Have you ever dreamt of starting your own blog, sharing your passions with the world, and making some money along the way? You’re not alone. Blogging has become an incredibly popular way for people to express themselves, connect with others, and generate income. In this ultimate guide, we’ll walk you through the entire process of starting a profitable blog from scratch – step by step.

Whether you’re an aspiring writer, an entrepreneur looking to grow your business, or simply someone with a story to tell, blogging can be an enriching venture. But before you dive in, it’s essential to understand the basics and develop a solid foundation for success. That’s where this guide comes in. Follow along, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a blog that not only attracts readers but also generates income.

Step 1: Finding Your Niche

Choosing your niche is one of the most critical decisions you’ll make when starting a blog. Your niche is the specific topic or area of interest your blog will focus on. The right niche can make all the difference between a blog that thrives and one that struggles to gain traction. So how do you find the perfect niche for your blog? Let’s explore some essential considerations.

Assessing Your Interests and Passions

First and foremost, think about what you’re genuinely passionate about. After all, you’ll spend significant time researching, writing, and discussing your chosen topic, and you must enjoy it and have a deep interest in it. Make a list of your hobbies, interests, and expertise. What do you love to talk about? What topics can you speak on with authority?

Analyzing Market Demand and Competition

Once you’ve identified your passions, it’s time to determine if there’s an audience for your chosen niche. Ideally, you want a niche with high demand but low competition. Conduct keyword research using tools like Ubersuggest or Google’s Keyword Planner to gauge your chosen topics’ search volume and competition levels. Additionally, browse relevant forums, social media groups, and other online communities to get a sense of what people are discussing and the questions they’re asking.

Identifying Potential Monetization Opportunities

A profitable blog needs to have monetization potential. Examine your chosen niche and determine how you might make money from it. This could include affiliate marketing, sponsored content, selling products or services, or displaying ads. Look at other successful blogs in your niche and see how they generate income. This will give you an idea of the monetization opportunities available to you.

D. Balancing Personal Interests with Profitability

Ultimately, you’ll want to balance your personal interests and the niche’s profitability potential. Remember, it’s essential to be passionate about your niche, but it’s also crucial to ensure there’s an audience willing to consume your content and support your monetization efforts. Once you’ve found the sweet spot, you’ll have the foundation for a successful, profitable blog.

In the next section, we’ll discuss choosing the right blogging platform for your new blog. Stay tuned!

Step 2: Choosing a Blogging Platform

Now that you’ve nailed down your niche, it’s time to select the right blogging platform to bring your vision to life. A blogging platform is a software or service to create, publish, and manage your blog. With so many options available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. Don’t worry; we’re here to help! In this section, we’ll compare popular blogging platforms and explain why WordPress is the top choice for most bloggers.

Comparison of Popular Blogging Platforms

There are several blogging platforms to choose from, each with its own set of features and benefits. Some of the most popular options include:

1. WordPress.org: A self-hosted, open-source platform that offers complete customization and control over your blog. It’s the most widely used platform, powering over 40% of all websites on the internet.
2. Blogger: A free, hosted blogging platform owned by Google. It’s user-friendly and easy to set up, but customization options are limited compared to other platforms.
3. Wix: A website builder and blogging platform known for its drag-and-drop functionality. It’s beginner-friendly, but the free version comes with limitations and ads.
4. Squarespace: A user-friendly, all-in-one platform that includes web hosting, domain registration, and website-building tools. It’s known for its beautiful templates but comes with a monthly fee.

Pros and Cons of Each Platform

Each blogging platform has its own set of advantages and drawbacks. Here’s a quick overview:

1. WordPress.org: Pros: Complete customization, a massive library of plugins and themes, great for SEO, and scalable. Cons: Requires self-hosting and a bit of a learning curve for beginners.
2. Blogger: Pros: Easy to set up, free, and backed by Google’s infrastructure. Cons: Limited customization options, outdated design, and uncertain future due to Google’s history of shutting down services.
3. Wix: Pros: Beginner-friendly, drag-and-drop functionality, and various templates. Cons: Limited free version, less SEO-friendly, and fewer plugins than WordPress.
4. Squarespace: Pros: Beautiful templates, easy to use, and an all-in-one solution. Cons: Monthly fee, limited customization, and fewer plugins than WordPress.

Recommendations for Beginners: Why WordPress is the Best Option

After weighing the pros and cons of each platform, we highly recommend WordPress.org for most beginners. Here’s why:

1. Customization: WordPress offers unparalleled customization options, allowing you to create a unique blog that stands out from the competition.
2. Extensibility: With over 50,000 plugins and thousands of themes available, you can easily add new functionality and design elements to your blog without any coding knowledge.
3. SEO-Friendliness: WordPress is built with SEO in mind, making it easier for your blog to rank high in search engine results.
4. Scalability: As your blog grows, WordPress can easily accommodate your needs, whether you’re adding new features, increasing traffic, or even turning your blog into a full-fledged online store.
5. Community Support: With its widespread use, WordPress has a massive community of users and developers that can help you troubleshoot issues, find solutions, and continually improve your blog.

WordPress offers the perfect combination of customization, functionality, and support, making it the ideal choice for bloggers looking to create a profitable blog.

The next section will guide you through selecting and registering a domain name for your new blog. Stay tuned!

Step 3: Picking and Registering a Domain Name

Your domain name is the web address (URL) where people will find your blog. It’s your online identity and your audience’s first impression of your brand. Choosing the right domain name is crucial for your blog’s success, so let’s dive into picking and registering the perfect domain name for your new blog.

Brainstorming Domain Name Ideas

1. Keep it short and memorable: Aim for a domain name that’s easy to remember, type, and share. Shorter names are generally more memorable but don’t sacrifice clarity for brevity.
2. Include keywords: If possible, include keywords relevant to your niche to improve SEO and clarify what your blog is about.
3. Be unique and creative: Your domain name should reflect your brand’s personality and stand out. Think outside the box and consider wordplay, alliteration, or unexpected combinations.
4. Avoid numbers and hyphens: Numbers and hyphens can be confusing and make your domain name harder to remember. Stick to letters for a cleaner and more professional look.
5. Consider domain extensions: While the most popular domain extension is .com, other options are available, such as .net, .org, or niche-specific extensions like .travel or .blog. Choose the one that best fits your brand and audience.

Checking Domain Name Availability

Once you’ve brainstormed a list of potential domain names, you’ll need to check their availability. You can use domain name registrars like Namecheap, GoDaddy, or Google Domains to search for your desired domain name and see if it’s available for registration.

Registering Your Domain Name

After you’ve found the perfect available domain name, it’s time to register it. Here’s how:

1. Choose a domain registrar: Select a reputable domain registrar like Namecheap, GoDaddy, or Google Domains to register your domain name.
2. Create an account: You’ll need to create an account with your chosen domain registrar, which will allow you to manage your domain and associated services.
3. Register your domain: Follow the registrar’s instructions to register your chosen domain name. You’ll need to provide your contact information and select the registration period (usually one year, with the option to renew).
4. Pay the registration fee: Domain registration fees vary depending on the registrar and domain extension. Most .com domains cost around $10-$15 per year.
5. Set up domain privacy: Domain privacy (WHOIS privacy) protects your personal information from publicly appearing in the domain registration database. Many registrars offer domain privacy for free or for a small additional fee.

Congratulations! You’ve now secured your domain name and are one step closer to launching your profitable blog. In the next section, we’ll cover web hosting and how to set up your WordPress blog. Stay tuned!

Step 4: Setting up Web Hosting

Web hosting is the service that stores your blog’s files and makes them accessible to visitors over the internet. Selecting a reliable web hosting provider is crucial for your blog’s performance, security, and growth. In this section, we’ll walk you through setting up web hosting for your new blog, and I highly recommend SiteGround as your hosting provider.

Why Choose SiteGround?

1. Excellent performance: SiteGround offers lightning-fast load times and reliable uptime, ensuring your visitors’ smooth and enjoyable browsing experience.
2. WordPress compatibility: SiteGround is officially recommended by WordPress.org, and their hosting plans come with WordPress pre-installed for easy setup.
3. Top-notch customer support: SiteGround’s knowledgeable support team is available 24/7 to assist with any questions or issues.
4. Scalable plans: As your blog grows, you can easily upgrade your hosting plan to accommodate increased traffic and resource needs.
5. Free features: SiteGround includes free SSL certificates for secure browsing, daily backups for peace of mind, and a CDN (Content Delivery Network) for faster global load times.

Signing Up for SiteGround Hosting

1. Visit SiteGround’s website: Go to SiteGround.com and click on “Web Hosting” in the main menu to view their hosting plans.
2. Choose a hosting plan: SiteGround offers three hosting plans tailored to different needs. The StartUp plan should suffice for new bloggers, with the option to upgrade later as your blog grows.
3. Select your domain: You’ll be prompted to enter your previously registered domain name or register a new one through SiteGround.
4. Complete the registration process: Fill in your personal information, billing details, and choose your hosting plan duration (12, 24, or 36 months). SiteGround offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try their services risk-free.
5. Check your email: After completing the registration process, you’ll receive a confirmation email with important account details and instructions for setting up your WordPress blog.

Installing WordPress on SiteGround

1. Log in to SiteGround: Access your SiteGround Customer Area using the login credentials provided in the confirmation email.
2. Set up your site: Navigate to the “Websites” tab and click “New Website” to start the site setup wizard.
3. Choose WordPress: Select “WordPress” as your website software, and enter your desired WordPress login credentials.
4. Complete the installation: Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the WordPress installation. SiteGround will automatically configure your domain, SSL certificate, and other essential settings.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully set up web hosting and installed WordPress on your blog. The next section will dive into customizing your blog’s design and functionality with themes and plugins. Keep reading!

Step 5: Installing and Configuring Your Blog

Now that you’ve set up your web hosting and installed WordPress, it’s time to dive into the exciting process of customizing your blog’s appearance and functionality. In this step, we’ll explore how to choose and install a WordPress theme and essential plugins that will enhance your blog’s performance and user experience.

Choosing and Installing a WordPress Theme

Your blog’s theme determines its overall design, layout, and visual style. With thousands of free and premium WordPress themes available, choosing one that aligns with your niche, branding, and desired user experience is essential. Here are some tips to help you select the perfect theme for your blog:

1. Prioritize simplicity and user experience: Look for a clean, easy-to-navigate design that won’t overwhelm your readers with excessive features or clutter.
2. Make sure it’s mobile-friendly: With most of the web traffic coming from mobile devices, choosing a responsive theme that looks and performs well on all screen sizes is crucial.
3. Check for compatibility and updates: Ensure the theme is compatible with the latest version of WordPress and receives regular updates from its developer to maintain security and functionality.

To install a new WordPress theme, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard: Access your WordPress admin area by entering yourdomain.com/wp-admin and logging in with your username and password.
2. Navigate to the themes section: In the left-hand menu, hover over “Appearance” and click “Themes.”
3. Add a new theme: Click the “Add New” button at the top of the page to browse the theme directory. Use the search bar, category filters, or popular tags to find a theme that suits your needs.
4. Preview and install your chosen theme: Hover over your desired theme and click “Preview” for a live demo. If you’re happy with your choice, click “Install” to add the theme to your blog. Once installed, click “Activate” to apply the theme to your site.

Installing Essential WordPress Plugins

Plugins are tools that extend your blog’s functionality, offering features like SEO optimization, social sharing, and contact forms. While installing numerous plugins is tempting, it’s important to be selective and prioritize those that truly benefit your blog. Here are five essential plugins for any new blogger:

1. Yoast SEO: This powerful plugin helps optimize your blog for search engines, guiding you through keyword placement, meta descriptions, and other on-page SEO best practices.
2. WP Rocket: Speed up your blog and improve user experience with this caching plugin, which reduces load times and optimizes your site’s performance.
3. Akismet Anti-Spam: Protect your blog from spam comments with this essential plugin, which automatically filters and blocks spammy content.
4. Social Warfare: Encourage social sharing and increase your blog’s visibility with this customizable social sharing plugin, which makes it easy for readers to share your content on various platforms.
5. Contact Form 7: Allow readers to contact you through a professional-looking contact form, easily set up and customized using this popular plugin.

To install a plugin, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the plugins section: In the left-hand menu, hover over “Plugins” and click “Add New.”
2. Search for your desired plugin: Use the search bar to find the plugin you want to install.
3. Install and activate the plugin: Click “Install Now” to add the plugin to your blog. Once installed, click “Activate” to enable its functionality.

Configure the plugin settings: Most plugins have a settings page where you can customize their features and functionality. Review and configure each plugin’s settings to ensure it performs optimally on your blog.

Customizing Your Blog’s Design and Layout

With your theme and essential plugins installed, it’s time to personalize your blog’s appearance and create a unique, visually appealing experience for your readers. Here’s how to customize your blog’s design and layout:

1. Customize your theme: Navigate to “Appearance” > “Customize” in your WordPress dashboard to access the theme customizer. You can change your blog’s title and tagline, colors, typography, header and footer options, and other design elements here.
2. Create a custom menu: Organize your blog’s navigation by creating a custom menu. Go to “Appearance” > “Menus” and click “Create a new menu.” Add pages, categories, or custom links to your menu, then drag and drop to reorder them. Finally, assign your menu to a location (e.g., primary or secondary menu) and click “Save Menu.”
3. Add widgets to your sidebar or footer: Widgets are blocks of content or functionality you can add to your blog’s sidebar or footer. Go to “Appearance” > “Widgets” to view the available widget options. Drag and drop your desired widgets into the designated areas and customize their settings as needed.

