (or lower-level, depending on the established parent hierarchy) domain names are often created based on the name of a company (e.g., microsoft.com), product or service (e.g., gmail.com). Below these levels, the next domain name component has been used to designate a particular host server. Therefore, ftp.wikipedia.org might be an FTP server, www.wikipedia.org would be a World Wide Web server, and mail.wikipedia.org could be an email server, each intended to perform only the implied function. Modern technology allows multiple physical servers with either different (cf. load balancing) or even identical addresses (cf. anycast) to serve a single hostname or domain name, or multiple domain names to be served by a single computer. The latter is very popular in Web hosting service centers, where service providers host the websites of many organizations on just a few servers.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has overall responsibility for managing the DNS. It administers the root domain, delegating control over each TLD to a domain name registry. For ccTLDs, the domain registry is typically installed by the government of that country. ICANN has a consultation role in these domain registries but cannot regulate the terms and conditions of how domain names are delegated in each of the country-level domain registries. On the other hand, the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are governed directly under ICANN, which means all terms and conditions are defined by ICANN with the cooperation of each gTLD registry.

Domain names are often seen in analogy to real estate in that (1) domain names are foundations on which a website (like a house or commercial building) can be built and (2) the highest “quality” domain names, like sought-after real estate, tend to carry significant value, usually due to their online brand-building potential, use in advertising, search engine optimization, and many other criteria.

A few companies have offered low-cost, below-cost or even cost-free domain registrations with a variety of models adopted to recoup the costs to the provider. These usually require that domains be hosted on their website within a framework or portal that includes advertising wrapped around the domain holder’s content, revenue from which allows the provider to recoup the costs. Domain registrations were free of charge when the DNS was new. A domain holder (often referred to as a domain owner) can give away or sell infinite number of subdomains under their domain name. For example, the owner of example.edu could provide subdomains such as foo.example.edu and foo.bar.example.edu to interested parties.

As domain names became interesting to marketers because of their advertising and marketing potential, rather than just being used to label Internet resources in a technical fashion, they began to be used in manners that in many cases did not reflect the intended purpose of the label of their top-level domain. As originally planned, the structure of domain names followed a hierarchy in which the TLD indicated the type of organization (commercial, governmental, etc.), and addresses would be nested down to third, fourth, or further levels to express complex structures, where, for instance, branches, departments and subsidiaries of a parent organization would have addresses in subdomains of the parent domain. Also, hostnames were originally intended to correspond to actual physical machines on the network, generally with only one name per machine.

As the World Wide Web became popular, site operators frequently wished to have memorable addresses, regardless of whether they fit properly into the structure; thus, because the .com domain was the most popular and therefore most prestigious, even noncommercial sites began to obtain domains directly within that gTLD, and many sites desired second-level domain names in .com, even if they were already part of a larger entity where a subdomain would have been logical (e.g., abcnews.com instead of news.abc.com).

Shorter, and therefore more memorable, domain names are thought to have more appeal. As a convenience methods were implemented to reduce the amount of typing required when entering a web site address into the location field of a web browser. A website found at ”http://www.example.org” will often be advertised without the http://, since the HTTP protocol is implicitly assumed when referring to web sites. In many cases, web sites can be also be reached by omitting the www prefix, as in this given example. This feature is usually implemented in DNS by the website administrator. In the case of a .com, the website can sometimes be reached by just entering example (depending on browser versions and configuration settings, which vary in how they interpret incomplete addresses).

The popularity of domain names also led to uses which were regarded as abusive by established companies with trademark rights; this has become known as cybersquatting, in which a person registers a domain name that resembles a trademark in order to profit from visitors looking for that address. To combat this, various laws and policies were enacted to allow abusive registrations to be forcibly transferred, but these were sometimes themselves abused by overzealous companies committing reverse domain hijacking against domain users who had legitimate grounds to hold their names. Such legitimate uses could include the use of generic words that are contained within a trademark, but used in a particular context within the trademark, or their use in the context of fan or protest sites with free speech rights of their own.

As of 2008, the four major Registrars have all sub-contracted their expiring domain lists to certain reseller and auctioneer partnerships, for the purpose of keeping the domain name at the original registrar and continuing to extract revenue off the renewal of premium registered names. Since this policy is not explicitly banned at ICANN, the practice has become more commonplace and as a result, complaints from individual registrants about losing their domains has tracked higher over the past two years [1].

Laws that specifically address domain name conflicts include the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act in the United States and the Trademarks Act of 1999 in India. Alternatively, domain registrants are bound by contract under the UDRP to comply with mandatory arbitration proceedings should someone challenge their ownership of a domain name.

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