Setup a Professional Branded Email Address

If you’re serious about your blog, then it’s important to have a professional branded email address. This goes a long way in negotiating deals with an advertiser because they think you’re a legit operation. Here is how to easily get a professional branded email address for free. Plus it also helps with email deliverability when sending email newsletters.

Setup Unique Contact Forms for Each Use Case

In the beginning, I had my email address publicly displayed on the blog. This led to tons of spam coming my way. Contact forms are very important and that’s why you will find a contact page on almost every website you visit. It’s also important to have different forms for each use case, so you can easily filter the emails and be more efficient.

There are plenty of WordPress contact form plugins in the market. However, most WordPress contact form plugins are designed for developers. This is why I launched WPForms, with the goal of making it the most beginner-friendly contact form plugin for WordPress. It has more than 6 million active installs with 12,000+ five-star reviews. There is also a free version called WPForms Lite that you can try.

Repurposing Content is a Secret Weapon for Expert Bloggers

You don’t always have to come up with new blog post ideas. Expert bloggers repurpose their content into videos, images, collection articles, etc.. You can also repurpose articles as downloadable ebooks, audio files, or YouTube videos. With a tool like Beacon, you can instantly recycle a blog post into professional ebook by simply pasting the web address of your article.

Diversify Your Income Stream

The easiest way for new blogs to start making money is by displaying ads using Google AdSense. While Google AdSense is great, you need to diversify your income stream. We have seen bloggers losing all their income when AdSense blocked their accounts for a policy violation. There are plenty of ways to make money online from your blog. You can supplement your blogging income with affiliate marketing, selling online courses, offering membership plans, and more. Another way to boost your ad revenues is to monitor who’s advertising on your site. You can then go to them directly to eliminate the middle man.

Consistency is Key

You don’t have to post every day. But you have to be consistent in your schedule. Try to post once a day, 5 days a week if not everyday. Some popular blogs publish several new posts each day. Choose how frequently you will publish and then stick to that frequency. If you are just starting out, then you can start with 3 posts per week and then gradually increase your pace. If you’re not disciplined, then it’s easy to slip and this is how most blogs die. You need to keep yourself motivated and don’t get distracted from your goals.

Starting a blog can be an exciting venture, whether it’s for sharing your passions, building a brand, or generating income. Here are some essential tips to help you get started:

1. Choose The Right Platform

A lot of folks start with popular free blogging platforms like Blogger, Medium, or WordPress.com, but these blogging platforms are limited. You don’t want to waste your time there if you’re serious about blogging. First, you’ll have to follow the terms and conditions of these platforms, and they have the right to shut down your blog without any notice. Also, there’s no guarantee that you will be able to export your content should they shut off your blog. You can only use the features available on their platform which are limited. Most free platforms also restrict you from making money blogging.

2. Find The Perfect Domain name

Choosing the right domain name is very important. I had a wildly successful blog called List25.com which had over 2.3 million YouTube subscribers and over 500 million video views. But in hindsight, I wish I didn’t add a number in the domain because it restricted us to only 25 items in a list. Choose a domain name that is easy to pronounce, spell, and as short as possible.

3. Choosing The Right Hosting is Very Important

Choosing the right web hosting is by far one of the most important decisions when starting a blog because this is where your website files are stored. Many beginners like the idea of getting free hosting, but choosing a free website hosting is always a bad idea, and it will end up costing you more money and time in the end.

4. Always Keep Regular Backups

Often users don’t think about backups until it’s too late. In the early days, I chose a cheap web hosting provider that wasn’t very well-known, and they had a hardware failure. I lost my entire website because I didn’t have a backup. Many hosting companies offer limited backups. However, these backups are not guaranteed, and a hardware failure can cause you to lose data as well as the backup. Backups are your first line of defense against brute force attacks, hacking, and data theft. They are the first step to improving your WordPress security and keeping your website safe.

There are plenty of reliable WordPress backup plugins that allow you to schedule automatic backups and store them in remote locations like Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and more.