Setting Up Permalinks for SEO-friendly URLs

Permalinks are the permanent URLs of your blog posts and pages. WordPress uses a numeric structure for permalinks by default, which isn’t ideal for SEO. To create SEO-friendly URLs, follow these steps:

1. Go to “Settings” > “Permalinks” in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Select the “Post name” option under “Common Settings.”
3. Click “Save Changes” to update your permalink structure.

This will make your blog’s URLs more descriptive and easier for search engines to understand, helping to boost your search rankings.

Following these instructions, you’ll have a fully customized, visually appealing blog ready to create and share engaging content. Remember to craft your blog posts focusing on valuable, actionable information that is relatable and engaging. This approach will help you build a loyal and satisfied audience. Keep learning and growing as a blogger, and you’ll be on your way to success. Happy blogging!

Step 6: Creating Essential Pages and Navigation

To provide a comprehensive and user-friendly experience for your readers, creating a few key pages on your blog and setting up easy-to-navigate menus is crucial. In this step, we’ll walk you through creating the essential pages and organizing your blog’s navigation.

Essential Pages for Your Blog

1. About Page: An About page is your chance to introduce yourself and your blog to your audience. Share your story, your expertise, and the purpose behind your blog. This personal connection can help you build trust and rapport with your readers.
2. Contact Page: A Contact page makes it easy for your readers, potential partners, or advertisers to contact you. Include a contact form, email address, and links to your social media profiles.
3. Privacy Policy & Disclaimer: A Privacy Policy is a legal document that outlines how your blog collects, uses, and stores user data. A Disclaimer clarifies your responsibilities as a blogger and discloses any affiliate relationships. These pages are crucial for transparency and legal compliance.
4. Start Here or Resources Page: A Start Here or Resources page is an excellent way to guide new readers to your most valuable content, helping them quickly find the information they seek. Curate a list of your best posts, resources, or tools related to your niche.

Setting Up Your Blog’s Navigation

Organize your blog’s navigation by creating custom menus that direct readers to your most important pages and content categories. Here’s how to create a custom menu in WordPress:

1. Go to “Appearance” > “Menus” in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Click “Create a new menu,” give it a name, and click “Create Menu.”
3. You can add pages, categories, or custom links to your menu on the left side. Check the items you want to include and click “Add to Menu.”
4. Arrange the menu items by dragging and dropping them into the desired order.
5. Assign your menu to a location, such as the primary or secondary menu, and click “Save Menu.”

Creating essential pages and setting up clear, user-friendly navigation will enhance your readers’ experience and increase the likelihood that they’ll return to your blog. Keep your content engaging, valuable, and focused on your audience’s needs as you grow your blog and build a loyal following.

Step 7: Crafting High-Quality Content

Content is the backbone of your blog, and creating high-quality, engaging content is crucial for attracting readers and keeping them coming back for more. In this step, we’ll discuss understanding your target audience, creating valuable content, and developing a content strategy with a consistent posting schedule.

Understanding Your Target Audience

1. Create reader personas: Develop a clear understanding of your target audience by creating reader personas. Consider their demographics, interests, pain points, and challenges related to your niche. This will help you tailor your content to their needs and preferences.
2. Monitor audience engagement: Keep track of which blog posts and topics resonate most with your audience by monitoring comments, social shares, and analytics data. Use this information to refine your content strategy and focus on what truly engages your readers.
3. Conduct surveys and polls: Gather feedback from your readers through surveys or polls to better understand their preferences and needs. This direct input can help you create content that truly resonates with your audience.

Tips for Creating Engaging, Valuable, and Shareable Content

1. Write compelling headlines: Your headline is the first thing readers see, and it can make or break their decision to click and read your post. Craft headlines that are attention-grabbing, curiosity-provoking, and promise value to the reader.
2. Use storytelling: Incorporate storytelling elements into your content to connect with your audience on a deeper level. Share personal experiences, anecdotes, or case studies to make your content more relatable and engaging.
3. Break up long paragraphs: Make your content easy to read by breaking up long paragraphs into shorter, more digestible sections. Use headings, subheadings, lists, and images to create a visually appealing and scannable layout.
4. Include visuals: Enhance your content with visuals, such as images, infographics, or videos. Visuals can help illustrate your points, break up text-heavy sections, and make your content more shareable on social media.
5. Optimize for SEO: Increase your content’s visibility in search engine results by incorporating relevant keywords, using descriptive URLs, and optimizing your images with alt tags. This will help attract organic traffic to your blog.

Developing a Content Strategy and Posting Schedule

1. Define your content pillars: Identify the main themes or topics your blog will cover. These content pillars should align with your niche and your target audience’s interests, providing a clear focus for your content creation efforts.
2. Research popular and trending topics: Stay up-to-date with popular and trending topics within your niche. Use tools like Google Trends, BuzzSumo, or social media platforms to find inspiration for timely and relevant content.
3. Plan your content calendar: Create a content calendar that outlines your upcoming blog posts, including their titles, keywords, and publishing dates. This will help you maintain a consistent posting schedule and ensure your content remains fresh and relevant.
4. Balance evergreen and timely content: Include both evergreen contents that remain relevant over time and timely content that addresses current trends or events. This mix will help you attract a diverse audience and maintain their interest in your blog.

By understanding your target audience, crafting engaging and valuable content, and developing a strategic content plan, you’ll be well on your way to building a loyal readership and growing your blog’s success. Keep refining your content strategy as you learn more about your audience and the ever-changing landscape of your niche.

Step 8: Implementing SEO Best Practices

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for increasing your blog’s visibility in search engine results and driving organic traffic to your site. This step will cover the basics of on-page and off-page SEO, keyword research and optimization, SEO-friendly content, and effective link-building strategies.

Basics of On-Page and Off-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to optimizing individual blog posts and pages on your website for search engines. This includes keyword usage, title tags, meta descriptions, headings, URL structure, and image alt tags. To improve your on-page SEO, ensure that your content is well-structured and easy to read, and include relevant keywords in strategic locations throughout your post.

Off-page SEO focuses on factors outside your website that can influence your search engines rankings, such as backlinks from other websites, social media activity, and online reputation. To improve your off-page SEO, engage in link-building activities, create shareable content, and foster relationships with influencers in your niche.

Keyword Research and Optimization

Keyword research is identifying and targeting relevant search terms that your target audience uses in search engines. Use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, or SEMrush to find keywords related to your niche and assess their search volume, competition, and relevance. 

Optimize your content by including your target keywords in your title tags, meta descriptions, headings, and throughout your blog post. Be careful not to overuse keywords, which can lead to keyword stuffing and negatively impact your SEO.

Creating SEO-Friendly Content

To create SEO-friendly content, focus on writing high-quality, engaging, and valuable content that addresses your target audience’s needs and preferences. 

In addition to incorporating relevant keywords, ensure your content is well-structured, using headings, subheadings, lists, and images to create a visually appealing and easy-to-read layout. Write in-depth and comprehensive articles that cover your topic thoroughly, as search engines often prioritize longer, more informative content. Lastly, include internal links within your blog posts to guide readers to related content on your site and external links to authoritative sources to support your claims and enhance your credibility.

Link-Building Strategies

Link-building is acquiring backlinks from other websites, which can help improve your blog’s search engine rankings and credibility. Some effective link-building strategies include:

1. Creating high-quality, shareable content that others naturally want to link to.
2. Guest posting on reputable websites within your niche, with a link back to your site in your author bio.
3. Reach out to influencers and bloggers in your niche for collaborations or to share your content.
4. Engaging in relevant forums, communities, and social media platforms to share your expertise and content.
5. Conducting outreach to websites linked to similar content suggests they might also find your content valuable and worth linking to.

Implementing SEO best practices will improve your blog’s visibility in search engine results, attract more organic traffic, and grow your online presence. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, so continually refine your strategies and stay informed about industry trends and best practices.

Step 9: Promoting Your Blog

Creating high-quality content is only half the battle – you also need to promote your blog effectively to reach your target audience and grow your readership. In this step, we’ll explore strategies for promoting your blog, including utilizing social media platforms, networking with other bloggers and influencers, guest posting and content partnerships, and email marketing.

Utilizing Social Media Platforms for Promotion

Social media platforms are invaluable for promoting your blog, allowing you to reach a large audience and engage with potential readers. To make the most of each platform, consider the following tips:

1. Share your blog posts on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, tailoring your messaging to each platform’s unique audience and format.
2. Use eye-catching images and attention-grabbing headlines to encourage clicks and shares.
3. Engage with your followers by responding to comments and messages, and participate in relevant groups and discussions to showcase your expertise and drive traffic to your blog.
4. Use hashtags strategically to increase your content’s visibility and reach a larger audience.

Networking with Other Bloggers and Influencers

Building relationships with other bloggers and influencers in your niche can help expand your reach and credibility. To effectively network, consider these strategies:

1. Connect with like-minded individuals through social media, blog comments, and industry events.
2. Offer support and share their content, as this can lead to reciprocation and strengthen relationships.
3. Collaborate on projects, such as webinars, podcasts, or joint blog posts, to establish mutually beneficial relationships.
4. Attend industry conferences and events to meet influencers in person and build lasting connections.

Guest Posting and Content Partnerships

Guest posting and content partnerships can help you gain exposure, build backlinks, and establish yourself as an authority in your field. To succeed with guest posting, follow these guidelines:

1. Research reputable websites in your niche and identify opportunities for guest posting.
2. Pitch unique, high-quality content ideas that align with their audience’s interests and address current gaps in their content.
3. Include a relevant, non-promotional author bio with a link back to your blog.
4. Promote your guest posts on your own blog and social media channels to drive traffic and increase visibility.

For successful content partnerships, consider these tips:

1. Identify influencers or bloggers with complementary skills or expertise and propose collaborative projects.
2. Co-author articles, create joint research projects, or develop shared resources that benefit both audiences.
3. Cross-promote each other’s content and share your collaborative work on your respective platforms.

Email Marketing Strategies

Email marketing is a powerful tool for promoting your blog and nurturing relationships with your readers. To effectively use email marketing, follow these best practices:

1. Build an email list by offering a lead magnet, such as a free eBook, checklist, or exclusive content, in exchange for your visitor’s email addresses.
2. Use an email marketing platform like Mailchimp or ConvertKit to send regular newsletters, share new blog posts, and offer valuable resources and insights.
3. Personalize your emails and segment your list to target specific audience segments and increase engagement.
4. Include clear calls to action in your emails to encourage readers to visit your blog, share your content, or leave comments.

By implementing these promotion strategies, you’ll raise awareness of your blog, attract new readers, and strengthen your relationships with your existing audience. Remember, promotion is an ongoing process, so continually refine your strategies and explore new channels to expand your reach and grow your blog’s success.

Conclusion

As we wrap up this comprehensive guide, let’s quickly recap the steps you’ve learned to start a profitable blog:

1. Finding your niche
2. Choosing a blogging platform
3. Selecting a domain name
4. Setting up web hosting
5. Installing and configuring your blog
6. Creating essential pages and navigation
7. Crafting high-quality content
8. Implementing SEO best practices
9. Promoting your blog
10. Monetizing your blog

Starting a blog can be an exciting and rewarding journey, but it’s essential to remember that success won’t happen overnight. It takes time, dedication, and perseverance to build a thriving blog that generates income. Keep learning, experimenting, and refining your strategies, and most importantly, enjoy the process. As you grow your blog and engage with your readers, you’ll gain invaluable insights and experiences that will make you a better blogger.

Lastly, don’t forget that you’re not alone on this journey. Becoming part of a community of like-minded bloggers can provide invaluable support, motivation, and learning opportunities. We invite you to join our community at BloggerTips.com, where you’ll find a wealth of resources, tips, and advice to help you build a successful blog.

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on the latest blogging trends, strategies, and opportunities. As a subscriber, you’ll also receive exclusive access to our upcoming blogging courses, webinars, and more. We’re excited to be part of your blogging journey and look forward to seeing your progress. Here’s to your blogging success!

In this article, we’ll go over the steps you need to take to start a blog, create engaging content, and promote your blog to attract readers. By the end, you’ll have a good understanding of what it takes to start and run a successful blog.

Step 1: Choose Your Blog’s Niche and Purpose

Before you start a blog, it’s important to have a clear idea of what you want your blog to be about and what you hope to accomplish with it. This will help you create content that is focused, relevant, and valuable to your target audience.

To choose your blog’s niche, think about your interests and expertise. What topics do you enjoy writing about or have a lot of knowledge about? A blog is a great way to share your passions and expertise with others, so it’s important to choose a topic that you’re genuinely interested in.

In addition to choosing a niche, you should also consider the purpose of your blog. Do you want to use your blog as a platform to share your thoughts and opinions? Do you want to use it to document your experiences or share your travel adventures? Do you want to use it to provide information or resources on a particular topic? Knowing the purpose of your blog will help you create content that is aligned with your goals and resonates with your audience.

