I have read on other blogs that if you have a desire to take your blogging seriously that you must begin by setting up a blog on your own host server. This of course made sense to me. I discovered through my experience of using WordPress.com that there are some significant limitations in terms of the flexibility you are allowed in setting up and managing your blog. However, setting up a blog on WordPress.com was very easy to do - you only needed a general understanding of word processing and writing emails, to successfully operate and manage a blog. On the other hand, a WordPress.org blog was something that I really wasn’t too familiar with. Yet I needed to take this step in order to move forward with my online plans.

At this stage of my journey I had all these unanswered questions racing through my head:

• Where should I start?

• What host should I choose? Are they all the same? Are they reliable? What potential problems could I face?

• I live in Australia, does that mean that I should host my blog in my own country, or can it be hosted internationally? Does it really make a difference?

• How in the world will I install WordPress on this server?

• How will I know if I installed it correctly?

• Who will help me figure all this out?

• How can I get all of this setup with as little investment as possible? - I’m a big believer in investing as little as possible into new projects and ventures. I have been burned in the past by investing money on business ventures that just didn’t come to fruition as I would have expected. That money went down the drain. The main lesson I took from those experiences brought me to the realization that I should be investing as little as possible to startup projects, while working as hard as possible to bring them to fruition.

Finding the Perfect Host for My Blog Gave Me a Headache!

My first objective was finding a reliable host that provided a large amount of disk space, bandwidth and had a large database of happy customers. I probably spent about a day looking through sites like Find My Hosting and Web Hosting Talk to get a comparison of the different hosting services that were available online.

Throughout this period of research I found that every host - large or small - presented me with a dilemma. Apparently, there was at least a handful or more former customers who provided testimonials of their horror stories and experiences with their hosting company. To me their stories were shocking and somewhat frightening. Some could no longer access their websites, some lost their entire database and the hosting company took no responsibility for the loss of this information, while other user’s websites were offline for ongoing periods of time leading to a loss of business and revenue. These stories really opened my eyes to the potential problems that I may face.

However, what I realized was that no matter what hosting company you decide to settle on, there will always be someone who will give you a horror story of their experience. Simply type into Google the host’s name followed by the word “sucks” - and prepare yourself for some eye-popping criticism. However, don’t allow that to deter you from setting up your blog on one of these servers.

My early research indicated that it didn’t make a difference whether I hosted my blog within Australia or on an overseas server. I basically settled on 4 potential cost effective hosting companies that I believed would be reliable and provided me with the space and bandwidth I required for my site. Here is my preferred list of host providers:

• Dreamhost
• Bluehost
• Hostgator
• Lunarpages

I wasn’t sure yet which of these hosts would be the best fit for me. However, that was clarified the moment I came across Ninja Blog Setup.

Setting Up My Blog with Ninja Blog Setup Service

I would have never thought in a million years that there would be a FREE service available that would automatically setup your WordPress blog for you. Throughout my research I came across other services that were offering to setup your WordPress blog for as much as $100.00 to $150.00, yet here was Ninja Blog Setup that offered to do it for Free, and within 24 to 48 hours. Moreover, they don’t just setup your blog, they actually take the time and care to install your chosen blog theme, and many other essential WordPress plugins that will fast track your blog’s success.

Now, even though the Blog setup service is free, you are however asked to sign up with a hosting company that Ninja Blog Setup recommends. To my surprise the 4 hosting companies that I felt were the best fit for my first WordPress.org blog were on this list.

I decided to use adamsicinski.com as a test blog to try out the Ninja Blog Setup service before setting up a similar site for IQmatrix.com. So if for instance something didn’t go as planned, I wouldn’t be too distraught about the process as this was not going to be my primary website.

