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You have made the decision to start a blog but you're not sure how to do it. Learning how to start a blog does not have to be difficult. Here are five easy steps, and a few good tips, to make the process quick and easy.
How To Start A Blog
When deciding how to start a blog, the first thing to consider is the topic you will write about in your blog. You may want to do a little bit of keyword research when deciding on a topic. If you already have a business, then your blog can easily be related to your online business. However, you can narrow your blog niche further if you wish.
The next thing you will need to do is choose a domain name for your blog. Ideally, you want your topic keywords to be included in your domain name.For example, if your blog is on affiliate marketing, your domain name will be something like 'learnaffiliatemarketing.com' If you have to use multiple words in your name, try to limit it to three at the most. Also, try to make sure the name is very easy for people to remember. A great place to get domain names is Bluehost.
The third step in deciding how to start a blog is to choose a hosting account. You basically have two different options here. You could choose a free blogging platform but you will sacrifice much control of your blog. I highly recommend you choose a hosting account of your very own which will give you the most control over your blog. Hosting your own blog will also make your blog appear more professional. Bluehost has a great reputation as hosting company and they provide very reasonable pricing.
Assuming you choose to host your own account, the next thing you will need to do is install WordPress software into your account. This software provides the theme and interface for your blog. I wish I knew about WordPress when I was first learning how to start a blog. There are a few different ways to install this valuable software. Many hosting companies will provide you with very simple instructions for installing this useful software.
After you have installed WordPress to your account, you will need to log in to your website to begin posting to your blog. Simply navigate to your site with your web browser. When you get to your site, you will see a login link. Follow the link and log in with the information you provided when you installed WordPress to your account. After you are logged in, you will have access to the admin side of your new blog. You can now begin to write posts and modify your new blog any way you would like.
How To Optimize Your Blog For SEO
What is SEO/Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization is often referred to as SEO. The principle behind good SEO is that it will maximize the opportunity for your webpage to be listed high in the search engine results. This means your webpage is more likely to get a bigger slice of any traffic searching for a particular term or 'keyword phrase'. You can easily increase the chances of your web page ranking high by focusing on good use of keywords, links and relevant content. A great tool to manage your blog's overall health inluding SEO, backlinks, SERP analysis, Rank and even spy on your competition is Mangools, it's a great tool for any blog to have.
Keyword Checklist for SEO
If you don't have a keyword research tool where you can find the best keywords for your blog niche/category, I recommend you use the KwFinder keyword research tool.
1. Your article or blog title must have the keyword in the title. It's best if the keyword shows up near the beginning of the title and the title should be at least three words long, but no longer than six to seven words.
2. Break your article or blog post up with headings. Include your keywords in these headings.
3. Your content should have two to four-percent key word presence. However, don't be tempted to overload your content with your keywords. If you do, the search engine robots may think your site is a fraud and your rankings can be heavily penalised. These little robots will think you are being more concerned with driving traffic rather than providing high quality content to readers.
4. Write content that is at least 300 words, and even better if it is closer to 500 words.
5. Use your keyword right away in the content. It should show-up within the first 50-100 words and then again in the last 50-100 words
6. Include an image that has the keywords added into the ALT attribute.
7. Only focus on one keyword or keyword phrase within one article or blog post.
8. Be mindful of keyword proximity. If you're writing about how to optimize your blog, it's more valuable if you use the keywords attraction marketing without any additional words in-between them than if you use the word attraction in the first paragraph then use marketing in paragraph two.
9. If your domain name includes your keyword - that's a bonus.
Avoid These SEO Pitfalls
1. Do not use excessive amounts of unrelated keywords in your text. Doing this tampers with content relevance in search engine results. This activity can demote you in search engine rankings.
2. Don't use keywords or phrases out of context. This will severely push your web page down in the rankings.
3. Search engine robots severely penalize keyword stuffing (more than 10% of your content is keyword-rich). In fact, this can get you banned from posting online.
How to Use Links to Enhance Your Blog
1. Link your keyword within at least one sentence, to another page within your website
2. Get other websites with relevant high quality content to add your link on their webpage (Remember, this gives search engine robots confidence that your site is relevant).
3. Try to get links to your site from.edu and.gov pages. These are considered more reputable by search engines than.net.info,.biz and.com websites.
4. The more backlinks the better as long as the sites are similar to yours and reputable.
5. Create new links to your page gradually. If you get more than about 10 links leading to your website at once, the search engine will think you bought them. Remember, search engines want authenticity.
6. Choose websites to link to your page that have a limited number of existing outgoing links. This tells the search engine that your link is most important to the host website.
How NOT to Use Links in SEO
1. Limit Your Links. Google especially, will frown upon too many links in your content. Keep it to less than 100 links.
2. Relationships. Make sure all of the websites you link to remain relevant, up to date, and have a good reputation. You don't want to appear connected to "bad" sites by search engines.
