The easy and ultimate guide to blogging
What is blogging?
Blogging is a short form for “weblog.” At first, blogs were used more like personal online diaries. People would share their thoughts and their account of their lives.
The blog helps you put your point of view across to the reader. With time, the blog has evolved into a tool for marketing.
Marketers realized the potential of having a blog on their website. Search Engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, were also a significant influence on it and the change in consumer behavior.
Marketers realized the importance of content on their website and the exceptional ROI (return on investment) a blog can bring.
The blog opened new doors of opportunity not only for small businesses with a low budget but entrepreneurs looking to have their own business without a product or service to sell.
A lot of full-time bloggers popped up who would blog about different subjects. Some bloggers would share their expertise like how to cook, traveling, etc.
Why and how people use a blog is:
The why and how is to give you a fair idea of various ways a blog is used. It shall give you your “why and how” to start a blog.
1) A platform to express self-opinion.
People interested in current affairs, history, science, politics, etc., started using the blog as a tool to express their individual opinions.
It helps them to connect with people with similar interests. Of course, the reader may not share the same opinion about the topic. Nonetheless, you will learn the viewpoints of others.
Examples:
Barack Obama has a blog on Tumblr http://barackobama.tumblr.com/
David Cameron https://twitter.com/David_Cameron
2) Business Blog
Business blogs are created by the business to attract their target audience to their sites.
It is created with two objectives in mind:
1) Create brand awareness and win the trust
2) Generate leads through the blog
The business blogs identify their target audience and write articles on topics that will help and offers value. Businesses that have been consistent with blogs have seen a lot of success.
In 2008, Marcus Sheridan was struggling to keep his swimming pool company, River Pools, alive. Almost on the edge of his business being collapsed, he made a comeback adopting the Inbound and Content Marketing strategies.
The efforts of drawing customers through content writing were successful.; as of now, River Pools is the most trafficked pool website earning 500k visitors monthly.
Alongside being affiliated with Hubspot, he now juggles two websites; that includes a plethora of videos, blogs, strategies for growth in the digital world.
The site guides and conducts workshops for businesses globally in areas like content marketing, sales, digital marketing, branding.
Examples:
The Sales Lion
The case study depicts the power of the online platform; how information transfers through the speed of light. If people like what you write, undoubtedly foster your business.
3) Niche Blog
A niche blog is created with the goal of monetization. The blog focuses on a specific topic, more of what the blog owner has an interest or expertise in.
A niche blog can help you focus on your strength and build up your audience quickly.
Among the different types of blogs, food, fashion, travel, DIY, and fitness blog are some of the most popular ones with a vast global audience.
Neil Patel has a niche blog that focuses on digital marketing. He is one of the biggest online influencers.
NeilPatel.com
Building an email subscriber is just as important as building a blog audience.
You might have visitors, readers to your posts. But if you don’t have email subscribers, then you have missed out.
Email subscribers are one of the most valuable assets. An email is a useful tool in any business, whether marketing or blogging. In addition, it is considered the best way to promote your blog content.
Generating visitors through email marketing is easier compared to gaining traffic through search engines.
Some of the smart strategies for turning your visitors into a long-term subscriber are:
1. Unique and informative content
Content is all about a blog post. You can’t expect visitors to just subscribe to you without having high-quality content. A blogger turning the readers into a subscriber is by providing informative, engaging content and updating every once and then.
According to a study of HubSpot customers, businesses that post more blogs once per week add new blog subscribers than the blogs updated once per month. (https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33490/The-Secret-to-Increasing-Blog-Subscribers-Boosting-Traffic-Data.aspx)
2. Set up two-step or exit opt-in
This popup function is just like a reminder. This is a perfect strategy to drive traffic to the critical areas on your website.
If you’re a new visitor, you can show a welcome popup to sign up for free ebooks. It is an engaging technique to get your interested viewers to end up on your email list.
The same goes for exit-intents, a perfect strategy to draw the attention of leaving visitors and converting them into subscribers.
Popup Domination is a popup tool that can be plugged in on any website. This tool enables you to build popups with pre-built templates quickly.
Hellobar.com is a free tool to create an exit popup.