Here is a breakdown of how simple it is to setup your blog using the Ninja Blog Setup service:

• Visit the Main Ninja Blog Setup page and select one of 5 hosting companies that the Ninja recommends.
• Visit the hosts main page and sign up to a hosting plan in accordance with the instructions that the Ninja provided you with.
• Once you have paid and setup your host, come back to the main Ninja Blog Setup page, scroll to the bottom and fill out the WordPress setup form. Make sure that you copy and paste the email you received from your hosting company (confirming your plan) together with any passwords and other instructions they provided you with. Also insert the email address you would like to setup for your new blog and provide the Ninja Blog Setup team with other information about the template and any other instructions or questions you may have.
• If all goes smoothly (as it did for me) you will usually get your blog setup within 24 hours. Mine was actually setup within 12 hours. You will receive a confirmation email from Ninja Jon who will provide you with follow up instructions for making some minor adjustments to a few plugins that were installed.
• You are now ready to take on the world with your new blogging machine.

I couldn’t speak more highly about the customer service and quick email response time of the Ninja Blog Setup team. They provide a very reliable and professional service, and most importantly they won’t leave you hanging after your blog has been setup. They are always an email away and will assist you with any questions or problems you may have with your WordPress installation. Ninja Blog Setup also has a great list of resources, videos and instructional tutorials about WordPress that will set you on the right track.

Creating a Cost Effective eCommerce Website from Scratch

Thanks to Jon and his team, I was now feeling pretty comfortable with my Dreamhost hosted WordPress blog. Everything was working smoothly and I was confident and ready to get IQ Matrix up and running. However, with the Study Matrix Art website I needed a little more than just a blog. I actually needed a good, robust and reliable eCommerce solution that would allow me a great amount of flexibility to grow and expand my business online.

Over the next few posts I will discuss the process I underwent in setting up an eCommerce site and provide you with a little background about the IQ Matrix project and how that came into being. I will also make mention of an ambitious eCommerce website I helped to setup and the learning experiences I gained from this venture. I’m hoping that these next few posts will provide you with a good understanding of what it takes to setup, operate and manage an eCommerce website on the web.

Imagine being able to drive literally hundreds and at times thousands of visitors to your website or blog within a matter of a few hours. Don’t just imagine, this is possible if others StumbleUpon you.

Today I will briefly discuss how I used StumbleUpon to drive hundreds of visitors to the miWisdom blog.

So What is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is a social community and bookmarking network that - at the time of this writing - currently has close to 5 million members. People join the community just like on any other social network. You create your personalized profile page, upload a picture, and write a little information about yourself. Finally it is recommended that you download the StumbleUpon toolbar for both Firefox or Internet Explorer. This toolbar is designed to assist you with navigating and Stumbling randomly through websites across the world wide web.

Once you have setup your StumbleUpon profile, selected your preferences and interests, you are now ready to begin stumbling.

How can StumbleUpon Generate Traffic to My Website or Blog?

As a StumbleUpon member you browse through websites as per usual throughout your day. When you come across something that you find interesting you are given the option to reward this website page a Thumbs Up. If you are the first person to discover this page, you are asked to categorize it accordingly and to provide a short description of your finding so that other StumbleUpon users can find it in the future.

Because this newly discovered website has now been Stumbled, it is automatically entered into the StumbleUpon bookmarking directory under the categories that you have specified. Now, when Stumblers click on the StumbleUpon button on their toolbar, a small percentage of them are now going to randomly Stumble upon this website you have discovered. Once there, they can either acknowledge the website with a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down. By giving a Thumbs Up they inform StumbleUpon that they would like to view more of these types of websites in the future. By giving the website a Thumbs Down they inform StumbleUpon that they would not like to view these types of websites in the future.

When a website page has been Stumbled for the first time, traffic will begin to flow at a steady pace from StumbleUpon usually within the first hour. The amount of traffic that you will receive will depend on the popularity of the category that your website has been placed under, and on the amount of Stumblers who acknowledge your website with a Thumbs Up and a Review.

