In the past two days, I’ve had requests from two clients to show them how to do this, and so I thought, “If THEY need to know how, then probably others do, too.” Here’s a quick video showing how to link text to other websites, documents, and email addresses. I apologize in advance for the scruffy voice – I’m trying to not let my allergies get the best of me!

Also, I have a FREE PREVIEW of my Easy Website Playbook just for subscribers to MyNameIsAngie. Drop your name and email here or in the subscription box in the sidebar, and I’ll send you the private link. Even if YOU don’t need a basic primer on how to install and use WordPress, please share it with someone you know. Thanks!

So tell me – what were you looking for when you came here when you searched for “wordpress dashboard appearance” or “customize wordpress dashboard?” How can I help? Tell me what you need to know and I’ll tell you what I know.

Let me explain how my three step system is going to help you. With my system, you won’t need a graphic designer or website designer because you’ll be able to build your own website using a simple tool called WordPress, then install an amazing theme created just for information products, and finally, create your own eBook cover…all for less than $100. Here’s how in three easy steps.

Step 1: Secure hosting and a domain for your website and install WordPress on that hosting.

I personally recommend HostGator. If you’re not sure what hosting is, you can check out this article on the four pillars of a website. Once you’ve purchased your hosting, you should install WordPress. I personally recommend HostGator‘s one-click install. If you know anything about information marketing, you know WordPress is the *insert name of your dream car here* of website-building software. It’s free with your HostGator account, and easy to install.

Once you’ve installed it, you will need to create a LOOK for your website that really WORKS for an information product. I just finished an eBook site for Jim Kukral’s new book “Attention: This Book Will Make You Money,” and the theme I used was a SUPER-simple WordPress template called obviously enough, “eBook,” from Templatic.

Step 2: Attract and retain visitors with the eBook theme from Templatic.

What’s great about this theme is that it has an AMAZING administration panel and a great support forum. It features this great landing page (above) with links to the internal pages, an integrated BLOG, twitter feed, feedburner subscription box, testimonials from readers, an “About the Author” widget, and more! The Pages on the inside can look differently than the blog itself, too… All of the nifty text areas on the front page are either widgets accessible through the standards widgets administration area, or are custom admin panels found through the Appearance>Theme Options tab.

Once this theme is installed, if you follow the instructions given with the theme, you can have your site up and running in about an hour. Not bad! Except for this one thing… the big eBook staring at you on the front page, of course! That’s obviously not YOUR must-have information product. You still have to have the image of YOUR eBook to drop in there. So here’s the easiest way to get a GREAT eBook cover (or CD, Video, Magazine…) cover, whatever your information product happens to be. Step Three of how to to create your E-book cover and website…

Step 3: Impress Your Readers With The Online eBook Cover Software

Click here for a quick video showing you the easy-to-use Online Book Cover Software. Creating an eBook cover is not the simplest thing to do…I did my own for the Easy Website Playbook, and even for someone like me who is neither graphic-dumb nor graphic-rockstar, it wasn’t easy. I used a free template, but I still had to create my own cover graphic and then distort it to the shape of the template. When I have to do it over again, I will use this software rather than waste hours of my time doing it myself.

If you’ve taken the time to create your own information product, then you definitely have it in you to create your own eBook cover and website. Do it right the first time and use the eBook theme from Templatic and the Online Book Cover Software.

P.S….I’m in the middle of my own eBook project called the Easy Website Playbook. Don’t let what you don’t know about building a WordPress website scare you from moving your business forward online. I’ll show you how! You can get a sneak peek here, and if you want to know the minute it’s out – sign up for my newsletter.

If you’re using WordPress (please, tell me you’re using WordPress already), the videos below will show you how to find, install and use a plugin called Organize Series. Keep your hard earned series from being relegated to page 28 of your site.

And yes, I know I could have made a series of these four videos…

INTRO TO ORGANIZING SERIES ON WORDPRESS

HOW TO ADD A SERIES

A POST IN A SERIES USING THE DEFAULT SETTINGS

HOW TO ADD A POST TO A SERIES

Undoubtedly, this video has been shared on Facebook and Twitter the same number of times. I’m not even an OSU fan, and when President Gordon Gee comes across with Brutus Buckeye, I almost shed a little tear.