3. Add email-forms
Email marketers now have started to use embedded forms in their content.
This form can be about asking for feedback, comments, or contact forms. The email address provided in email forms also leads readers to be email subscribers.
As readers read through your blog, embedding email forms within the blog post makes the readers subscribe to the email list.
4. Offer content upgrades
Content upgrades are just like gifts. Everyone is attracted to upgrades. Offering these upgraded versions can increase the conversion rate.
The freebies can be ebooks, cheat sheets, or guides regarding the subject. This strategy adds value to your subscription lists.
The offer should be relevant, usable, and valuable to the current readers.
5. Opt-in forms rightly placed
An effective way to generate more readers is to place an opt-in form visible through the site. It is an excellent way to convert your visitors into subscribers. It allows visitors to join without having to load on a different landing page.
Many bloggers place opt-in forms in the sidebar to make it noticeable. Another way is to set floating bars either to the top or bottom without covering the content.
Tools for getting more email subscribers
Blogging depends on email marketing. Your email subscribers are the first to get notified when you post a blog. Email marketing is the best way to get your readers to return to your website. To grow your email subscribers, you need to choose from a list of tools. Various tools are offering different features, templates differing on pricing.
Some of the top 5 tools to increase your email subscribers are:
1. Popup Domination– The email-list building application is one of the most popular tools to build multiple lists.
Popup Domination can create an exit popup tool, display popup on click, countdown sales popup, mobile popup’s, video popup, and many more.
It is a WordPress plugin. It’s a standalone program that doesn’t require another software package to run. This tool enables you to set popups on any website platform.
The pricing starts at $54 annually, including unlimited popups, analytics, live chat supports, and more.
To create the best-looking popups, you can choose from a variety of template libraries that can convert your visitors into subscribers.
2. OptinMonster– OptinMonster is the perfect tool to get you more email subscribers.
OptinMonster can set up laser-targeted popup messages, embed opt-in email forms in blogs, create welcome gates, and generate more leads.
It features comes with a beginner-friendly setup. Moreover, it connects easily with the WordPress plugin.
The plugin also includes three types of opt-in forms: slide-in forms, floating bars, lightbox. You can also create exit-intent popups, which appear when a visitor is about to close the tab.
OptinMonster also helps in analyzing form conversions to let you know which one works better.
The pricing for these applications is billed annually and starts from $14 per month. It ensures 5000 page views per month with limited customer support.
It also offers professionally designed opt-in templates that you can easily customize with a simple editor. The application also helps you to create different lead forms and popups.
3. WPForms- WPForms is the beginner-friendly WordPress form plugin. It is a drag and drop form builder.
It allows you to create sign-up forms, contact forms, subscription forms, payment order forms, and many others. WPForms are mobile-friendly and also supports third-party app integrations like Paypal, stripe, and more. This enables you to build advanced forms. The feature also includes instant notification for quick response and protection through spam by honeypot and captcha.
It offers plugins starting from $49 a year. The plugin package includes unlimited forms and entries, constant contact, spam protection, and many more.
It offers numerous pre-built templates and a feature to add, remove and re-arrange fields. In addition, the easy to drag and drop function makes it simpler.
4. Thrive Leads- It is a lead generation plugin for WordPress. This opt-in tool provides conversion-focused opt-in forms.
The plugin enables popup lightbox, 2-step opt-in form, slide-in.
The feature lets you display the forms based on time, scroll depth, and also exit intent. You can also customize your opt-ins to show specific types of content. The A/B testing feature also ensures you analyze what could be better to grow faster. It offers customization of forms for mobile users as well.
The list-building plugin charges $19 per month with an unlimited update, a one-year support service, and accessibility to all features.
You can choose from 50 plus pre-made templates with a drag and drop editor. It also offers different animations for your forms to make them look attractive.
5. Ninja Popup- It is also a highly popular WordPress popup plugin. It allows you to create a designed popup of a newsletter, coupon and to increase social follows visibility.
It provides popups that lock content until the visitor subscribes or shares.
The plugin also offers numerous mobile-friendly popup options. This list-building application also provides social networking support. The plugin feature also generates unlimited translatable popups and valuable statistics.