Step 2: Choose a Blogging Platform

Once you have a clear idea of what your blog will be about and what you hope to accomplish with it, it’s time to choose a blogging platform. There are many different blogging platforms to choose from, each with its own set of features and capabilities. Some popular options include:

• WordPress: WordPress is the most popular blogging platform, with a large community of users and a wide range of themes and plugins to choose from. It’s a good choice for beginners and experienced bloggers alike.
• Blogger: Blogger is a free blogging platform owned by Google. It’s easy to use and has a simple interface, making it a good choice for those who are just starting out.
• SquareSpace: SquareSpace is a paid blogging platform that offers a range of templates and design options. It’s a good choice for those who want a more professional-looking blog.
• Tumblr: Tumblr is a microblogging platform that is popular with younger users. It’s a good choice for those who want to share shorter pieces of content, such as photos, quotes, and links.

Each platform has its own pros and cons, so it’s important to do your research and choose the one that best fits your needs.

Step 3: Set Up Your Blog

Once you’ve chosen a blogging platform, it’s time to set up your blog. This will typically involve creating an account, choosing a domain name, and selecting a design template.

When choosing a domain name, it’s essential to choose something that is easy to remember and reflects the content of your blog. Avoid using numbers or hyphens, as they can be confusing and hard to remember.

Once you’ve chosen a domain name, you’ll need to select a design template. Many blogging platforms offer a range of templates to choose from, so you can find one that fits the style and tone of your blog. You can also customize your template with your own colors, fonts, and images to make it unique.

Step 4: Create Engaging Content

Now that you have your blog set up, it’s time to start creating content. When it comes to creating engaging content, there are a few key things to keep in mind:

• Know your audience: One of the most important things to consider when creating content is who you are writing for. Who are you trying to reach with your blog? What are their interests and needs? By understanding your audience, you can create content that is relevant, valuable and resonates with them.
• Use a clear and compelling voice: Your blog is an extension of your personality, so it’s essential to use a clear and persuasive voice that reflects who you are. Whether you prefer a more formal or casual tone, be consistent and authentic in your writing.
• Use visuals: In addition to written content, consider using visuals to enhance your blog. This could include photos, infographics, or videos. Visuals help break up text and make your blog more visually appealing and engaging.
• Use headings and subheadings: Headings and subheadings help break up text and make your content easier to scan and read. They also help your readers understand the main points of your content and decide whether or not they want to continue reading.
• Use short paragraphs and bullet points: Long blocks of text can be intimidating and overwhelming to readers. To make your content more readable, use short paragraphs and bullet points to break up text and make it easier to scan.

Step 5: Promote Your Blog

Once you’ve started creating content, the next step is to promote your blog to attract readers. There are many different ways to promote your blog, including:

• Social media: Share your blog posts on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to reach a wider audience.
• Email newsletter: If you have an email list, consider sending out a newsletter to your subscribers with links to your latest blog posts.
• Guest posting: Reach out to other bloggers or websites in your niche and offer to write a guest post for them. This can expose your blog to a new audience and potentially drive traffic back to your own site.
• Comment on other blogs: Engage with other bloggers in your niche by commenting on their blogs. Be sure to leave thoughtful, relevant comments and include a link back to your own blog.
• Participate in online communities: Join online communities or forums related to your niche and participate in discussions. Be sure to include a link to your blog in your signature or profile.

By promoting your blog and engaging with your audience, you can build a loyal following and establish your blog as a go-to source of information or entertainment in your niche.

Conclusion

Starting a blog takes planning, dedication, and a little bit of know-how, but it can be a fun and rewarding way to share your thoughts, ideas, and passions with the world. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can set up a successful blog and create engaging content that resonates with your audience. With a bit of effort and promotion, you can build a loyal following and establish your blog as a go-to source of information or entertainment in your niche.

This guide will walk you through the top WordPress themes of 2024, their key features, and how to choose the perfect one for your needs. Whether you’re a blogger, e-commerce entrepreneur, or running a corporate website, you’ll find valuable insights to elevate your WordPress game.

What’s New in WordPress Themes for 2024?

Hold onto your hats, because this year’s themes are bringing some serious heat:

1. AI-Powered Customization: Themes that adapt to your content like a chameleon on caffeine.
2. Eco-Friendly Designs: Because saving the planet never looked so good.
3. Voice Search Optimization: “Hey Google, find me a theme that doesn’t suck.”
4. Augmented Reality Integration: Bringing your products to life in ways you never imagined.

1

Divi Theme

The Revolutionary AI-Powered Dynamo

Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the undisputed champion of WordPress themes – Divi. This isn’t just a theme; it’s a full-blown website-building revolution.

Key Features:

Why It’s a Game-Changer:

Divi’s AI capabilities are not just a gimmick – they’re a complete paradigm shift in web design. Imagine cutting your design time in half while simultaneously improving the quality of your layouts and content. Divi’s AI magic also includes:

• AI Layout Generator: Describe your vision, and watch Divi AI conjure up stunning layouts in seconds.
• AI Content Creation: Writer’s block? Divi AI can whip up engaging copy faster than you can say “SEO-optimized.”
• AI Design Suggestions: It’s like having a world-class designer whispering sweet design tips in your ear.

The theme’s flexibility is unparalleled. Whether you’re building a blog, an e-commerce empire, or a corporate powerhouse, Divi adapts like a chameleon. Its performance optimization features ensure your site runs like a well-oiled machine, keeping both visitors and search engines happy.

Best For:

Everyone. Yes, you read that right. From complete newbies to seasoned developers, Divi’s scalability makes it the Swiss Army knife of WordPress themes.

Pricing:

The Astra theme is among the most popular non-default WordPress themes of 2022. It’s built using a modern approach that eliminates jQuery dependencies, enables you to pick individual modules, and allows you to edit your content efficiently. The theme also features a real-time customizer, integrates with popular page builders, and provides numerous customizable elements. The socially viral demo is one of its most popular features.

The theme is compatible with popular learning management systems like LearnDash. It also includes a powerful search engine optimization feature. With over 150 pre-built demos, Astra will make it easy to customize your site. You can use its drag-and-drop builder to make any desired changes to your website. The theme is also code-free, so you can make changes without any technical knowledge.

Another fast WordPress theme is Bimber. Built on the responsive Framework, Bimber requires minimal HTTP requests and uses HTML and CSS for styling. It can be further optimized with GZIP compression and URL redirects. The theme can also be used for monetization. The theme supports front-end project listings and a discussion interface. It’s suitable for personal blogs. The theme’s clean design makes it easy to customize and uses SEO factors.

WoodMart – A WordPress theme for creating online magazines, newspapers, and current events blogs

The WoodMart WordPress theme has many options to customize its appearance and functionality. It has a graphical interface with an intuitive Theme Settings panel. You can customize everything from the look and feel of your website to the way you display product descriptions. Moreover, you can customize the theme without any coding experience and without using multiple plugins. Furthermore, WoodMart’s developers are constantly adding new versions of the theme to their gallery. Besides, users can set up bright notifications for limited promotions or special offers.

The newspaper theme includes many customizable options. It comes with 10 predefined layouts and more customizable ones. It also has a customizable slider. You can choose between boxed and wide layouts and use separate fonts for different devices. Besides, the theme also has a helpful review system. It’s also a highly customizable theme that comes with detailed instructions.

Another option for creating a blog or a newspaper is Jannah News, a multi-purpose WordPress theme from TieLabs. This theme comes with numerous options for creating multiple responsive websites that adapt to the latest and most popular devices. It supports the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) Project, which means your content will be optimized for mobile users. Moreover, Jannah News has a fast loading speed and supports GIF images, which can enhance the visual appeal of your site.

Publisher – A WordPress theme for creating online magazines, newspapers, and current events blogs

Publisher is a great WordPress theme for creating online magazines, newspapers, or current events blogs. This theme is fully responsive and mobile-friendly. It also comes with Visual Composer, a drag-and-drop page builder, and multiple homepage variations. This theme also features an easy-to-use social share counter plugin. It also supports MailChimp, a plugin that can be integrated with your WordPress website.

The news theme comes with built-in ad spots, typography, and custom widgets. The Breaking News Ticker continuously scrolls headlines containing breaking news stories. Readers can click on these titles to view the full post. The Breaking News Ticker also includes built-in ad spaces, which are ideal for promoting your website newsletter, selling ads through third-party websites, or promoting affiliate products. It also supports custom shortcodes.

Magazine themes are very popular, so the best way to start one is by choosing a premium theme. But if you’re looking for a free theme, then Newspaper-X is perfect for you. This multi-purpose theme has a clean design that’s suitable for a variety of magazine-style websites. It is also responsive, so it will fit any screen size.

Essence Pro – A multipurpose WordPress theme

Designed for online stores and magazine websites, Essence Pro is highly customizable. It offers many features, including multiple layout options, customizable colors, and easy-to-use controls and text fields. It’s great for promoting products or services, or displaying featured work on the homepage. With over 20 different color schemes to choose from, this theme has something for every type of website. Read on to learn more about this multipurpose WordPress theme.

Essence Pro is a Genesis framework-based WordPress theme that focuses on simplicity and ease of use. The demo of the theme demonstrates the installation and customization process. This multipurpose theme features a custom header for health and wellness-themed sites. Users will appreciate the clean, minimalist design and many features. It’s easy to customize using the WordPress customizer. The Essence Pro theme is perfect for online stores, but you may also want to consider other WordPress themes if you’re in the health and wellness niche.

The Essence Pro theme has many SEO-friendly features. Each page has one h1 element, which helps search engines rank your pages higher. You can also add a custom logo using the theme’s theme customizer, which will allow you to preview changes in real-time. The theme is also compatible with WooCommerce. The Genesis Pro theme framework supports multiple languages. It is mobile-responsive and offers advanced theme customization.

Uncode – A multipurpose WordPress theme

If you’re looking for a multipurpose WordPress theme that’s pixel perfect, you’ll want to check out Uncode. This creative theme offers 30 premade concepts for you to import with a single click, or you can create your own. This theme is flexible and easy to handle, with a large library of elements to help you build the perfect site. Here’s how Uncode differs from other WordPress themes.

For starters, you’ll be happy to learn that the Uncode theme is compatible with 8 other WordPress plugins. These plugins include oEmbed, a WordPress feature that lets you paste a YouTube URL and have it appear in the media list. There are several demo sites included with Uncode, but they’re not required to be installed. To make use of all the features of the theme, you’ll need to increase your site’s memory to accommodate all the options.

Another great feature of Uncode is the import demo. This allows you to create an exact replica of a demo site without having to build it from scratch. The Import demo feature lets you import page, portfolio, and article templates from the Uncode demo site. You can also import the theme’s options and widgets. The import process is fast, with almost no latency. Moreover, you can import all demo content and customize it.

Avada – A SEO-friendly WordPress theme

Avada is built with SEO best practices in mind, ensuring your site ranks highly in search engine results pages (SERPs). It is compatible with Yoast SEO and All in One SEO plugins, which can help boost your website’s SEO performance. Avada has dynamic content, which allows your users to view opening content on any page, search, and breadcrumbs. These features improve usability and link to relevant content on your site.

Avada is a powerful SEO-friendly WordPress theme with several design elements that help improve your site’s rankings. It also allows you to customize its layout, adding features such as custom menus and footer designs. The theme comes with six and a half months of support and is available for purchase for less than $70. While some themes require a monthly fee, Avada includes free lifetime updates and is compatible with some of the best plugins for WordPress SEO.

Avada is suitable for all types of websites. It is versatile enough for a one-page website, corporate business website, online eCommerce enterprise, hosting company site, or blog. It has many customizable features and comes with 6 months of support from ThemeFusion. It is also available on the ThemeForest marketplace. Avada is the most popular SEO-friendly WordPress theme in the market, and it is a popular choice among professional website designers.

Illdy – A multipurpose WordPress theme

Illdy is a remarkably versatile multipurpose WordPress theme built on Bootstrap, which makes it mobile-friendly and fully responsive. Its design makes it suitable for business websites, portfolios, and landing pages. Its powerful tools let you customize your website in the live preview mode. You can even create different sections to meet your specific needs. You can also create different layouts for your site.

Meridian One Plus is a fast, customizable, and SEO-friendly theme that includes WooCommerce support. You can also build a one-page site with Illdy, a free multipurpose theme. Parallax is a premium single-page theme that works great for images and clean text. It also has a slider and can be used as a single-page theme.

Illdy is a highly customizable multipurpose WordPress theme that is suitable for businesses, portfolios, and blogs. Its features are easy to customize and you can see changes to your website as you edit them. You can even import the demo content to make changes on the live preview. The developers will help you with any problem you may encounter during installation and setup. You can build a top-notch website in minutes by using this theme.

A good SEO strategy is vital if you want your blog to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more organic traffic to your site. Keyword research is one of the most essential activities of any successful SEO campaign.

When done correctly, it can help rank your blog pages for more keywords and attract more traffic to your site. It’s simple; if you want your blog to rank higher on the search engine index, you’ll have way more luck if you’ve done some quality research into which keywords to build your content around.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is a highly important aspect of search engine optimization that involves identifying popular keywords and phrases that users enter into search engines. What words or phrases are people searching for, and what demand exists for more content related to these keywords.

