03 | June | 2018 | Adonis Diaries

My note: A topic that was Not approached a few decades ago when children barely acquired the fundamentals of reading and writing. They were supposed to start working at an early age to supplement and support their expanding family. Now, taking the other extreme end of parenting must be harder to apply and achieve for the parents.

I don’t respond to most of the negative emails I get from people who listen to my show or read my blog. This one struck a chord, though.

Here’s a message I received from a guy named Nick, in reference to a discussion we had on the broad subject of parenting. I think we can all benefit from reading this and confronting the sad reality that this country is full of Nicks:

“Matt, I heard your horrible conversation today about parenting. A few comments in response:

1) Based on your remarks, I have to say I feel bad for your kids. You sound like the sort of person who never should have been a parent. You said you plan to teach your kids “how to think.” I guess this is common in right wing religious fundamentalist households. Personally, I let my child form his own conclusions about things. To impose your views on a child is tantamount to child abuse. Do them a favor, let them think FREELY.

2) You greatly exaggerate the importance of “chores.” Also, the idea that a kid should be forced to “get a job” is abhorrent.

My son was very gifted so we gave him all the tools to succeed academically. This meant we didn’t turn him into slave labor and we certainly didn’t tell him he needed to go work behind a cash register. He concentrated on his school work, and we did our job as parents and financially supported him.

3) It’s easy to mock a “30 year old who lives with is parents.”

My son is almost 29 and he’s been home with us since he graduated. Unfortunately the job market isn’t the greatest (maybe you hadn’t heard) and I’m not going to let him starve on the street.

He has a college education, it’s pointless for him to be out working in a retail store or some other menial job. I will be here for him until he is able to get the job he deserves.

You need to grow up, get some life experiences and then maybe you’ll have the right to sermonize about parenting.

-Nick”

And here’s the response I sent to him:

Dear Nick,

1) How ’bout I blindfold you, drive you out into the middle of the desert at night, and then leave you there without a map or a GPS? It’ll be great. You can just travel FREELY.

After all, who am I to bring you to this place and then presume to tell you how to navigate? I’m just the guy that kidnapped you and dumped you into a hostile, cold wilderness. It would be presumptuous and authoritative of me to offer you direction and guidance.

So I’ll let you wander around aimlessly until you collapse exhausted in a ditch, and are eaten slowly by wild scavengers. I’ll merely be applying your parenting technique to the situation.

Did you ever tell your kid not to play in the street? Did you instruct him about the dangers of hot stoves and fallen electrical wires? This is a quandary.

If you imposed your anti-high voltage power line views on your kid, then apparently you’re guilty of abuse by your standards. However, if you didn’t, you’re guilty of reprehensible neglect by the standards of civilized human beings.

I’m not an expert on parenting. I never claimed to be. But you don’t need to be an expert to know that one of the fundamental tasks of a parent — and this really speaks to the whole point of the endeavor — is to teach your child how to navigate the physical, moral, spiritual and intellectual dangers of life.

This includes teaching them how to think, which could also be referred to as passing on your values and your worldview. (Hopefully the parents are educated and have acquired an experimental mind to reflect?)

If you have no interest in doing this, then I would suggest that you never really wanted a child — you wanted a friend. Now you have one. Living at home with you.

2) Chores schmores. What can they teach a kid? Discipline, obedience, and hard work? Screw that. What is this, the 50′s? Listen, Nick, don’t take this the wrong way, but what leads you to the conclusion that your son is “gifted”?

He can’t mow the lawn, work a job, earn a living, pay a bill, apply a skill, or support himself, yet he’s “gifted”?

What are his gifts, exactly? You know, something tells me an astronaut’s parents never have to inform people that their child is “gifted.” People sort of pick up on that based on context clues.

They behold his accomplishments and admire his achievements. They can SEE his gifts. He uses them, applies them, refines them. Your son MIGHT have gifts — the jury is still out — but whatever they may be, they’ll atrophy and whittle away the longer he spends lounging in a bean bag chair eating macaroni and cheese.

3) So your brilliant and gifted 29 year old son would “starve” if he was forced to take care of himself?

The “gifted” standard is getting lower by the day, isn’t it? I’ve been living independently and taking care of myself since before I could legally drink a Heineken. I guess that makes me a Nobel candidate — if your helpless grown adult son gets to set the bar for “gifted.”