Ninja Popup ensures design options and an expansion pack for additional themes. This would be helpful for promotions. In addition, it has styling options that are easy to integrate and are moderately priced.
Review of different email tools, including pricing and feature.
Achieving high traffic isn’t all about blogging. First, you must create a buzz. Then, as a blogger, the goal must be to keep users coming back. It needs to be a unique approach than others to attain repeat viewers.
Here are some ways that would be best to foster more repeat traffic:
1. Make an influential and helpful content
Content that serves tips, valuable links from high authority sites, and educational blogs is often viewed as dependable content. If your content gives valuable and engaging information, it is more likely to get trust from the readers. The effective trick of content that gets people talking, engaging, sharing, and coming back works in the long run for your blog success.
Your blog post must be more about educating than just selling.
2. Get connected with your readers
Besides keeping the blog interesting with the feedback, connecting with the readers is the fastest way to drive repeat traffic to your blog.
Email subscribers from your blog are the primary source of your repeat traffic. The subscribers are your actual readers. Email marketing is an easy way to gain repeat traffic. A blogger must implement strategies to turn your readers into your email list. So, every time you post a blog, you can notify them of updates.
3. Make your website blog load fast
The website is another factor in attaining a repeat audience. If a site takes long enough to load, you can assume a reader to lose interest. Therefore, you must make sure your content loads correctly on all devices.
A recent blog by Niel Patel on “How loading time affects your bottom line” (https://neilpatel.com/blog/loading-time/) states page loading time is essential.
4. Analyze your readers
As a blogger, you must figure out what is engaging your readers.
You post almost 100 blogs, but your readers are only viewing 3 of your blog post. It certainly means it’s not working.
Analyzing the reader’s engagement and interests will let you know better what content to serve them with. Blogging Based on your reader’s curiosity could ensure to bring your readers back to your blog.
5. Guest posting on other sites
Guest blogging is a perfect method to increase the audience. Unfortunately, though, this can also create repeat traffics. This might seem a strange strategy, but it is significantly an effective way to drive your readers.
Blogging on other web pages is a great way to establish yourself as an authority figure or an expert. As a blogger, you create valuable content, and within that guest content, you can link back to your relevant posts.
Guest blogging also ensures a blogger introduce their ideas, website, and themselves, which could often interest the reader to visit your site.
Your readers will gradually start referring to your blogs if they manage to clear their doubts.
Apart from this, readers might be interested in soaking in new information; and your blogs could deliver that.
1) Grow Your Business through Content Marketing
Neil Patel, the marketing Guru, was regarded as a top influencer on the web by The Wall Street Journal. His website was founded a year ago in 2017; the page is soaring high with 1 million monthly blog visitors.
The blogs uploaded on www.neilpatel.com are precise, detailing out all targeted customer’s curiosity about digital marketing. Moreover, they work towards helping their clients grow and incur their ROI.
2) Building Professional Networks
Blogs offer you an opportunity to find like-minded people sharing similar interests, helping you establish more connections through external backlinks.
Better content means your visitors will consider you the expert, referring to your blogs even more.
It will increase the number of traffickers on your webpage. In addition, the social media sites Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram will help you spread the word about your page, grabbing more attention from audiences.
3) Educate Others
Now, if you have an excellent set of teaching skills, you might as well share your knowledge with others too. It encourages learners to become more aware, be better writers and readers.
Example – The Learning Network is a blogging initiative by The New York Times. It is a platform for teachers, students as well as teachers to engage in discussions. Shedding light onto the educational matter; is a creative way of teaching through a blog. It includes infographics, videos, photographs, articles, etc.
4) Published Writer
“The Julie/Julia Project” was a blog written by Julie Powell in 2002. The blog is composed of her attempt at preparing dishes through- Mastering the Art of Cooking, a cookbook by Julia Child.
Her blog received recognition after it was featured in the New York Times. She later launched a book after the popularity of her blogs.
The book also turned into a movie under the same title.
This event took place in 2002 where the concept of blogging was not familiarised. However, the attention it grabbed was outstanding.
Think about the possibility you hold to become a published writer in a market such as now.
The first blog, commonly identified, was Links.net. It was started by an undergrad, Justin Hall.
