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Helpful Articles
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Blogging Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging
Stop wasting time looking for a job,
just blog it and start making full - time income online How to start blogging I know you have heard that a journey of
a thousand miles begins with a step. This is very true whenever you
decide to start blogging. Now if you have been contemplating on how to
start blogging, the answer is very easy. In order for you to start,
you have to learn some of the basics and then start doing it.
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One of the biggest issues most people
usually run into when they are new to blogging is that they over
complicate things. Now do you know that most of the software available
out there for you to start a blog is very easy to operate and
understand? To be precise, it takes a few clicks for you to get
started. Same thing goes for many of the blogging platforms that are
free on the Internet. These were created with simplicity having the
end user in mind. Often, you can easily have one of these free blogs
set up and ready to go within just some minutes after signing up for
an account.
Now, if you have been asking yourself how do I start blogging? You have to think about why you need to start blogging in the first place. Some people blog just to always keep up with family and friends and to let them know about what is going on in their lives. It is also one of the best ways to share pictures and videos. You can also make some money by blogging because there are some advertising programs which are available on the Internet that allow you put in a little bit of code into your blog and all the advertising on the back end will be taking care of .
Probably the most difficult aspect about
learning how to blog is placing the very first post out there on the
Internet. You only need some few minutes to set up a blog, maybe an
hour that’s if it is the first time you are doing it. The article
that you will post on your blog might take nothing less than some
hours to put together, now depending on what you really want to do. It
is very important that you get your first post online because this
will encourage you to keep going. How to install a WordPress blog
Installing a WordPress blog is very easy
to learn. The software is easily available for download on the web,
and it's one of the best programs available to users out there. All
you have to do is get a domain name and web
hosting for the program to put your blog because these are not
included in it.
Once you have got the domain and web
hosting, and the program has been downloaded; the rest is very
simple. All you need to do is to open the application and follow the
procedures. Just enter in the information like the domain name you
have and the details of your web
hosting. You also need to pick a good title for your blog and then
you move onto picking out themes, colors and templates. There are so
many that you can choose from and with the latest version you can
change the templates later if you actually don't like them. At the
very end, all you have to do is "create", and you're done.
In a couple of minutes your blog is on the internet and ready for you
to customize. There is a lot of plug-ins that you can
use to make your site function better or even more unique. These are
easily available online along with some tutorials on creating your own
plug-ins. You will be amazed at how easy the software is and how fun
it is to customize. Learning how to install a WordPress
blog is something that will just take you some few minutes, but it
can also be addicting because you will find yourself spending lots of
time changing your blog appearance a few times until you finally
settle on one. I firmly believe that beginners can
learn how to install a WordPress
blog without any problems at all. There are easy procedures to
follow, and the instructions are very simple. There are also tutorials
available if you need a little more help. It's already set up for
success and beginners will definitely enjoy the results they are going
to get with it.
How much does it cost to start a
blog? The first question people ask when they
are trying to start a blog of their own, is what exactly is the
associated costs involved? Now depending on how complex or simple you
want your blog to be, the
actual start-to-finish costs normally varies. To make this as easy as
possible, we will have to cover the important aspects of blogging,
while also making it as easy to the point as possible. It won’t take you much to get started
with a quality blog of your own. In the “blogging necessities”
list below, I will cover all the things you need to kick start your
blog, along with the costs associated with each. -
Domain name –
$15/year This name is what
people will use to search your blog
on the internet. It is the name and address for your blog and it’s also the most important thing people will remember
about your site. The money required to register a new domain name is
normally in the range of $7-$15. After registering a domain name, you
are required to pay a yearly fee to renew the domain. The cost is
usually the same amount which you paid for the domain when
registering. ·
Web hosting – $10/month Web hosting is a necessity
because it store site content on the internet and make it accessible
to people all over the world. As a blogger, you really don’t need to
know the technicalities of hosting, but all that is required for you
to know is that the majority of web
hosting companies on the internet will definitely be fine for your
blog. You also have to know that Web
hosting is always paid on a monthly basis, though some hosts give
discounts with annual billing. ·
WordPress – Free This actually is
the platform that powers almost all the blogs on the internet today.
