Starting A Blog

Starting A Blog

Starting A Blog

A blog is a site run by a person or group written to evoke conversation and education its audience.

Before the term “blog” was created, a blog was referred to as a “web log.” A web log is essentially an online diary of information organized chronologically with the latest “logs” appearing at the top of the page. Blogs became more prevalent in the late ’90s and were used by many businesses and individuals to promote products, provide reviews and disperse information on a wide variety of topics.

Since blogs are written from an individual perspective, it immediately creates a connection between the blogger and the reader. Comment sections are often seen below the blog post, opening the door to further contact.

This casual, open dialogue is one of the most significant benefits of starting a blog. You can bounce ideas back and forth with others and connect with those who share the same interests. Your readers will likely trust you more, seeing you as a person and not just a business. More trust leads to more potential sales, whether it be your services, an affiliate lead or product.

Anyone with a computer and a web host can start a blog. The start-up cost is minimal, and if you learn how to do it right, you’ll make your money back in no time.

At first glance, starting a blog can seem overwhelming. But breaking it down one by one, it’s not so difficult. Here are 5 steps to help you walk through this process seamlessly.

How to Start a Blog in 5 Steps

  1. Choose a name for your blog. Check  the availability of potential domain names here
  2. Get your blog online. Choose a hosting provider and purchase the domain name. Check out this article about GreenGeeks and why we recommend them.
  3. Set up your blog setup on WordPress.
    If you are using GreenGeeks, click here are step by step directions
  4. Choose a theme (free or paid).
    A theme is the basic design of your site (layout, fonts, background colour, etc). Click the blue ‘activate’ button and you’re ready to start designing!
  5. Write your first Blog!

You’ve got your website set up—now start writing!

On the left menu panel, click “Posts.” A default post will appear.

Add the title of your blog in the top text box.

Type up your blog post content in the main text box.

To the right of the window, you’ll find a place to add categories and tags. Use these to organize your posts. Create your own unique categories and tags, which appear in the sidebar or below the blog title.

At the very bottom is the featured image link. Click this and it will pull up your media library. Select an image and it will appear on the main blog post feed as well as the blog post itself.

Once you complete the blog post, go ahead and click publish! And just like magic, your post will appear at the top of your website.

You can schedule the blog to be posted at a specific time if you’d like. Want to add to it or fix a typo? You can edit it at any time. Now get ready to write your next blog post!

How to Install WordPress Using GreenGeeks

How to Install WordPress Using GreenGeeks

Green Geeks makes WordPress installation nice ‘n easy with the Softaculous installer. We will walk you through the steps to complete setup so you can get your website up and running pronto!

Once you have registered and set up a user account with GreenGeeks, you will find the Cpanel, which is your dashboard to access all your website features.

1. Click the blue cPanel button at the bottom.

2. Once you are in cPanel, scroll all the way down to “Softaculous Apps Installer” and click the WordPress icon. You could also search “WordPress” in the top search bar to find the icon.

3. Click the “Install Now” button. The latest version of WordPress will automatically apply.


4. Now it’s time to get your settings configured. You will find the following sections, which are pretty straight forward.

Software Set up
The latest version will appear at the top. Enter https if you have an SSL. Otherwise, http://. The next is your domain, “yoursitename.com”, which will automatically appear unless you have more than one domain. Unless you’re technically-minded, you can ignore the “In Directory” section. This simply helps you organize your web directory.

Site Name
Enter the title of your website. The title appears in search engines as well as the top of the browser window tab.

Site Description
The site description is an important one to fill out. The site description determines how likely you will show up in a search result. Keep it simple but accurate and including your location is helpful. Example: Title: Das Studio — Making Brands Better.

Description: Das Studio is a remote, full-service design agency. Specializing in branding and website designs for small businesses with big dreams.

Admin Account
For security reasons, be sure you remove the “admin” and enter your own unique username and password. Make the password Is complex. You can click the little key icon to automatically generate a new password. Voila!

Choose Language
This is self-explanatory. Select your language from the dropdown.

Select Plugin
Here you have the option to automatically install some of the more popular plugins.1. Limit Login – protects your site by limiting the number of login attempts. 2. Classic Editor – the original WordPress editor, which was recently replaced by Gutenburg. Select this if you prefer the original look or you’re using a builder/plugin that requires the old editor. Elementor Page Builder – a popular drag and drop WordPress page builder. WPForms Lite – best free WordPress contact form.