His idea behind the blog was to get his writing online. His blog would have photos, too. On December 19, 2004, The New York Times quoted “The founding father of personal bloggers,” maybe Justin Hall.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/magazine/your-blog-or-mine.html)”
Watch the documentary.
His blog inspired many to share their personal lives online.
This is when the Revolution begins.
The idea of opening a blog was limited to people with technical knowledge. You either need to hire a web developer (which doesn’t make sense if you were doing it for personal reasons) or ought to know to code as you would periodically update on your site.
The Revolution I
Entrepreneur Bruce Abelson was the first guy to revolutionize blogging with his Open Diary in October 1998. After that, it is an online diary community.
“The idea was to let people keep diaries online directly through their Web browsers, without them having to create their Web sites,” Bruce Abelson said in an interview.
Open Diary was like a wildfire. Within a few months, this online platform had around 800,000 page views and 1,300 diarists. The users were from the age group of 15-79.
It was an international hit with users from 21 different countries.
Some of the key features were:
1) As a contributor to the Open Diary, you can remain anonymous and share your personal life.
2) It was the first blog community where you could add comments to other writer’s blogs, too. This allowed readers to communicate with contributors and share their thoughts.
3) The comment feature brought readers close to the contributors. The blogs were personal journals, and contributors would share their problems, the readers of the community would give advice.
4) It helped a lot of people when they were in a rough spot.
5) One of the unique features was that you as a reader could filter the contributors based on the location, age, recent posting, and nicknames. The results were then displayed in sequence according to the time.
How “kewl” is that?
It was an innovation of its time. Open Diary formed the core of the architecture of social networking and blogging.
Revolution II
A programmer and entrepreneur, Brad Fitzpatrick, presented LiveJournal to the world on April 15, 1999. He wanted to keep his high school friends updated on his activities.
Six Apart, an American blogging software company, purchased it from Brad in January 2015. It was later sold to a Russian firm SUP Media in 2007 for around $30 million.
Some of the essential features of Live Journal were:
1) Each Journal had its web page. It is what we know as a profile page. The profile page would have recent comments, journal entries with links to the comment pages.
2) The favorite feature of the Live Journal was the friend’s list.
The Revolution III
Blogger.com was launched in August 1999, which was later purchased by Google in February 2003. Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan of Pyra Labs are the founders of Blogger.com.
Some of the reasons why blogger.com became popular are as follows:
Blogger.com is a free blogging application that has been one of the reasons why it gained popularity. The users will only have to pay if they plan to purchase the domain name.
You have virtually no limit to the number of pages, storage space, or traffic.
As Google was the owner of blogger.com, the benefit the users had was that they would earn from day one. The Google Adsense will automatically integrate with it.
This is way easier than getting approved for Google Adsense with your blog.
The platform would allow customization of the template to create a unique theme for your blog.
Blogger.com is still a popular platform for all three.
How to start a blog?
According to a recent U.K. survey, bloggers have ranked as the third most trustworthy source of information, following only friends and family.
( source: Hubspot)
There are a few steps to starting a blog on your own.
1) Choose a topic
The need to finalize a subject for blogging is essential to be able to target the niche. If you happen to be a part of an organization, business, it has to be relevant to the product and services.
In case you are writing a personal blog, choose a topic that interests you. This will motivate you to register and research better.
You will get a chance to work from a creative angle.
“Blogs have been rated as the fifth most reliable source of online information.” (Source: Hubspot.com)
Choosing a rare subject that has not been thoroughly explained will put you in an advantageous position compared to your competitors.
Example: Thinking Outside The Sandbox (TOTS) is a family-centered blogging website that focuses on providing parenting resources to modern busy families.
Their blogs comprise various DIY, crafts, parenting skills, kids, food recipes.
The site has more than 900k subscribers across its social media profiles.
2) Choosing a suitable blogging platform:
You want your content to be publicized; initially, you have to decide on a blogging platform.
Google search results recommend WordPress.org as a useful and accessible tool. WordPress offers an array of layouts and designs also multiple plugins.
There are other popular platforms like Tumblr, which is half and half blogging and social networking. Another great option would be Blogger.com.