You can easily and freely download the WordPress software from
wordpress.org and install it onto your server. Another good option is
to register for web hosting
through HostGator, because
they offer one click WordPress installation. You will never be ask to
pay to download wordpress or any other associated software updates
because it is free. Sign
Up for HOSTGATOR WebHosting Here
WordPress security and plugins How will you feel when you visit your
site and found out that all your previous work has gone and somebody
else has taken over your site? So many sites are been hacked every day,
for all its strengths, there is also a lot of downside to WordPress.
Unfortunately, the truth is just because it is so popular that’s why
it attracts so many hackers and internet evil-doers that use WordPress
sites for play and prey. And they usually don't scan for
vulnerabilities personally; all they use is automated "bots"
that work non-stop searching for holes. Once they see a hole, all they do is use
that entrance point on so many thousands of other sites. Now you need to always have a recent
backup so you can quickly swap a hacked site. Always make sure you
have the latest versions of WordPress
and all the plugins required because they contain the latest fixes for
known holes that the bots are searching for. Delete those unused themes and plugins
you are keeping. Keeping themes are Old and inactive are serious
security threat. You can either make use of WP admin or ftp dashboard
and remove them from the wp-content/themes/ directory; all you need do
is just to reinstall when you need them. Don’t ever use public wifi to logging
into your sites or bank accounts because there is actually no security
in public. You have to only install trusted plugins because if you
install the wrong ones they will install a free key to all the things
you have; be warned. Delete the automated "admin"
user and setup a very hard name that will be hard to crack. Use
passwords that are scrambled but genuinely random making use of all
kinds of characters from your keyboard. After setting up that new
user, you have to give them a nickname that will always show to the
public - it must be different from the username so it is difficult to
find.
There are so many good security plugins
available but you don’t have to install too many plugins because it
will make your site load very slowly and that always damage search
engine rankings. I will give you some tips that you can easily do
yourself using ftp. If that sounds too difficult for your current
skill level, then you can use plugins such as Akismet, Chap Secure
Login, WP-secure, Login Lockdown, and WP Security Scan which will do
many of these things for you. You have to start by creating an empty
index.html and an empty index.php then you can upload them into your
plugin directory to easily hide your plugins folder so no one will see
what plugins they can exploit there. You will also upload the same
file into your themes folder to hide them too. You can set file permissions to 644 on
your wp-admin/index.php and to 600 on wp-config.php so they will not
be able to execute. Always keep your WordPress version
hidden so that hackers won't know the version you are running. Go to
your theme's folder and click open "header.php". Then delete
the line <meta name="generator" content="WordPress
<?php bloginfo('version');?>" /> - because it has no
useful purpose. You will have to change the automatic wp_
MYSQL table prefix with something more non specific. But if this is
too risky for you to do, WP Security Scan plugin can do it for you.
How to choose the perfect blogging platform for you If you really want to start a blog,
but don’t know the right platform for you, some important factors to
look at are time and goals. Now if you're seriously wondering if one
platform offers quality more than another or more people prefer one
particular blog platform over another then you're in luck! Not only
are there so many popular blogging
platforms to choose from, changing from one platform to another as
your requirements change is earlier than ever due to cross-connection. Because of the simplistic nature of blogging
it has become very popular. So many free
blogging platforms are available with each containing features
that are robust both built-in and as add-ons for serving published
content that are dynamic. All blogging
platforms are very similar but vary a little bit in terms of
scalability and user-friendliness. WordPress is a very popular choice
because it can be hosted on your own server or by wordpress, giving
you more "control". While a good hosting costs and
maintenance of the server are some very important aspects to consider,
Tumblr a micro blogging platform has also gained a lot of
respectable audience as a very good business blogging platform.
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Pros and Cons Before you choose a blogging platform
let's keep in mind the following: 1. Are you good with installation,
configuration, and self-hosting your blog yourself, or would you
rather rely on a hosted service? 2. Can you design your blog theme, or
are you satisfied with using or modifying an existing theme? 3. Do you want others to be able to
comment on your posts and interact with your content in a social way? 4. Will you always be writing your own
unique articles or you prefer posting interesting things you find
online? 5. Is this for business or personal use? 6. Are you willing to pay for this
blogging platform? 7. Will you need multiple user access to
your blogging platform?