With this information, you can then best identify how to structure your content around these topics to attract more traffic to your blog or website. If you want the most significant return possible when performing keyword research, keep in mind what your potential viewers or customers are looking for. The searcher is searching for a reason. They have a need. Can your blog or website fulfill that need?

What is Search Intent?

When it comes to researching and identifying which keywords to create your content around, it may at first seem obvious to base your chosen phrases on the searches with the highest volume. While search volume is an essential factor in keyword research, it isn’t always reliable in providing an accurate keyword profile around which to structure your blog’s content.

Search volume on specific keywords can be misleading at times when it comes to traffic potential to your site. (Install the Chrome extension Keywords Everywhere for a quick way to see search volume of any term on major search engines, Amazon and many more).

A high search volume for a particular word or phrase may not result in a lot of click-throughs on the SERPs (search engine results pages). This is especially true for topics where the SERP provides an answer box and offers the searcher the information they were looking for, thus eliminating the need to click through to one of the indexed web pages.

To find a better metric to base your keyword research around, you should ask yourself a question: What are searchers looking for when they’re entering these key phrases? What is the search intent of the user who’s googling information about the topic you’ve chosen?

Although search intent isn’t always obvious, if you learn to look for it you’ll be able to understand better how you can build your content to fit the needs of your potential viewers. This can significantly impact the results of your research and drastically increase possible conversions and traffic to your blog.

Categories of Search Intent

There are four main types of queries into which the intent of almost any searched query can be categorized. These four categories are informational intent, navigational intent, commercial intent, and transactional intent.

It’s generally not very difficult to identify search intent of any key phrase that you select. Some searches are more stringent than others, however, when it comes to identifying intent.

Informational Intent

A huge chunk of internet searches are performed by people looking for information. In this category, the searcher has either a specific question that they would like answered or they need more information about a particular topic. Queries in this category generally include question words like who, what, when, where, why, and how. This is the most popular form of search intent.

Navigational Intent

Searchers with navigational intent are usually looking to be directed to a specific website. Navigational searches can generally be identified by the inclusion of a brand name in the query. A person who searches for Facebook likely wants to go to the Facebook website.

Ranking high on a navigational term is only beneficial to the organic traffic of your site if it’s the site that the searcher is looking for. If the content of your blog is centered around news or ideas about Twitter, then you could potentially rank highly in searches for “Twitter.” However, this likely won’t draw a lot of traffic to your site, as people who search for the word “Twitter” are probably just wanting to be directed to the Twitter site.

Commercial Intent

If a searcher is looking for information on a product, or if he or she is looking to compare two or more products, then the search intent is a financial investigation. The person may be looking for reviews on products or services on Yelp, Amazon, or some comparison site to decide how to spend their money best.

They are generally looking for unbiased reviews of the products they’re interested in. Some of the words that help to identify these types of searches are, “best” and “vs.,” or any specific attributes of one or more products that they are looking to purchase potentially.

Transactional Intent

Whenever a person performs a search to purchase or download goods or services, they have transactional intent. Transactional intent can generally be identified with queries including, “buy,” “download,” ”sale,” or “near me.”

Long-Tail Keywords

Targeting specific long-tail topics is a wonderful way to gather traffic to your blog or website and to boost your ranking on the search engine index. A long-tail keyword is a particular phrase made up of keywords that have a lower search volume than general broad stroke keywords.

When structuring your content around key phrases, the broader the keyword, the higher your competition will be for ranking highly for that specific word. Choosing highly specific phrases to represent your content puts you at a lower rate of competition and a higher rate of user conversion for users who are looking for someone to serve their search intent.

If your blog can serve the searchers, long-tail keywords are an excellent way to let them know your site exists.

Keyword Research: Step-by-step

Step 1 – Check Search Volume and Traffic Potential

To optimally perform keyword research your best bet, in addition to manually researching on-page and taking full advantage of Google’s SEO services, is to use one of the many quality SEO keyword research tools available online. Each of the different available tools has its pros and cons, but each offers more information than you would be able to find manually.

A few examples of quality SEO research tools are Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMRush. It’s best to find the one that suits your blog’s specific needs.
Using the SEO tool of your choice, look up your chosen long-tail topic. Check its search volume and how many clicks it receives.

Pay special attention to the traffic potential of your topic, as well, to better assist your chances of ranking for your selected keywords. These numbers should give you a good idea of your chances of ranking.

Step 2 – Spy on Your Competitors

If you want to boost your rankings for your chosen keywords, it’s best to learn from the best. Take a look at the pages of your top competitors that generate the most traffic for the topic you’ve chosen. After all, if they rank highly, they must be doing something right.

It’s always a good idea to do some on-page research of the highest-ranking competitors in your chosen long-tail topic. From there, you’ll be able to identify which keywords can offer your site the most traffic potential.

Step 3 – Identify the Search Intent

Using Google, perform a search for the long-tail phrase you’ve chosen and analyze the top results. Try and figure out the search intent. Do the people searching for your keywords want information? Are they looking to purchase a good or service?

After you’ve identified the search intent, ask yourself if your blog or website can fulfill that intent. If the searcher is looking for info on your topic, can your blog provide the necessary information? Whenever possible, you can begin assessing your ranking difficulty. If you can’t, then it’s time to move on to another keyword.

Step 4 – Assess your Ranking Difficulty Manually

While the popular online SEO tools usually provide an average ranking difficulty score for selected keywords, it’s a good idea to manually assess your ranking difficulty by investigating the top-ranking pages of your chosen topic. Evaluate the quantity and quality of their links.

To rank higher, your site will need to have a better link profile than your competitors. You also want your blog to rank highly with at least as many keywords as your highest competitors to maximize potential traffic gains. Your content may be more valuable than theirs, but will you be able to outrank the competition?

Step 5 – Content Gap Analysis

Gaps in content are detrimental to the success of your blog in the search engine rankings. If your competitors are offering more than you are, then you won’t rank as highly in searches for your chosen keywords.

To do a content gap analysis, perform an on-page investigation of the top results for your chosen long-tail phrase, and identify any content gaps that you may have. See which common keywords these top sites rank for and what your content could be lacking.

Adding these additional related long-tail keywords into your content will significantly increase your chances of ranking and future potential site traffic.

Step 6 – Structure your Content Around These Keywords

Build your site’s content based around the new long-tail keywords you discovered during your content gap analysis. The goal is to outline your content around these words in a way that Google will recognize as able to fulfill search intent.

If your content can serve the intent of the searcher and possesses enough related long-tail keywords, you’ll rank higher in the index and receive more potential traffic. Content is the crucial aspect of success in the search engine rankings. If you use these key phrases to frame your blog’s content, search engines will take notice.

Step 7 – Build Those Links

Now that you’ve researched your keywords and created your content, it’s time to create a link profile. Building quality links to your content will significantly help to boost organic traffic to your site. If your competitors have a better link profile than you then you may not rank as highly, even if your content is just as good or better.

Use the information you gained in step 4 to assess how many links the top competing sites have and what the quality of those links are and build a superior link profile. You’ll need at least as many quality links as they have to rank higher on the SERPs.

Repeat the Process

After completing steps one through seven, you should now have some quality content based on your long-tail keyword research. Now it’s time to choose the next long-tail topic and repeat the process. The work of an SEO-savvy blogger never ends.

Wrapping Things Up

To conclude, search engine optimization is an extremely important factor in the success of your blog or website. If you don’t rank highly on the search engine index, you’ll never get noticed.

Keyword research is one of the most significant aspects of SEO for bloggers, business owners, and anyone who wants their website to succeed. Performing keyword research correctly and using researched long-tail phrases to structure your blog’s content is a great way to boost your ranking.

What Google and other search engines look for, and thus the key to proper keyword research, is always to keep the intent of the searcher in mind. Always ask yourself what the searcher is looking for, if your blog can fulfill that need, and how you can optimally structure your content to serve that user’s intent best.

As you take these options into account, weigh the pros and cons. Keep in mind that you will want to utilize a platform that is user friendly. You also want flexibility for design and theme updates. Additionally, the inclusion of features and plugins is ideal as you watch your audience and traffic grow.

Five of the most popular blogging platforms can be found below.

Our Pick: WordPress

WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform, and for good reason—it’s also the best. In fact, since its creation in 2005, it has evolved into a complete online content management system (CMS) that powers a whopping 28 percent of the internet. This includes the websites of an impressive list of global brands. Think UPS, CNN, eBay, LinkedIn and the New York Times, among others.

WordPress is free, open-source software that allows you to create your own blog, website or app. This is done using thousands of attractive, infinitely customizable themes. As your blog grows, you’ll have access to more than 45,000 free plug-ins for incorporating additional features. These features include forums, members-only content, online stores and more.

WordPress also offers powerful security, responsive mobile sites and SEO capability. WordPress also has easy-to-use mobile tools for managing your content on the go. The company’s “Happiness Engineers” are available 24/7 with customer service and tech support. Also, the site’s colorful charts and graphs make it easy to track your activity statistics.

The software itself is free, but you will need to pay for your domain name (around $15 a year) and WordPress-compatible hosting service. Hosting typically runs from $4 to $15 per month, unless you plan to self-host. We discuss blog hosting options in greater depth in our article X.

Blogger

Blogger is a free blog hosting service operated by tech giant Google, which acquired the platform in 2003. Like WordPress, Blogger offers hundreds of design templates that you can customize to reflect your personal style. It’s extremely easy to use, which makes it a popular choice for first-time bloggers. However, Blogger offers less flexibility than WordPress. Therefore, many of those beginning users end up switching to WordPress later.

Since Blogger is owned by Google, it includes access to features like AdSense (which allows you to monetize your blog through ads), Google Analytics and cloud storage. However, Blogger doesn’t allow self-hosting, which means you’ll have to rely on Google’s current offerings (which can change suddenly).

There are restrictions on the tools and features included in the software. These tools are modest compared to the vast number of plug-ins and add-on features available through WordPress.

Google also hasn’t shown much willingness to invest in Blogger, with infrequent updates to its software and customer support limited mainly to an online knowledge base and user forums.

Joomla!

Joomla! is another open-source content management system similar to WordPress. The software is powerful and flexible. However, it also requires users to have a higher skill level than its previously mentioned peers. Hundreds of design templates and feature-expanding extensions are available. These are somewhat limited due to the relatively small number of Joomla users compared to the sizable WordPress and Blogger communities.

It’s also a self-hosted platform, meaning you will need to secure a separate domain name and hosting service. You’ll also need to manage your own updates, backups, security and tech support.

Medium

For bloggers primarily concerned with finding an online outlet for publishing their writing, Medium is a relatively new and attractive option. Founded in 2012, the site is a growing community of journalists, writers, and thought leaders that offers new bloggers an established audience for their work. Getting started is easy, with no coding skills or setup required. However, its design and other features are extremely limited, and it doesn’t allow users to run ads.

Ghost

Like Medium, Ghost is an open-source digital publishing platform geared toward journalists and other professional writers. Founded in 2013, Ghost supports the full spectrum of online media, from beginning bloggers to teams of writers and editors at established publications.

Ghost is available in a self-hosted version (for which you’ll need a custom domain name and web host) as well as a version hosted by the company. Its intuitive user interface and sleek, simple design allow users to focus on quality writing, but that also means options for customization and adding features are limited.

Getting Started: The What and Why of Blogging

Your first step is determining what the subject of your blog will be. It could be a broad topic, like politics, fitness or parenting, or something very specific, like raising hedgehogs or creating gluten-free recipes. Blogs may be geared toward instruction (like do-it-yourself home improvement projects), sharing your experience (for example, a travel or workout blog), entertainment (posting short stories or comic writing) or a call to action (frequently used for business-related blogs). Whatever you choose, make sure it’s something you’re passionate about, or you may run out of inspiration after a few months.

You should also consider your goals for starting a blog. Are you blogging to build an online community of people with similar interests? Is a blog your first step toward becoming a published author? Do you aspire to make money from your blog? These factors will play an important role in your approach to blogging.

Once you’ve decided on your subject and goals, do your research. Look at other blogs in your chosen category and review their style and tone. How frequently do they post new content? How does the author engage readers in the comments section? Do they include ads or sponsored posts? What about their design and writing appeals to you, and what might you do differently? You don’t want to create a carbon copy of other successful blogs, but you can use them as guidelines to help shape your overall strategy.

Next, you’ll want to come up with a name for your blog. It may reflect something about you as the author, the subject of the blog, or a combination of both. It can be clever or straightforward; just make sure it’s both unique and memorable, so it’s easy for readers to find it and keep coming back.

How to Start a Blog Step One: Starting on Bluehost

The first step is to select a high-quality web hosting provider. We highly recommend to all our bloggers, regardless of aptitude and experience, to take advantage of the incredible ease of use and low price of Bluehost.

One of the main reasons we suggest Bluehost is its effective, quick, and painless WordPress installation. Users who sign up for a Bluehost web hosting account receive a bundled-together one-click installation for WordPress, our recommended CMS (content management system). A content management system is a fancy way to say a “blogging platform”.

Ready to get started? The first step is to go to Bluehost.com and click the big blue Get Started Now button right in the center of the screen.