3) Getting Your Blog Online
Web hosting is a service that allows you to post on a website or a web page that is viewed on the internet. (wrong)
You have two options, and both have pros and cons:
Either you self-host and choose social sites like WordPress, Tumblr, Twitter to upload your content.
However, the downfall of this option is you will be deprived of a personal domain name.
These sites also limit you to other features that you will not customize according to your preference.
Since the website belongs to someone, they have the authority. So if in case it shuts down, all of your blogs will be removed.
The second option would be settling for a paid web host. BlueHost, a hosting website, has gained popularity worldwide. Its users have regarded it as simple, easy, and ideal for novices.
4) Design your Blog
Try to keep a simple layout for the blog. The priority would be to stand out from other blogs; however, people tend to overdo it. Always remember -less is always better.
Avoid using flashy colors. Limit to using two to three fonts for the content, which will consist of headings, subheadings, and body copy font. Instead, try using subtle yet contrasting colors.
Try out a free template. White space should be adequately utilized; leaving more room through the texts provides a neat layout.
5) Launch Your Blog
After you have completed the groundwork, you can go ahead and post your first article. Make sure you have proofread the entire write-up.
Through the availability of the discussion section, immediate responses and feedbacks are provided for you to improve on your writing.
Can I start a blog for free?
Starting up a blog may sound like a gamble. But then again, the only thing required of you is your ‘time’ along with good command of the English language.
These days, online platforms like wordpress.org, Instagram, and Tumblr have made it easier to publish your content without spending a dime.
Just pick a suitable web host, and you are good to go! In case of the fast popularity of your blog, they might be skyrocketing on the web in no time.
For a simple blog, you can opt for Bluehost, which costs a nominal amount of $60 for unlimited hosting and domain.
How much does a blog cost? Pros and Cons of Free vs. Paid blogging platform :
If you want to monetize on blogging and be presented as a simple website, you must consider spending a fair sum.
Pros of using free blogs:
1) If you are writing purely as a hobby or love blogging, you can choose from a range of self-hosted apps.
2) This will minimize the risk of investment of your time and money. In addition, self-hosted apps are ideal for beginners to test the water.
3) It is an easy setup if you have never tried it before. The web host programs are designed that way to guide you through.
Cons of free blogs:
1) Sub-domain name will be attached to the WordPress or Blogger domain such as www.example.wordpress.com. It looks less professional.
2) Lack of ownership, which means- limited customization of plugins
Once done with the trial and error phase, be entirely sure about continuing to blog. You may move upward to the paid version.
Pros of using self-hosted blogs:
1) You will hold full authority over the blogging functions. And customize it according to your preferences. For example, you will be able to manage SEO, capitalizing methods, edit the layout.
2) You will have access to backend programs- how the site works, updates, and changes.
3) The web hosting sites like GoDaddy, Bluehost offer a minimal cost of under $5 per month for their services. It sounds pretty reasonable price for initiating your blogging journey.
4) The URL for the domain name sounds genuine and reliable. Such as- www.blogname.com
Cons of using self-hosted blogs:
1) The setting up task is a bit tricky. First, you will have to buy a domain name from the domain registration office, leashing server space from a web hosting service.
2) It requires a small and affordable investment, but you will still have to sacrifice money.
3) You are responsible for the inner workings of the keep the blog up to date, controlling spam, etc. It might be a lot on your plate if you are already occupied coming up with good content.
Deciding what to blog about.
Having a knack for writing is not going to be enough. You will have to decide on a topic. However, there is a never-ending line of a theme to choose from, such as science, economics, politics, livelihood, fitness.
It is highly suggested to write about something which you are keen on sharing. After all, a blog is a kind of narrative.
Math is simple if you understand and seems complicated when you don’t. When you were in school, did you have any peers who loved doing math sums? Were they also the ones scoring the highest in class? One word- interest!
It will never be monotonous to write about a topic you are good at. But, on the contrary, it will put you in an advantageous position.
Example – Avocadu is an online venture that specializes in health and fitness blogs.
The founders, Alex and Laura, both were passionate about a healthy lifestyle. Initially, it was a part-time hobby, but since the traffic increased for the website, they went on board with full-time blogging.