Blogging Platform Options This is a list covering some of the well
established and popular blogging platforms that is good to most needs
along with a brief explanation of its strengths. ·
Tumblr This is a microblog
platform that's free and designed to take all the effort out of
blogging. This is not like conventional blogging platforms that
publish posts; Tumblr is a social community that shares good and
quality content from different online sources and then
reblog the content with the hope that others in the community will
enjoy the content. This is one of the best methods to filter mediocre
content from interesting content with the potential to go viral. Tumblr also handle good and original content as well, but it's not
good for anybody who intends to create a long-form blog. If what you
actually want is to share quality and interesting content and also
have a social network built-in to your blog so you can quickly
interact with other users, then Tumblr is the right blogging platform
for you. ·
Asaph This is similar to
Tumblr because it is a self-hosted microblog
platform, where you are able to add content through a bookmarklet for
easy usage. You can simply choose from the selection that is included
or you can also create your own themes. If you like Tumblr but still
want full control, then Asaph's open-source option is what you're
looking for. ·
Posterous Spaces Posterous Spaces
gives you an interpretation the article you provide is allowing you to
post from the Posterous site and also through emailing what you really
want to post on your blog. It normally turns photos into galleries and
converts video into a player as well. It`s a great option if you don`t
require a lot of control and simplicity is of importance to you. ·
WordPress The most popular blogging
software which makes up the majority of blogs and Content
Management Systems (CMS) is WordPress. It`s reputation is backed
by both the highest ranked website on the internet and open source
community. It's very easy to get your blog started after choosing a hosting
service, and what if you host WordPress yourself there are also
many hosts that offer one-click installations of the software. WordPress offers over 1,000 free themes, while there are many great
themes made available for purchase, with basic scripting and web
design knowledge you can even create your own from scratch. How to make money with your blog Blogging has gained tremendous
popularity in the last years. Millions of people have personal blogs where they share their thoughts or provide valuable
information on specific topics. Perhaps the most popular blogs are
able to make a living from advertising programs, but there are many
other ways to diversify your income streams. If you already have your
own blog and you want to monetize
your content, check out the following tips: Affiliate programs There are thousands of affiliate
programs that you can use to monetize your blog. The most popular of
them include Clickbank, Amazon, and Commission Junction. As an
affiliate, you promote products and services offered by various
merchants. Every time you make a sale, you receive a commission. If
you have a fashion blog, you can make
money online by promoting clothing stores and fashion magazines. Direct Ad sales Another way to monetize your blog is selling
ad space directly to advertisers. By using this strategy, you can
eliminate the middle man and set up your own price for displaying
other people's ads. Another advantage of direct ads is that publishers
are able to offer more targeted advertisements to their visitors. Self-published books If your blog focuses on a specific
niche, then you should create an eBook with self-publishing services
and earn profits. Write an original eBook that provides value to your
visitors and then advertise it on your blog. Create a relevant blog
post about your book and give people a reason to buy it. Paid content Paid content is a great monetization
tool for popular blogs. If your blog has loyal readership, you can
offer premium content to readers who are willing to pay for the
information. Publishers can monetize their blogs by selling
mini-guides, white papers, eBooks, and tutorials. You can also create
special sections featuring videos, webinars, and events, and then
create revenue by selling subscriptions or charging admission. Donations Donation buttons have been a part of blogging
for years. Bloggers have
long been using their platforms to raise money and awareness. If you
provide quality content on your blog, ask your readers for donations
in a polite way. The ones who truly value your work will support your
actions and reward your efforts by making a donation. Selling products, joining ad networks,
and writing sponsored posts are other great
ways to make money online with your blog. If you offer specific
services such as copywriting
or web design, you can use
your blog to promote your
business and find new customers.
