WordPress seems to be a popular choice in building niche sites. Although it’s not as robust like other Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Joomla, Mambo or Drupal, WordPress is a lot easier to learn and use. However, by default, WordPress is served up as a blogging tool. The first obstacle new online marketers face is building niche sites with WordPress.
Like the age old saying goes… “There’s more than one way to skin a cat”, the same holds true for using WordPress to build your niche site. I simply intend to give an overview on one of these ways.
One of the most common question asked is “How do I install WordPress?” This has been addressed by many WordPress experts, who have made tutorials in the form of articles, ebooks and even videos. Optiniche is one of the great resources for this information.
Generally, you can go one of two ways when it comes to installing WordPress. The first is if your hosting account has Fantastico. It’s a suite of open-source products that include WordPress as a one-click install. The second route is the famous 5-minute manual install. Both topics are covered in this free WordPress Guide.
Next, you’ll want to select a theme (unless you like the default Kubrick theme). Head on over to the WordPress Theme Viewer and select a theme to you’d like to use for your site. If you want to use a header image for your site, you’ll need to select a theme that uses a header (to keep things simple). Open up either the header.php or index.php of your theme (using notepad or a similar tool) and look for the image file that the theme uses. It should be near the top, using an extension (.jpg, .png, .gif). Change it to the name of the header you’d like to use. Finally, make sure that you upload your header image to the theme’s directory on your host.
The next step would be plugins. Plugins add functionality to WordPress without having to learn any coding skills. Each plugin has a specific purpose, so you’ll need to look for them based on the function you’re looking to add to your site. Start at the Plugins list at the WordPress codex.
Next up is “How to Manage your WordPress Home Page?”. By default, WordPress displays your posts in reverse chronological order. Most new online marketers discover that they want to make their niche site look more like a conventional website. You can easily achieve this look by changing the look of your home page. To keep things simple, there are plugins available to help you achieve this look.
Monetization is the final step. If you’re reading this, then you probably already know about Adsense and the like. There are also plugins that help you include these things in WordPress.
More importantly, there’s selling affiliate products. You’ll need to sign up for accounts with affiliate networks like Commission Junction and ClickBank. Build your affiliate product pages in WordPress using ‘pages’ not ‘posts’, so that they don’t get buried in your site after you post more content to your site. You can learn more about affiliate marketing over at Affilorama.
Well, that’s pretty much it. This one example that I’ve laid out is open to a lot of additions based on your preferences. Once you’re done with building your niche site with WordPress, your next goal should be driving traffic to your site via the search engines or a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign.
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