So this post you’re reading right now…it could be about anything, right? It just happens to be about OSU because that’s what was hot in my neck of the woods this week. Whatever you write about, you obviously want your readers to share with other people, whether those people are at your site or not. Now visitors can simply click a Facebook LIKE button on your site and just as they LIKE a link or video on Facebook, they can LIKE your article. Once they LIKE it, a short line will appear on their Facebook wall that says, “Angie Meeker likes Adding a Facebook Like Button To Your WordPress Website,” except that it will have their name, and their article, obviously. Let’s get people showing their friends on Facebook how much their like your website.

Here’s how to install the NEW Facebook LIKE button on your WordPress site.

BTW – It didn’t show up in my feed because when I tested it earlier, and it DID show up, I hid it…so that it wouldn’t be there when I went to show you it magically appear for this video. Try it yourself and see it work!

Jim has a new book coming out this August. Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue will be released shortly before the the Affiliate Summit. (Yes, those are affiliate links-go preorder your copy so you have it before the Summit). But what good is a kick-arse book without a kick-arse website to go with it?

www.attentionthebook.com.

We created a site for Jim which gives his attention getting ideas a platform for making you money. He’s giving away some pretty great ideas and goodies already, including a copy of Linchpin. If you haven’t been there yet, pack up your attention and go there now!

PS. If your site needs a refresher, or you’re ready for a new site altogether, mention that you got our attention through Jim and get a $50 discount!

With that said, here is how I do it here at My Name Is Angie. I use a plugin called Cute Profiles. The video below shows you how to install it and get networking.

So here’s a quick video on how to login to your WordPress website. If you just want to go do it right now, simply visit www.insertyourdomainnamehere.com/wp-admin . The important part of that url is the /wp-admin at the end of your domain. For My Name Is Angie, it would be www.mynameisangie.com/wp-admin. You will then be asked for your username and password, and once you’ve clicked submit, you’ll be taken to your Dashboard.

If you liked this post or found it helpful, please share it! And, be sure to subscribe to our email newsletter to be updated when we offer new tips on how to build your own website!

If you WOULD like to look at some PREMIUM themes (that you have to purchase), here are a few publishers for which I am an affiliate (which means that I would USE these themes myself, and in the case of Press75, I have used their themes on several sites!)

Yesterday I was reading a forum post at Young Entrepreneur in which the original poster asked, “What do I do with these domains?” He owns Greenandeconomic.com, americancasinosociety.com and wedding-finance.com. The responses ranged from “nothing, just put some google ads on them,” to “write some content for them.” The best solution is probably somewhere between the two answers.

Google ads work best when your site has traffic, and the best way to get traffic to your site is to have relevant, frequent content. “Relevant, frequent content,” though, can be intimidating. Where do you start when creating content? Yaro at www.Entreprenuers-Journey.com has long recommended creating Pillar Articles for your site. I’m not just linking for link’s sake, either. I use these pillars myself here at My Name Is Angie. Here are examples of Pillar Articles that can help you get writing for your site today:

Here are typical pillar article concepts that you can post to your blog:

1. THE “HOW-TO” ARTICLE

This is a staple pillar article concept. Think about your industry and write an article that teaches how to do something in it. Be certain to only write how-to articles on topics you genuinely understand how to do and have experience with.

Some possible examples:

• If you are a marketing consultant, write some advice on how to market a business using no money.
• If you blog about dogs, write how to choose an appropriate dog name
• If you blog about how to write a book, produce a how-to guide on approaching publishers.
• If you blog about food, write recipe guides on how to prepare popular dishes.
• If you blog about your life, write how-to guides on self development from the life lessons you have learnt (e.g. How you got a job, how you dealt with breaking up with your boyfriend, etc.). It should be reasonably obvious which how-to topics are popular and relevant to your audience and which you feel capable of explaining well. Remember to tell a story if you can!

2. THE DEFINITION ARTICLE

Many industries have key concepts which new readers won’t know. If a concept is complicated, produce a pillar article that defines the concept, clearly explaining what it means and how it can be mplemented. It may seem simple and obvious to you, but remember you are an expert in your field, so explain it to the newbies in simple terms and, of course, try and tell a story as an example. A glossary definition page is a good pillar article. If there are a handful of key concepts in your industry, write an article that lists the concepts and provides a one-paragraph definition for each. A resource page like this is good as a reference piece and often referred back to by other bloggers and websites. You may say why bother doing this if most terms are already defined elsewhere on the web at sites like Wikipedia?

