Marla Braziel

The first thing you need to do is log in to your WordPress admin panel. Your WordPress installation came preloaded with a Hello World post and a blog comment. We want to get rid of these. So click on Posts in the left side bar, then click on Trash under the Hello World Post. This will take care of both the blog post and the comment at the same time.

Your blog also came preloaded with a bunch of links back to the WordPress website which you don’t need. To get rid of these, click on Links in the left sidebar. You should now see a list of links that appear on the front page of your blog. Tick the box next to Name in the top left hand corner to select all of the links at once. Then Change the Bulk Actions tab to Delete and click the Apply button. This will delete all of those links from the front page of your blog.

Now click on Settings in the left sidebar. Click on the very last link that says Permalinks. Click on the Custom Structure radio button. In the field provided, type /%postname%
This is for SEO purposes and will make your blog pages read as follows http://yourdomainname.com/pagename or http://yourdomainname.com/postname. Without doing this step your pages and post names would read as follows http://yourdomainname.com/randomnumber. Not very search engine friendly.

One more crutial step that we need to take in your WordPress settings panel is to make sure that your blog is visible to everyone. Click on Privacy under the Settings section and make sure that ‘I would like my site to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Bing, Technorati) and archivers is ticked. If it’s not already ticked (it should be by default), then click on it and then click on the Save Changes button. There’s no point in trying to build an income generating blog if no one can find it.

There are a few other useful things you can do from the Settings panel. If you wanted to change your blog’s name and description, you could do that by going to General.

Be the change you want to see. I consider this the ultimate happiness tip. There are little things that add up along the way, but nothing is more rewarding than accomplishing your ultimate goals.

So, how does this work? Well, imagine that you’re overweight (as many of us are), and you envision yourself as healthy. You would need to take small steps towards your goal. Change your diet. Hit the gym five days a week.

Of course, this is a lot easier said than done. That’s why this is the hardest happiness tip to follow through with. Most people, myself included, get into a habit of making excuses as to why we shouldn’t do the things that help us reach our goals. Weight loss is a perfect example. Eating the right stuff is hard when we’re surrounded with easy less healthy meal options and a large part of social interaction outside of the work place revolves around found and/or alcohol. This is where will power comes into play.

Most changes that would drastically improve our lives won’t happen overnight. It’s important to accept that the journey, however long it may be, is part of the process. Reaching your goal is the ultimate reward.

The truth is, the vast majority of people will never reach total fulfillment. It is in human nature to want things, even after you reach your ultimate goals in life. Say, for instance, you reach your weight loss goal. Having satisfied that goal, your mind will find another goal to put in its place, such as competing in a 5k marathon. It’s perfectly natural to want to keep improving on oneself and ones life.

Just remember, that every journey starts with a single step. Rome wasn’t built in a day. And the achievement of your goals will always have a beginning that seems so far away from the reward. It’s important to keep this in mind, and know that with every day, with every triumph of will power, you are one step closer to your success.

Below are some easy steps for adding the WordPress blogging platform to your domain name. WordPress is a quick, easy, and powerful platform that can be used to build both blogs and traditional looking websites. To start your installation of WordPress, you’ll first need to go to your CPanel.

You can access your CPanel by going to:

http://www.yourdomainname.com/cpanel or http://cpanel.yourdomainname.com/

1.) Scroll down to the bottom and look for a smiley face icon that says Fantastico De Luxe. Click on it.
2.) In the left sidebar, under the blogs section, click on WordPress.
3.) Click on New Installation.
4.) Fill out all required information.

If you only have one domain name on your hosting account, then the Install on Domain Name field should already be set to the domain name that you want to install WordPress on.

Leave the Install in Directory field blank so that WordPress will install in your root directory. That way when you type in www.yourdomainname.com, your WordPress blog should pop up.

Choose an Administrator name and password. These will be your login credentials for your WordPress blog so make sure that it’s something you’ll remember since you’ll be logging into your WordPress admin area on a regular basis.

Choose your Admin nickname. This is the name that will be displayed every time you create a post on your blog. To induce reader trust, it’s a good practice to use your first name.

Enter your e-mail address where it says Admin e-mail address. This is where you’ll receive notifications when someone comments on your blog.

Enter your blog name. This will automatically be displayed in the header of your blog. You can change this later.

Enter the description of your blog. This is a sub header which will appear under the title of your blog. It’s best to keep it short, sweet, and to the point. You can also modify this later as well.

5.) Click on the Finish Installation button.

Congratz! Your blog is now installed on your domain name. You can check out your fresh installation of WordPress by typing in your domain name. It’s pretty plain looking right now but you’ll have it spruced up in no time.

To start editing your new blog, you can access the WordPress admin area by going to http://www.youdomainname.com/wp-admin. Enter in the Admin name and password that you used when you set up WordPress and click on the Log In button.