5. Setup Google Analytics from Day 1

You can’t grow your site if you don’t know how people find and use your website. Like many beginners, I too relied on “guesswork” and “winging it” to get the job done until I learned the importance of website analytics. Google Analytics is the best analytics software in the world used by millions of websites. It allows you to see your most popular content, where your visitors are coming from, and more. It also helps you track user engagement across your website, which helps you improve your business using real numbers instead of guesswork. If you are running an online store, then you can use it to track customers and boost your conversions.

#1. Don’t quit your 9-5 job now

If you currently have a job or business and you’re thinking of quitting to blog full time, I want to recommend you hold on until you’ve saved enough money to keep you going for the next 12 months and more. Creating and publishing blog posts won’t pay your bills. If it was that easy, everyone would be blogging full time. One difficult area of blogging is monetizing your effort. The money is what we need to cater for our responsibilities. But full time bloggers don’t blog for money. YES!  Don’t blog to make money. Blog to provide solutions to your readers. Once they get satisfaction, they will pay for your services.

#2. Invest in yourself

To succeed as a full time blogger, you must invest in yourself as the blogger. There is a difference between the blog and the blogger. You can put in a few bucks and get a powerful blog in the next few hours. But the success of the blog will highly depend on the blogger behind the blog. That’s why you must give yourself the necessary skills to carry your blog to the next level. As a well trained blogger, you’ll find out that a huge portion of your income won’t be directly linked to your blog. For instance, if you are hired to train or speak at an event, you won’t be paid as the owner of some powerful blog. You will be paid because you are found qualified to deliver.

My advice is that you get some reasonable amount of knowledge in:

1. Content creation

2. Content promotion

3. Social media

4. Search engine optimization

5. List building

6. Graphics and image processing

7. Product creation

8. Etc.

There are lots of free resources online to learn these things. If you can sign up to paid platforms or be coached by some professionals, that would be a better option.

#3. Choose an evergreen blogging topic

Your main blog should be based on a topic that’s not limited to season or events. Now, as a full time SEO blogger, I can create event-based blogs as well. But, the topic of my main blog is evergreen. Don’t build your blogging career on shallow topics. If you are a Christmas blogger for instance, you will only be relevant during that season. There is a long list of inexhaustible evergreen blogging topics out there. It doesn’t have to be difficult to come up with one. You just have to pick the right topic based on passion and/or knowledge.

To be honest the cons aren’t really cons if you enjoy blogging but these seem to be the ones that most people will agree on :

1. Regular Blogging Takes Time

Blogging takes a lot more time than you think it does. Each post takes some to a lot of research to make sure your information is accurate. It’s one thing starting up a blog to write your thoughts, but quite another to get these thoughts together in a form that can be published for others to read. You must get your posts out on a regular schedule. Ideally you should plan ahead, and have a few posts in the pipeline ready to publish while you research more.

2. Finding Topics to Write About

If you want to make it as a professional blogger, you must be able to find unique content. It need not be a unique topic, but should at least be a different take on an old subject. Provide an alternative viewpoint to what others are writing online, and gather together your own readers rather than try to steal those from other blogs. What are you writing about? If you want a following then you must tackle a consistent theme, whether that is SEO and blogging, cat training or how to make the best mud cakes in the world!

3. No Magic Bullet

Blogging is no magic bullet that draws cash like iron filings to a magnet. You can start-up and work for weeks and make nothing, but you are attracting a readership. Professional blogging does not offer a guaranteed income – so don’t pack in the day job until you are making enough to feed yourself, look after your family and pay all the bills. This can take time.

4. No Guarantees of Readers

You are not guaranteed readers. For people to read your blog they must first find it. That is a skill in itself, but there is lot you can do to get your blog noticed. Learn the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) but don’t lose sleep over it- a good blog will eventually be noticed. Try to be unique and you will have a better chance of success. Use social media for free advertising. Setting up a Facebook business page, tweeting posts and using Instagram as well as Pinterest to spread the news.

5. Blog Spam

If you allow comments then expect a large amount of blog spam. Many people use software to create generic comments and distribute them to as many blogs as the software can find. They usually take the form of a generic comment along the lines of “Great blog – You have written well on this topic and I recommend you to anybody.” If a comment does not refer directly to the content of your post then it is almost certainly spam. These comments can come in their hundreds, and Google will possibly punish your ranking unless you remove them.

