The Zen of Getting Started Online
"How to get started without losing your mind" 

Getting started online consists of several components.

First you will need some type of online presence.

I will walk you through all your options which even includes some options

such as starting a free blog.
Read through this entire first lesson before you decide what is right for you.

I am going to get a little Zen on you here.
People have lots of fear around working online.

Some of the things I hear almost daily are, “I am so stupid with computers”, “I don’t know anything”,
and so forth. When you work on the computer, no matter where your skills are currently at, you need to realize

several things,

1. You can do it. (please do not tell yourself you are stupid, you aren’t.)

 

2. Take it one task, one item at a time.

 

3. Take a break when feeling frustrated.

 

4. Goggle for help. I find answers to almost every problem I run into online by googling the question.

 

5. Stay focused on what you are trying to accomplish.

I would have to say that the most important thing I have learned the last 10 years working online is to stay focused on what you are trying to achieve.
When you work online there are literally millions of things that will be clamoring for your attention.

You will suddenly begin to notice all these internet marketing ideas, and “get rich online”, and this tool and that tool, and then your friends will start to tell you things you simply must be doing,

like Twitter and  Facebook and tons of things you may of never even heard of!
EVERYONE will tell you that they know best, you simply MUST try this , and this will just suck up all your time if you start to listen to everyone.
No wonder people get so overwhelmed.
My best tip for you today is to write this down on an index card and post it somewhere where you see it

each day.

What am I trying to accomplish online?
Is what I am doing right now, getting me closer to that goal?

This will help you stay focused, and not get distracted from your primary purpose.
I also suggest that you do not start buying any internet marketing products or go down that path
until you have at least gotten a website or a blog up somewhere and have spent some time developing

some content.

This is always the first thing you have to learn, no matter what your goals are.

Staying focused on the basics will allow you to get a little experience before you invest in some of

these internet marketing products that have an entirely different learning curve and can be complex and

a waste of money. If you find a product you want to buy, feel free to email me and I will review it for you.
It kills me to watch people waste money on these products, that are either just bad products or my clients can’t even use

them because they don’t have the skill level yet to understand how to set them up.

So let’s get started.

I will cover the free options after the traditional start up needs.

1. You will need a domain name.

 

You can buy this from AskMePc here.

Or you can buy it from a variety of places, like godaddy.

The advantage of purchasing a domain name from AskMePc

• Help managing your domain
• Help with pointing your DNS servers to your hosting account
• Pick the phone and call a real person

Things like installing a WordPress blog, or managing
your DNS, (domain name servers) can be confusing and complex for most people.
At AskMePc, we do those for you, for no extra charge.
Domain name pricing will vary, places that usually offer

a very cheap price will charge you full price upon annual renewal.

Some of my own experiences since I got started online back in 1999, were really a nightmare

in this area. I had no direct access to control my domain names, when I changed hosting

I almost lost my domain names, since the hosting company would not send me the

release codes I needed to move my domain names into my control!

Not to mention I had no idea what all the lingo meant and I found it totally confusing.

With AskMePc you can pick up the phone, Skype or email us and you will get immediate help.

You are in complete control of your domain names and our hosting has a very user friendly Control

Panel, called a C-Panel, which is the most widely use panel in the world.

You can check out a demo of it here and take a look around.

It includes two statistic programs called Awats and Webilizer, where you can go and see how many visitors

you have on you site each day, plus a ton of relevant information, like what phrases or keywords are bringing then

to your site and where are they coming from.

But we will cover this in detail in a later lesson.

2. You will need to select a hosting company.

This is a good basic article on what you need from a hosting company- click here.
AskMePc offers full service hosting for only 9.95 a month

or a discount of 20% off if you pay annually.
We offer unlimited email addresses, plenty of space and bandwidth,
Free install of wordpress for you and great statistic programs built in and
much much more, try out our C-panel demo and see what we have here.

3. You will need a website or a blog.

Once you have gotten your domain name, selected your hosting and set it up you are ready

to set up your website or blog.

• What is the difference between a website and a blog?

The first thing you need to know is they both are websites.
Blogging started out as more of a journaling tool, and the name blog comes from

“web log”. What has evolved is very exciting WordPress, which has become the major blogging

platform is now more powerful then most websites in what it can do for you.

It is what is called a “content management system.”
What this means is you as the user have control of the site.

I encourage many of my clients to select what I call a “blog website” vs.the traditional

straight website.
I offer WordPress training and also several install packages to help you get started.

Here are some great free instructional videos  and some easy to understands guides
to help you while you are learning.
Many of these will literally walk you through each step of the process.

With WordPress.org, (self hosted) you can select a premade theme for free from  here

or have one customized for you from AskMePc or other sources.
To see some of the professional business themes I own, that you can hire me to install, set up and

customize for you, visit here. We install all the above for you if you want, for more details go here.

4. Get a free blog and practice!

You can sign up for a free blog at WordPress.com.
or Blogger. I recommend WordPress.com, since they are the number one content management system
out there and if you learn the system in their free version, if you decide to host your own site, you will
be able to transfer your site over to you own hosting and domain with ease.

5. What is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org?

Something that has confused many people is the distinction between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
Let’s clear it up. WordPress.com is brought to you by some of the same folks who work on WordPress, the open source blogging software. In addition, WordPress.com utilizes the same WordPress software which you can download at WordPress.org. With WordPress.com the hosting and managing of the software is taken care of by the team here at Automattic. With WordPress.org you need to install the software on your own server or with a 3rd party provider.

With WordPress.org, you have the blog on your own domain. Your address would be http://www.domain.com/blog or whatever you want to name your folder instead of “blog”.
If you use a WordPress blog as your primary website, you don’t have to call it anything, it would just be
http://www. my domain.com.

Many companies are running WordPress themes as their websites now.

If you look at these Click here to visit StudioPress website!, (which I own and can install for you), you will see that they are very professional and function as fully optimized websites.

If you go with a free blog site with WordPress.com, they host the site, they control the site in some ways, since you cannot add certain tools and it is harder to customize the look, but there are many great advantages with WordPress.com as well.

They have their own communities you can join, and submit your blog too, they get great results in the search engines , they will feature your blog and posts sometimes and, if you are on a budget or want a great place to learn, I think it is perfect. You can’t beat the price! (  FREE)

This concludes our first lesson.
Please spend some time exploring the links I have provided and decide what the correct next step is for you.
Feel free to check out my planning sheets, this is the online form, and this one you can print off and work with
Even if you do not plan on ordering from me, they will help you plan and figure
out what you need to visualize and help you get started with your site planning.

The most important part to getting started online is too know what it is you are trying to do.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

You have already taken the first step towards getting started by finishing this first lesson.
Welcome aboard!

Please feel free to email  me with any questions you may have about today’s lesson.

 

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