The kind of oblivious snobbery you display used to be reserved for classes of nobility and royalty.

Any drooling schlub who spent 4 years getting drunk and fornicating at college can claim to be “too good” for almost every available job. Your son isn’t above anyone.

He certainly isn’t superior to hard working cashiers and retail clerks who support themselves, raise families and live full lives, as your little snowflake hides under his bed while mommy makes him hot cocoa and tells him he’s special.

News flash, Nick: Junior ain’t special. He graduated school, good for him. Anyone can do that if they’ve got money, time and no pressures or responsibilities from the outside world.

Your little pumpkin doesn’t “deserve” a job. I wouldn’t hire him to dig a ditch, much less take on serious responsibilities of any kind. You can spend your whole life telling everyone what you and your son deserve, meanwhile the rest of us will be out in the world, earning, striving, accomplishing, living.

Nick, it’s somewhat peculiar that you chose to end your email by chastising me for not having “life experiences.” I’m two years younger than Nick Jr and I’m married with two kids. I’ve got a career in broadcasting and goals for the future that I’m steadily working toward achieving.

I’m not exactly at the point where I’ve got enough material to write my memoirs, but I’ll get there one day. (I already wrote my memoir of a Not glamorous person. You can start the first chapters)

In any case, you, my friend, need to take that “life experiences” lecture and bring it home to the pudgy couch potato sleeping in your basement.

Tags: adonis49, Chores schmores, life experiences, Matt Walsh, parenting, right wing religious fundamentalist

My note: If you don’t start and expect surprises nothing will be that right. Don’t pay a dime until to get excited and hooked. I removed most of the advertisements in that article.

By Matthew Woodward

Do you want to learn how to start a blog the right way?

Since launching my blog I have made over a million dollars and won 8 prestigious blogging awards. (I’d been blogging since 2008 and accumulated over one million views, and posted over 8,000 articles spread in 45 categories, but never attempted to earn a nickle from my steady endeavor).

Not only that, but I have helped thousands of people just like you achieve their blogging dreams-

So today I am going to take you by the hand and show you how to start a blog the right way.

In just 15 minutes you will have started your blog, customized it AND published your very first blog post.

Choose the right blogging platform for your new blog.
Choose your blogs topic & custom domain name.
Setup your blog & web hosting in just 1 click.
Customize the look and feel of your new blog.
Write your very first blog post.

Starting a blog really is that easy, just watch this video and I’ll show you how step by step-

Step 1 – Choose Your Blogging Platform

WordPress is the go-to platform for bloggers. Why?

Because it’s free, easy to use, simple to customise and designed with bloggers in mind.

Why Do People Use & Recommend WordPress?

It’s free for anyone to use (you just need a cheap webhost & domain name)
It’s super easy to use even if you never built a blog before
They have over 5,000 free themes to choose from to make your blog look awesome
Over 91% of all blogs are running WordPress, including this one!

Why You Shouldn’t Create A Blog On A Free Platform

One of the biggest mistakes I see new bloggers make, is using a free blogging platform when they are just getting started. Everyone wants to learn how to start a blog for free.

But if you do this, you will seriously limit your potential success as a blogger.

All of the major free blogging platforms like Blogspot, Medium or Tumblr suffer from the same serious flaws-

No Control – You have zero control over your blog. Tumblr/BlogSpot or whoever can choose to shutdown your blog and delete it at any time.
Lack Of Customisation – You can’t use any of the thousands of free WordPress themes and plugins and are limited to very basic templates.
Limits – You are limited on how many images and videos you can upload or how many people visit your blog.
No Custom Domain Name – You will get stuck using an ugly domain name like http://yourblog.blogspot.com rather than just yourblog.com.
No One Will Take You Seriously – And the most important of all, is if you use a free platform it makes you look like an inexperienced beginner and no one will take you seriously.

If you are serious about learning how to start a blog and make money with it like I do-

Then do things the right way the first time!

Plus it only costs a handful of dollars to do it the right way – so why take shortcuts?

Step 2 – Choose Your Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is one of the most important steps of starting a blog.

If you don’t know what a domain name is, well it is the address of your blog – for example the domain name of this blog is just my name – MatthewWoodward.co.uk.

