Blog Tech Guy

It’s been at least, oh I don’t know, maybe three people who have asked me how this can be done.

First, I find it best to resize the image to the size you want it before uploading then it’s easier to work with.

Then to add a caption I usually like to add a CSS class and wrap a div around the photo to style it. If that sounds like gibberish then you could just try something like the following code in the HTML part tab of the visual editor:

After each photo. This makes the text 90% of the standard size, in italics and grey/gray.

If you wanted to do this the CSS way, you would add something like this to your themes style.css

Then in a post would write this:

The text would then be styled as before. Notice the “hard return” before the caption text i.e. it starts on a new line, otherwise the caption text would start next to the photo and not below it. It is possible to automatically wrap text at a certain width, but let’s not confuse matters.

You could of course also set a background colour, float the image right or left and many other things.

Hope that hasn’t confused you too much!

After working on so many people’s blogs it has become apparent that whilst there are many, many things that can be improved (including on my own) there are a few basics:

1. Don’t monetize too early. Do you see any adverts on my blog? No. Why? Because I don’t have enough traffic to make much money anyway, I don’t want people to be put off by a lot of adverts, it looks more professional and it looks neater. Which leads me onto…

2. Reduce clutter. I’m guilty of this myself, but reducing the number of images (and adverts) and animation on a homepage can make a site look more attractive, and professional.

3. Give someone somewhere to subscribe to your RSS feed via email. Again, I don’t do this on this site (I just offer the RSS at the moment), but I will when I get around to it. Feedburner currently only offers a daily email (though once the Google integration is finished they promise to offer more options), Feedblitz can be configured to be hourly, daily, weekly or monthly for free (ad-supported), and Aweber can also manage this along with other nice email management features for a fee.

4. Write more content. I receive emails all the time asking me “How can I make more money?” and I look at their site that is full of adverts and has a post once every 8 or 9 days. If you blog is aimed at making money by simply being a blog (unlike one like this which is alongside a business), then you need to get more traffic in order to make more money. It’s called the “magazine model” - you make more money the more people who visit you site. In order to get this traffic you need to post quality articles, often. For more information, check out Yaro Starak’s free Blog Profits Blueprint eBook.

There are obviously countless more examples that can be done to improve a website. If you’d like a professional review of your blog or website, please contact me and we can have a chat.

Become A Blogger has launched with a series of free videos on how to become a blogger. Devised by Yaro Starak, the entrepreneur from Australia who currently teaches people how to make a full time income from blogging part time through his Blog Mastermind mentoring program. Plus once you’ve watched these you can download his great free report Blog Profits Blueprint to put you on the path to becoming a full or part time professional blogger.

So what videos are there?
Video 1 - Why You Should Use WordPress
Video 2 - How To Get Your Own Domain Name
Video 3 - How To Get A Web Host Video
Video 4 - How To Install WordPress With One Click
Video 5 - How To Upload Files To Your Webhost Using FTP
Video 6 - Choosing A WordPress Theme For Your New Blog
Video 7 - How To Install And Use WordPress Plugins
Video 8 - How To Create Your First Blog Post And Blog Page
Video 9 - What RSS Is And Why You Need It
Video 10 - How To Use Feedburner For Supercharging Your RSS Capabilities

Whilst some of the technical parts are explained in the videos, one of the main points Yaro mentions is to outsource the technical aspect of blogging if that is not your strong point. Ahem, let me know if this is you . In fact he says:

“In the long run it’s definitely a smarter tactic, something I wish I did myself from day one, but instead I decided to struggle with technology myself and thus slow my progress down considerably.”
Source: Entrepreneurs-journey.com

Blog Tech Guy is designed just for that, so you can concentrate on making money from your blog!

If you want to become a better blog writer, firstly you need to spend more time on writing and less on maintenance. That’s where Blog Tech Guy comes in, outsource the technical problems to us and give yourself more time.

Once you can concentrate on writing, you need to be reading Brian Clark’s Copyblogger. If you don’t know where to start, try following these steps:

- Read his excellent 10 step copywriting tutorial.

- Writing headlines is a very important skill, so learn how to write magnetic headlines.

-You should always write for readers first, and search engines second. Here’s how to do the search engine part.

- If you want to learn more, there are some excellent copywriting books you can buy.

I’ll leave you with his top 10 tips for becoming a better writer:

1. Write.
2. Write more.
3. Write even more.
4. Write even more than that.
5. Write when you don’t want to.
6. Write when you do.
7. Write when you have something to say.
8. Write when you don’t.
9. Write every day.
10. Keep writing.

This site in NOT about making money from your blog, it’s about why blogging will make you money. I believe a business that blogs correctly will make money via sales and referrals and the increase in contact with your customers.

However, if you want to make money directly from your blog, there are a few ways of doing it. Some of these links go back to another site of mine, Life Goggles which provides further details.

The amount of money you can earn is limited by two factors:

1 - How much traffic you have.
2 - How well you can monetize that traffic i.e. how you make money from your readers.

If you would like further information on this, or how I can help you set up your blog please contact me..