My Learning Experiences from StumbleUpon

Marketing your site through StumbleUpon has wonderful benefits that provide your blog with exposure to a community of people who normally might not have come across your website. There are however some hard lessons that I have learned that may hopefully assist you in your future StumbleUpon endeavors:

• Stumbling My Own Website Pages - Stumbling your own website pages intentionally is okay in moderation. However, it is important that you do not do this too often as your Stumbles will have a diminishing effect in bringing in new traffic.
• Good Categories Bring In More Traffic - Selecting the right category is more likely to bring in more traffic to your website. Stumblers naturally Stumble through topics that interest them most. If you place your website page under a category that very few people search for through StumbleUpon, than you will receive very little traffic as a result. However be wary, if you select a category for your website page that does not belong there, the traffic to your web page will quickly pitter away just as quickly as it came.
• Unbiased Reviews Provide You with Credibility - When you review your own websites make sure that they are informative and unbiased. Stumblers do not appreciate someone selling them on the features and benefits of their website, blog or products. Make your reviews short, succinct and straight to the point.
• Stumbling on Other Websites - Through the act of Stumbling on other people’s websites and rewarding them with a Thumbs Up, you will gain credibility within the Stumble Community and will rise in Top Stumbler Rankings.
• Traffic Moves through Spurts - At first, within the first few hours of having StumbledUpon my site, traffic to miWisdom came in its hundreds. After which the traffic somewhat subsided and within 3 days I was no longer driving new traffic from StumbleUpon. What I found though is that as new people come across your website and give it a Thumbs Up, that this will invigorate and bring a new wave of StumbleUpon traffic to your blog.
• Stumblers Have Short Attention Spans - I found that on average a Stumbler coming to the website spent a lot less time on the site than someone coming through an organic means such as through a search engine or through the WordPress.com community. To lock in the attention of a Stumbler you must present something on the web page which will immediately attract their interest and entice them to continue reading and moving through your blog posts. If you do not do this in the right manner than you will find that the Stumblers will simply click on the Stumble button immediately and transfer away from your page and onto another website or blog. Through experiments with driving StumbleUpon traffic to the IQ Matrix Blog, I am discovering a number of strategies that increase the attention span of Stumblers and entice them to click through to other pages. However, I will discuss this in further detail in a future post.

Stay tuned to the IQ Matrix Blog as I will be presenting a StumbleUpon marketing SMX Spotlight Mind Map over the coming weeks. This will assist you in gaining a deeper insight, understanding and perspective on how the StumbleUpon community works and how to gain the most from utilizing it as a traffic generation tool.

Moving Beyond WordPress.com and onto WordPress.org

A couple of months after setting up miWisdom, I was feeling more and more comfortable about the possibility of setting up my own blog through an internet hosting provider. However, where would I begin? What host should I choose? Who could help set things up for me? Who would explain all the technical details of this process? These types of questions were bottling up in my mind. It was no doubt going to be a very big step for a Newbie like me to take. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would all work out in the end.

In my next post I will discuss the process I took in setting up a WordPress.org blog on an international host server.

As you launch yourself along your journey through the blogging world it is important to establish yourself as a blogger within your specific niche and within the blogging community in general. Most established bloggers are quite welcoming of new bloggers and some will even assist you with advice or provide services that will help establish your online presence. Looking longterm at the bigger picture, it is also imperative that you become aware of your ever growing and expanding online reputation. However, this topic will be discussed in greater depth and detail another time. For today, let’s take a look at the steps that one must take to drive initial chunks of traffic to your new blog.

The WordPress Community - Your Source for Constant Traffic

Having established a blog on WordPress.com you are automatically connected to the WordPress community of thousands of online blogs. The great thing about the WordPress community is that whenever you tag a post you have written up, it’s automatically shared with other WordPress community members who utilize the same tag word in their posts. As you can see in the following screen shot, within the Administration console under Dashboard > Tag Surfer you can see all the tags that I use for my article posts listed in alphabetical order. Whenever someone within the WordPress community posts an article that uses your tags, it is listed on the Tag Surfer page. This is great news for you because as your tags are shared with others they will automatically receive a preview of your article posts and may even click through into your blog.

The Tag Surfing feature in WordPress is also a great way to meet and connect with like-minded bloggers who share the same passions as you.

Another feature of the Tag Surfer is it allows you to delete and add specific tags that you would like to subscribe to or unsubscribe from. It is in some ways very similar to an RSS Feed Reader, however instead of subscribing to specific Blogs, you subscribe to receive posts related to the tags that interest you most.