Before you choose a domain name you need to choose a topic for your blog.

If your are not sure what to blog about here are a few suggestions-

Write a list of 3 things you are good at
Write a list of 3 things you are interested in or enjoy
Write a list of 3 things you want to learn about

how to start a blog and choose the right topic task

That quick 5 minute exercise will give you more than enough ideas for topics for your blog.

Once you have a topic for your blog you need to choose a good domain name.

If you are going to blog about a specific topic (which I recommend you do) then you should try and incorpoate that into the domain name.

Or you could just use your name like I did with this blog that focuses on blogging and digital marketing.

Check If Your Domain Name Is Available…

Just enter any ideas you have in the form below to see if it’s available, for example TheEnglishChef.com

CHECK

Once you have picked your domain name (don’t buy it yet), I have some great news:

The hardest part of setting up your blog is over!

Now we just need to get it online and that can be done with a few clicks of the mouse and it really doesn’t matter if you want to learn how to start a fashion blog or a travel blog – the process is the same.

Step 3 – Setup Web Hosting & WordPress

What Is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is what keeps your blog “online” and stores all of your blogs files, images and content. If you don’t have a web host then no one would be able to see your blog!

A good web host means that your blog will be available to every single person in the world, every single second of every single day.

Avoid Bad Web Hosting Companies!

There are both good and bad hosting companies & choosing a host is an important part of starting a blog.

Many cheap hosts overload their servers which means your blog will be slow, which means updating it will take longer and it will take longer for your visitors to load it.

That is usually backed with terrible support so when you do have a problem, you’re on your own.

The only hosting company I recommend for begineers is iPage because-

Free custom domain – They include a 100% free custom domain name.
1 Click WordPress installation – Installing WordPress takes less than 30 seconds.
24/7 support – No matter what happens, they are available to help.
$200 free advertising – You also get $200 worth of free ad coupons to kick start your blog.
Budget friendly– It costs just $1.99 per month!

ALERT: Start Your Blog For Just $1.99 Per Month Today & Get A FREE DOMAIN NAME!

First go to iPage.com and click Get Started Now:

On the next page, you need to enter the domain name you decided on earlier.

Enter your domain in the Domain Search box in the centre.

Double check:

That you typed in the domain right and there are no pesky typos – it happens to the best of us!

Now you just need to confirm all of the details of your order and enter you billing information.

You can skip over all of the Website Essentials upsells on the package information page.

There is no need to buy any of the extra things they offer you.

Just skip over all of this and click Checkout.

Once you have filled out that form you’ll then need to wait for iPage to send you the login information.

Sometimes they may ask for extra details for verification so just go through that process with them until you find yourself back at the dashboard.

It should look a little something like this-

Now that might look overwhelming right now but don’t worry.

You just need to click on WordPress.

You’ll then be asked to select the domain that you want to install WordPress on.

Here you just need to pick the domain that you chose earlier.

Here you’ll also need to give your site a ‘Title’ provide username and password credentials.

These will be used to login to WordPress when it is installed.

When you’re done providing credentials, click on ‘Next’ and let the setup process take place.

Once the install is completed, you’ll then see this screen.

Click on your domain to be taken to the WordPress admin login area for your new blog!

More often than not, you’ll be able to login to WordPress by entering ‘/wp-admin’ after your URL-

yourdomain.com/wp-admin

When you visit the WordPress Admin URL, you should then see the following screen. It is on this screen that you need to enter in your login credentials that you either created, or were given earlier.

And that’s pretty much it!

You have installed WordPress and it is ready to go!

Step 4 – Customising Your Blog

Now WordPress is installed, it’s time to customize your new blog to your liking. The first thing we are going to do is find and install a theme that you like.

The design of your blog plays a huge role in the success of your blog because it’s the body language of your blog.

How To Choose A Great WordPress Theme

Simple & clutter free – The simpler it is to read and navigate your site, the better!
Mobile responsive – Your blog needs to look great on mobile as well, this is non-negotiable.
Optimized for speed – Your blog needs to load quickly to keep visitors engaged
SEO ready – It should be built with search engine optimisation in mind
Easy to customize – Ideally you can change the layout or colours in a couple of clicks
Built in shortcodes – This makes it easy to style your blog posts and give them some “pop”

The great news is there are thousands of free WordPress themes that you can choose from. While they might not have all of the best features and support, they are free.