Avocadu was a hit because they loved what they were doing. Their blog covers a wide range of health tips and weight loss tricks to yoga for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Having an urge for writing but not knowing what to write about can be a daunting task. It doesn’t matter as long as you are persistent.
For a novice, it is crucial to understand the skills for blogging- readiness and practice.
It looks simple to type or write the idea in your mind; the process is a bit tricky. Fret not; you will get better with time.
Hubspot’s idea generator is most likely to be beneficial while you feel stuck at settling with a topic.
https://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator
There are a few varieties of blogs:
- Personal Blog – Personal Blogs are freer themed. This type of blogging was how it started in the late ’90s; people put up journals sharing their experiences.
If you have a cherished hobby, you can write about that and make it as enjoyable as possible for the readers.
Example – https://www.miss-thrifty.co.uk
2. Professional Blog- This type of blog is money-oriented. Full-time bloggers often choose to write about the product or services they hope to sell.
Through your blogs, you are getting people’s attention which means they start trusting you. Them believing you means they will rely on your products the same way.
Succesful Blog venture :
The Blonde Salad – Chiara Ferragni -https://www.theblondesalad.com/the-blonde-salad
3. Business Blog- Business blogs are focused on attracting more traffic to their website, exposure over social. Their blog focuses on economic trends and is written accordingly.
Example – https://mashable.com/
4. Niche Blog- Niche blogs target a specific topic, audience, as the name suggests. Content could be about food recipes, health, gardening.
People often have a soft spot for animals. You could write about your pet (if you have one).
Or you could write about your love for animals or anything in general.
Who knows, you could end up being the next John Gragon- the author of Newyork Times bestseller; Marley and Me.
5. Reverse Blogs – Reverse Blogs defy the traditional form of blogging. Instead of the author uploading content, the users tend to write given on a topic.
Well, reputed bloggers are credible to write, which increases reliability.
It is vital in building networks for mutual traffic sharing and link benefits.
6. Freelance Blogs- Freelance blogs refer to those where you are paid to write content for other businesses, startups. The client provides the topics.
This is the perfect way to improve your writing skills and also capitalize on them.
Your blogging career might get the nudge it requires if it goes viral; you might end up receiving job offers from other companies.
How much to be invested in blogging?
A google search on prospects for blogging will provide various positive results. However, for a newbie, $100- $1000 is appropriate depending on the output you wish to have.
A self-hosted domain is cost-saving and more accessible, which is ideal for a beginner.
Should you start a blog?
In 2018, blogging evolved to a new level. It can be considered a promising career if you strategize well.
Along with increasing traffic to your website, earning money, blogging helps you in networking.
Income-generating through blogs:
How much money can you make from a blog?
Affiliate Marketing
When an advertiser wants to sell his product by promoting it on your blog, a reasonable commission will be granted to you if the user clicks on the link to purchase the product. For example- https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ A marketing initiative by an iconic e-commerce website in the world.
You can choose to be an affiliate marketer for one or many products to grab more money.
Pay Per Click (Google Adsense)
If earning money through affiliate marketing was easy, you need zero effort for the Pay Per Click option. For example, when GoogleAds are placed on your website, with every click on the ads, Google pays you a specific amount.
Sell your Products
Bloggers can utilize a blog to promote their products such as Ebook, photographs, online classes, and workshops, apps, and themes for the site.
You can manufacture homemade goods, handicrafts and sell them via your blog.
You will be aware of your potential target and work accordingly to come up with a suitable product.
How to pick up a domain name and a blog name.
As the domain name is the identity for an online venture, you ought to pick one.
Four hundred eighty-six different domain extensions are available, ranging from .org for an organization, .gov for a government, etc. Same as the domain, the blog name plays a vital role in grabbing the attention of visitors.
Tips for picking a domain name:
- Avoid using Hyphens, Numbers as it sounds too generic and does not look brandable.
- Choose a unique name in comparison to your competitors.
- If you happen to be out of ideas, refer to a domain name generator. E.g., https://leandomainsearch.com
- Easy to pronounce and memorable for the audience to type it.
- Make it as short as possible to avoid spelling errors, shareable with others.
- Use abbreviations to keep it short and simple while highlighting your brand and identity.