3. Do Not Enter Into Link Exchanges. You may get approached to do 'link exchanges'. Avoid these at all costs. This will appear to be a paid relationship and go against you.
What Content Will Optimize Your Blog?
1. Keep your content unique. Don't copy other people's articles onto your own site.
2. Post regularly. Search engines LOVE new and regular updates.
3. Where appropriate bold, underline or italic your keywords. Don't overdo this or you'll get penalized but done tastefully and this will improve your rankings.
4. When using headings in your article, select the 'headings' font.
5. Articles around 500-700 words are ideal. If you have lots more than this to write, think about breaking it up over two or three posts as a series.
How To Monetize Your Blog And Start Making Money
Now, let's look at how to monetize your blog. We're going to assume that your blog is setup and running correctly.
1.) Download a theme that includes a space for ads There are some free themes that are designed to be used for advertisement purposes. They leave areas open for advertisements to be placed. If you can't find a theme that has ad space, make sure your theme has an area where you can place modules call widgets. If you don't have a place for ads, you will have a much tougher time monetizing your blog.
2.) Get a Google AdSense Account Search for "Google AdSense" and you set up an AdSense account. It may take a few days to be approved by Google. Make sure that you have a blog already set up and it has been in existence for at least a month. This will lessen your chances of being rejected by Google.
3.) Set up your first ad The AdSense interface will take a bit of work to figure out but once you do, you will want to generate code for your first AdSense ad campaign. Google will give you a code to use on your site. You're one step away from knowing how to monetize your blog.
4.) Download an ad manager plugin Find an ad management plugin for your blog platform. This plugin will place ads in your posts in the places you prefer. Place your Google AdSense code in to the plugin. If your website theme had spaces for ads, input the code in to the appropriate area as explained in your theme documentation. Then wait.The ads won't show up right away. It normally takes up to an hour for the ads to display so don't panic if you don't see them right away.
5.) The last monetization method that I'd like to talk about is affiliate marketing (my personal favorite). With affiliate marketing, you simply send traffic to a landing page that has been optimized to sell a particular product. The merchant handles the order, ships the product, bills the customer and takes care of any customer service issues. Your job is to presell the product and sent the visitor through. When done properly, this s a very profitable way to monetize.
There are more monetization method but these 5 are enough to get started. Thanks for reading hope you liked it.
Resources To Help You Get Started
1. A platform where you can build your blog and write content - Wordpress
2. A webhostin and domain name provider - Bluehost
3. A keyword research tool - KwFinder
4. An Overall SEO tool to manage your site's overall health and progress - Mangools
How To Start A Blog
When deciding how to start a blog, the first thing to consider is the topic you will write about in your blog. You may want to do a little bit of keyword research when deciding on a topic. If you already have a business, then your blog can easily be related to your online business. However, you can narrow your blog niche further if you wish.
The next thing you will need to do is choose a domain name for your blog. Ideally, you want your topic keywords to be included in your domain name.For example, if your blog is on affiliate marketing, your domain name will be something like 'learnaffiliatemarketing.com' If you have to use multiple words in your name, try to limit it to three at the most. Also, try to make sure the name is very easy for people to remember. A great place to get domain names is Bluehost.
The third step in deciding how to start a blog is to choose a hosting account. You basically have two different options here. You could choose a free blogging platform but you will sacrifice much control of your blog. I highly recommend you choose a hosting account of your very own which will give you the most control over your blog. Hosting your own blog will also make your blog appear more professional. Bluehost has a great reputation as hosting company and they provide very reasonable pricing.
Assuming you choose to host your own account, the next thing you will need to do is install WordPress software into your account. This software provides the theme and interface for your blog. I wish I knew about WordPress when I was first learning how to start a blog. There are a few different ways to install this valuable software. Many hosting companies will provide you with very simple instructions for installing this useful software.
After you have installed WordPress to your account, you will need to log in to your website to begin posting to your blog. Simply navigate to your site with your web browser. When you get to your site, you will see a login link. Follow the link and log in with the information you provided when you installed WordPress to your account. After you are logged in, you will have access to the admin side of your new blog. You can now begin to write posts and modify your new blog any way you would like.
How To Optimize Your Blog For SEO
What is SEO/Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization is often referred to as SEO. The principle behind good SEO is that it will maximize the opportunity for your webpage to be listed high in the search engine results. This means your webpage is more likely to get a bigger slice of any traffic searching for a particular term or 'keyword phrase'. You can easily increase the chances of your web page ranking high by focusing on good use of keywords, links and relevant content. A great tool to manage your blog's overall health inluding SEO, backlinks, SERP analysis, Rank and even spy on your competition is Mangools, it's a great tool for any blog to have.
Keyword Checklist for SEO
If you don't have a keyword research tool where you can find the best keywords for your blog niche/category, I recommend you use the KwFinder keyword research tool.
1. Your article or blog title must have the keyword in the title. It's best if the keyword shows up near the beginning of the title and the title should be at least three words long, but no longer than six to seven words.