Advanced options
This section includes advanced options, including auto-updates and backup. We recommend automatically upgrading to the latest version of WordPress, theme, and plugins.  Also, be sure to backup your site at least once a week.

Select a Theme
And finally, we have our theme options! You can choose a free WordPress theme if you desire, or allow the installer to automatically pick the default theme for you. This can be changed at any point and custom/paid themes can be added once logged into your WordPress site.

Now click the blue install button and you’re done!

You’ll see a notice that your software was installed successfully at your domain. It’s a good idea to bookmark your WordPress login address (www.YourSite.com/wp-admin) for easy access.

That’s it! You’re ready to begin working on your new website. Let the fun begin!

Contact us if we can be of assistance in your web building.

 

Hosting Provider We Recommend

Hosting Provider We Recommend

Is it possible to find a hosting provider that provides quality service in ADDITION to being budget-friendly?!

As you may be well aware, there are a plethora of web host providers out there promising to deliver the best service… How do you choose? Several years ago, DasStudio discovered GreenGeeks hosting, and we’re not looking back!
We recommend them to all of our clients. Here are some of the qualities we GEEK out about….

EcoFriendly Environment

It may surprise you that the web site hosting industry is indeed harmful to our environment! The average web hosting service produces 1,390 lb of C02 per year with predictions that it will use as much energy as the airline industry by 2020! GreenGeeks is the most eco-friendly web hosting service in existence today. You can find them on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partners. GreenGeeks uses environmental foundations to purchase wind energy credits to put back into the grid three times (3X) the amount of energy they consume. Other hosting providers run on fossil fuels or other harmful sources of energy.

High Performance

We’ve heard nightmares of clients having their sites down repeatedly for hours at a time! This is especially common with some of the cheap web hosts out there. With GreenGeeks’ 99.9% service uptime, you can be assured your site be up and stay up! They also offer complimentary CDN (Content Delivery Network to help speed up your site.  To increase security, account isolation is another excellent feature, protecting your website against hackers. Their secure cFS framework allows them to protect against malware in real-time.

Superior Customer Service

Do you cringe when you are only given the option to call customer support with 45+ minute wait times? GreenGeeks offers 24/7 online customer support (email or live chat) in addition to being available by phone 7 days a week (M-F 9Am-12AM; Sat-Sun 9Am – 8 PM). Generally, we never have to wait more than 5 minutes for a representative to respond.

Cost Effective / Budget Friendly

Who doesn’t want to save money? At $2.95/month GreenGeeks is one of the lowest cost providers out there. GreenGeeks offers a free domain for an entire year and will even provide one free web transfer, free of charge! So if you’re looking to migrate your existing site (from another web host provider), you can have the professionals handle it without lifting a finger.  When you select a 2 or 3-year plan, it works out to be about $5-7CAD a month which is way cheaper than other host providers. They currently have a 60% off which will be automatically applied as you go through the steps.

If you want to go ahead sign up you can by following this link… ( Das Studio tracking link)  https://www.greengeeks.com/track/designdasstudioca/cp-default

Just follow these steps:

  1. Click button (Get Started)
  2. Select Hosting Plan & choose a domain name (I Need to Register a new Domain)
  3. Fill out all your contact info
  4. Best coupon value will automatically apply
  5. Once complete, you will receive 3 emails total (With an important account and hosting information for the last 2)

Any questions? Just ask us! We’re happy to help.

Do I need a Privacy Policy on my website?

Do I need a Privacy Policy on my website?

If you are collecting any type of personal information on your site, you need to include a privacy policy page to protect yourself legally. This includes your users’ name, email, mailing address and credit card info.

The privacy policy informs your visitors about the information collected and why. It should include the following:

  • The information your site collects from your users The purpose of collecting this info
  • How the information is obtained
  • Who has access to this information (i.e. Google AdSense, newsletter services or any other third-party device)
  • Instructions on how to disable cookies and third-party ads
  • How users can contact you if they have questions

A privacy policy not only protects you from potential legal issues, it helps you gain trust from your visitors and establishes you as a professional. Adding a privacy policy is quick and painless once you know where to go to generate it.