Step Two: Selecting Your Bluehost Hosting Plan

The next step is to select your Bluehost hosting plan from the available options listed above. If you are a blogger who is just getting started or are looking for just one site, the Basic plan will meet your needs. If your budget allows, we highly suggest the Pro plan, though. The Bluehost Pro plan comes with the following:

• Free domain privacy: This hides your domain name registration information from the public eye. This not only protects against malicious intent but can also greatly minimize the amount of spam you receive after registering a new domain.
• Professional site backup: This feature backs up web hosting files, databases, folders, and emails. This allows you to utilize them if something goes awry with production files. Think of this as a solid backup plan.

Prices often change for introductory rates as well:

They also have additional plan add-ons such as security certificates (the https you see on many high-profile websites). However, if you are looking for a simple WordPress installation with Bluehost, then the Basic plan is right up your alley.

As your website experiences growth, you can make the decision on when to upgrade your plan. Luckily, upgrading to the next tier with Bluehost is a breeze as well!

Note: “Why Can’t I Just Use A Free Option?”

There are a few free blogging platforms available out there that you just need to hitch your domain name to. However, in our experience, we highly recommend not using them, and instead going with a paid, high-quality hosting platform. Why?

Blogger is a blogging service provided by Google. It is free, reliable much of the time, and works fine for publishing your content online. However, you don’t own it. Google runs this service and has the right to shut it down, or shut down your access to it at any time. Think Google+.

The same goes for any other free option over a hosting service. There has to be something in it for the service provider.

Step Three: Selecting a Domain Name

Once you have made a selection on a hosting plan through Bluehost, the next step is choosing a domain name to represent your blog and brand. This is done on the next page, which looks very much like this:

Next to the box for the name is a drop-down menu where you can choose your TLD. A TLD is called a top-level domain, and is the .[LETTERS] appended to the end of a URL. So .com, .net, .org, etc are all TLDs. We suggest .COM as a default, but using .net or .org doesn’t hurt at all.

Additionally, there may be a TLD that better fits your brand or your target geographic location. It’s important to determine what provides the most relevance to your own blog, and who you are expecting your blog visitors to be.

But I already have my domain name! This isn’t a problem. See the box on the right. You can enter it and follow Bluehost’s simple prompts to get your current domain ported over to their hosting platform, or migrated completely, quick as a flash.

Step Four: Creating A Bluehost Account

The next step of the process for getting your blog set up is to create your account on Bluehost’s platform. To do this, you should first fill out the complete details requested from Bluehost on the account creation form:

Once this is done, double-check the information for the selected package and the add-ons you may have chosen for your site.

Keep an eye out for any add-ons that may come pre-selected. If you are not looking for these extras, they are optional. Just make sure you uncheck the boxes!

Added features recommended by Bluehost are of high caliber, though. Maintaining strong SEO (search engine optimization) while building your framework and writing out posts can work wonders in growing your organic traffic.

The higher up your website appears in large search engines, the more visitors your website will attract who aren’t captured through alternative channels such as social media.

But the necessity of these add-ons is also driven by your own circumstances as a blogger. Is your end goal to sell off your blog? Have you ever set up a site before? What type of audience are you looking to connect with?

Determining your site’s target market will assist to figure out whether the extra services offered by Bluehost are necessary to bundle together. If your goal is to simply get a site set up on Bluehost and WordPress, the basics should get you where you need to go.

Just like upgrading your hosting package, with Bluehost, if you want to add additional features, this can always be done at a later time with zero hassle.

Step Five: Selecting a Content Platform

There are a ton of content management systems (or CMS’s) available for the publishing of your blog. It can be overwhelming to try and select one to meet your blogging needs. From Weebly to Wix, SquareSpace to WordPress, the options are endless. However, for the sake of simplicity, SEO value, and ease of use, we highly recommend WordPress.

WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform, and for good reason. Since its creation in 2005, it has evolved into a complete online CMS that powers over 30 percent of the internet. This includes the websites of an impressive list of global brands. Think UPS, CNN, eBay, LinkedIn and the New York Times, among others.

WordPress is free, open-source software that allows you to create your own blog, website or app. This is done using thousands of attractive, infinitely customizable themes. As your blog grows, you’ll have access to more than 45,000 free plug-ins for incorporating additional features. These features include forums, members-only content, online stores and more.

Why Not Others?

• Shopify is an amazing option for those looking for a stellar platform for e-commerce. However, while the excel at e-commerce and online store-related tasks, Shopify does not perform well at all for blogging.
• Weebly, Wix, SquareSpace and other “easy to use” drag-and-drop content management systems are wonderful for small businesses (dentist offices, hair salons, restaurants, etc) and those who want the easiest possible option on a static website. However, for SEO, customization, and blogging capabilities, none of them hold a candle to WordPress.
• Joomla and Drupal are similar to WordPress in how they work, but have nowhere near the customization and popularity of WordPress.

Just a Few Benefits of WordPress

• With WordPress, there is no need to learn any code. It works perfectly out of the box, and with the range of plugins, themes, and other customizations, it is a breeze to navigate.
• All websites require maintenance and updates for security reasons. Luckily, WordPress has automated update availability, so you don’t leave your site open to security vulnerabilities.
• While other companies have a direct support team, finding answers is not easy. Sometimes you have to write an email, or pore through the knowledge base. WordPress, however, has endless support options. As it’s an open-source project, tons of users are working on WordPress, its themes and its plugins.
• Squarespace doesn’t have plugins at all. Wix provides a limited selection of plugins. Joomla and Drupal offer extensions, but they aren’t considered mainstream. WordPress plugins allow you to take a seemingly basic website and turn it into anything you want.
• Unlike Wix, Weebly and Squarespace, WordPress offers full control of your site and site files, without needing to pay a penny.

Setting Up WordPress with your Domain and Host

At this point, you are almost at the roof of your new website “house” building. You should now be ready to install WordPress. These instructions are straight from the Bluehost site itself:

We provide a program which makes it very easy to install third party scripts to your hosting account. If you want your website to have a WordPress blog, you can use Marketplace to install WordPress to the root of your site or to a subdirectory.

Installing WordPress with Marketplace

1. Log in to your Bluehost cPanel account.
2. Find the Website section and select Install WordPress.
3. Click the Install button.
4. Choose the domain name to install it to. In the field next to the domain, you can enter a subfolder such as ‘blog’ or leave it blank if you want the site’s main page to be the blog.
5. If necessary, you can edit the email address, username, and password for the new WordPress installation. Click “advanced options” and you can change those settings.
6. Read through the license and service agreements and check the boxes.
7. Select the Install Now button.

Step Six: Setting Up WordPress After Installation

Now you’re ready to get to the bones of the operation. At this point, you have your hosting account, you have your domain, and you have installed WordPress. Now it’s time to take care of the final steps before customization begins: setup.

Installing WordPress with Bluehost is a snap due to its one-click setup option. Please note that installing WordPress doesn’t mean your website is automatically live. Instead, you will see a standard “Coming Soon” or “Under Construction” page.

You will still need to perform some basic setup to your WordPress site before it can be launched through the Bluehost platform. To do so, start in your control panel, and select My Sites from the control panel to the left.

From this point, you should log into your existing WordPress installation on the domain provided to Bluehost or purchased on their platform. Alternatively, you choose “Create Site” to build a brand new site through WordPress.

If you did not select a specific theme in the Bluehost setup process, a theme will have been pre-selected for you. No need to worry, this can be changed at any time straight through WordPress.

Follow the steps in the prompts and enter all necessary information to properly launch your new WordPress website. Some of the selections at this point include whether you would like to have a Contact page built (we suggest this) and if you’d like a rolling or a static “news welcome” page.

Additionally, you will have the opportunity to integrate WooCommerce into your WordPress site. This is beneficial if you plan to sell any products on your site at any point.

If you do not have an account through WordPress.com at this stage, you are then prompted to create one. Signing up through WordPress.com is completely free, and provides you with additional functionality. This also allows you to utilize the plugin Jetpack, which is on our list of the 10 Best WordPress Plugins to Supercharge Your Blog in 2018.

Then, hit Launch and it’s time to get to personalizing!

Step Seven: Establishing Your Theme and Format

Once you have WordPress up and running, next comes the fun part. You must choose a theme for your blog’s design and format.

When you first install WordPress, your blog will reflect the platform’s basic default theme. However, you’ll want to update your theme to fit the style and tone of your content. Your first order of business will be deciding if you want to use a free theme or pay for a premium theme.

Are you starting a blog for business reasons? If so, the polished look and extra features make a premium theme the way to go. This includes supporting your company, growing your client base or working toward a product launch. Are your blog is geared more toward personal interests or experiences? If so, a free theme is probably sufficient to meet your needs. Before you decide, weigh the following factors:

• Cost – premium themes won’t break the bank, but they could set you back by $100 or more.
• Security – some free themes contain malicious coding that could compromise your information or cause technical difficulties.
• Support – premium themes are likely to come with more responsive customer support, while support for free themes is typically limited to user forums.

As you’re selecting a theme, you’ll want to make sure it meets a few important criteria.

Criteria for theme selection

First, it must be mobile-responsive. A significant portion of your audience will be accessing your content using a smartphone, tablet or other mobile device. If your formatting doesn’t transfer, chances are they’ll get frustrated and stop reading. Google also dings sites that aren’t mobile-friendly in its algorithms. Making sure your blog is responsive will help ensure the best possible ranking for your content. Most WordPress themes are mobile-responsive, but you can also check a theme against Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test.

You’ll also want to choose a theme that’s compatible with any plug-ins you might want to incorporate to add functionality to your site, which commonly includes tools for SEO, caching, security and content backups. Most popular themes will be widely compatible with plug-ins, but check with the developer if you’re unsure.

Finally, keep it simple. While you can find themes with a wide range of color, design and even animation options, remember that less is more. A clean, uncluttered design and plenty of white space will make your site easy to read and more visually appealing. This is in comparison to a page crammed with graphic elements and font changes. Ensure site navigation is well-organized and intuitive. This is so visitors can easily find what they’re looking for.

Free versus premium themes

If you plan on using a free theme, you’ll want to try to stick with the options in the WordPress directory, which have typically been vetted for malware and other issues. To update your theme, go to your WordPress dashboard. Then, mouse over “Appearance” in the sidebar and click “Themes”. Click on “Add New” and search for a theme using the theme name or the feature filter. This filter locates themes based on tags or specific design elements. Once you find the theme you want to use, click “Install” and then “Activate.”

If you’re interested in using top premium themes, popular sources include Studiopress, Nudge Themes, and Theme Weaver; WordPress also has an extensive listing of third-party theme developers on its website.

To install a premium theme, download the file onto your computer’s hard drive. Go to your WordPress dashboard, hover over “Appearance” and click “Themes.” Select “Add New” at the top of the page and click “Upload Theme.” Select “Choose File” and locate the downloaded theme file on your computer. Click “Install Now” and “Activate.”

Step Eight: Writing Compelling Articles

Now that you’ve got your blog looking great, it’s time to turn your attention to the reason you decided to start blogging in the first place. Time to start creating compelling content to share with your online audience.

A headline determines readers’ first impression of your post and is often the deciding factor in whether they keep reading. As such, crafting a strong, attention-grabbing title is critical. When developing your headline, try to make it unique, specific, urgent and useful. If possible, convey to readers the value they’ll receive from reading your article, and keep your message clear and concise. As David Ogilvy, the “father of advertising,” once said, “Never use tricky or irrelevant headlines. People read too fast to figure out what you are trying to say.”

Once you’ve drawn in your readers with an effective headline, hook them with an intriguing introduction. Your first several paragraphs should communicate to readers what they can expect from the rest of the post and make them want to keep reading.

Creating compelling introductions

A quality introduction includes three components:

• The hook, usually in the form of an interesting fact or question. For example, “Did you know that only one percent of adults in the United States have completed a full marathon?”
• The transition, which may include a brief personal example or story involving a famous person. In this case, it may involve the author describing his disastrous first attempt at running a marathon
• The thesis, a single-sentence summary of what the rest of the post will be about. In this example, the writer may describe the training plan he used to successfully complete a marathon.

Enhancing readability

Make your post easy to read by using short paragraphs and sentences, since readers may be turned off if they see long walls of text with no breaks. You can also use subheadings to break up your post and help summarize main ideas for readers. Once you’ve got a near-final draft ready, use Grammarly to check for typos and grammatical errors.

It’s also a good idea to run your post through a readability site to give you a sense of the level of education your audience would need to read through your text with minimal effort; if your content is too dense, it may be a turn-off to readers. The Yoast SEO plug-in will also analyze readability as well as optimize your text for web searches.

Finally, end your post with a call to action. Provide a suggestion for the next steps readers can take with the information you’ve shared with them. If your blog is business-oriented, you may ask them to try a product or service or schedule a consultation.

You’ll also want to include a few questions for readers to answer in the comments section. This encourages audience engagement and builds a sense of community on your blog. And always be sure to ask readers to share your post if they found it interesting or helpful. Additionally, include social media and email widgets that make it easy for them to do so.

Step Nine: Growing Your Audience

Have you established your blog and gotten a few posts under your belt? Now it’s time to think about ways to connect with new and existing readers and boost your organic traffic. The following tips can help you expand your reach and build a thriving online community around your site.