2. Break your article or blog post up with headings. Include your keywords in these headings.
3. Your content should have two to four-percent key word presence. However, don't be tempted to overload your content with your keywords. If you do, the search engine robots may think your site is a fraud and your rankings can be heavily penalised. These little robots will think you are being more concerned with driving traffic rather than providing high quality content to readers.
4. Write content that is at least 300 words, and even better if it is closer to 500 words.
5. Use your keyword right away in the content. It should show-up within the first 50-100 words and then again in the last 50-100 words
6. Include an image that has the keywords added into the ALT attribute.
7. Only focus on one keyword or keyword phrase within one article or blog post.
8. Be mindful of keyword proximity. If you're writing about how to optimize your blog, it's more valuable if you use the keywords attraction marketing without any additional words in-between them than if you use the word attraction in the first paragraph then use marketing in paragraph two.
9. If your domain name includes your keyword - that's a bonus.
Avoid These SEO Pitfalls
1. Do not use excessive amounts of unrelated keywords in your text. Doing this tampers with content relevance in search engine results. This activity can demote you in search engine rankings.
2. Don't use keywords or phrases out of context. This will severely push your web page down in the rankings.
3. Search engine robots severely penalize keyword stuffing (more than 10% of your content is keyword-rich). In fact, this can get you banned from posting online.
How to Use Links to Enhance Your Blog
1. Link your keyword within at least one sentence, to another page within your website
2. Get other websites with relevant high quality content to add your link on their webpage (Remember, this gives search engine robots confidence that your site is relevant).
3. Try to get links to your site from.edu and.gov pages. These are considered more reputable by search engines than.net.info,.biz and.com websites.
4. The more backlinks the better as long as the sites are similar to yours and reputable.
5. Create new links to your page gradually. If you get more than about 10 links leading to your website at once, the search engine will think you bought them. Remember, search engines want authenticity.
6. Choose websites to link to your page that have a limited number of existing outgoing links. This tells the search engine that your link is most important to the host website.
How NOT to Use Links in SEO
1. Limit Your Links. Google especially, will frown upon too many links in your content. Keep it to less than 100 links.
2. Relationships. Make sure all of the websites you link to remain relevant, up to date, and have a good reputation. You don't want to appear connected to "bad" sites by search engines.
3. Do Not Enter Into Link Exchanges. You may get approached to do 'link exchanges'. Avoid these at all costs. This will appear to be a paid relationship and go against you.
What Content Will Optimize Your Blog?
1. Keep your content unique. Don't copy other people's articles onto your own site.
2. Post regularly. Search engines LOVE new and regular updates.
3. Where appropriate bold, underline or italic your keywords. Don't overdo this or you'll get penalized but done tastefully and this will improve your rankings.
4. When using headings in your article, select the 'headings' font.
5. Articles around 500-700 words are ideal. If you have lots more than this to write, think about breaking it up over two or three posts as a series.
How To Monetize Your Blog And Start Making Money
Now, let's look at how to monetize your blog. We're going to assume that your blog is setup and running correctly.
1.) Download a theme that includes a space for ads There are some free themes that are designed to be used for advertisement purposes. They leave areas open for advertisements to be placed. If you can't find a theme that has ad space, make sure your theme has an area where you can place modules call widgets. If you don't have a place for ads, you will have a much tougher time monetizing your blog.
2.) Get a Google AdSense Account Search for "Google AdSense" and you set up an AdSense account. It may take a few days to be approved by Google. Make sure that you have a blog already set up and it has been in existence for at least a month. This will lessen your chances of being rejected by Google.
3.) Set up your first ad The AdSense interface will take a bit of work to figure out but once you do, you will want to generate code for your first AdSense ad campaign. Google will give you a code to use on your site. You're one step away from knowing how to monetize your blog.
4.) Download an ad manager plugin Find an ad management plugin for your blog platform. This plugin will place ads in your posts in the places you prefer. Place your Google AdSense code in to the plugin. If your website theme had spaces for ads, input the code in to the appropriate area as explained in your theme documentation. Then wait.The ads won't show up right away. It normally takes up to an hour for the ads to display so don't panic if you don't see them right away.
5.) The last monetization method that I'd like to talk about is affiliate marketing (my personal favorite). With affiliate marketing, you simply send traffic to a landing page that has been optimized to sell a particular product. The merchant handles the order, ships the product, bills the customer and takes care of any customer service issues. Your job is to presell the product and sent the visitor through. When done properly, this s a very profitable way to monetize.
There are more monetization method but these 5 are enough to get started. Thanks for reading hope you liked it.
Resources To Help You Get Started
1. A platform where you can build your blog and write content - Wordpress
2. A webhostin and domain name provider - Bluehost
3. A keyword research tool - KwFinder
4. An Overall SEO tool to manage your site's overall health and progress - Mangools
