This week Lisa asks…

I would like to start a blogg/web site for affililate marketing. Wordpress is what i would like to use but its so confusing what’s the best way to learn how to do this and have a web site look….any free tuts i dont even mind paying for something if its a good video…..Iam a newbbie….ps please excuse the mis spellings I have to get my son to bed its way past bed time…thanks Lisa

A: Hey Lisa.

Learning to use or set up any system to us is always confusing. I’m not sure which area you’re stuck with. Is it setting up? Themes and templates or just using WordPress?

If it is the setting up part and your web host supports Fantastico (an automatic installer), use it. It is probably the easiest (and fastest) way to get things started. Here’s a quick demo installing WordPress with Fantastico.

If you’re having trouble using WordPress, I’ve personally found their Codex to be helpful. YouTube is also fast becoming a super storehouse of great free video tutorials.

An alternative to trying to piece together bits and pieces of information from all over the Internet is to get into BloggingStarterPack. It has take-you-by-the-hand videos from installation right up to setup and some theme tweaking.

But… you mentioned wanting a web site look and feel. This is very do-able with Wordpress but you’d have to either

1. Start with a good base theme and then tweak it – one that you like and fits a ‘website look’ or,
2. Learn how to heavily customize a theme.

If you’re new to HTML and building websites in general I highly recommend going with the first option. WordPress themes while very flexible can be quite technical. In fact, to be a really good theme designer (in my opinion) you should have some if not a good grasp of PHP.

There are two themes I would recommend you start with. The Revolution Theme and the Semiologic theme. I prefer the Semiologic theme because you can install it on many blogs. You can also do a lot of your customization from within your dashboard without having to edit code.