The blogging industry is flourishing at a very high speed. It has already demonstrated its potential by producing some of the self-made millionaire bloggers who started their journey with nil or negligible blogging income. While not everyone can earn millions out of blogging, you can at least expect a decent lifestyle and a regular income source if you seriously build and maintain your blog. If you are a total beginner then this guide will help you make the right decisions for creating a professional blog with impressive looks and high-income potential. While this blog mainly focuses on initial issues, you will also find some quick pointers suggesting the actionable strategies to grow your blog towards the end of this guide. SO let’s start:
Find the right niche for your blog
Start by deciding a niche that you are passionate about and also possess decent expertise in the same. It could be about corporate culture, SEO, politics, gardening, horticulture, - whatever it is ensure that you have a clear “angle for the content”.
What information it would pass? What would be the tone of the content- casual, formal, or a mix of the same? Would it concentrate on evergreen content or focus on the latest happenings? These are a few questions that you need to answer clearly before starting a blog if you wish to offer a distinguished personality to your blog.
One mistake that many bloggers do – “after a lot of research”- is to rule out the topics they specialize in just because they aren’t popular. There are two things to keep in mind- first, a topic that very limited bloggers are writing about has a high-profit potential due to as the supply is less than demand.
Secondly, you would have to face comparatively very little competition so that you fully can concentrate more on strengthening your foundation instead of diverting your efforts and attention to combating competition.
Purchase Relevant domain name
Ones you have decided the right domain that matches your passion and expertise, the next thing is to decide the right domain name for your blog. While there are several new-age domain extensions like .media, .blog, or .world, none can match the popularity of the dotCom extension. So, if you wish to succeed in the blogging field, dot com extension is the go-to extension to invest in.
It may not always be possible to find your desired domain name in dot com extension. In that scenario, try to see if you can tweak the name a bit- for instance replacing “HotRecipes.com” with “TopRecipes.com” or “SuperRecipes.com”. In most cases, this should solve the issue. Even if you don’t want to compromise on the desired domain name then go for the “next best line of extension” which includes .net, or .org.
In case your blog concentrates on a specific country audience like India or the US then you can also go for .in, .The US or any other country-specific TLD depending upon your targeted audience.
Domain name tips
The words and characters of your domain name also play a vital role. Avoid using stop words like for, at, on, etc. Use power words that are compact, descriptive but short. Unnecessary adjectives should also be kept at bay. People have a hard time memorizing jargon, synonyms, and very generic words. All these things should be considered while deciding the right name for your domain.
Buy web hosting plan that supports your blog’s needs
Once you have decided and purchased the domain the next thing is to buy a hosting service so that your blog can be published worldwide. Unlike domain name, buying a hosting service can be more complex due to higher cost and also because it is s subscription-based service that determines the user experience of your visitors. It is the quality of web hosting that decides the vital issues like speed, performance, and availability of your blog.
While it is good to check the reviews of different hosting providers, keep in mind that the majority of hosting review sites and blogs are affiliates of hosting providers they recommend. So it is not unlikely that their advice is biased. It is best to take an independent and well-informed decision by educating yourself about the technicalities of web hosting like uptime, bandwidth, storage space, RAM, Server type, etc.
Here is quick specific info about the ideal web hosting package for new blogs.
· Buy shared hosting plans from a reputed hosting provider that guarantees a good uptime (above 99%) backed by SLA. It ensures that your blog is available online whenever visitors wish to visit it.
· Besides, it should also have a decent one-click WordPress installer like Softaculous as it will allow you to quickly install the WordPress and right away create a blog without any technical complexities
· If your budget allows buying a managed WordPress hosting service that will take care of issues like WordPress maintenance updating and security management. Besides this type of hosting is equipped with the right resources and ideal volume to fully support your blog’s needs.
WordPress installation and selecting right theme
WordPress installation becomes quick and smooth with single click installer like Softaculous. Post-installation fills your details as a WordPress user and then selects the right theme. It is a vital step as your theme will determine the visual impact of your blog. So, choose the one that has a professional look and precisely aligns with the topic and tone of your subject.
There are many free themes available o WordPress but it is wise to buy a premium theme due to better looks and more extended controls. You can buy premium themes for as low as $10 or $15 which can easily be afforded by anyone.
· WordPress themes have an easy, user-friendly interface. So, you won’t find any difficulty using the theme independently
· If you need more creative freedom then consider buying a webpage builder that will enable you to create different WebPages of your site through graphic tools and drag and drop process
Another option is to hire a good WordPress developer for developing your blog exactly the way you want to look at it. Let’s simplify the decision-making process for you:
· The most common approach is to use a free theme or buy a premium one if the budget allows, page builder tool is suitable if you have good creative skills and wish to build the blog from scratch without coding
· Last but not the least you can also hire WordPress developer if you are very specific about your blog’s design and it needs comprehensive designing tasks.
Still, confused? Just install a free WordPress theme and start publishing the content. You can change anytime in the future.
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Project)
Speed is extremely important and a majority of your visitors' swill abandon the site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. You would not like to lose so many potential audiences especially if they are browsing your site through mobile devices. So ensure that each webpage of your blog loads at super fast speed. Don’t settle for anything lesser. There are many techniques and tools to speed up your site. One of the easiest and most standard options is to go for AMP pages.
AMP is easy to be implemented and independently optimizes multiple aspects like eliminating irrelevant resource-consuming elements, making the page leaner, and other required alterations. Eventually, it helps in multiplying your site’s loading speeds.
Benefits of AMP
· Replaces every image to seamlessly suit the viewer’s viewport
· Makes sure that inline images appear above the fold of the webpage
· Changes CSS variables into inline code to eliminate the need for parsing as a separate document
· Identifies and preloads extended components into memory.
· Thoroughly Minifies all CSS and HTML code to achieve ultra-high-speed
Thanks to the AMP plug-in it is now even easier to make your site super fast. These plugins automatically evaluate the AMP readiness of your site and also delivers vital insights and suggestions/changes to make your site AMP-friendly.
It helps you in two ways. First, it enriches the user experience and keeps the visitors quickly get what they want. secondly, it also keeps you in good books of Google as Google likes the sites that are AMP ready as they provide a better user experience to the audiences.
While these are some of the major initial processes while setting up your blog, you still need to learn how to make it earn a good profit. Here are a few quick pointers on the same:
· Google Analytics: It helps you check the detailed analysis of your blog to give a precise idea of its overall potential. It provides vital details and stats like traffic, CTR, engagement, geographical reach, etc.
· Keyword-Research: Google bots find and rank the search-relevant sites by checking the keywords. They are built to quickly recognize the keyword and determine if your site matches the search intent of the user. So place keywords at all the prime places of your blog like heading, pointers, image tags, and URL, etc.
· Steady income stream: Contrary to the common notion there is nothing like an ideal income stream for everyone Depending upon yr bog’s personality, reach, and expectations you can either earn through Google Ad-sense, sponsored content, banner advertising, affiliate marketing, or other option.
The golden rule is to select the option you are most comfortable with and give it some time to check the result. You may decide to continue it or replace it with other options depending upon the outcome.
Conclusion
Starting your blog can be a brilliant idea to earn a good income without working under stress or pressure. However, his major concern for any new blogger is how to start and grow your blog. You just read some best tips on creating and setting up your blog and giving it a fully professional look and feel. Readers may also have benefited from some of the quick pointers on increasing the income potential of your bog. For the best results, it is important to practically implement these strategies and wait for a positive outcome.