To find a WordPress do that just go to Appearance > Themes > Add New

From here you can browse through the featured, popular and latest themes to your hearts content.

Just mouse over any that you like to get a live preview or to install and activate one.

Once you have done that you can go to Appearance > Customize to tweak things like colors & fonts easily-

Just keep tweaking things until you are happy!

If you are serious about your blog then you might want to invest in a pro theme that will help you to stand out from the crowd & save a lot of the headache that you often find with free themes (like things not working properly/zero support).

In fact I highly suggest you watch the video below which explains all of the problems I had when I started my blog-

Hopefully you don’t make the same mistakes!

In fact I worked alongside the MyThemeShop team to build the custom theme that you see on the blog right now.

So if you want a WordPress theme that builds trust, loads quickly, ranks well and positions you as the authority in your niche then you can download my theme here.

Step 5 – Writing Your First Blog Post

Now comes the fun part!

Writing & publishing your first blog post might seem scary but I’m going to guide you through the process.

First of all login to your WordPress admin dashboard (yourdomain.com/wp-admin) and then go to Posts > Add New.

You will be presented with a screen like this-

Let me explain exactly what you are seeing here-

Title Area: This is where you write the title of your blog post
Add Media: This is where you can upload images/gifs/videos
Content Area: This is where you write the main content of your post with text formatting tools above
Publishing: This is where you control if your post is published and live to the world or you can choose to schedule it in advanced.
Other: Choose or create a relevant category for your post or upload a featured image. If you don’t know what tags are then don’t worry about them.

Feel free to write anything you want for your first blog post as you get used to the WordPress system,

Here is an example post-

Once it is done, just click on the blue Publish button and voila!

You have just written and published your very first blog post!

Now give yourself a pat on the back and take a break because you have just started your very first blog!

Frequently Asked Questions About Blogging

So now you know how to start a blog the right way, I am sure you have a bunch of questions!

So I did my best to answer as many of your blogging questions as possible below.

Just click on the question(s) below to instantly reveal the answer!

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Adonis Diaries

Archive for June 3rd, 2018

This “gifted child/adult”: I live with my parents and I have no money generated jobs

Posted on The Matt Walsh Blog this July 17, 2013

“My child is gifted. He’s also 29, unemployed, and living in my basement”

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Starting a Blog the RIGHT WAY? If you don’t start and expect surprises nothing is that right

Step 1 – Choose Your Blogging Platform

Why Do People Use & Recommend WordPress?

Why You Shouldn’t Create A Blog On A Free Platform

Step 2 – Choose Your Domain Name

Check If Your Domain Name Is Available…

Step 3 – Setup Web Hosting & WordPress

What Is Web Hosting?

Avoid Bad Web Hosting Companies!

Step ​4 – ​Customising Your Blog

How To Choose A Great WordPress Theme

Step 5 – Writing Your First Blog Post

Frequently Asked Questions About Blogging

Starting Your Blog

How much does it cost to start a blog?

Who should I host my blog with?

How do I design and customize my blog? Do I need a designer?

Where can I find affordable professional WordPress themes?

​How do you start your own blog for free?​

Creating Content

I don’t think I am a good writer, how can I improve?

Should I write my blog posts in English or my native language?

How often should I be publishing new blog posts?

How many words should my blog posts be?

What type of blog posts should I be writing?

Getting People To Read Your Blog

How do I get people to read my blog?

How do I get more people to come to my blog from Google?​

Do I need to use social media?

What is the easiest way to publish social media updates?

Build An Email List

Which is the best email marketing service for bloggers?

How do I get people to sign up to my email list?

Are there any tools that make getting people to sign up to my email list easier?

Running Your Blog

What pages should my blog have?

Where can I get a cheap logo created for my blog?

How can I make my blog load faster?

How can I see how many people are visiting my blog?

How ​do bloggers get paid?

​How much money can you make from a blog?

Which are the best free WordPress plugins for my blog?

How can I automatically backup my blog?

How do I start good search engine optimization (SEO) habits?

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Step 4 – Customising Your Blog

How do you start your own blog for free?

How do I get more people to come to my blog from Google?

How do bloggers get paid?

How much money can you make from a blog?