Tips to grow blog audiences

Stay in your lane

Too many bloggers try to be all things to all people. This results in posts that feel generic or insincere—both of which are major turn-offs for readers. Instead of chasing trends, focus on familiar topics that matter to you. Your passion will be contagious.

Establish a regular posting schedule and stick to it

Readers are looking for fresh, compelling content. If they click on your site for a few days and don’t see anything new, they may stop coming back. Decide how often you want to post new content. Perhaps daily, or maybe on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Be consistent with that schedule. If readers know when to expect a new post, they’re more likely to show up for it.

Connect with influencers in your niche

After you determine your focus area, seek out blogs with similar content. This helps you to learn what kind of posts have the greatest impact and brainstorm ideas for future posts. Well-crafted comments (that include a link to your blog) on other bloggers’ posts can draw in fellow commenters and build relationships with your peers. You may also want to create a post that incorporates links to relevant content from similar blogs. Then, ask those bloggers to share your post on their blogs and social media sites.

Leverage social media to reach a wider audience

It’s not enough to just drop a link to your post on social media; you’ll need to think strategically about when and where to promote your content. Familiarize yourself with your audience and use social media management tools like HootSuite to schedule your social posts at times when they’re most likely to be seen—and shared—by potential readers.

Do your (keyword) research

Search engine traffic is one of the most important avenues for bringing readers to your blog. For this reason, you’ll want to make sure your posts are optimized for online searches. Even if you don’t have SEO experience, you can still improve your content. Some of the best ways include identifying and incorporating the most popular keywords being used to find your blog and others like it. The Google keyword tool is a popular option, but other SEO optimization tools are also available.

Wrapping Up

Starting your own blog is an inexpensive and rewarding way to accomplish a wide range of personal and professional goals. This includes things such as:

• Growing an existing business
• Establishing a writing career
• Connecting with people with common interests
• Making some extra money on the side through ads or sponsorships

In this article, we’ve given you all the information you need for a successful launch; now it’s time for you to take that inspiration and get blogging.

Check out more articles here on Blogger Tips to take your blogging to the next level.

While you appreciate their fandom you also want to reach more people – we get it, blogging is a lifestyle and why blog if you have no one to share it with? Not to mention you can build a valuable asset through your blog. If you are a serious blogger, you need to learn two of the most vital words for your business – email marketing.

Not only will email marketing grow your blog, but it will also help monetize it and promote loyalty. The perfect place to start your venture into email marketing is through the use of ConvertKit. This guide will introduce you to ConvertKit and get you started setting up your new account. If blogging is the future, ConvertKit is your DeLorean.

What is ConvertKit?

ConvertKit is an email application that is specifically designed for bloggers. It does fancy things like:

• Collect your email addresses
• Send out newsletters
• Allow you to automate a big chunk of your email marketing
• Build free landing pages
• Create sales funnels and plenty more!

The only thing you need to do to get started is create an account. New members are offered a free trial period to explore the software and see if it’s going to fit your needs.

We at BloggerTips are predicting that it will be your new best friend. However, it’s ultimately up to you to decide. ConvertKit is not the only email marketing software out there but we have found it to be straightforward to use and beyond helpful when trying to organize and promote your blog. Here are the seven steps to ConvertKit success.

Step One: Setting Up Your Account

Getting started with ConvertKit is very easy. All you have to do is create an account and get it approved! As we mentioned before, an excellent feature about starting with ConvertKit is that you get a 14-day free trial to see if it is for you.

The first question you will be asked is if you are migrating from another provider or are you brand new. Let’s go ahead and assume you are starting fresh, and haven’t used another provider before. Let’s assume you’re new to email marketing.

So, go ahead and click ‘I’m brand new.’ Even if you have used another provider and accidentally click that you are new, you can always import your existing subscribers later.

Walking through the setup

After you click your option, you will be prompted through a series of login instructions that you will need to follow until you have login information. Once you are finished, you will see ‘Welcome to your account!’ on the screen.

Next, you will need to put in some general information to set up your account. If you look to the top right-hand corner you will see a circle. Go ahead and click it and choose account settings. You should be prompted to a screen where you will see the following sections:

• Account Info
• Your Profile
• Email Settings
• Billing

Click through those tabs and fill out any required information needed for your account. If you elect to use the 14-day free trial period you can save the Billing section for later. This can happen after you decide if you want to move forward with ConvertKit.

Finishing the setup process

In the Email Settings, you should see that your status is ‘pending.’ You must confirm your email address before you can start using the features of ConvertKit. Check your email for a confirmation email with instructions on how to confirm. If you don’t have a confirmation email in your inbox you can click the ‘resend email’ option. We have all been there.

You will also be required to input your physical mailing address. It is required that the mailing address is real. This will appear at the bottom of each email you send.

A quick tip if you don’t want to use your home address is to get a PO Box. Many companies offer free PO boxes, only charging when you receive mail. This includes the US Postal Service and UPS. Now you should be all set up and are ready to create your first form!

Step Two: Creating a Form in ConvertKit

A form is a way to collect your visitor’s contact information so that you can send them emails later. You should see the forms tab in the top left-hand corner. Once you click on it, you will see a create forms button that you will also need to click on.

Now, you will use this same process each time you will create a new form. You will see the option to create a form or a landing page. Make sure you pick form and then choose inline. ConvertKit gives you three different design styles to choose from.

Once you choose your style, you can start designing it the way you want it to look. You can preview your design at any time to see what your form will look like. A fan favorite feature of ConvertKit is that some themes have a style override. These will match your theme settings without having to do it manually. This will ultimately save you time and make it easier to design your forms.

Finishing up your form

When you are happy with how your form looks you need to click save and then click the gear icon to choose what happens when a visitor wants to sign up. The default is that they get sent a generic success message, but you can change it to whatever you would like.

Next, you need to click the email icon so you can set up your incentive email. This is important to pay attention to because the default is to auto-confirm all subscribers, but a problem with this is that any email address that is entered will be confirmed.

This could lead to spam emails for you which is not only annoying but also counterproductive. You want to make sure to set up your incentive email.

Once you do that you can go ahead and edit the email form to say what you want. When you have it set up, you can go back to the email settings and choose what happens when someone clicks subscribe. Your two options will be to send them to a URL, or it can automatically download your free opt-in if you have one.

The final step in this section is to grab the code to embed your new form into your website. Look to the top right and select embed. You can choose from Javascript or HTML and paste them into your text editor.

If you have WordPress, you can download the free plugin and paste into your text editor. You can also elect to share the form via social media using a link. Now you have a form to start collecting subscribers! The next step is to send them something.

Step Three: Creating a Broadcast

A Broadcast in ConvertKit is any one-off email – an example of this would be a newsletter. The counterpart to a Broadcast is a Sequence, which is a sequence of emails – an example of this would be your welcome series.

To create a Broadcast, you will need to go to the broadcasts section at the top of the screen and click new broadcast. Now you are ready to go through the three-step process: Recipients, Content, and Preview.

Recipients

So for your first Broadcast, we can skip this section because it will be more beneficial for you to become acquainted with the next steps of creating a Broadcast first. Later on, when you understand what it is exactly you want to send out to your subscribers, you can revisit this section.

Basically, in the Recipients portion, you will be able to select precisely who gets sent your Broadcast. To create a newsletter, let’s assume you want everyone on your subscribers’ list to receive it so we will leave the Recipients page alone for the time being.

Content

Your screen should now look like a regular email with an Email Subject line and Email Content section. This is pretty straight forward in that you fill it out like you would a typical email and can style it however you want. Once you put all your content in the body of the email, you can select the option to preview what it will look like when you send it to your subscribers.

Just click the preview button on the right-hand side, and a browser will pop up with a preview of your email. Once you are completely satisfied, you can move on the next step.

Preview

As described in the above step, you will have the option to preview your email before sending it out to your subscribers. When you have your final product, you will have options on how you want to send it.

You can elect to send the email immediately or schedule a specific time to send it in the future. If you’re going to save the email for later so you can continue working on it, you can keep it as a draft and come back later.

Step Four: Creating a Sequence

Now that you have a basic understanding of how to create a Broadcast, you can learn how to create a Sequence. It is incredibly easy to do, and it is a great tool to use when welcoming new subscribers to your email list. You can create a Sequence for anything but a welcome email is a great place to start.

First, you will need to click on sequence from the top banner menu and select to create sequence. You will see a screen very similar to the Broadcast screen. At this time you will name your Sequence and then click create sequence.

In this next step, you will follow the same protocol for creating a Broadcast and write your email in the same way. The difference here is that since it is a welcome email, you will want to change the when to send to immediately – that way your subscribers will receive it as soon as they sign up. When you have finished, set your status to published. It won’t go anywhere though because it is designed to send when your subscribers sign up, not when you tell it to go.

If you wish to add more emails to your Sequence click add email for each one. For choosing the when to send, you will want to select 1 day so that each email will send one day after the previous email. You can send it at any rate you wish, make sure you specify.

Once all your emails are ready to go, make sure they are set to published and that you save your Sequence. Now you’re ready to move on to creating a simple automation rule for your Sequence!

Step Five: Creating an Automation

You will create automation by using the visual automation editor in ConvertKit. This will allow you to set specific visual rules and pathways to determine precisely who gets an email and at what time.

To start, you will want to click on automations in the banner window and then click new automation on the right-hand side. You will then name your automation and click create automation.

Then you will click to add event and then click on the plus sign. Next, choose ‘add a subscriber to… email sequence’ and select the sequence you wish to send. Once selected you will click add action. Look in the top right-hand corner and change paused to live. Now your email sequence has been sent to all the selected subscribers.

Step Six: Excluding Subscribers

If you want to exclude subscribers from an email sequence, the process is straightforward. Click create a tag on the right and name your tag. A screen will pop up with small checkboxes by each subscriber’s name. Select all the subscribers on the page and select bulk actions => tag and choose the tag you just made. This tags all of your existing subscribers.

Go back to sequences and choose the welcome sequence you just created. Click on settings and choose ‘Exclude subscribers from this sequence.’ Click on tags and again select the tag you just made.

What happens now is that your existing subscribers are excluded from the sequence you selected. To finish the process, you will need to return to the automations and change paused to live. Now your welcome sequence will only go to new subscribers, not existing.

Step Seven: Creating a Rule

By creating a rule, you will be able to track who gets what when you send out an email. You will first go to automations, and select rules then click on add rule. Next, choose trigger – this is where you will select a trigger for when an action is completed.

Choose action and create a tag associated with the trigger. Now when a subscriber receives something, the rule will notify the system which will then tag a subscriber based on what they have received.

Congratulations! You have now successfully finished the ConvertKit tutorial. Additionally, you have learned how to create a form, broadcast, sequence, automations, and rules. You also know how to exclude subscribers if they have already received a particular email. Now you are ready to start your free trial with ConvertKit and reach blogging stardom. Get ready for lots of subscribers with all your new email marketing tricks!

So how does one manage to make their content stand out?  In a landscape awash with similarity, what draws one’s eye to one website over another?  A good theme can take your content to the next level and get you noticed.  Splashy themes, subdued themes, colorful or classy… whatever you are looking for can be found online.

Themes make it easier for you to design your website around what you want your visitors to see when they visit your page.  Your chosen theme will be the first impression they get about your site. It will cue them to the site’s atmosphere even before they begin to take in your content.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post may contain affiliate links. This is to help support our blog and does not have any impact on our recommendations.

View our updated Top WordPress Themes for 2022.

Finding the Best WordPress Themes in 2020

The best WordPress themes provide all of the basics such as page layout, content display options, and widget development.  They will also cover design, with appropriate colors, fonts, and style choices.  Your theme decision will depend on what you are looking for in a website.  If you want video, photographs, or any other media sources on your page, your theme must be well-tailored to fit your needs.

Another key feature the best WordPress themes for blogging provide is the instantaneous link to your other media platforms. A website can only reach as many people that see it, so linking to your other outlets is crucial.  If you are developing your business site, you’ll want to direct visitors to your LinkedIn profile.  Entertainment blog?  Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, it all matters.

As we approach the second quarter of 2020, now is an excellent time to consider a fresh face for your website. As the theme is the visual presentation of all your hard work, choosing the right theme for your content is critical.  With tens of thousands of themes available, how can you be sure you’ll find the best choice for your site?

Here are the ten best WordPress themes for blogging in 2020.

1. Divi

How many times have you wanted to move that widget a little to the left and when you did, it warped something else?  Like a butterfly effect, you add in a few pixels here and if makes everything off balance “over there”.  You know what you want your website to look like, except you’re a content creator, not a programmer.

The Divi Theme lets you design, change, and tweak your WordPress page in real-time.  You can edit the visuals directly from the viewport. Additionally, you will be able to see the changes you make as you make them.  This eliminates much of the trial and error of old.

Fonts, colors, size, shape, titles… everything is customizable in this real-time responsive theme.  Divi supports drag and drops organizing so you can make a change, see what it looks like, change your mind, or move on to the next tweak, all without time-consuming reload and refresh waits.

Divi is a great theme for your evolving ideas.

2. Rosemary

The Rosemary theme is a great choice for the blogger who doesn’t want their content to get mired down with a complicated-looking website.  The theme is bright and straightforward giving the reader a fresh slate to take in the blogger’s content.

