The Online Hustler Quickstart Guide
by Matt Forney
Copyright © 2014 Matt Forney. All rights reserved.
Short quotes from this book can be used so long as I am credited. To use longer quotes, email me
at the address below using subject line “Attention: Permissions Coordinator.”
For further information, email me at [email protected].
So You Wanna Start a Blog?
If you're looking to make some side dough and/or express your ideas, a blog is the easiest
and most lucrative way to do it. But where do you start?
This guide is designed to set you up with a blog that can start making you money from day
one. My method is simple and general enough that it will be appropriate for just about anyone,
regardless of what they intend to write about.
Keep in mind that this book will be short on explanation. If you want to know more about
the ins and outs of my advice, read my blog at MattForney.com or buy my book Confessions of an
Online Hustler.
Finding a Web Host
If you're serious about making money online, you need to go with a paid web host and a
real domain name. Why? Because free blogging services such as WordPress.com and Blogger limit
your ability to monetize your writing.
The best web host I've ever worked with is HostGator. Their cheapest plans will run you
about $80-100 a year. For a domain name, I recommend Namecheap or Internet.bs. While you
can register your domain with HostGator, only Namecheap or Internet.bs offer WHOIS
protection, helpful if you want to keep your real name, address and phone number out of public
records. A domain from any of these registrars shouldn't run you more than $10 a year.
When it comes to choosing a domain name, pick one that ends in .com. It's the top-level
domain (TLD) that is the most widely used and respected. Anything else (.org, .net, .ca etc.) looks
strange and will rob your site of credibility. Additionally, don't put any hyphens or punctuation
marks in your domain: the simpler and shorter you can make it, the better.
Also, note that if you register your domain anywhere other than HostGator, you'll need to
update your domain's nameservers to get your site to work correctly. After you've signed up for a
HostGator account, locate your nameservers (HostGator will send them to you in an email), then
enter them into the nameserver listing at your registrar. To make sure your changes are working,
try opening up your domain in your browser. If you see a HostGator screen, you did it right.
Installing WordPress
While the free service at WordPress.com is something to be avoided, the free blogging
software at WordPress.org is what you need to build your blog. WordPress is simple, easy to use
and can be modified in just about any way you want.
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To install WordPress, open up your domain's cPanel (a link to which should have been sent
to your email by HostGator) and scroll down to the bottom of the screen. There should be an icon
labeled “Fantastico de Luxe” underneath the “Software/Services” section. Open it up, click the
WordPress section and follow the instructions. Five minutes later, your new WordPress installation
will be all ready to go: you can visit the Dashboard by going to “www.yourbloghere.com/wp-
admin.”
Configuring WordPress
While setting up WordPress can seem daunting, there are only a few steps to take.
To begin with, choose a theme. The theme is the template that determines what your site
looks like. WordPress comes installed with a number of free themes that are worth looking at
(found under the Appearance section of the Dashboard), and you can install more via the
Dashboard. In general, you want a theme that is mobile-friendly (as a large percentage of your
audience will be visiting your site on iPhones and other such devices), visually attractive and has
clean code. To determine if your site has functioning code, use the W3C Markup Validation
Service. Sites that have too many code errors will not only be frustrating for your readers to use but
will be penalized by Google, hurting your search traffic.
Next, it's time to install some plugins to add features to your site. Here are the ones I
recommend:
• Jetpack: This plugin from WordPress adds an enormous amount of functionality to
your site, including Stats, spellcheck and many other necessities.
• WP Super Cache: This add-on improves your site's performance by caching your
web pages: creating static HTML versions that are identical to the originals.
HostGator provides an easy guide to setting up Super Cache to work with their
servers; check their support center.
• Better WP Security: This plugin secures your site against hackers, spambots, and
malware.
• Akismet: This plugin filters out spam comments on your articles, keeping your site
from getting overwhelmed with erectile dysfunction pill ads.
• WordPress SEO: Provides a full suite of tools for enhancing your site's search traffic.
• Google Analyticator: Lets you easily insert Google Analytics code onto your site,
making it easier to track and analysis your site's traffic.
• nRelate Related Content: This plugin displays a list of related posts at the end of
each article, increasing your site's internal traffic.
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Next, you need to update your site's permalinks. Go to the Permalinks section under
Settings and select either the “Day and Name,” “Month and Name,” or “Post Name” options.
This will enhance SEO and make navigating your site more convenient.
Finally, go to the Widgets section under Appearance and add some widgets. I recommend
adding RSS Links, email subscriptions, links to your recent posts and archives, as well as links to
your Twitter and Facebook accounts (if you have them).
With all this done, your blog is ready to go. There are other aspects of working with
WordPress, but this is all you need to get started.
Making Money Quickly
The fastest ways to make money with a blog from day one are affiliate marketing and
building mailing lists.
Affiliate marketing is when you are paid to promote other peoples' products. For example,
Amazon has an affiliate program called Amazon Affiliates. If you sign up for that program and add
links from it to your site, you will get a little kickback whenever anyone buys Amazon products by
clicking through from your blog. Most online stores have an affiliate program in place.
The easiest way to make money with affiliate marketing is to review products that you use
(books, video games, nutritional supplements etc.) and place affiliate links to those products in your
reviews. Simply scattering affiliate links around at random won't work as well. When you review a
product, your readers will take your opinion into account and will be more likely to buy whatever
you're linking to (or less likely, if it's something you hate, though you obviously won't make much
money if you just review products you hate).
Mailing lists are self-explanatory: an email list you offer to your readers. They're effective
because they tap into the one form of “social networking” that everyone on the Internet uses:
email. Mailing lists can be used to keep in contact with your readers, suggest products for them to
buy (through affiliate marketing), alert them to when you release a book or other product of your
own, and so on.
The easiest way to convince people to sign up for your mailing list is to offer them
something in return. For example, anyone who signs up for my mailing list receives this book as a
free bonus. Remember, nobody has to read your blog, buy the products you recommend or sign
up for your newsletter; your job is to convince them to do these things by offering value. To create
your mailing list, I recommend AWeber. While they're not free, the wealth of services they
provide are well worth the cost.
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Conclusion
This guide will put you on the path to making money online with a minimum of fuss.
While it's not everything you need to learn, it arms you with the basic knowledge you need to
build your online empire.
For more tips and tricks on writing and blogging, check out my website, MattForney.com.
If you've got questions or comments, you can also drop me an email via the Contact page there.
Thanks for reading!