Make sure you set your comments to require approval before being published, or your readers will take a dim view of you allowing all this spam and likely go elsewhere. Even if you do delete them, it can give you a great deal of unnecessary work. Make sure you have a spam filter activated – but even then you should check your comments every day. You might be lucky, but it can take up to 10-15 minutes each day to delete all the blog spam you are sure to get.

If you are looking to get a new computer to use for blogging, you might be blinded by jargon and hard-to-decipher specifications. Here’s a brief guide that covers what you need to know.

1. RAM (Random Access Memory)

Computer programs run inside a computer’s memory aka RAM. On older computers, a lack of RAM can slow your computer down to an insufferable crawl, cause freezes, lock-ups and even random reboots.  If you’re only writing, blogging and performing basic Office tasks on an old computer, 8GB is usually enough to get by. However, if your blogging includes content writing and image or video editing, it is worth choosing a minimum of 16GB. Fortunately, RAM is only important to power users, like gamers and designers, nowadays. That’s because accessing computer storage (using modern hard drives – see below) has accelerated to the point where it’s almost as fast as RAM.

2. Internet Connectivity

Few things are more annoying than dealing with poor connectivity… especially when a deadline is approaching. If you’re a travel blogger, or a writer working in a hard-to-reach location, then spend a bit of time thinking about how you’ll get online. All modern laptops have built-in Wi-Fi, but if there’s no Wi-Fi network, you can’t connect to it. If that’s the case, then you may be able to connect directly to a local mobile phone network. Some laptops have a slot for 3G, 4G and 5G SIM cards. Others will require a separate dongle that then connects via a cable or Bluetooth. If you are looking to get a new computer to use for blogging, you might be blinded by jargon and hard-to-decipher specifications. Here’s a brief guide that covers what you need to know.

3. Storage

A hard-drive is where your data is (permanently) stored. If you focus on writing, you won’t need much storage at all – 256GB should be enough. However, if you’re dealing with high-resolution photos and/or High Definition videos, you’ll need to consider a laptop with thousands of gigabytes of storage (1000GB = 1 terabyte = 1TB) to store all those photos when out travelling and blogging. Some computers still come with mechanical hard drives. These are slow but can be capacious, relatively cheap and store huge amounts of photos and videos. More modern computers use super-fast, solid-state drives (SSDs) which have no moving parts. Capacities of the latter are increasing, but they’re not cheap.

4. CPU or Processor

The CPU, or central processing unit, is effectively the brain of the computer. It moves all the parts of a program through all the correct parts of the computer. The fastest models are expensive, use a lot of electricity and generate heat (which, in a laptop, needs to be cooled using fans). This all dramatically affects a laptop’s battery life. Lightweight, ‘ultraportable’ laptop CPUs draw much less power which can provide day-long battery life – perfect for basic blogging on the road! However, if they’re not powerful enough, they’ll struggle dealing with any processor-intensive tasks, like photo and video editing. Fortunately, most recent computer CPUs (particularly those from AMD and Intel) offer a great combination of power efficiency and performance that cater for all common tasks.

5. Operating System

Most current computers work using Microsoft Windows (version 10 or 11) as the operating system. This is the software platform that tells the hardware and software how to work together. Apple computers use their own MacOS operating system. It’s less versatile than Windows but, if you’re a beginner, it can be easier to get to grips with. Macs are good until they go wrong or slow down, as fixes are usually hidden away out of sight. Still, some solutions to speed up your Mac include killing resource-consuming processes, managing startup items, malware scans and limiting the number of apps, running in the background.

6. Keyboards

Since bloggers spend so much time typing, it’s important to choose a computer with a comfortable keyboard. Most modern laptops have comfortable and accurate keys, but some of them (that you use frequently) may be squished and difficult to hit accurately. Avoid stiff keyboards or your fingertips will hurt after prolonged typing. Whether you’re using a laptop or a desktop, choosing an external keyboard, with full-size keys, is always worth considering.

1. Blogging Tools

It’s common for bloggers to manage more than one website. This means they always need access to domain, hosting, WordPress themes, site builders, online marketing tools, and other related services. So, buy some blogging tools from this list for your blogger friend and make his/her day.