Multiple layouts allow you to choose how you want each post to be viewed.  If the focus of this particular post is a spectacular photograph, choose a wider layout to showcase that image.  Have a bevy of pictures from that latest adventure?  Choose a gallery view for this post.  Rosemary lets you customize the layout according to your post.

The typography in Rosemary is elegant and clean.  A nice tight font that gives the writer ample room to convey the story without feeling bunched up and busy.  The subtle changes in the varying header fonts stay within the theme and allow the words to flow quite nicely.

Rosemary is a clean theme that focuses on your content.

3. Soledad

Soledad is another clean theme with a classy look.  It has a plethora of options available for image layout and feels like a natural fit for the photographer or visual storyteller.

The photo slider is a wonderful main function on this theme.  Soledad gives you forty built-in options to choose from.  Large central photo, triple split, cascaded… You will find what you are looking for in their slider directory.

And with the second and third column options, you can splash your front page with as many options as you desire.  Have more focused posts where you may want fewer options? If so, you can opt for the single column to draw the reader’s attention where you need it most.

With all these photo options available, your copy will not get lost among the art.  The clear and concise font will communicate your meaning without taking over the page.

Soledad is one the best personal photo blog themes available.

4. The Essence

Touted as a “feminine WordPress theme”, there is much more to The Essence theme than just a girly look.  In fact, I found the theme pleasing and well-designed regardless of gender affiliation.

The Essence appears to really thrive on the individual posts and articles.  Magazine-like, the puts your posts right up front and allows the reader to pick and choose what they want to read without having to root through what they don’t.  And along the way, one of your other posts may catch their attention and get them coming back.

Slider option with photograph leads, strong headlines, bylines and date published makes The Essence a great theme for a blog with constant updates.  When you have hundreds of posts in dozens of categories, it can be difficult to keep them organized.  The Essence does all of this for you and keeps it easily accessible to the reader.

For the busy blogger looking to keep their magazine fresh, The Essence is a great choice.

5. Writer

The name of this theme says it all. Writer is one of the best personal blog themes for writers.  The first impression keeps a strong focus on story and article.  It retains the personal aspects of blogging while delivering a professional outlet feel.  And with a simple 1-click installation, you won’t have to spend your time worrying about the theme and can get back to your writing.

Your content will get the punch it needs with bold layouts and captivating contrasts to grab your reader’s attention.  The intuitive flow from photograph, headline, and then a sample of the article will give your readers the chance to sample multiple posts without moving on to another page, give them time to explore your site, and to read your content.

Whether you are writing poetry, fiction, hard science, or news journalism, the Writer theme is going to present your text in an exposed and bold format that is easy for the reader to consume.

6. Newspaper

Don’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the Newspaper WordPress theme.  When you need options, Newspaper delivers.  Some bloggers are looking for a static theme, some are looking for a handful of options, but if you are looking for just the right options and a well-designed theme, look no further than Newspaper.

This theme has over 400 layouts to select from and allows you to create a dynamic website that engages your reader at first glance.  Newspaper lets you do as much or as little as you need in designing your website.  Each one of their highly customizable layouts are perfect to get started with, all you need to do is choose and make it yours.

Fast-paced and professional looking, Newspaper will give you that competitive edge you are looking for.  On par with local and national new sites, Newspaper will impress your readers and give your blog that professional news appearance.

7. Typology

Typology is best described as non-committal minimalist.  The beauty of the written word takes center stage with this theme with large accentuated titles and the flow of the content below.  This theme really focuses on the text and doesn’t distract the reader with flashy pictures.

However, just because it markets itself as “A beautiful blog with no images required”, Typology does have some wonderful image options for those times when a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Each of the three layouts are fully customizable and ready for you to post your content to reader’s ready environment.  Blog, calendar, and preview, each of these are available with images as well.

For a wordsmith looking to convey meaning through content, Typology is one of the best blogging themes available.  Clean and minimal, it grants the reader a calming frame in which to absorb the words and focus on the text at hand.

8. CheerUp

I see the CheerUp WordPress theme and I immediately get a glimpse into the author’s style.  Dazzling front page dynamics with lots of photos and options to click on, CheerUp is an excellent theme for the blogger looking to build up their brand.

Personal identification is key to standing out in the blog world. The blog that stands out from the others is recognized most. CheerUp’s theme draws attention and maintains focus on your brand and information.

Full of vibrant pictures and descriptions, you have a blog theme here that really brings your ideas to life. More than 200 layouts and five featured slider options, you can create your website to reflect the image you want your readers to see.

CheerUp offers a modern look and a genuine peek into the blogger’s identity. Customized headers and a full array of layouts makes this one of WordPress’ great themes for blogging.

9. Vlog

Are you thinking of venturing into the world of video blogging? If so, the Vlog theme is a great theme to get started with.  Why spend your time adapting your old theme to accommodate your videos when you can start 2020 off with a brand new face-lift to your website. This is all dedicated to showcasing your video blogs.

Let Vlog make it easy for you with automatic video importer from YouTube and Vimeo, easily embed videos from anywhere, and generally enjoy the ease with which Vlog handles the videos you post.  Design your site with some of the more than 200 layout and post options. Then, let Vlog take it from there.

Visiting your website and watching your content is a smoother experience for your viewer with Vlog. They can mark videos for later or even pop out the video and watch it in cinema mode, focusing on just you and your video.

Vlog is a great theme to begin video blogging and a great way to experience your content.

10. SEO WP

SEO WP is a monster WordPress theme. Utilizing this theme provides top-level designs that are built to push rankings higher in search engines. Backend coding optimization speeds up the theme, makes it far more efficient, and ensures traffic is moving.

The layouts are professional and can turn any of your online marketing or social media accounts into top-tier websites.  The click of a few buttons in the custom design manager and your content is transformed into an executive presentation ready for any boardroom or business venture.

SEO WP receives regular updates, access to premium plugins, and readily available customer support.  All of which will keep this theme up to date and ensure your website keeps performing at its best.  SEO WP is a must-have WordPress theme for the blogger looking to take their ideas to new heights.

Wrapping Up the Best WordPress Themes for Blogging in 2020

There are countless themes available for WordPress.  All of them make it better for you to properly display your content on your website.  Choosing the right theme depends largely on who you are, what your content is, and how you want that content portrayed to the viewer.

We have covered a wide variety of themes here.  Among this list, you will find the ten best WordPress themes for blogging in 2020.  Themes like SEO WP, Newspaper, and Divi are highly powerful. They are perfect for those that want to tweak their pages for high visibility design.  Others like Writer, Typology, and Rosemary are more subdued and gentle, less visually striking, and more focused on content.

Your tastes, personality and of course, the content itself will dictate your theme needs. In the wide range, we have covered on this list, you will find the theme that best fits your website.

Whether you’re a beginner or a novice website designer, plugins are punch-packing tools that make your website managing experience easy and efficient. Below you can find 10 wonderful and effective plugins you can use to help supercharge your website or blog.

1) Wordfence Security

With a 4.8-star rating and over two million installations, this antivirus plugin is well-known in the WordPress community. Wordfence Security is a firewall and malware scanner that can do many security checks on your site. From identifying and blocking malicious traffic, to enforcing strong passwords and other login security procedures, it is widely used to help protect your site and its content. Its malware scanner checks SEO spam, inspects themes and plugins for malware, and eradicates bad URLs, backdoors, and issues with core files.

Additionally, Wordfence alerts you of any potential security issues that come up. The Wordfence team uses Live Traffic to keep track of hack attempts and visits not included in other analytics packages, including their IP address, the time of day of the attempt, and their origin.

With a top-notch WordPress firewall, security scanner, and security tools, Wordfence Security is supported by many WordPress users. Over 3,000 people gave it a five-star rating on the official WordPress site. It’s easy to see why this is one of the best WordPress plugins around.

2) WooCommerce

Are you a merchant looking to sell products on your WordPress blog? Then look no further than WooCommerce. WooCommerce powers 30% of all online stores, more than any other e-commerce platform. This free and user-friendly plugin can truly do it all. Whether you’re a fitness trainer looking to sell online coaching services, an artist interested in selling physical paintings, or a band trying to sell downloadable files from your latest album, WooCommerce supplies you with the tools you need to do it effortlessly.

You can sell physical and digital products through WooCommerce. You can also sell variations in products, instant downloads, and affiliate items through online marketplaces. Users can also modify their shipping prices, and WooCommerce can help open a shop up to the world by calculating shipping costs and tax rules immediately. You can even offer multiple kinds of payment options such as credit cards, bank transfers, cash on delivery, and PayPal. This allows your customers many options when purchasing products.

WooCommerce has over 2,400 five-star ratings and over four million active installations. If you’re looking to sell products on your blog, and want the best WordPress plugins for your needs, your business can undoubtedly benefit from WooCommerce.

3) Jetpack by WordPress

This is one of the easiest plugin packages for beginner blogs to boost their blog’s performance. Jetpack by WordPress.com is a free plugin that includes many different resources you can utilize in your website or blog. Everything from design, marketing, and security can be managed and customized through Jetpack.

Are you interested in cleaning up your website and making it more appealing to the eye? Not a problem! Jetpack assists users with installing hundreds of professional themes, customization tools, and high-speed image and video content delivery networking.

On top of that, their marketing services such as site stats and analytics, advertising programs, and SEO tools are the perfect foundation to promoting your site, as well as making money off of it. And lastly, security services like daily backups of your site, spam filtering, and malware scanning help protect your content from attacks.

Jetpack consists of many different tools that any type of website can benefit from. They also offer a global team of “Happiness Engineers” to help with Jetpack-related questions and support. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to talk to a Happiness Engineer?

These reasons and more put WordPress’ Jetpack high on our list of the best WordPress plugins for 2018.

4) Everest Forms

Many communicative websites and blogs, particularly those that sell services, need customers and clients to fill out contact forms that are crucial to your success. An underrated, but successful plugin known as Everest Forms will do the trick.

This plugin is 100% mobile responsive and user-friendly! This means that a beginner WordPress user can build an exceptional form in minutes. Additionally, they can build it from their smartphone! Simply download and install the plugin to get access to many essential features like easy drag-and-drop form fields, shortcode support, radio, dropdowns, checkboxes, and more— with no restrictions!

This plugin is often referred to as simple and nicely-done, with excellent support at the WPEverest support forum. Let’s face it: with how many things we manage on our websites, simple plugins are the best plugins. I much prefer this contact form over others I have used in the past.

5) WP-Optimize

As one of the highest-rated plugins on this list, WP-Optimize is guaranteed to keep your database fast and efficient. With a 4.9-star review and over 900 ratings, WP-Optimize focuses on keeping your WordPress database clean so it runs quickly and efficiently.

So, what does it do to maximize efficiency? WP-Optimize removes unnecessary data, pingbacks, trackbacks and expired transient options. It performs automatic clean-ups on a weekly basis and allows you to control which optimizations you want to implement. Additionally, it’s mobile-friendly display shows you database statistics and recommended features to further clean up your site.

In a nutshell, WP-Optimize lets WordPress users to make space instead of allowing old data to clog it up. Thanks to WP-Optimize reports, you can take control and examine database tables to manually open up wasted space. This plugin is crucial in keeping your website clean and running properly.

6) Akismet

To continue the trend of effective security plugins, this plugin will easily prevent future hassles. Whether you’re a small blog or a large website, when visitors submit comments on your blog, a surprising amount of users will post spam.

The anti-spam plugin known as Akismet registers comment spam through your website’s “comments” admin screen. It checks all comments and filters out those that look like spam. Additionally, it saves comment history so users can examine it and determine which are spammed or unspammed by a moderator.

Spam not only affects the appearance of your site, it allows dangerous links and other content to be spread easily, so anti-spam plugins are absolutely necessary for any website. Akismet is a simple anti-spam plugin that gets to work right after it’s uploaded and installed. Comment spam is obnoxious for commenters and readers alike, and Akismet does a phenomenal job preventing them from entering your website’s comment space.

7) Yoast SEO

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is crucial in allowing your site to be seen by the masses. As one of the best content analysis plugins on WordPress, Yoast SEO helps your site appeal to search engine spiders and visitors through many advanced features.

It helps tune your website’s engine so you can publish exceptional content and uses internal linking features to optimize your site structure. Additionally, it integrates with Google Search Console. This allows users to see how their blog performs, allowing them to fix crawl errors in the process.  Its advanced XML Sitemaps help you care for your WordPress SEO and even sets canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content. This can severely affect your SEO. Title and meta description templating are available as well, for those interested in top-notch branding and consistent snippets in search results.

This plugin has nearly 22,000 5-star ratings and over five million active installations. Yoast SEO is well-known and used by many successful WordPress sites; it’s truly for everyone!

WordPress user Carolet45 said, “Although I haven’t had experience of other SEO plug-ins I can’t imagine a better support tool than Yoast. there is so much simple help on each page and regular blogs and training. Couldn’t wish for more!”

8) Thrive Comments

Depending on your type of blog, building a community and interacting with followers and subscribers can be pivotal in gaining traffic. Almost all successful content websites host public forums for visitors and followers to post their comments. Unfortunately, not all of them promote conversations, but the features in the Thrive Comments plugin do.

