Free WordPress Setup, Ego Boost Included September 2, 2007

Life is so much easier now.

Faced with working from 7:30-5:30 five days a week, I accepted that the hours previously spent trying to decipher the WordPress Codex were going to go by the wayside. Not that it really helped. I never questioned my reading comprehension abilities until I tried to teach myself how to alter WordPress templates. Talk about feeling dumb…

I thought about giving up the blog. After all, I had been at it for more than two months and I only had five subscribers showing up in Feedburner.

I suppose I’m a masochist, though. I decided to do the following:

1. Upgrade WordPress to version 2.2.2.2.2 or something like that.

2. Determine for once and for all if Bloggrrl had only 5 subscribers.

3. Switch the blog over from Yahoo to Dreamhost, thus saving myself $13 a month + unlimited hassle.

4. Obtain some working plug-ins, like a contact form and that in-post Adsense thingy.

5. Change things around a bit so that http://www.bloggrrl.com and http://bloggrrl.com are the same thing, stats-wise. This is important for some reason that I can no longer remember.

Okay, I didn’t actually do these things. Jon of ninjaBlog Setup did these things. What’s more, he was able to do a fantastic job even though I emailed him directions very similar to the above. This makes him a mind-reader, and he could probably earn a decent living with one of those 900 fortune-telling hotlines.

Here is an sample of the free services he provides. (Yes, they are totally free! I didn’t pay a cent.)

A Ninja will begin your blog setup including:

* creating a professional email address for your blog (eg. yourname@yourblog.com)
* testing your new email address
* creating WordPress.com account for you so you can use the Akismet Spam protection plugin
* creating a FeedBurner account for you so you can take advantage of FeedBurner stats with your RSS feed
* installing WordPress on your hosting count and domain name
* configure WordPress:
o increase the size of the post writing box – makes writing posts much easier
o setup search engine friendly URLs (permalinks) – more traffic
o add a complete list of services to the ping list – tells various websites every time you write a story
o install a robots.txt file – secures your WordPress admin pages from search engine spiders
o create your user account within WordPress – so you have access to write on and administer your site
o delete the standard links (blogroll) that are included in WordPress
* install and activate over 20 essential WordPress plugins ( see list of plugins )
* setup an automatic WordPress database backup to be delivered weekly via email
* install over 50 theme choices so you can easily change the look and feel of your site (see the themes )

Holy crap, right?

Jon went the extra mile for me, since transferring a domain from Yahoo to Dreamhost is like flying to Cuba from the United States while wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt. My understanding is that Jon’s service is primarily designed for people who have Blogger accounts and who have decided to get their own domains. At any rate, he has the patience of a saint. I mean, I called him at least three times, once freaking out because ProBlogger had linked to me right in the middle of the transfer and my new email wasn’t up yet. Just to make myself even more annoying, while on the phone, I announced to my big rich important pilot neighbor who had just dropped by that, “I am on the phone with my programmer in Canada” because the dude never shuts up about the pilot thing. That’ll show him. I’m important too. I had a programmer at my service! Take that, conceited pilot!

However, here’s the kicker.

I had to give him my Yahoo password so that he could transfer everything and fix the things that needed fixing. I know it is dumb, dumb, dumb to give out your password, especially when it is linked to multiple accounts with all kinds of personal information on them, but being desperate, I did it anyway. And…disaster has not struck. Jon is someone who I trusted with the password to my personal email account, folks. I think it is now safe to say that he is a trustworthy person with whom to do business. It is also safe to say that you should never, ever host a domain with Yahoo because you will have to do the same stupid thing someday if you ever want out of it.

Jon, I hope that you include me as one of your “happy bloggers” on the ninjaBlog Blog!

It is worth noting that Jon also has a down-to-earth, very informative blog called The Art of Moneythat is quite good. Reading his blog, I get the feeling that his advice is as honest as he has proven himself to be.

The best part, though?