Within your first few weeks of blogging you will find that even if you do nothing else but write good quality content on a regular basis with appropriate tags and categories, that you will indeed generate a good solid amount of traffic to your blog through the WordPress Blogging community.

Finally, Tag Surfing is also a great means of collecting interesting ideas for your blog posts. If you are ever stuck for a blog post idea, simply surf your selected tags and see what others are writing about. Maybe you can piece together ideas from a combination of article posts to create something that is very different, creative and unique. Otherwise you may just expand upon an article and then link back to the blogger’s site if one of your readers wants an alternate perspective. As a general rule of thumb, bloggers love links, and will appreciate you taking the time to link to their articles through your blog posts. They may even reciprocate with a link back to your article or blog.

Signing Up to Blog Directories

It is important as a new blogger to sign up to a variety of blog directories that will get your blog’s name recognized within the blogging world. Blog directories are simply search engines for blogs.

When you are a newbie, it is worthwhile to sign up to a number of blog directories in order to expand your subscriber reach. Just keep in mind that some of these directories require you to past a piece of code into your blog that links back to the blog directory. Once you receive this snippet of code, all you have to do is paste it into a Text Widget, as explained in my previous post.

Here is a list of blog directories that I signed up to when I launched miWisdom:

• Blog Flux - The directory currently has over 107,000 blogs. It’s free to setup an account and they provide you with a range of supporting services to assist you with your blogging ventures. Their goal is to be the single source of services for bloggers.

• Technorati - Claim that you are the owner of your blog by registering it with Technorati. Many bloggers consistently look at their Technorati ranking in order to evaluate the performance of their blog. I would highly recommend registering your blog at this directory.

• Blog Top List - This  directory requires you to place a couple of buttons on your blog that allow your readers to vote for you. The more votes you accumulate the more exposure you will receive within the directory.

• Blog Skinny - Another directory that provides you with a button for your blog. In the early days I did receive consistent traffic from this source and I saw my ranking climb accordingly.

• Top Blog Area - Another similar directory to the Blog Top List site. Submit your blog, score higher points and rankings and you will drive more traffic to your site.

There are many more blog directories out there. However, be wary as many of them will ask you to place small buttons on your site. Having a few buttons is fine, but too many buttons will downgrade your blog and may hurt your blog’s credibility.

Get Involved within Blogging Communities

I won’t go into much detail here about what to do specifically within each blogging community, however I will provide you with a general overview of the most popular communities where you should establish your presence and build your reputation.

• My Blog Log - This is a thriving blogging community that allows you to connect and develop relationships with other bloggers based on the topics that interest you most. Sign up, register your blog, and start networking.  If you network effectively you could potentially drive many new readers to your blog.

• Bumpzee - Very similar to My Blog Log, however not as popular. Although it still has a strong and thriving community of bloggers who share your interests and passions. Sign up and start networking with like-minded bloggers immediately.

• Blog Catalog - This is another popular social blog directory that could potentially connect you with many like-minded bloggers.

There are many more blog communities out there. However, you will quickly find that time constraints will not allow you to give your full attention to all of them. I would suggest focusing on 2 or 3 of the most popular communities to begin with. Build your online reputation through these networks on a daily basis and drive traffic to your website.

The Stumble Effect

In my next post I will discuss the “Stumble Effect” that could potentially drive hundreds if not thousands of visitors to your blog within a matter of hours. If you have any further questions or comments about this post please let me know.

My first step into the blogging world was made in September 2007. I decided to set up a test blog site on wordpress.com. This blog was going to be nothing more than a way to dip my toes into the blogging world without getting drenched in water. There was really no risk, and even though setting up a blog on wordpress.com was free, I decided to purchase a $20.00 domain and redirection service to my new website for a period of 1 year. And so miWisdom.com was born.

Settling on a Theme for My New Blog

In terms of themes, miWisdom.com provides a few dozen themes that you can use for your blog.  Selecting a theme is your first priority. I won’t go into much detail here, however, once you have decided what you are going to blog about, choose a theme that will compliment your topic in one way or another. You can choose from 1, 2 or 3 column themes in a variety of colors and styles. I initially chose a 3 column theme because I was very fond of the widgets I could use within the blog.