Auto sharing your new blog posts on social hubs. Promote your blog.
To bring more exposure to your content and traffic, shares on social media sites are a must. However, there are a few ways to promote your blogs.
76% of people use their Facebook feed to find interesting content. (HubSpot, 2016) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
1) Install WordPress Plugins – The jetpack plugin is a WP feature that automatically uploads your content throughout major social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. In addition, it includes paid and free plans which offer a variety of themes for content marketing.
Here is the link:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/
2) Hootsuite – Hootsuite is an automation tool for blog updates. It has multiple posts sharing through Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and RSS feed. In addition, Hootsuite allows hassle-free auto-sharing directly from Instagram, Youtube, Blogger, Tumblr.
Find the link below:
https://hootsuite.com/
3) OnlyWire – Onlywire is another effective tool to reach out to a mass public. It supports connecting and sharing your content over 50 social media networks with 3 RSS feeds simultaneously. Even the free version lets you auto-share through 30 sites.
Refer to the link below:
https://onlywire.com/
Tips and tricks to bring in more traffic.
1) Publish In-depth Content
Your blog might appear on the top results as Google prefers comprehensive content, i.e., words ranging from 1500 and above. The idea of the content should clear the uncertainty of the readers.
2) Adjust your title tags
When a reader clicks your blog, it must be because it interests them, or the title states what they want to read. The great headlines are the key to make users click on them and acquire more traffic.
For example- Google Search Console can be helpful to know what keywords are getting more traffic.
3) Building an Email List
Having an email list is an excellent source for more traffic. The email subscription strategies (like two-step and exit opt-ins) can be implemented to get more email lists. This technique will help you promote and update your blog.
4) Interact with other bloggers
Interaction always helps in building a relationship. The more you build a relationship with other bloggers, the more you get to do guest blogging. Blogging as a guest is a benefit to grow your network. It also ensures you promote.
5) Social Sharing
Promoting your content every once and then is essential. If you don’t, how would people even know?. The other thing is, it will quickly decline among the new posts coming every day. Social media platforms are the best way to drive traffic if you use them effectively. The more often you share, the more likely you are to get clicks.
There are also chances that people follow social media to keep up with your updates.
How to get readers to subscribe to your blog?
Even after you are done with the content write-up, there is still more to do. Your article is proofread, edited, and is informative. However, if no one views it, your efforts seem to be useless.
1) Use title headings that spark curiosity, offering solutions, scientific facts. On average, only 20% of those who read your headline will click through to read your article (as cited from Hubspot)
2) Writing as a guest blogger on a reputed website will help gain valuable backlinks, which will invite more subscribers, more email, etc. You are publishing your content on a niche website that gives you a chance to reach out to more people at once.
3)Promoting your content on social media sites. One word- Share!
Ask your acquaintances, friends, family to help you out as well.
4) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will highlight your blogging venture. The high-quality content with the right keywords and keyword phrases will help web crawlers to find your post for indexing. Thus, performing the keyword research that is suitable for the content.
Such as -Storybase is a nifty long-tail keyword research tool to help you with your content ideas. It is exact at answering all the related Who, What, and How of the targeted audience.
5) Attracting people through a free giveaway is very engaging. People live for free stuff; it will result in brand awareness. In addition, it creates massive traffic to your website while boosting your sales.
The link is an example of a giveaway that turned a blogger to earn 1500 subscribers, including $5k revenue.
Newsjacking- Newsjacking is a practice of aligning your content with the current news to gain media coverage. It has benefitted digital and inbound marketing content.
The term was coined in 2011 by David Meerman Scott in his book titled ‘Newsjacking: How to Inject your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage.’
How it works:
In any event or piece of news going viral, a journalist looks to fill up the information gap. It is where you step up and inject information into the relevant news piece. In a matter of seconds, you will be gaining numerous backlinks to your website through an authority site.
How to see how many people are visiting your blog?
After you have strategically completed your content writing, you wish to evaluate your blogging success. What could be more accurate than be able to track the number of followers?
- Google Analytics gives a tracking code will be placed on your website’s header. It provides you with the data you need.
- Alexa tracks visits, popularity rankings, demographics reached, web speed, and more. The services are not free, but it provides a fast and detailed statistic. It also gives recommendations on how to improve and drive traffic.