2. Photo Editing Software Subscription

Subscription to photo editing software like the Adobe Creative Cloud, Lightroom and Photoshop (Photography pack) makes it easier to edit photos and graphics for blog posts.

3. Stock Photo Subscription

Bloggers are not free to use images they find online, especially if they were not granted permission by the owner. To avoid legal troubles, they should use stock photos instead. Be a great pal and give your friend access to stock photography sites like Shutterstock as a gift. To do their jobs properly and efficiently, bloggers need access to the best tech out there today. But what kind of tech do they need? Here are a few suggestions.

4. Laptop Stands

A good laptop stand can not only improve ergonomics, but it also prevents a laptop from overheating. It’s a necessity for bloggers, especially those who spend several hours writing long-form content.

5. Camera

Whether it’s a point-and-shoot, a DSLR, or a Mirrorless model, a good camera will make it possible to add compelling photos to a blog post. They’re ideal for documenting trips, taking photos of food, and sharing everyday experiences.

6. Microphone

While not an obvious choice as a gift for bloggers, there are bloggers who eventually shift to vlogging or podcasting. And to do that, they’ll need a solid, professional-grade microphone.

7. Earphones

Whether it’s for listening to music or conducting research, bloggers need earphones, headphones, or earbuds to keep outside noise away. If sound quality is important as with the case for music bloggers then consider gifting wired headphones. Otherwise, wireless headphones are much more convenient.

8. Lights

There are bloggers today who do their own photoshoots. And not just of models either. Product reviewers, for example, take photos of items all the time. For those people, you can give lightboxes to help with their photoshoots. Even better, you can give them a portable photo studio like this one from Amazon.

9. Keyboard and Mouse

A keyboard and mouse combo is probably one of the simplest gifts you could give your blogger friend. Wireless keyboards and mouse makes working offsite a more pleasant experience. And if you gift a high-quality mechanical keyboard, the typing experience is vastly improved.

1. Storage Device

While online storage solutions do exist, many bloggers still rely on physical devices for storing photos and other important files. You can never have too many file storage options. External storage devices are always welcome.

1. To inspire your audience

Being able to inspire an audience through writing is a satisfying feeling. It makes you want to do it all the more. And when people respond to you in positive ways, you generate a portion of influence over them. As a blogger, you can inspire people in an infinite number of ways.

Imagine using your words to inspire people to:

• Change their lives for the better
• Make their days more productive
• Create something beautiful
• Help other people

All this is achievable through the power of your blog, so use it wisely.

2. To improve your writing ability

One thing that’s self-explanatory is that starting a blog has a huge impact on your ability to write. Starting out might feel awkward and even slightly alien. But as you get into the swing of writing, you’ll notice it getting easier. The words will flow with greater efficiency and you’ll develop a style that’s uniquely you.  Through writing often, you’ll also get a good idea of what people respond to. This stretches your creativity, helping you write more about what people love to read. And in turn, that translates into a larger audience.

3. To build your online brand

Along with learning new skills, the more you write about a subject, the more of an authority you become about it. Becoming an authority in your niche helps build your online brand. By providing value to readers, you’ll soon become recognisable in the community. You’ll be that blogger everyone goes to. They’ll know your knowledge and advice is worth the effort of seeking out. Building your brand is a springboard for transforming your blog into something more.

4. To confront your fears

For me, blogging was an effective way for me to break out of my shell. As an anxious introvert, I found it hard to put myself out there and allow my thoughts and ideas to be heard. Blogging gave me a platform to shout from – a way to confront my fear of being noticed. And in doing so I realised there are people out there just like me. There are many other ways to use blogging to confront your fears. It can be used to overcome impostor syndrome and feelings of not being good enough. Writing about a topic you’re fearful of can be cathartic and help you work through those emotions.

In fact, many people use blogging as a way to aid in their struggles with mental health. This shows that a blog doesn’t always have to be a meticulously planned venture. Sometimes, it can just be a place to collect your thoughts.

5. To generate an income

This is probably the one point you’re most interested in. Yes, it is perfectly possible to earn a living through your blog, lots of people are doing it. But while it’s possible, it’s not easy. Those people you see making a success and a living as bloggers have been honing their craft for years. Through that time they’ve been experimenting and testing things to see what works. And those years of hustle, go hand-in-hand with long hours of work.