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Secrets to making a full-time income from your blog According to statistics, there are a lot
of people making lots of money working
from home. These people might be doing this by simply having and
operating so many blogs. Maybe you will be thinking that this takes a
whole lot of money to start but most of them don’t even spend any
money. If you are in need of some extra
money you too can set up some simple blogs. You can start with as simple as 4 or
more blogs because it does not take much. You can always start out
with free blogs if you don't have the necessary money to get your own
domain. There are so many blog service providers which are free out
there that can easily offer their services to you and also gives you
free templates to use. Once
you have set up your blog, you can then give value to it by adding
things like Google Ad Sense or some other advertisements that you can
easily make some money
from. Google AdSense is actually one of the easiest to work with
because all you need to do is just place the code from Adsense on your
site and when your visitors click on those ads you make some cool
money. Now in addition to AdSense, you can also
make money blogging by
registering at 'blog for money' websites. These websites give you
weekly blogging tasks. What you need to do is to always follow the
simple tasks that they give you and you just blog accordingly. To get
paid require that you simply do the tasks that are required of you and
these 'blog for money' website owners will then pay you according to
the task agreed upon. These tasks may be paying you for each post or
they can also pay you according to the number of hits that particular
content receives. Blogging for cash is very easy to do and
you can always make a living doing just that. All you need to do is
make some research and some of your time and then start sharing your
knowledge and you will be well on your way to the bank literally. Tips to make your blog a success Are you trying to make your online
business a success? Then you have to consider blogging as a very
powerful tool that will aid you in generating lots of traffic to your
Website. If you maintain your blog after setting it up, then you will
always get huge returns with very little investment. Here
are some great tips which will get you started when building your blog
and also help you in maintaining it. ·
Always get to the
point by putting your ideas in a blog without writing too much. ·
One of the best
ways to get the interest of your readers and keep it is to stick to
one point at a time. If you begin to go from one subject to the next,
you will lose your reader's interest very fast so always write about
one idea at a time. ·
State your ideas in
a very simple format, so even a first-grader could understand it
because the fact that you know so much about a topic doesn't mean
everyone else does. ·
Always connect with
your audience by keeping an informal approach that allows the readers
to read your articles and feel as if they're actually communicating
with you. ·
Proofread your work
always because no one really wants to see bad grammar or misspelled
words when they're trying to educate themselves about something. It
will just defeat the purpose. ·
Negativity
doesn’t count so you have to always be positive. A lot of
encouragement is needed by everybody in this day and age so keep your
blogs positive and uplifting and it will affect your reader. How long does it take to make money
blogging? The truth is, the blogging model you
choose will determine how quickly you start to make money online. If you choose the wrong one then it will take you
years. One of the simplest methods to make
money online is blogging, because it is such an easy model to
start. Yes, it’s very simple, but a lot of people get it wrong. There are a lot of people who start new
blogs everyday with the intentions of making
so much money from them. But most of them don’t even make enough
to pay for a cup of coffee, let alone the weekly grocery bills. And this is mainly because they use the
wrong blogging strategy
from the very beginning. Choosing the right strategy will determine
whether you make money in the next 2 months or the next 5 years. There’s a perfect science to blogging
for money that most people don’t know about. It’s so easy but
most bloggers “miss it”
– even when it’s starring them in the face. Most people are very good in creating a
blog – no problem, but not all are able to make
money from them, and I believe it’s all down to some few little
clues that they miss. These clues normally determine if
you’ll make money in 2
months or 5 years. So whether your goal is to make $200 a month or
even a $30,000 a month it can all be achieved using blogs coupled with
the right strategy. How much money you make is actually
connected to how much effort you’re willing to put in. How to get traffic to your blog The frustration to gain readership has
been experienced by almost everybody who's ever hosted a blog. The
truth is, it normally takes some effort to build an audience although
we’d all like it if readers just magically came to us. It’s very simple to get frustrated and
easily give up on blogging, but once you know the benefits, you'll
understand that giving up on your blog is not the solution.
Here
are some proven strategies that can help you boost readership and
increase traffic to your blog. Know your niche. Your content need to follow a clear
theme because you have to decide who your target audience is, what
they will always want to read and what specific messages you want to
convey. Incorporate links Whenever you talk about another
company’s product or service in an article, you have to include a
link to that company’s page because Google like seeing outbound
links on site, another advantage is the company you mention may also
notice your post and link back to you. Plus, readers are always happy
when you provide resources to make it simple for them to find the
things they're looking for. Write guest posts You can offer to contribute guest blog
posts to other blogs that
reach your target audience. If the site has a good audience, you can
bet that readers will in turn want to engage with more of your
blogpost. Write more Do you know that the more often you post
on your blog, the more traffic it will receive? Google normally gives
higher priority to websites with good and fresh content, so to get
more attention from the search engines, you have to update your blog
at least twice a day. Inviting guest contributors If you allow others write for your blog,
then you add more articles that you didn’t have to write yourself.