From your admin area you can do a number of things from creating posts and pages to changing your blog theme and adding plugins.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post. I’ve been telling myself the last two weeks that I’d get around to it, but I haven’t been able to find the time between all of the writing that I’ve been doing. I’ve actually managed to get 9 short stories written and published this month, with plans of releasing at least two more before the end of the month. It’s a bit staggering when I think about it. If I keep up the pace, I’ll be on schedule to have over 100 stories published within a year. My goal was originally only 50. :-p

So, that’s why I haven’t been blogging. Busy at work. Typing away.

If you check me out on Amazon, you may wonder why all of these new stories aren’t displaying. That’s because *whispers* I’ve ventured into the very profitable realm of erotica, which requires the use of a pen name. Alright, maybe “requires” isn’t the right word, but I don’t want my secret smutty writing linked to my real name, especially while I’m still part of the working world.

This month has been my best sales month so far, doubling what I made last month through ebook publishing. My erotica sales are competitive with the sales from my Sunset High series, which is slightly disheartening considering that all of the Sunset High books are a lot longer. My longest erotica work is 6,600 words long.

In other news, I decided to serialize the Zombie book that I was working on into episodes. It’s sure to piss readers off, but it makes more business sense to do it that way. Despite negative reviews on LibraryThing for this method for Sunset High, I can honestly say that I don’t think I would have as many sales as I do now if I hadn’t serialized it. Besides, through serialization, I don’t have to be paranoid about writing a book that’s either too long or too short. The first two episodes are already out, which you can see below. The first one is free via Smashwords. So, if you paid for it through Amazon, feel free to ask for a refund. That’s the only bad thing about Amazon, making something permanently free through them is a pain in the ass. I’ve been working on making Musical Chairs free for the last week or so. A bunch of people have reported it as free at Barnes and Nobles, but no luck. I’m getting ahead of myself though. :-p The books already published in the Zombie Wars Online series are below.

The images looks different because the first one is from Smashwords and the second is from Amazon. They are linked accordingly.

Once Episode 1 makes it into B&N, I’m going to try to force it to free at Amazon. This may require your help. While we’re on the subject, I could really use help forcing Musical Chairs to free on Amazon. The steps to do it are below.

Step 1: Click on the following link to go to the Amazon page for Musical Chairs: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004QOAHZE

Step 2: Click on the tell us about a lower price link on the Amazon Musical Chairs sales page. See screen shot below.

Step 3: Once you click on the link, a pop up box will display. There will be a question that says, “Where did you see a lower price?” You will need to click on the radio button next to Website (Online). When you click on the radio button, new fields will display. Please enter the following URL in the URL box: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/musical-chairs-marla-braziel/1111300010?ean=2940033197408

That is the link to where Musical Chairs is free on Barnes and Nobles. Fill out the rest of the boxes to match the screen shot below and click the Submit feedback button. That’s it! You’re done, and hopefully Amazon will be making Musical Chairs permanently free for everyone to enjoy. Thanks for your help.

I’m going to try to post a few things every day for the next week, but after that I’ll probably be going on hiatus again to continue focusing on my writing.

Hosting And Nameservers

Buying Hosting and Setting Up Nameservers

Click Above For Hosting

Now that you have your domain name, it’s time to buy hosting. There is only one hosting company that I recommend, and that is HostGator.

I use them for all of my hosting needs. They are a reputable company and I stand behind them 100%. Before using them I used another hosting company and it was a real pain in the you know what. Learn from my mistake, it’s better to go with a reliable hosting company from the get go.

Having said that, let’s get right to purchasing some reliable hosting. Go to HostGator by clicking on this hyperlink: HostGator.

Click Here For The Best Hosting

1.) Click on the View Web Hosting Plans button.
2.) Click on the Order Now button under Baby Plan.
The Baby Plan is the best plan because it allows for you to add unlimited domain names.
3.) In the box that says I Currently Have a Domain Name, enter the domain name that you purchased yesterday.
4.) Do a quick search on Google for a coupon code and enter it in the coupon box if you can find one. Then click on the button that says Continue to Step 2.
5.) Fill in all of the required information, then click on the Create Account button.

That’s it, you’re done! Simple as pie, right? Now HostGator will send you an email with all of your account information. DO NOT DELETE IT. This email is VERY important and should be printed out so that you have a hard copy.

You will need the information contained in this email to proceed with the next step in the process, setting up your nameservers. You will also need it to access your Cpanel, which is where you will have to go to set up your blog.

Next we need to attach your domain name to your hosting account. The first thing you need is the email that HostGator sent you. What we are looking for in the email is the part that tells you your nameservers. It should look something like this:

Your nameservers:
ns1136.hostgator.com
ns1136.hostgator.com

Now that you have this information, go log into your NameCheap account. (The below tutorial is for those who purchased their domain name through NameCheap. However, if you purchased your domain name through another domain seller then the process is similar.)

1.) Click on the tab that says Manage Domains.
2.) Click on the domain name that you previously purchased.
3.) Under General on the left sidebar, click on Transfer DNS to Webhost.
4.) Copy and Paste your name servers into the first 2 slots (the top one in the top slot and the bottom one in the 2nd slot individually).
5.) When you’re done click on the Save Changes button.

Congratulations! Your domain name is now attached to your hosting account and is ready to be modified.