Your other option in terms of selecting your theme is whether you want to select a fluid theme or static theme. By fluid I mean a theme that expands according to the monitor size and resolution of your visitors. By static I mean a theme that stays at a consistent width no matter what size of monitor your visitors are using. Initially I went for the fluid theme, however today the miWisdom blog has got a static theme like my other two blogs. I discovered through experience that what looks great on my wide screen monitor within a fluid design, doesn’t always look great on a standard monitor. This is why today I utilize only static themes that will look the same on every computer monitor no matter what the size or resolution.

One final factor to consider when choosing the theme has all to do with branding. Wordpress.com doesn’t allow you as much flexibility in terms of branding your blog as a personally hosted blog with wordpress.org. However, there are themes that you can choose that allow you to pop in a banner image and change the colors accordingly to match the personal branding you had in mind. If you visit the miWisdom blog today you will see that I have selected the Mistylook theme which allows me to change the top banner with an image of my choosing.

When it comes to themes, there are advantages and disadvantages to each. The best thing to do is to write up some content and then test to see how it looks within different theme layouts. You can do this through the WordPress administration console under Presentation > Themes. Select the theme you want and preview it by clicking on the theme image.

Tracking Your RSS Subscribers with Feedburner

The best way to track your RSS subscribers is through a service known as Feedburner.  Visit their website and sign up for an account. Once you have signed up, add your blog URL (address) to the list of sites you want to track. When you have completed this, you will receive a code that you must copy and paste into a text widget within your blog. Copy the text into the text widget and drag it into one of your sidebars. You will find your widgets within the Administration console under Presentation > Widgets. You should see something similar to the screen shot below. If you are unsure of what to do please comment below and I will provide you with further assistance.

Building Content that will Keep People’s Interest

Throughout my blogging research I learned that the very first thing that one must do when setting up a blog is to create about 5 to 10 solid posts that will keep people interested and encourage them to sign up to your RSS feed. There is no point in promoting your blog through different online channels if you don’t have at least a few solid articles that could potentially generate interest from your visitors. These posts don’t have to be long, however they must make some kind of emotional or intellectual connection with your visitors.

Within the first week of blogging I wrote about 20 posts. Although the posts weren’t very long, I however believed that I was creating value for my readers through being direct and straight to the point. I continued this trend of writing regular posts throughout the months of September and October.

The Mistakes I made with my Initial Post Copy Writing

Looking back at my original posts on miWisdom,  I made a few critical errors in the way that the posts were organized.

• No Images - Initially I added no images into my posts. When I later began to include images, I discovered through a period of trial and error that the most popular posts were actually the ones with images. I know it sounds silly, but images add that cherry on top. In fact some of my image posts were of lesser quality in terms of actual content than some of my other posts, and yet they tended to garner more attention. Also it doesn’t really matter what kind of images you use, just make sure that they are royalty free and that you just don’t grab them off the internet, otherwise you could get into a little trouble. There are plenty of sites that offer royalty free images that you can use within your blog. Just type in Free Stock Photos into Google search and you will find a list of great websites with quality images listed under hundreds of categories. I personally use images and Clip Art from a box that I purchased specifically to create the IQ Matrix. It also came in useful for miWisdom posts.

• No Subheadings - For long posts subheadings become very important as they allow the eyes to quickly scan the content and pick up on key themes and ideas within the post. If I am reading a blog post and all I see is a few large chunky paragraphs without any subheadings or images; I will simply tune out and turn to another page.

• Little Use of Bullet Points - Bullet points help to distinguish ideas and allow the eyes to glaze over information much more easily. They are a natural complimentary tool to subheadings and should be used whenever possible to classify and organize your blog posts.

• No Bolding - By this I don’t mean not losing hair. Instead I mean Bolding Important Words to Get Your Ideas Across. Our eyes are trained to naturally identify things that are different and that standout within our environment. Words that are Bolded naturally standout and draw the reader’s attention to key ideas that you are presenting within your blog posts. However, keep in mind not to overdo the Bold. Focus on keywords that will get your point across in simple and effective ways.

