You can use a blog as a business platform to develop an income while you’re overseas. It’s not rocket science, but don’t naively expect you can just start writing and watch the money roll in.
You’ll need some basic skills which fall into three broad categories:
- Writing
- Marketing
- Technical
Blogging for Expats will cover mostly the third category, technical skills.
(Don’t worry — there are lots of resources available to help you hone your writing skills and learn about marketing, and I’ll point you to them.)
As I add new lessons in the tutorial, I’ll add them below.
Tutorials
#1: Blogging for Expats
Just as you need a physical space for a retail store, your blog needs its own real estate on the World Wide Web. There are places that offer to host your blog for free, but if you want to earn a living from your blog . . . [Read More]
Tutorial 1 Resources:
- Dreamhost
- Host Gator
- Blue Host
- Atahualpa Theme
- Elegant Themes
- Woo Themes
- StudioPress Themes for WordPress
- Secure WordPress
- Fast Secure Contact Form
- SI Captcha Anti Spam
- WP-DB Manager
- Google Analytics for WordPress
#2: How to Start Your Expat Blog
In the first tutorial in this series, you learned how to choose a domain name and a hosting company. Today, we’ll review the process of purchasing the domain name and signing up for your . . . [Read More]
Tutorial 2: Resources
#3: How to Install WordPress
Now you’re ready to install WordPress. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform in the world, used by over 25 million sites. (Read more about it here.) WordPress makes it easy to set up an attractive, functional site without knowing anything about programming or computer code. This tutorial will walk you through how to: . . .[Read More]
Tutorial 3 Resources
Download the Latest Version of WordPress
#4: One Simple Key to Locking your Blog Against Hackers
It’s a fact of life online that malicious hackers exist. Just as it’s impossible to secure your home against someone who’s absolutely determined to get in, it’s difficult to secure your website against every possible attack. However, there are some simple steps you can take . . . [Read More]
#5: Turn Your Blog Into a Reader Magnet
The theme is what makes your WordPress site look and behave the way it does.
Here’s an easy way to think about it: WordPress is like your house’s foundation and framing. If your basic structure is a 1,000 square foot rectangle, the finished house will also be a rectangle, not an oval or an . . . [Read More]
Tutorial 5 Resources
#6: Choose Your Plugins Wisely
If WordPress is the foundation and framing, and the theme is your exterior elevation and materials, then plugins are installed inside to make the home more usable. A plugin is a small bit of code that lets you perform . . . [Read More]
Tutorial 6 Resources
#7: More Fun with WordPress Plugins
Plugins can decorate your blog, and provide additional functionality beyond what your theme offers.
Remember, though, just as you should never download free themes from anywhere except WordPress.org, you should never get free plugins [Read More]
Tutorial 7 Resources
#8: WordPress Settings to Know and Love
This tutorial gives you a detailed look at the WordPress Settings menu, and recommends what to customize and what to leave alone. Not very thrilling, but necessary to the proper working of your blog. [Read More. . .]
#9: How to Add Content to Your WordPress Blog
This installment shows you, step by step, how to add articles and posts to your blog. It includes a plug at the end for a wonderful blogging resource. [Read More. . .]
#10: Dress Up Your Blog with Pictures
Add some eye candy to your blog. Here we discuss how to select and upload pictures to dress things up visually. [Read More. . .]
#11: How to Know What Premium WordPress Theme is Right for your Site
So you’ve got an idea for your blog, you’ve worked your way through the basics of setting it up, maybe you’ve even posted a few articles. But your site still doesn’t look as professional as you’d like.
What to do. . . what to do. . . [Read More. . .]
#12: You’ve Only Got a Few Months to Get This Right
If you’re serious about building a business or portable career around a blog, you only have a few months to get one particular technical aspect under control. [Read More. . .]
#13: List-Building Basics
When you market online, there are essentially two ways to get your message out.
Attract huge amounts of traffic using any/every available means — ads, PPC, social media, etc., and then sell, sell, sell
Attract targeted traffic, let them get to know you, then offer them something that will make their lives easier
Needless to say, I fall into the second camp.
The question is, once you’ve attracted readers to your site who’s interested in what you have to offer, how do you reach them when you have something you’re ready to offer them? [Read More. . .]
#14. 52 Links to Help You Build Your WordPress Website
Is a portable career part of your plan for an untethered expat life? If it includes a WordPress blog or website, here are 52 links to help you get started. I’ve tried to arrange them in roughly the order you’ll need them. [Read More. . .]