As most of you know, I started Bries’ Diaper Challenge a few days ago, which will detail my quest to earn 300 Diaper$ blogging. The goal is not only to earn diaper$, but to show everyone that anyone, of any age, can make money blogging.

I started the challenge after my blog had already been set up. I felt it was important that I now go back and teach the rest of you exactly how I got the whole thing started. It really is pretty simple so follow along with me so you can get started too. These are the steps I took to create my self-hosted wordpress blog.

#1. Register a domain name for your blog. This helps brand your name and/or niche better than using free hosted domains. My parents prefer to use GoDaddy. You can too.

#2. Use your new domain name to open a hosting account for your blog. One of the best hosting services available for a reasonable cost is HostGator. They give you unlimited usage for your blog and have a great customer support division if you ever need help. They also use cPanel which is perfect for setting up your word press blog quickly.

#3. Once you have received your welcome email from Hostgator, it will tell you what your nameservers are for your domain name. These nameservers are important and tell the world wide web where everyone can find your domain. So log into your Godaddy account, select Nameservers from your domain menu, select Custom Nameservers and enter in the two names Hostgator provided.

#4 Wait about an hour and you then should be abot to log into your cPanel. This is the control panel that you will use for your hosting account. Hostgator will have let you know what your login details are in the welcome email you received.

#5. Once inside your cPanel, look down the list of icons until you find Fantastico or Fantastico DeLuxe near the bottom. Click this to see the list of scripts that can be added to your website. Find ‘wordpress blog’ on the list and click. This will bring you to an installation page that will, within 2 clicks of your mouse, install wordpress on your domain name.

Follow the simple instructions provided, click install, and voila, you now have your own self hosted wordpress blog ready to start making money!

Coming Up Next… How to pick a theme and what plugins you should use.

The Online Marketing World Welcomes Brie!

Well maybe just my mom, dad and family welcomed me officially, but none the less I finally arrived December 19, 2008, thoroughly pleasing my tickled pink proud parents. I must say, it’s a busy world out here! Those three loud voices I have listened to over the past nine months seem to be called brothers and my parents play a really fast game called “tag team” that looks to involve running a home, family, work, and of course me! I am not complaining - the way mom and dad play means someone is always spoiling me, but I have to admit, the work part of this has me really intrigued.

It seems that ‘work’ is what mom and dad do when they sit in front of these strange boxes and bang their fingers on little squares. I am told they are called computers. Pretty interesting things they are I might add, and I really enjoy sitting on a lap watching pictures and words fly by.

What I like best about mom and dads work is that they are always here with me! My brothers told me that other kids’ parents get into what’s called an automobile and drive to something called an office. I am not sure about this automobile thing because my parents office seems to be right here in the house, next to the kitchen and my moms coffee maker. Seems much more convenient don’t you think?

Despite me being just 2 weeks old, I have decided to embark on the journey of learning exactly what it is my parents do all day (and sometimes night!) with these computers. I hear them talking; making plans, brainstorming, picking out these things called ‘niches’ and yeah, sometimes bickering about keywords. I could have sworn keys were something that opened up doors not words, but I promise, I will find out all the details and fill you in.

You see, they think that since I can’t yet talk, that I don’t see what they are doing. What better detective could you have than an innocent baby, spying over mom and dads shoulder, learning every tip, trick and move they make. I bet it won’t take me too long to learn what exactly it is they do that brings the big smiles to their faces when they open up the mail and wave around that cool thing called a check.

So stay close… I will update as often as I can. (Hopefully I won’t spit up on those lettered squares they use!)