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September 20, 2010
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New to blogging? Here’s the gen to get you rating from day one

Posted by | Marketing, Websites, Writing and Editing | No Comments

I love WordPress. So does Google. They're a pair made for each other.

But simply starting up a blog on WordPress itself or one your own domain name isn't enough.

If you're a newbie to blogging, there are things you need to know. Obviously you have to have your blog topic all thought out (and I'm not talking about the posts themselves, I'm talking about what your whole blog is going to be about.). And I'd advise, if you're using WP to build a corporate site, to sit down with a pen and paper or better yet an Excel spreadsheet and work out the framework of your blog before you press the 'install' button on WordPress.

Once you've done all that, and preferably chosen a good professional theme (as professional themes are better built for SEO), there's something you should read: 43 Blogger Tips for WordPress Installations.

Andrew Rondeau is from the UK and a very experienced and successful blogger (by the way, I am not affiliated by him, but rather impressed by his entrepreneurship). While I implement a lot of his tips on my site and sites I build for others, Andrew puts this advice so succinctly and clearly it's worth directing you to his post.

One thing I can add to Andrew's advice is to tweet your blog. Get on Twitter. Install Twitter Widget Pro on your site and tweet every post. More than once, if you can find something different to say about your post on a separate tweet or two.

Social media works best when it works in partnership: blogs with Twitter, or YouTube, or Facebook. Try and combine your social media memberships with your blog.

September 16, 2010
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I love books so much I’m selling them

Posted by | News | No Comments
I've always been a reader. I learned to read when I was about two I think. Books have always been my best friend; I have one or more on the go at any one time and love re-reading old favourites. Like many voracious readers I've dreamed of running a bookshop over the years. However I think I'd gravitate between acting like Bernard Black of Black Books (that's him on the right) or simply dreaming the day away reading the stock! So I've found a compromise. I'm selling books over the net as an Amazon Affliliate. At the moment my bookshop concentrates on:
  • Business books - marketing, sales, motivational, computers, software and internet/web
  • Kindle e-books - the entire Amazon stock so there's something for everyone, fiction and non-fiction
  • Photography - a personal interest which many people I know share
  • Books on writing - for when we need inspiration and a nudge in the right (or write) direction
  • Murder mysteries - because I love them. Specifically I love British mysteries and if I have to narrow it down, I tend towards relishing some of the marvellous Golden Age writers like Josephine Tey. But here, at the House of Arion, you can buy any mystery by any author Amazon has in stock.
  • And lastly, software. Any and all. By all the suppliers.
As you can surmise I'm not doing this as a volunteer. I genuinely hope people will buy from me as I do get a minor cut of everything I sell. I'll be upfront about that. Look around you and you'll find a lot of people branching out and monetizing their website. I don't mean the shonks who ask you to spend thousands on, let's say, a diet plan that doesn't work, but genuine people expanding their avenues of income. It's a good thing. And like I said, I always wanted to own a bookshop.