You might ask why I don’t use any images in my posts for adamsicinski.com. To me, this blog is more information based chronicling my online experiences. I’m not really going to spend much time promoting this blog online or to the world, and therefore images come secondary. I will however use images if I feel that they will assist in explaining a topic that I will be discussing in future posts.

Within miWisdom I use images to create a theme for the post, and on IQ Matrix Blog I use images to tell a story, to educate and to inform. However, I will discuss the IQ Matrix website in greater depth and detail in many future posts.

The Next Steps Moving Forward

In my next post I will discuss some simple yet effective ways to generate and drive traffic to your wordpress.com blog through the WordPress Community, StumbleUpon and through Blog Directories.  I will also point out a number of mistakes I made and the lessons I learned from these experiences.

To Blog or Not to Blog? That is a very good question. Six months ago that was the question I was asking myself. I was reading many blogs through my RSS Reader, however it all just seemed too daunting for me. I felt reasonably comfortable with writing, however the technical side of things was far too overwhelming for me to even know where to begin. Of course, I could have spent time learning how to code with all that strange language that programmers use, yet I knew that if I wanted to succeed in anything I would have to focus primarily on my strengths and leave the other things to people who knew what they were doing and could assist me with getting my online ventures up and running.

What many Newbies don’t know… if they did, they wouldn’t hesitate

This may or may not apply to your particular situation. By “newbie” I mean someone who has very little knowledge or understanding about the Internet. It was pretty much where I was about 6 months ago. I had very little clue or idea about what I was doing and what my next step should be. Yeah sure, I was reading plenty of blogs and other information through my RSS Reader, yet I’m sure some of you can relate that when you are exposed to a lot of new information, it can get a little overwhelming, and you tend not to pick up on everything right away because you are trying to learn and understand so many new concepts and ideas at one time. My personal experience in mind mapping and accelerated learning strategies allowed me to organize and make sense of this information, yet to truly understand it at a deep level I had to physically attempt to set actions into motion that would bring me feedback and results. And so I decided that I needed to dip my feet into this strange world and setup a blog, even if I had to pay someone to do it for me. But where would I begin?

I quickly discovered that there are a number of blogging platforms that are available for those of us who have very little experience with anything that is even remotely technical. These tools make it very quick and easy to setup a blog in almost an instant. In fact they are so simple to use that if you know how to write an email or use a word processing piece of Software such as Microsoft Word, you should have no problems here.

So at this point I looked at 3 of the most popular blogging platforms that most blogger’s mentioned within their posts. They were:

• Blogger
• TypePad
• Wordpress

For newbies, the great thing about these 3 blogging platforms is that you don’t need to outlay any money whatsoever. Not only are they absolutely free to use, they are also hosted on the website’s respective servers at no cost to you. Another great thing about these services is that they have a community built around them. What this means for newbie bloggers is that your new blog can gain a vast amount of exposure to a great number of people in very little time indeed. This also means that if you are dedicated towards posting regularly, than within your first 3 months of blogging you may be able to attract a good solid subscriber base. Of course there are plenty of strategies that one can use to gain more subscribers to their blog, however that will be discussed in great length another time.

Should I be a Blogger… Maybe I’ll TypePad… No maybe I’ll just do the WordPress

So, I had 3 good solid options to choose from. They are all well established online companies that give great support to their customers. They all provide very interesting blogging platforms, and all of them have many satisfied customers already on their books using their blogging software on a daily basis. Given the way I was thinking about RSS Readers - it yet again made sense to me to use Blogger as it was run, managed and operated by Google. Obviously I was already using Google Reader, Google Calendar and Gmail; it should have been the obvious logical choice. BUT!

