It’s been a blogging weekend!

Yesterday I spent all day finalizing content, organizing categories and finalizing my layout. Whew!

I had a conversation with my cousin about her blog (fitnwellmommy.com) and learned she hired a designer to do all the layout. Hmm, which route do I want? I decided on the DIY option and I upgraded to WordPress premium for $99. Then I watched a great how to video for designing a blog on WordPress http://youtu.be/Oiov0L4blIw. When I started trying to implement what he teaches, I couldn’t make the options work. Ugh! Struggle and struggle and then I realized… I’m on WordPress.com but the truly customizable site is on WordPress.org!! AHHH! So I stopped for the night.

So today has been about switching it from being a WordPress.com site to WordPress.org! And I cancelled .com pro and getting the $99 refunded.

Here’s what I’ve figured out!

Start by getting a hosting plan & domain name
I already had BlueHost from my DuffyFlove.com site. Luckily they offer unlimited hosting so I didn’t have to pay for hosting, only my new domain name which was $11.99. The video I watched also recommended HostGater which seems to be a very affordable hosting site as well.

Import your new website into WordPress
In the control panel of your hosting site, under MoJo marketplace I clicked on “One-Click Installs” and installed WordPress. Since I already had a WordPress blog (just on .com not .org) I just had to import it. *Note this way transfers all your data but not your theme.* Go into your .com blog, click on Tools and the Export. I selected all content to copy and saved the file onto my desktop. Then go into your new .org blog and click Took and Import. Find the file and it copies in about a minute!

Finishing the look
Most of what I did was from the how-to video. But I did learn how to add a reblog option! http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/repostus/ I downloaded the software, went into my Plugins on my dashboard and clicked “add new.”  Then click on upload and find the repostus file.

Starting affiliates
While blogging my journey to financial freedom to benefit everyone, part of the goal is to have my blog generate money I can use to fund my real estate marketing budget. So the next step is to start adding some affliates that I like. I signed up for BlueHost and HostGater  – they have great referral programs starting at $50! (So if you’re planning on using one of them, please click on my link!)  I also applied for an AdSense account and will get a response within a week. I’m also going to check out click bank! Please, please let my blog start generating some income!!