Free Photo Blog!

That’s right! A Free Photo Blog. I’m a professional photographer and understand the difficulty building a photo blog that shows your portfolio to prospective clients, highlights your most recent photography, advertises your studio, or just for personal use.

I will make that new photo blog happen, for free! Hard to believe? Believe it! I’ll do it for free because there are some things that just need to be shared.

Here’s the process for me to build your photo blog.

You’ll need a place to register your domain and a place to host it. The three hosting sites I use are HostGator, Dreamhost, and Bluehost. It doesn’t matter which one you choose. I have sites at all three and find each of them as efficient as the other. Descriptions of all three and suggested hosting plans are listed below. (I am paid a commission for each referral so please use my links below. That’s what makes this free for you.)

The Second Step is to e-mail me (signup@freephotoblogs.com) the confirmation you received from the hosting company. I will then be able to log in and do all the free things I need to do. You may receive several e-mails from the hosting company. The only one I need is the one listing your domain name, login name and password. You should change this after I’ve installed and configured your blog. I’ll send you an e-mail telling you how to do this and a few other ideas you can consider.

The Third Step is to e-mail me (signup@freephotoblogs.com) the exact e-mail address you want to use for the new Free Photo Blog. Example: yourname@yourdomain.com

The Fourth Step is, in the same e-mail as The Third Step, tell me the name of the Wordpress Theme you want to use for your Free Photo Blog. There are thousands of free themes available and it’s easy to get confused. I recommend you start simple with a two-column theme such as ClassicMag, Ocular Professor, Thematic, or Zack990. You can change themes quite easily in the Wordpress administration module so this isn’t a big deal.

The Fifth Step is to keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times. Sit back and let me setup your photo blog. It will take me, at most, 72 hours to complete the work. At best, it can happen within 24 hours. The only caveat is something called DNS needs to catch up and know where to direct people to your new site. This might take 72 hours but your site will probably be created long before then. I’ll e-mail you when it’s completed.

One of the great things about Wordpress is its extensibility. That is, you can add all sorts of plug-ins to make it do some things automatically so you don’t have to know anything about programming. It will do automatic backups of your database, create Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords and titles, Google SiteMaps, Contact forms, Social Media bookmarks and links, and just about anything you’d want to do with a blog. I’ll be installing the following plugins to make your Free Photo Blog more efficient and useful.

AdSense Deluxe – Place Google ads on your page and earn revenue. We should discuss its use.

Akismet – Stop spam comments. You’ll need a wordpress.com API to make this work. I’ll explain how.

All-In-One SEO Pack – The number one Search Engine Optimization plugin. Creates SEO keywords, titles, and descriptions. I’ll send you an e-mail with some hints for making this work best for you.

Google XML SiteMaps – A requirement if you want Google to be able to quickly add your posts to its search engine. Also used by Yahoo, MSN, Bing, and Ask.com.

ShareThis – Simple Social Media bookmarking so other people can share your site.

The most popular of the three hosting choices. Their service is great with a choice of hosting levels depending upon your needs.

One choice to start is the monthly Hatchling plan. With a $5 setup fee you get domain registration for one year and a complete hosting package with e-mail for your domain. Use the Coupon Code BEACH and pay less than $25 for the registration, setup, and first month’s service. Pay $8.95 a month after that.

The better choice is the yearly Hatchling plan. Use the Coupon Code BEACH and for $78.72 you get a domain registration, a years hosting, and no recurring cost for 12 months.

HostGator also has two and three year packages than can lower your monthly cost to less than $5. Signup here.

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Dreamhost will give you a free year new domain registration with its annual plan. Its discounted using my Promo Code (Promo Code Signup) and there is no setup fee. Dreamhost provides basically the same service as the other two hosts I recommend with a different fee structure. It’s greatest difference is the Wordpress installation adds three pages of theme choices so you can decide quite easily to modify your theme after I’ve completed your Free Photo Blog install. Signup here.[ top ]

Bluehost is the least expensive of the three choices costing as little as $6.95 a month with a two year plan or $7.95 for a one year plan. Both include free setup. Signup here.

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