It’s okay to link to other websites for definitions, especially in the short term when you are just getting things set up, but it’s a lot better if you write your own definitions. It keeps readers on your blog, increases your pageviews (the total number of pages of your blog readers view) and visitor length (how long readers stay at your blog). You can describe a concept in your own words, using your own unique story and voice. This helps to build credibility and trust. It’s always smarter to include your own version of a definition if you are capable of explaining a term or concept, rather than link to other sites and drive traffic away from your blog.

3. PRESENT A THEORY OR ARGUMENT

If you blog about politics, writing an article discussing your theories about communism, democracy or capitalism can make a great pillar article. The important thing here is to present some unique thought. Give your opinion on a major issue in your industry, or even on a mainstream topic that you suspect your readers will take an interest in. Try not to simply rehash what other people have said and clearly present your own thesis argument. Stimulate conversation, perhaps controversy, about a topic that is often discussed and is not time-dependent and you will draw traffic to your blog.

4. CREATE A RESOURCE LIKE A FREE REPORT, WHITEPAPER OR E-COURSE

This is one of my favorite pillar concepts. A document such as a whitepaper (a small document, 2-10 pages, which teaches how to do something) or a series of articles combined to create a course, is a fantastic pillar. You have a few options to present this information:

• Create a PDF which your readers can download, just like what you are reading now. The benefit of this method is that the file can be shared easily (forwarded through email for example – hint, hint ) and you may benefit from viral marketing effects, especially if you produce a top quality e-book or report.

Type the content into several blog posts and interlink them together. You can also highlight them as a stand-alone series in your archives or articles page. If you visit the articles section of my blog under the “Free Reports” heading, you will see an example of a PDF report that Brian Clark and myself put together, which is a good example of free resource pillar content. If you can’t decide what is the best method to distribute your free resource, my suggestion is to offer it in as many ways as possible. Make a PDF available for download, publish the articles individually and make them available from an email list too. That way you maximize your exposure and cater to the widest possible audience. The important thing with this concept is to create a complete all-in-one solution to a common problem. Similar to the how-to article, a free resource is a powerful pillar concept because it demonstrates your expertise and brings in consistent.

5. ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR PILLAR CONCEPTS IS A LIST ARTICLE

You have probably seen many of these at other blogs. The usual titles are “Top 7 Ways To…” or “10 Tips To Improve…” etc. These work well for a couple of reasons –

1. Lists are easily digested by human beings. It’s been tested and proven that articles in the 300-700 word range with lots of clear dot-point bulleted lists and a compelling headline are good traffic pullers. In this case it’s all about simplicity of consumption for people with short attention spans – i.e. most web surfers.

2. Lists provide directly actionable lessons and people love to share lists with other people. Consequently list articles are often linked to by other bloggers and added to social bookmarking sites that drive traffic. Provided your list follows all the standard pillar concept rules – timeless, original content, problem solving ideas – and you keep it directly applicable to your audience, most lists will become pillars. Be wary of doing lists of topics well covered by other people or on really simple concepts. As usual the more “you” included through stories and a unique style, the more likely your list will perform well.

6. A TECHNICAL BLUEPRINT

A technical blueprint is very much like a how-to or a whitepaper, but is focused on the technical aspects of a problem. Technology-focused bloggers are good at blueprint pillar articles because they love to use graphs, spreadsheets and images to demonstrate how to do something. A technical blueprint is a step-by-step, visually enhanced article demonstrating exactly how to complete a task. Often the pictures tell the story more than the words do. Designers and programmers use this style of blog post to show how they code a website, design an image using Photoshop, code software, or simpler activities like attach a file to an email. You can apply the principle to almost any industry that has common tasks which may be complex to understand. In this case it’s more about the imagery and less about the story. Personally, I find it easier to write an explanation using words rather than take lots of screenshots or photographs, but this may not be the same for you. If you have access to the necessary resources, making a blueprint-style blog post that clearly demonstrates how to do something is a perfect pillar concept.

That covers some of the most basic and powerful pillar article concepts you can apply to your blog and test. If you write an article each day using one of the concepts above, you will have a solid foundation for a successful blog. All you need to add to the mix is effective marketing…