Choosing a profitable niche for your blog is a good place to start. Some are easier to earn money from than others. But, selling your services via your blog requires you to build an audience targeting the people most likely to hire you. Whichever route you go down, be prepared to work long and hard for it.

6. To meet new people

One thing that can’t be denied, is that starting a blog, exposes you to a huge community of new people. For each blogging niche, there is a lively community to go with it. What’s wonderful about this is it provides a great way for you to meet new, like minded people. It will be easier to make friends since you share common interests. And, you’ll find blogging communities are not only welcoming but helpful to new bloggers too. Then there’s the events and meetups held in various communities; whatever your niche, you can guarantee there’ll be a vibrant community waiting to embrace you.

7. To document your life

Let’s go back to the early days of blogging. A blog was where you would write about the happenings of your every-day life. I think I may even have an old LiveJournal dedicated to just that, hidden away somewhere. But just because it’s become unfashionable in recent years, doesn’t mean you can’t start a blog for that reason. Blogging to document your life, is a wonderful way to reflect. Past joys and past mistakes, can all be learned from to some extent. So having somewhere to store those memories, can help you see how far you’ve come and how much you’ve learned.

What is a Guest Post?

A guest post is an article or piece of content written by someone who is not a regular contributor to a website or blog. Instead, the content is contributed by an external writer, often aiming to promote a particular message or brand.

Benefits of Guest Blogging

Now, let’s look at some more benefits of guest blogging:

• Referral Traffic:
  • Boost referral traffic and content marketing ROI by driving traffic from other reputable sites.
• Brand Awareness:
  • Introduce your brand to new audiences through content on other sites.
• Lead Generation:
  • Attract new subscribers and improve lead generation as new readers may visit your site or landing page.
• Social Proof:
  • Gain credibility when trusted, authoritative sites publish your content.
  • Regular guest posting can position you as an industry expert.
• SEO Link Building:
  • Obtain backlinks from high-quality sites, a key SEO ranking factor.
  • Quality backlinks are seen as signals by ranking algorithms, improving your site’s position on Google search engine results pages.

Have you thought of starting a second blog? Many bloggers wonder when they should start a second blog. Some believe that one blog is enough, while others argue that multiple blogs can help diversify income streams and reach new audiences. So, when is the right time to start a second blog?

For those who have established a successful blog and have either exhausted their topic or have a seperate nice topic that they want to maintain on a new blog, starting a second blog may be the next logical step. By branching out into a new niche, bloggers can continue to grow their audience and income while pursuing a new passion. However, it’s important to note that starting a second blog requires a significant amount of time and effort, and bloggers should only do so if they feel confident in their ability to maintain multiple blogs.

To me the most common thing would be if I felt that I could post regularly about a niche topic, as my current blog is a very general blog and has numerous categories, then I would start the second blog. It could be about football or just my favourite club Arsenal, music and musical bands, movies and tv show reviews or something.

A blog planner is a central place for all of your blog posts. This includes those you’ve already published, and blog posts you plan to research, write, edit, publish, and promote. It’s also a great place to brainstorm and store ideas that come to mind. When used right, your blog planner becomes an essential tool for your business growth. Here are its biggest benefits:

• It keeps details about all your blog posts and ideas in one place. No more random papers, sticky notes, notebooks, or failing to find that great idea you had last week.
• You can get an overview of your blog in seconds.
• You always know your tasks for the day, week, or month. No project or action item falls through the cracks.
• It connects your day-to-day execution with your longer-term goals. A blog planner will make it easier to prioritize tasks that bring you close to your end goal and avoid the Shiny Object Syndrome.

Having a strategy for your blog is essential because, without one, you’ll swiftly find yourself…

• Stuck wasting time on tasks that don’t help you reach your goals.
• You’ll focus on the wrong goals that work against you instead of with you.
• And you’ll feel like you’re just spinning your wheels because the results you want just aren’t practical to get to without breaking everything down.

1. Learn what people are searching for

As you build your list of topics, you’ll want to do a bit of keyword research. This is the practice of targeting specific words and phrases in your article based on what your audience is looking for on search engines. You don’t need to be a keyword research expert, but it is useful to know which terms people are searching for. Not only will this help you write content that better resonates with your audience, but it will also help you rank higher in search results – ensuring your content actually gets read.