Whenever looking to do something online I believe one must have a longterm vision and strategy. In essence one must have foresight and understanding that will propel one into a future setting where one becomes aware of the possible and potential circumstances one will face based on the current decision that one is about to make. Blogger was no doubt the most obvious choice. It appeared as though it was by far the easiest blogging tool to use, however, longterm I didn’t want to be using one of these free blogging services. I wanted to take blogging seriously, I wanted to use a blogging tool that would assist me in furthering my knowledge and development in the future; something that would help me to develop enough confidence to tackle the more advanced blogging setups that provided me with full control over my blog. In WordPress I found the answer.

WordPress is for the Newbie who wants to leave their options open

I decided to choose Wordpress  as the setup for my first blog. The reason for this was rather straightforward. As I learned more about blogging I started to become more confident in my ability to deal with a little bit of programming. With that in mind, I discovered that there is an actual difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org - which initially just didn’t click with me.

• WordPress.com - is a free blogging platform that is hosted on the WordPress servers. Very easy to use and has a large online network of blogs supporting the platform. They also have a number of good blog templates you can use and widgets you can customize.
• WordPress.org - is a free blogging platform that you use on your own hosted server that you must pay for. This also has a large developer and community built around it. They have an almost endless number and supply of blogging templates to choose from and additional features called plug-ins that I will discuss in a future post. Compared with TypePad, this seemed like a much more rounded, robust and feature packed blogging software tool.

As a newbie looking into the future, WordPress made perfect sense. I would start with a blog hosted on WordPress.com and build a “test blog” just to get a feel for the blogging world. This wasn’t going to be anything serious. It was rather going to be a testing ground for experimenting with new ideas and getting familiar with the Wordpress administration console. By gaining experience on a free blogging platform that I could then use and convert to a self-hosted blogging platform made perfect sense. A WordPress.com blog would naturally be a transition phase for me as I move forward to something that allows me a greater depth of flexibility in my look and design.

And so my blogging journey began with the decision to use WordPress as my primary blogging platform. At this stage, I knew what I was doing (or so I thought) and the grass obviously looked greener on the WordPress side. Yet, with my first blog up and running I quickly realized the limitations that confronted me in the weeks ahead.

In my next post I will talk about the Blog I setup on WordPress.com and the lessons that were learned along the way.

In August 2007 I knew very little about blogging or about the resources that were available over the internet to grow and build an online business. I was confused, as I didn’t know where to start or where to begin looking for information online that could point me in the right direction. All I really knew about the internet was how to look up web pages, search for key terms, and view my email. I had absolutely no idea the impact of the discoveries I was about to make.

Hello, and may I introduce you to the Feed Reader!

It was about this time that I came across a number of interesting “make money online” blogs. They provided me with a few tips, tricks and suggestions of where I could begin my online journey. This was great information that I started to jot down within Microsoft Notepad - which at the time I used with great purpose to capture and organize my thoughts and information. The problem for me was that visiting these blogs on a daily basis to see if they posted a new article was a tedious task and very wasteful on my time. I thought that there must be a better method. I noticed each of them had a small RSS icon within their blog (similar to the blue icon you see on this blog). I wasn’t really sure what this was, and when I eventually clicked on it, it provided me with a list of feed readers that I could subscribe to. “This was interesting” I thought to myself. What I learned was that a feed reader is much like a personal email address for mass content and information that allows you to subscribe to blogs and other websites. This means that whenever a blog or website that you have subscribed to is updated with new information, you automatically receive the content or article within your feed reader. This is very convenient as it saves you ample time from having to visit all these different websites and blogs individually on a daily basis.

Don’t know what to do? Google Reader will show you the way

Although, all of this was great, I still however didn’t know what type of feed reader to choose. There were two types of feed readers available - an online version (within your internet browser) and a desktop version you can install on your PC. I tried quite a number of feed readers over the course of a couple of weeks - both browser and desktop based versions - and I eventually decided to settle on Google Reader. I came to this decision by using the following criteria:

• Google was a large a reputable company that would be around for years to come
• I already had a Gmail account and it just made sense to use Google Reader as well
• It was an online feed reader I could view in my internet browser - I therefore could access it from any computer around the world
• I imagined that Google would keep on updating and improving the feed reader over time
• It was one of the most popular and talked about feed readers out there
• I would not be storing data on my personal computer or hard drive

It made sense to go with Google Reader as I found that it had many time saving features that allowed me to tag and categorize the articles I received within the feed reader. However, bear in mind that there are many feed readers out there and Google Reader may not be the best or most ideal option for you. Yet , no matter what feed reader you choose, I have to strongly suggest that you start using one ASAP for all your information collection and research. There is no doubt that this is by far one of the best time saving programs available online.  If you are not using a feed reader than you are simply sabotaging and delaying your own success. For a full list of available feed readers visit the News on Feeds site.