Now those contributors will also share with their networks and they
may ask you to write for them, opening up new readership avenues for
you. Social media promotion Always share all new articles across
your social media networks, like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest,
LinkedIn. If you spend some time growing your networks and sharing
great content, social media sites can become some of your top traffic
sources. Write better titles The title for your articles is more
important than the content itself because titles help most potential
readers decide whether they should click on the link and read more.
Now take a look at the article titles you see on magazine covers. They
normally entice readers with promises and solutions. When you try
this, your readership will definitely increase. Add social sharing buttons At the top and bottom of your articles,
make sure you put social sharing buttons for Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn and the other major social
networks. Make it simple for readers to spread the word. Add video Google is the owner of YouTube, this is
one of the reasons videos
drive more traffic to your site.
Always supplement the articles on your blog with informative and
entertaining short videos. Always include photos Do you know that photos in articles
boost readership. A photo does not just make the post more appealing,
but you can also include keywords in the Alt Image tag on the photo,
boosting search engine
optimization (SEO) for your site. Past content retweeting We aren’t all looking at Twitter at
the same time, so when you share a new blog post link, the majority of
your fan base won’t see it the first time. Repeat your tweets, and
don’t be afraid to share past content. Readers don’t care when it
was written as long as it’s still relevant. Invest in promotion Sometimes invest in sponsored posts if
you believe your audience is spending most time on Facebook, for as
little as $10, you can “Boost” a post and increase its reach
significantly. Use lots of subheads, bullets and
numbered lists so that your content will be easy to read. Always promote your blog through your
email signature and your bio in any online profiles. Make sure subscribing to your RSS feed
by blog visitors is very easy. Always invite readers to leave a
comment, and then reply so that they will know you’re engaged. Using Google analytics and ad word Is it very hard for you to keep track of
your blog performance in search engines? Now apart from downloading
software that usually offers to keep track of the SEO
performance of your site, Google analytics is the integrated service
of Google especially for people who are into SEO
which are very concerned with the performance of their site. Google analytics is a strong service
that keeps track of the success of your site on paid and organic
search results. It gives you very good understanding on how your web
site's visitors react on your site. It normally gives you detailed
experience of your web site visitors. It will also keep you aware of the key
words users in relation to your web site frequently use. You will also
be thought on the very best link text that brings in most prospects. Google Analytics shares with you a
lot of analytical data which will greatly help you to being aware
about your site visitors and target visitors' preferences. Google Analytics also provides lots
of free information about the way visitors to your site interact with
it. If you take a very good look at Google Analytics, webmasters will
know that it is a very valuable tool they should always use especially
if they do not have any form of visitor tracking solution. Google Analytics also shares with you
the SEO campaigns that
delivered the return on investment. Google Analytics can also be used
to track down results of your internet
marketing campaigns. Now combined with Google
Ad Words, you will be very sure of getting significant information
about your web site. Google Ad Words is a very powerful
service to put your site in search results based on some special
keywords that is related to your site. Your major web site's key words
are taking note of by Google Ad Words and it guarantees that your web
site appears in search engine results. With Google Ad Words you can
easily reach millions in seconds, and get in front of the right
audience and then sell your goods or services to visitors all over the
world. WordPress blog maintenance You don’t need to sit and relax
forever after creating a self-hosted
WordPress blog. You need to always improve its themes and plugins.
The complete installations may have to be upgraded, or maybe all you
simply need is for some modifications to be added to your theme, or
you may sometimes just add little functionality to your blog
or you may just need to replace your CSS. While you are carrying out
all the above mentioned, you will probably want to inform your
visitors that your site is under maintenance. Now how are you going to
do this? Apart from this, it is also good that
you conduct all kinds of modifications and test on your local server
and then upload the newest modified version. During this period when
your blogs are not online,
it is your priority to respect your visitors by informing them that
you are running maintenance and will be back soon. You can do this by
using one of the useful plugins created for such purpose. The truth is a lot of work is needed in WordPress
maintenance including website
optimization, broken link checks, regular backups, fixing security
loopholes, updating core files & plugins, database repairs, and so
much more. But you can hire someone to do this for you if you don't
have the time to do this kind of technical stuff. Note: Blogging for money as a career is a source of online income definitely not a get rich quick business.
See Also... Financial Fitness, Blockchain, Positive Thinking, Blogging for money, Top Website Hosting Companies, Nigeria Stock Market, Selling on eBay, Amazing Business Ideas
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