The journey from being a Hello World page to the Page you see now hasn’t been quite smooth, thanks to me being unprepared, and of course being spoilt by the drag n drop of Blogger Template. So to not repeat the same mistake, here I have prepared a To-Do List to make your Blog as beautiful as mine (if you consider it to be). As in “How to go for the default page to having a fully functional Blog page”. I presume you have your domain, you’ve hosted it and got your Wordpress already installed properly. In short you can see the default Hello World page on your Homepage with the Blue Header (Read the Wordpress official installation page if you at all are having problems knowing how to do so, or just type your question on that blank space known as the Google Search ). Let’s take it from here then, shall we?

To-Do List for Setting Up your Blog (From Hello World to Wassup World).:-

Being unprepared is not at all an option if you want your Blog to succeed. Success here means traffic, people visiting your Blog regularly, Subscribing to your feeds, may be clicking your ads even, but above all reading your posts and commenting on them. So you do not want your blog to look like a shabby, crumpled, torn newspaper column. I have literally read almost a 100 “How To”s over the last few days, to have come up with this list . Here we go!

1. Selecting the Right Theme:-

Unless you are a CSS wizard, this one comes directly from the huge repository of free Wordpress templates available online. I chose a suitable theme from wpthemesfree.com and there is just more than one to fit your need.All you need is to look around, sit,decide and finalise on the theme and of course make your own changes to fit your purpose. Important points to be noted are whether you need a two column or a three column theme, what should be the entire theme color, and most importantly the text font size. All these small things go a long way in enhancing the user experience. Template editing is of course possible, with the usual trial and error procedure.

2. Giving the correct look and feel:-

Choose a instantly recognizable logo or picture to represent your blog. This helps in people remembering your blog. May be even include a nice pic, like the one I have of Steve Jobs, Larry and Sergey and Mr. Gates on the right .

3. Write your first post and about pages–Give a Warm Welcome

Write your first post write after the theme is done. Write a short about the website and most importantly extend a warm welcome to your readers. A little politeness and courtesy does no harm. There is a clear divide though between showing politeness and sucking up.

Write your “about pages” describing the purpose of your website, the topics that it encompasses (if it’s topic driven ie) and also include disclaimer messages if necessary. Write a short text about yourself, your background and also include your contact details for readers to reach you . Most of us prefer the e-mail method, as there are a lot of online sluts out there calling up random numbers they find online. I say, including a profile pic does no harm. It gives the readers the knowledge of who the author is unless you get turned off by paparazzi and fan followings.

3. Feeds:-

Wordpress bydefault has two feeds, one of the posts and the other for the comments. Just syndicate them using popular Feed Services like Feedburner et al. This is a standard industry practice and there must be some definite reason behind this. Although, I am yet to find a clear explanation on opting for Feedburner feeds over the default RSS feeds available.

4. Find Me List:-

We all network socially or socially network. So, just provide a list of your contact information on the various social networking sites you have subscribed to. Unless you are a very shy person, unlike me (an attention whore) . You can decide on the extent of privacy you want to maintain or just go public as that cool blogger.

5. Adsense:-

Aah!! We all want to make some money, don’t we? I’d be lying if I’d say I don’t. But don’t make your pretty baby blog look like that yellow poster behind the public service van. The key is to have a proper Adsense layout by having them placed strategically so that they do not make your blog look repulsive. Make sure the background, the font colors on Adsense match with your theme settings. Also check the Ads placement in single post page and in the Main page. As far as other monetizing options, I’m yet to explore them. Unless it makes my blog look like the halogen lit billboards of Time Square, I think I might add them up. Are there any advertisers reading this?

6. Write an explosive post:-

Create a humorous rumor, controversy, how to, or a simple plain review, but write something which engages the eyeballs and make people love to come back to your blog. Now can I help you on this? You are a better judge. This applies to all the list of running a successful blog. (P.S. Try all the given options at your own risk. The author takes no responsibility for your action)

7. Indexing and Pinging: -

Index your website through Google and other search engines. Submit your website to Google through Google Webmaster, make your Website searchable in Search Engines, and claim your blog on Technorati. Add the widget on your Blog. Most importantly enable permalinks to your posts and not the default ones that Wordpress has ( the ugly ones ie), but something which is almost similar to your post title.This helps in Search Engine indexing.

8. Social Bookmarking Buttons:-

You want your posts to feature on the popular social bookmarking websites like Digg, Stumble Upon, Mixx et al. Provide the links like I have on this blog, at the end of your posts. There are certain websites which can help you out with this. Check out Kyle Eslick’s and Exploding Boy’s posts on this. There are even wordpress plugins available but I prefer coding it into the php.

9. Tag Clouds:-

Enhance your user browsing experience by providing a tag cloud. Wordpress already has the functionality. Also add the Categories widget.

10. Building your Communities: -

Add your blogs to your MyBlogLog and Blog Catalog communities. Display the widgets on your page. This certainly gives a sense of achievement and satisfaction. After all, it’s all about that at the EOD. But again, don’t over do it. Don’t just keep on pasting all the available widgets available.

11. Keep writing good stuff and keep reading Techkeyla:-

That’s a must, at least the latter part. No, I am serious.

12. Just don’t PANIC:-

Have patience. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it even took sleepless nights for the iPhone firmwares to get cracked. This is just a Blog. Be clear about the priorities and most importantly be original. Don’t copy stuff , if you are inspired to write about a post, link to the original post and credit the source, and that applies to pictures as well.

Of course there are lists, and there are lists, and so I wouldn’t claim this to be a completely comprehensive one. And even I am yet to finish most of the above given points, but at least I’ve got some of them covered. Any suggestions, ideas, or something that I might have skipped is for you to add in the comments section. In case of an emergency contact your nearest geek friend or may be me.I’ll try to respond in a reasonable amount of time. I hope you enjoyed reading this post, now click me some ads.LOL. Happy New Year. Happy New Techkeyla!!!( Hic. Hic!!)

Image Courtesy:-tootdood and dark_imp666