An Alien language that makes no sense at all?

Having settled on Google Reader, I began signing up to as many blogs and sites as a could that would inform and educate me about the resources available over the internet to grow an online business. I have to say, that at the beginning all of this information was rather overwhelming. I was surprised and somewhat shocked that there were all these different types of online services, programs and communities that I had never heard of before.  For the first couple of months it all seemed as though I had stepped into an alien world with green Martians trying to teach me about their way of life in this strange online galaxy. They were talking a different and very strange language using words like Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, Flickr, Jaiku, StumbleUpon, Digg, Sphinn, Feedburner, Meebo, Slideshare, Docstoc, Second Life and others. It was all just very confusing.

Your first step is to Blog! Excuse me, but what exactly is a Blog?

Throughout the course of this research I realized that starting a blog was probably the best way to dip my feet into the Martian waters without overwhelming the mind by my lack of understanding of this rich new online environment. The question was however; what type of online blogging tool should I use to start my new blog? I will answer that questions in my next post.

For someone who is new to the internet or just uses it for basic searches, research and email, it is hard to fathom the scope and depth of information, resources and technology that is available online that can grow a business from nothing to something very special in quick succession. To fully grasp and understand the learning curve that one must go through in order to successfully tackle these challenges, one must transport oneself to another country, culture and learn a completely different language. Yes, it can be done; in fact many people have already made this journey successfully - yet for the majority out there, their fear of moving forward into the unknown will continue to hold them back from the life that they wish they had.

What this Blog is About?

This blog is about my personal journey from knowing very little about the internet, to learning to master the intrinsic steps towards running a successful online company. The discussions here will generally not be related to making money through this blog. Rather this blog will be in many ways a transcript or a “how to guide” for other projects that I am currently working on. Yes, occasionally I may touch on a few ideas here or there that pertain to this blog, yet that will not be the main focus of our discussions.

At the beginning stages of this journey, most of my attention will be focused on Study Matrix Art - a unique website with the purpose of  helping others to Accelerate their Learning Potential through the use of tools, techniques and strategies that will keep them at the forefront of their academic studies, career and industry in the years to come. The Study Matrix Art website is however not only a blog, but rather an eCommerce Online Store that provides people with advanced Mind Mapping and Concept Mapping tools - known as the Study Matrix - that are designed to dramatically enhance one’s learning potential as well as the development of a photographic memory when studying certain types of material. Primarily focused on student academic development, it however has a larger scope as well, by targeting adult learners and helping them to develop their full capacity. I won’t go into any more detail here about this site, as it will be introduced in greater depth during upcoming posts.

By tuning into this blog on a regular basis you will be exposed to insights and ideas about the following key areas:

• How to get a business started on the internet from beginner basics to advanced strategies with very little money
• How to build your traffic, exposure and brand online through Social Media Marketing and other online and offline tools with little expense
• How to grow and manage your online reputation on an ongoing basis
• How to find the right software and tools that will help you manage information and operate your business most effectively
• How to stay abreast on the latest technologies and stay ahead of the game
• And much more will be added as this journey evolves over time

All the above topics will be broken down into even more in-depth pieces, that will fit together nicely into a puzzle (or as I like to say, “into a Study Matrix) that you are hopefully able to grasp, understand and apply along your own journey.

There is no doubt that many mistakes will be made - time could well be wasted on strategies that don’t even come to fruition. And yet we all know the best way to learn is from other’s mistakes. I am doing my best to learn from those who did it before me, and I know you will do your best to learn from my experiences.

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