Embedded in lesson two of the WAAP, there’s a link to the “Make Money With WordPress” tutorial.  This module is required reading for everyone working through the WAAP, so it seems appropriate to take a few posts and try to summarize it, and note the parts that give me difficulty or raise new questions.

Here we go:

*Internet marketing in 2011 requires a well built website.  You need to have content that is relevant to the search words you’re targeting. For SEO reasons, one main page plus an about section probably isn’t going to cut it.
*Wordpress Express is designed to simplify the process of setting up a Wordpress blog on WA hosting.  You need your own domain to set one of these blogs up.  I was originally under the impression that Wordpress Express was a design plugin, but that’s not the case.  Oh well, I’ll just go pick up a copy of “Wordpress for Dummies” or something similar.
*The tutorial doesn’t go into creating content (edit: WRONG!), or using Wordpress’s built in design features.  I can supplement my WA learning materials using the forum and other tutorials.
Next the tutorial talks about driving traffic.  Of particular interest to me are the bits about Writing Articles and SEO.  The pay-per-click model and visitor loyalty blurbs also catch my eye.  I’m going to have to remember to set up a Aweber account and figure out how to integrate it into whatever sort of site I end up building.
*The tutorial then discusses how to pick a domain name.  I jumped the gun and registered become-a-real-man.com using godaddy, before reading the “Make Money With Wordpress” tutorial.  I think I can still make my domain work, based on some preliminary research using WA tools.  I’ll be using this site to promote dating, fitness, relationship, or confidence products.  *Apparently selecting the right domain is a very effective way to head down the right SEO road.
Install the six plugins included with my WA Wordpress blog.  I’ll have to do my own research into what each of these plugins does.  
*Once all the plugins are installed, go into your permalink settings and do some voodoo.  This will create meta-tags that search engines go mad for.  I start to perk up. :)
When I do this I’ll keep in mind that craftycontent.com is a good example of what these sort of sites look like.  It’s loverly, and I want it.
*Huzzah!  They do talk about content creation.  This is my new favorite tutorial.  They discuss coming up with 25 topics related to your original niche.  Done and done.  Remember to use google search, news, and blog search to come up with ideas for articles.  I’ve done this before when I was a low-rent freelance writer, bit this is the first detailed explanation of how this sort of research should look.  They also suggest checking out relevant QA’s on Wikihow.  It’s looking like WA wants me to create a blog, not a static website.  I reshuffle my plans.  Eventually I’ll learn how to make a blog look like a static site, for cosmetic reasons(edit: or build a hybrid site).   
*Plug all of these new themes in WA keyword tools, for more automated brainstorming.
*Remember to put search words and phrases early in post titles.  Doing this also helps you appeal to people who find your post on Google.  These titles carry over to your URLs.
*Name your images in an SEO wise way.  Find out if “alt-tag” is synonymous with “image name.”
*Links Links Links! Link to other content on your own site, and use search phrases for outgoing affiliate links.
*There’s a bit about headings here that confuses me.  Find out what “<h1>” and “<h3>” mean, and re-read this section.  Chances are my selected theme (I’ve already taken a crack at putting a site up) has already taken care of this, but I like to know what’s happening behind the scenes.
*Supplement this with relevant WAbinars.
*Use the category and recent posts widgets to increase keyword density.
*Speaking of keyword density, figure out exactly what that is and how to use it.
*Use pages or posts depending on the context.  I’m liking this idea, it should come in handy when I try and build a site that looks like craftycontent.com.
*Think about setting up an auto-tweet system.
Use blog search engines like Technorati and IceRocket to find related blogs.  Comment on the ones that allow backlinks, and link out to them(?).  Be sure to comment on their most popular posts.

That brings me up to section 1.3.  I’ll come back soon and finish this lesson’s summary in a new post.