When you insert Thrive Comments onto your website, you install a conversation-inducing outlet for your visitors. Visitors can “like” comments, earn badges and achievements, earn validation through up-votes and a featured comment system, and even share their comments onto social media outlets like Facebook. You can additionally redirect commenters to a page of your choice, respond to commenters with custom messages, and even show products and incentives to commenters.

Not many comment plugins can benefit the marketing aspect of your website, so this is definitely a plugin you will want to consider using. Thrive Comments makes interaction significantly more engaging. It is even referred to as the “best and fastest WordPress Comments Plugin Released to Date.”

9) Broken Link Checker

The title of this plugin is pretty straightforward. Developed by Janis Elsts and Vladimir Prelovac, the Broken Link Checker scans your website for broken links and missing images before notifying you of them.

Are you are a content writer that consistently embeds photos into your articles? Have you noticed sometimes photos are magically gone from your gallery? This can severely affect the way your article looks to visitors. Having a plugin that monitors your blog and notifies you of broken links is an effective way to keep your blog in tip-top-shape.

This maintenance plugin saves you the hassle of manually examining content for broken links. The Broken Link Checker scans links in your comments, pages, posts, blogroll, and custom fields. It finds missing images, missing redirects, and missing redirects and notifies you of them through your WordPress dashboard.

Yes, it’s really that easy.

10) Smush Image Compression and Optimization

The last plugin has over one million active installations and over 3,500 five-star reviews. The award-winning image optimizer Smush Image Compression and Optimization is well-renowned for its top-quality and fast optimizing processes.

For those unaware, image optimization compresses and resizes images while retaining the quality and transparency. With Smush Image, users an optimize, compress, and even resize images with this “incredibly powerful and 100% free WordPress image smusher.” The plugin scans every image uploaded and rids it of any unneeded data. It then scales it and adds it to your media library. After that, you are free to upload your top-quality image where you see fit!

An interesting aspect of this plugin is how little people know about image optimization. Compressing your images can truly supercharge your blog, making editing, publishing, and browsing significantly faster than before. Images take up a huge amount of space, both size and data-wise, so optimizing them is extremely important in running an efficient website.

WordPress user KarlCW gave Smush Image Compression and Optimization a five-star review. He commented “I had no idea that my page load time was being dragged down by the images. The plugin nearly halved the time it took.”

WordPress user Helen432, who previously used Photoshop to optimize her photos, also reviewed the plugin.

“I optimize my photos in Photoshop, but Smush makes it so easy— it does it automatically. I can just sit back and enjoy the speed.”

This product is developed by WPMU Dev, who has a complete suite of plugins and themes for every WordPress site’s needs.

The Best WordPress Plugins: Conclusion

Plugins have endless capabilities. They are extremely effective in improving the functionality of your website. From organizing your content, to increasing security and protecting it from damage, to reaching out to higher audiences— they should absolutely be utilized by all WordPress bloggers. And remember: it’s not about the number of plugins you install, it’s the quality of the plugins you choose.

This list of diverse, high-quality plugins can truly help supercharge your website or blog. They address: security, content organization, search engine optimization, and site appearance. They not only help you as a site owner but your audience and visitors as well. This allows you to reach the goals you have set for your site.

These plugins are positively reviewed by the community and are installed in millions of websites across the globe. Check them out today and see what they can do for your blog!

We strive to reach out to one another, share experiences and common interests, and bring people together. Some of us have dedicated our time and talents to this, and are trying to make a living out of it. But how many times have your favorite YouTubers been challenged with demonetization, deleted content, or outright bans? The same can happen to you, your blog, and your affiliate links.

Amazon’s Reign in Affiliate Marketing

Once, not long ago, the Amazon Associate program was the jewel of linked content providers. Driving in enough sales brought you 10% commissions, and this was the goal we all strove for when starting to make money blogging.

When Amazon changed its affiliate model, the commissions became distributed by category and no longer by quantity. If your specialty happened to be in the “Luxury Beauty” or “Amazon Fashion” categories, you still qualified for the 10% range. However, these top-earning niches are the exception.

As of April 21, 2020, most associate categories suffered from massive percentage cuts and your bottom line noticed. Some changes include:

• Outdoors, Tools will be cut from 5.5% to 3%.
• Furniture, Home, Home Improvement, Lawn & Garden, Pets Products, and Pantry dropped from 8% to 3%.
• Headphones, Beauty, Musical Instruments, Business & Industrial supplies dropped from 6% to 3%.
• Sports and Baby Products will drop from 4.5% to 3%.
• Health & Personal Care will be slashed from 5% to 1%.
• Amazon Fresh will be cut from 3% to just 1% as well.

What happened?

This is not to say that Amazon did anything “wrong”. They simply adjusted their strategy to fit the changing market.  This is something that you and I should be doing as well. The alteration to the affiliate program doesn’t mean you need to shift your expertise. However, it is a good opportunity to take a hard look at your affiliation. And maybe it’s time to branch out and diversify your market saturation. Don’t change your specialty, change your affiliate program.

If you are making a pros and cons list, Amazon Associates has many checks in the “pro” column. They are well-known, growing into a behemoth, are commonly trusted, and highly convenient. However, their “con” column isn’t empty. Their cookies are only good for 24 hours. This means much of those tentative “I’ll check it out tomorrow” sales are lost to you. They also have strict “Terms of Service” conditions that any minor infraction could see your income cut or outright banned.

Amazon was a great fit for many affiliates. However, if you are in a situation where your income was affected by the dramatic affiliate changes or any other reasons, there are alternatives you should check out.

1: Rakuten

This is one of the more popular options. Rakuten offers its own commission baselines, but it can be an attractive alternative if you are in the non-tech market. A baseline of 3.5 % to 5.5% with high sales numbers gives you the incentive to boost your sales and grab that higher commission. That’s one of the key elements the flat rate did away with. Driving in more sales rewards you with a higher payment percentage.

Rakuten offers a suite of tools to help build a successful sales relationship. Their automated link generator does the work for you and the Bookmarklet allows the building of deep links without the hassle of delving in deep yourself. Rakuten also caters to the comparison sites with a data feed that specializes in organizing enormous databases.  Another advantage is the ad rotation. Your visitors will not have to be subjected to the same lure with every click. If you didn’t grab their attention with this product, maybe that next rotation will.

However, like many affiliate sites, the electronics market suffers from a low base rate. A 0.5% to 1% scale is hardly better than the Amazon Alternate, so Rakuten is a great choice for those price comparison shopping sites. However, if your niche is electronics, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a quality affiliate program with a high commission rate.

With its user-friendly interface, rotating ads, and the ease of deep-linking, Rakuten is a great alternative to the Amazon model.

2: ClickBank

ClickBank is going to be an excellent alternative to the Amazon Associate program if you are promoting digital information or software. Signing up for ClickBank is surprisingly easy and the program is easy to use. If you are looking to link with e-books, improvement courses, the educational community or any of the other thousands of online courses, ClickBank is the place to go.

The commission rates on ClickBank are directly related to the vendors. However, the spread goes up into the 75% range. Depending on what products sell and the vendors you choose to link with, ClickBank can be an amazing alternate affiliate market. The wide choice in products and high commission rates are a fantastic alternative to the restrictions and lower fees offered by the Amazon Associates.

Being one of the oldest affiliate markets, ClickBank has gone through some changes over the years. This learning curve is always in motion. As such, an experienced market like ClickBank has corrected some of its earlier faltering ways. They have stepped up their game on the interface dashboard and addressed their reviewing process. This ensures a higher quality product line.

The world is rapidly moving to an online life and much of our documentation will be electronic. Leveraging your ClickBank exposure to a market that craves information will be exceptionally simple. With product lines running the gamut from gamer guides to business investing, arts and crafts to world travel, you have the entire wealth of human knowledge available to you and your marketing. Trading in information and e-books, there is no better affiliate program available than ClickBank.

3: ShareASale

ShareASale has a large inventory of vendors to choose from. They include samplings from both the online e-markets and physical goods. This allows you to diversify your links among the different vendors as your needs dictate. You won’t suffer the seasonal ebb and flow in your commissions. This is because the consumer market fluctuates between more physical items it certain times of the year.

Their page currently boasts of more than 3900 merchants available. Additionally, the categories are well curated to make searching for a proper fit between your content and an appropriate merchant an easy task. A good match between content and the linked merchant is one of the keys to generating higher sales.

One of the major selling points on using ShareASale as your alternative to the Amazon Associate program is the wealth of data ShareASale gives you when searching for quality deals. They provide the current statistics on each merchant including:

• Average sales
• Per-click earnings
• Average commissions

This easily accessible data will enable you to peruse the available deals and make the choices that will drive your commissions up.

Knowing what you want, what you need and how to achieve a higher income is paramount in the affiliate program game. ShareASale gives you the information you need to focus your links where they will do the most good and support your commission rates. Commission rates vary between vendors, but knowing how to maximize the effectiveness of your links will save you the trial and error process and give you the leg up on getting those higher commission rates.

4: Walmart

When you use the Walmart Affiliate program, you are working with a brand name everyone knows. If you are searching for an alternative to the Amazon Associate program, you may be looking for a program that offers similar features, with brand recognition. The Walmart Affiliate program grants you these.

While not as large or market penetrating as Amazon, Walmart is a fierce contender in the large name game. They have been working on the promotion of their online store offerings and generating movement in the “shop from home” game. And this will only benefit you and your affiliate links when your content links them to a known brand with a trusted presence and existing online shipping platform.

But why Walmart?

Finding what products to link should be an easy process as it’s almost easier to list what Walmart doesn’t sell versus what they do sell. As an affiliate marketer, the focus will most likely be in the categories of games, toys, electronics, and computers. Walmart Affiliates solves the very real problem of Amazon lowering its commission cap in these are below 4%.

Linking televisions at Amazon will net you 2%, popular video game consoles will put you at 1%. Walmart Affiliates base commission is 4% on many categories and its main draw is the “toy” category. Lower in few, higher in most, Walmart’s 4% beats the Amazon Associates 3% max in most categories Some select markets within Walmart’s commission schedule boosting to 10% and even 18%.

Another benefit to Walmart over Amazon is the cookie life. Amazon cookies are good for 24 hours. Walmart cookies are good for three days. Again, how much of an improvement is required for a substantial change is warranted? That all depends on your needs.

So if your area of expertise is in home improvement, or home and garden, you would stay at Amazon for the 8% commission before April 21st. But now that all those massive markets were capped below the 3% level, the Walmart Affiliate program is an alluring alternative to keeping your revenue stream from shrinking.

5: CJ Affiliate

The monster in the room is CJ Affiliate, formerly known as Commission Junction. Searching for an alternative to the Amazon Associate market is easy when you come to CJ Affiliate. They are well known and well-diversified in the affiliate scene. CJ Affiliate is a great platform for those looking to expand their links or leave the Amazon program entirely.

CJ Affiliate is another large network of major brands and known products. Getting into the CJ Affiliate system is not without vetting. But, once you are accepted into the system, the open world of affiliate marketing never looked better. This system of ensuring quality publishers are promoting quality products strengthens the brand. It also keeps the network full of top earners and those working to earn more.

Like so few others, CJ Affiliate is known for being among the best about consolidating their data and sharing it with you.  You can:

• See what is selling
• What the commission rates are and from there
• Customize your data to fit the current market trends
• Constant tweaking gives you a maximized opportunity for profit

As the trends change, you can optimize your content to fit the new data set and keep your sales numbers up.

How does CJ Affiliate Perform as an Amazon Affiliate alternative?

By their own account, CJ Affiliate claims to outperform other affiliate markets in orders per customer and average order value. This, in turn, leads to a greater than 50% increase in annual customer revenue. They are also one of the largest affiliate markets working on cookieless tracking.

As our computer life evolves, the technology we exploit changes as well. We currently track our referrals through cookies and they expire as set by the individual vendors. But when the world comes to find ways around the cookie, because of their latest experiments, CJ Affiliate will already be on the next level, protecting your sales.

Brand recognition is important in referrals, sales, and commissions. CJ Affiliate has some of the top brands available to you the publisher. No longer working hard to find interesting ways to hawk mediocre products, you can breeze through promoting top quality gear from top brands. While searching for quality affiliate alternatives, you will come across many great brands that offer high commission rates.

• Barnes & Noble, 8%
• Columbia sports and outdoor, 10%
• Autozone, 8%
• Fitbit, 10%

The list goes on and on; all of them available through CJ Affiliate.

Wrapping Things Up: The Ideal Amazon Affiliate Alternative

The changing market is always going to provide challenges to the online entrepreneur and those who wish to start blogging. The Amazon Associate changes created a large impact for affiliate marketers but it was not the first and almost certainly won’t be the last.

Keeping abreast of the market is the best way to ensure your hard work results in top pay. The time has come for diversifying your links and drilling down to specialize in genre-specific advertisers for your specific niche.

Your general practitioner doctor is a nice enough guy or gal but when you find yourself with a very specific problem, you seek out a specialist. The Amazon Associates affiliate program was a sufficient enough system, but the rules of the game have changed. We now find it more prudent to seek out alternatives to Amazon for our affiliate marketing needs.

Find what works for your audience. Find the affiliate that fits you best. Make the new changes to our internet culture work for you. Stay informed of the possibilities and optimize your content to the best possible fit. There are alternative outlets beyond the large names in the game.