Creating a Privacy Policy in WordPress

If you are using WordPress 4.9.6 and up, you can generate a custom privacy policy from your WordPress dashboard. This is by far the easiest way to create a privacy policy for a simple website. If you have an older version of WordPress, be sure to update it by clicking the refresh icon at the top of the screen.

Once you are logged into WordPress, go to Settings > Privacy.

Then select “create a new page” and you find the generated policy page. Edit as desired, adding new content as it pertains to your site. For instance, if you are using Google Analytics, you’ll need to add a clause about data usage.
The default policy includes a blurb about Cookies, Embedded content from other websites, how long data is kept, etc.

Once when you’re happy with the policy, click publish. Now you can add the new link of the policy page (default address of www.yoursitename/privacy-policy) and add where desired (i.e. your site home page, menu, footer). We recommend a place that is highly visible.

Privacy Policy Generators

Alternatively, there are numerous free privacy policy generators you can use to create a policy page. The policies can literally be generated in a few minutes. For more advanced features, like additional clauses or a pdf download, you will likely have to pay a small fee.

Here are a few of the more popular generators:

PrivacyPolicies.com

Shopify.com

Termsfeed.com

Privacypolicyonline.com

We hope you found this article helpful.  Remember…Prevention is worth a pound of cure.

What happened to WordPress?! Here’s a quick rundown for using the new Gutenburg Editor

What happened to WordPress?! Here’s a quick rundown for using the new Gutenburg Editor

WordPress recently launched their latest version of WordPress 5 on December 6, 2018. You may have noticed a striking difference in how the page editor appears. Don’t let it intimidate you! We will walk you through–step by the step–the basic editing process using the new WordPress default editor (AKA “The Gutenberg”) and you it’s not so scary after all.

 After you are logged into your WordPress site, find the “posts” section on the left side of your screen.

Click on the page you wish to edit and you will see the new editor screen, which looks like this:

Here is the old editor in case you need a refresher…

The editing screen is now made up of “blocks”. Blocks are a great way to quickly add content (text, images, galleries, videos, buttons and more) to your web page. Whether you’re a newbie or an expert designer, the new platform allows you to arrange and edit blocks of content to create an attractive website.

You will see there are two tabs on the right: document and block. Document is where you’ll find your publishing settings, featured image and page layout options. Block is where you’ll find your block settings (for instance, text color and size options).

Type in your title in the bold area and then type your content right below. Simply click enter to go to the next section.

Images can be quickly added from your media library or directly from you computer by clicking the plus (+) sign then simply locate the image icon.

You can style your text by using the settings on the right panel under the “block” tab.

Once you are ready to publish your web page, click that familiar blue publish button!

What The Heck is WordPress?

What The Heck is WordPress?

Often business owners question… “What the heck is WordPress?” If you are wondering the same, you are reading the right article. Here are a few reasons why you would want to use WordPress and how you and your business can benefit from it.

Why WordPress?

WordPress is often mistaken as just a blogging platform. Although that used to be true, it has evolved over the years into a versatile content management system. While WordPress is still a great blogging tool you can also use it for fully functional responsive websites.

The best part about WordPress is that it is so simplistic and easily understood by many users. 22.5% of websites on the Internet are powered by WordPress. Many of the top brands use WordPress to power their websites including but not limited to: Time Magazine, Sony, Jay-Z, LinkedIn, eBay, and more.

WordPress is Easy to Manage

WordPress comes with build-in updater feature that sends reminders when a plugin or a theme is out of date. Keeping your WordPress theme updated ensures your website has a backup version and will run smoothly.

From a client perspective, using the WordPress platform is very beneficial. It allows you to login to your website and make changes with ease without having to hire a developer/graphic designer to make changes to price tables or text on your about page.

What type of website can I launch with WordPress?

The possibilities are endless. If you have a business, an artist or simply have something to say WordPress is the right choice for you.

You can use WordPress as the following:

  • Arcade
  • Blog
  • Content Management System (CMS)
  • Gallery
  • Portfolio
  • Rating Website
  • Shopping Store
  • Video Collection Site
  • Membership Site

To see how other top brands use WordPress to their advantage you can visit the WordPress Showcase.

Hopefully, I was able to clarify what WordPress is and how it can benefit you online. If you have more questions, please comment below.