2. Structure your blog by category

Just as you’d organize your closet by category, you’ll want to take a similar approach with your blog. If you’re just starting your blog, format it in a way that makes it easy for readers to find what they’re looking for. For instance, you may want to add overarching topic categories to the navigation menu. Google also appreciates this structure – in fact, its algorithms take website structure into account when determining which posts to rank among the top search results. So, having neatly organized blog categories is beneficial on all fronts. For example,

3. Incorporate different content types

Images aren’t the only type of alternative content to add to your articles. In the world of blogging, mixed media posts outperform words-only posts. Once you’ve gotten the hang of writing articles, try enhancing them by embedding a podcast or video within the post. You can provide even more value to readers by adding a link to a webinar or downloadable e-book on the same topic.

On top of that, try repurposing some of your articles altogether into different formats so you can share them on different platforms. For example, you may want to start a YouTube channel with videos inspired by your blog content. Similarly, you could create a podcast of your own based on your articles, or write an e-book to share with your audience.

4. Use a variety of visuals

Your writing is the core of your blog posts, but it’s not the only element to include. It also helps to add visual elements to your articles. In fact, articles get shared twice as much when they have one image per every 75-100 words. With that in mind, break up large blocks of text by incorporating images and videos. This keeps your readers’ attention on the page for longer and prevents them from getting bored or intimidated by so much text.

Be sure to use unique, high-quality images to create a polished and professional piece. If you’re not able to use photographs of your own, you can get free stock photos from sites like Unsplash and Pexels. Once you upload the images to your blog, add alt text to optimize them for SEO. Essentially, this just means adding a short description to each image – ideally using keywords – that explains to search engines and screen readers what it depicts. This is an easy process available on nearly every blogging platform.

5. Promote your blog on social media

Next, there’s the question of how to get new visitors – people who’ve never landed on your blog before. A simple (and free) way to promote your blog is by sharing your articles on social media. Whether you’re promoting your blog on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, give it a profile of its own, using your blog logo as the profile picture. Then, publish and share every blog post on your pages. Give microblogging a try to capture your audience’s interest and get them to click. In addition to sharing these articles on your own, you can encourage others to do the same. Make your posts shareable by adding social media share buttons somewhere on the page. At the end of your post, leave a small note asking readers to share your content.

Write about what inspired you to start blogging.

As I have mentioned before I used to write in a journal/diary for a few years starting when I was 15 years old. At that time I never even imagined that we would be doing it online. By the time I was 22 I started getting into using the internet around 3 to 4 times a week (yes those dreaded days when I didn’t have broadband at home and the internet was still expensive and therefore you went to internet cafes for a couple of hours). I started reading blogs at that time.

I remember a couple of the first blogs that I started following and still have contact with them both, though mainly online on Facebook & Twitter. The first one, he is still blogging a lot, though mainly he posts the podcasts that he does very successfully, but there are other posts too. The other one stopped blogging a long time ago. But it was reading their blogs that made me eager to start my own.

Within a few years, 2002 to be exact, I did move temporarily away from my hometown for training and then work and it was the perfect time to start a blog and capture the moments, events and thoughts at that time. It just naturally flowed in to what it has become now, 20 plus years later.

Prompt from 130 Blog Post Ideas (and a Process to Find More Topics) at WordPress.com

How did you choose the WordPress theme for your blog?

I like white background themes with 2 columns and if possible some splash of colour. I usually go to Google and search for free WordPress themes with white theme and 2 columns. Sometimes I look at the images section and then find one that I like and try to download it. I usually try to find 3 to 4 such themes and then use Filezilla to transfer these themes onto my website’s server and then try it out to see how it looks like.

I like the simplistic and clean look of this theme over here. I like adding colours in terms of images and logos or anything that add that brightness to the blog. And that white background serves that purpose. Plus I look for larger blog post areas and alignment of words on the paragraphs, which makes it look neater and easier to read. Once I do find such a theme, I will use it and stick with it for a while. Now it has been almost 2 years with this theme so I might look for a new one.

Prompt from 130 Blog Post Ideas (and a Process to Find More Topics) at WordPress.com