- WordPress Stats, a free tracking tool. It includes graphs, charts, and lists of visits. However, it’s only for wordpress.com/wordpress hosted blogs. However, it is a simplistic version of Google Analytics.
Blog security
There are various measures to protect your website from cybercriminals. Here are a few recommendations:
1) Strengthen Passwords
People tend to overlook the fact about a simple login password. However, a weak password can have consequences. It is advisable to use passwords combining upper case and lower case letters. Add numbers to ensure durability.
Avoid using personal details such as your maiden name, address, phone number. It might make it easier for others to break into your account. Also, try changing passwords now and then.
2) Use Secure Connection
You are putting your computer along with the files at risk if you connect to an unsecured network. For example, if you have ever connected to wifi at a cafe or outside, there is a high chance of getting hacked over an unprotected password.
You are encouraged to switch to a Virtual Private Network, which provides an encrypted connection to a secure server.
3) Back Up Your Files
Whether it is protecting your files on the computer or the website, it is crucial not to let hackers get into your data, back up your content on a hard drive or more than one computer.
4) Update Your Software Regularly
Unable to keep your software up–to–date will make it easier to victimize your blog. Software updates cover the loopholes or the vulnerability of web insecurity. Turn on the auto-update and check about the updates often.
Sixty-nine percent of organizations don’t believe their anti-virus software can block the threats they’re seeing. (Ponemon Institute’s 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study)
5) Update Your Themes and Plugins
The same goes for your themes and plugins that are installed on your website. So now and then, it is possible to avoid the recent security holes, bugs, or other web vulnerabilities.
6) Install a Firewall
A firewall usually restricts and alarms any unknown access to your computer. Since you will be using your website via your network, thus your account might be insecure too.
7) SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Practices
SSL encrypts the data between the user browser and the server in a secure way. Securing your website through SSL will help to improve your Google rankings. Google prefers SSL encrypted sites.
Writing blog content
For you to develop content, you require a writing assistant. I use Grammarly, and it has been making my work convenient.
Content writing is no joke- the process of putting your thoughts into words is anyways tricky, and on top of that, you have to be as creative as possible with your writing style.
It ensures the correct flow of English; canceling out your grammatical, spelling errors detects plagiarism. Thus, Grammarly helps you create better content than you planned to initially.
The essential feature of the AI smart editor is free. However, the paid version supports full features, which costs around $39.95 per month. There is also a chrome extension option where you can make the best of the function.
Best practices of Content Writing:
Even if your product is A seller without having good content to market, your product is ineffective. Thus, you need to strategize on the content marketing spectrum.
1) Keyword Research for SEO
It is an effective strategy for selling your content. It allows identifying the engagement of your targeted audience on a webpage.
2) Hyperlink to Your Sources
Always cite a hyperlink for another website’s content, even though it means you are promoting other’s content. In the long run, the favor might reciprocate by receiving backlinks.
3) Invest in Good SEO Suite
It is important not to lose sight while crunching data from SEO keyword analysis. Tools like Semrush provide you the precise market information for your content.
All of the vital analytics are broke down and comprise of the necessary details about your competitor’s website, backlinks stats, total ad value of your keywords, and so on.
You can pick out keywords by standard metrics like CPC or search volume, identify related keywords, or narrow in on a specific subdomain of your site.
Where to get free images for blog
Articles with an image once every 75-100 words got double the number of social shares than articles with fewer images. (Buzzsumo, 2015) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
Your content is likely to engage your audiences if you have an array of images.
1) PIXABAY: The famous place to download royalty-free images that are CC-O licensed. All the photos are categorized with different tags and are easy to locate.
2) UNSPLASH: It offers an array of public domain images. It consists of different themes, tags.
Ways to attract more people to sign up for your email list.
1) Valuable content- The content is the key to an email list. If your blog offers valuable content with information, tips, and useful links, it is indeed viewed as a reliable source of information. It attracts users to sign up for more blog posts in the future.
2) Simplified Sign-up forms- A simplified
3) Opt-in offers-
4) Attractive subscribe buttons-
5) Conversational Opt-in
