I know it is.

In just 70 blog posts, Guide and News has got over 7000 comments, and an amazing community of intelligent, lovely and good looking readers. The post I’ve linked to above got close to 200 comments in just two days.

In this article, I’ll tell you exactly the same methods I use to convert new visitors into returning readers that act, and subscribe. Hopefully you’ll be able to start growing a community on your blog a lot quicker.

By taking the steps below, you’ll learn to:

• Convert first time visitors into returning readers (and subscribers)
• Make people love your blog
• Find your target audience
• Make your blog sticky
• Get more comments to your post
• Redirect your comments to a custom “Thank you” page
• And more.

Why returning readers matter:

I had a quick look on my Google Analytics account this morning to check the blog stats. What I noticed is that 60% of the visitors are new comers who arrive at the blog through Google, or other referral sites.

And 40% of other visitors are returning readers which means that they have visited the blog more than ones in their cookie period.

Repeat and returning readers are the ones who becomes loyal subscribers of your blog, links to you from their blogs, leave comments on your posts and share your posts on their network.

That’s the main reason why I place a lot of importance on capturing email subscribers and growing a community of loyal readers on my blog. Those are the ones who will help you grow your blog a lot quicker.

So, How to Convert New Visitors into Returning Readers?

In this 1300 words post, I’ll show you the steps you can take to convert first time visitors into returning and loyal readers of your blog.

1. Serve the needs of your readers:

Your blog is all about your readers, It’s not about you. You need to focus on the benefits to your readers.

In order to impress and make the first time visitors love your blog, you need to provide VALUE to them. Give them what they’ve came for, even more than they expect from your blog.

Be clear with your goals, ask them about their problems and solve them. Remember, the first impression is the last impression and you have only few seconds to grab a first time visitor’s attention. So you must have clear call to action.

Focus on the benefits to your readers on the menu bar of your blog, the sidebar, footer, everywhere. Ever wonder why I placed an image on the sidebar of my blog with the text “Starting a blog 101, read before you begin” and linked it to my ultimate guide to starting a blog? Because It’s a clear call to action to those who’re new to blogging and want to begin.

Don’t just try to place too many ads and struggle to get clicks, instead make it simple and highlight the best things about your blog on your sidebar that you think can make your blog sticky, just like I do here. (be it your best posts, features, or testimonials).

2. Blog for a particular group of people:

One of the common reason on why people forget your blog after their first visit is that they’ve got confused after landing on your blog and aren’t sure If the blog is for them

Make it clear who the blog is for, say to a particular group of people, and target the specific audience.

For instance, let’s day you’re passionate about blogging and you blog about it. That is my passion actually. Now, If you don’t make it absolutely clear that you’re writing for those you wants to start blogging, or for newbie bloggers, you’re just confusing your readers.

Same goes with other niches. Let’s say you’re a Tennis lover and you blog about it, make it clear that your blog is all about those people who loves Tennis game.

How to make it happen?

One of the best way to make it clear who the is for is to say that in your blog’s tag line. Make sure that the title of your blog’s homepage describes your blog clearly.

Another way to make it happen is to say that in a mini author bio and display it on the sidebar of your blog, just like I do here.

3. Engage with your readers through comments:

Something that I’ve been really working hard for here on Guide and News is to engage with my readers through comments and make the first time commentators comeback, and I see most of my commentators coming back to engage through comments.

Here’s what I do:

• I respond to every comment on my blog: It’s my #1 strategy of building relationship and increasing the number of comments on my blog. It also adds a human aspect on my blog and encourages people to comeback. A couple of months ago, I wrote an article on why do I respond to every comment on my blog and why you should too which got close to 130+ comments in just few days.
• I redirect first time commentators to a “thank you” page. One of the best strategy to develop relationship with the first time visitors and convert them to a returning readers is to redirect them to a custom “thank you” page, when they leave their first comment on your blog. If you don’t know how to do it, read my easy guide to redirecting first time commentators to a THANK YOU page.
• I send a reply notification email to my commentators: Sending a reply notification email to your commentators is like reminding them of your blog ones again, and another chance to get them back to your blog. I use CommentLuv Premium‘s (which is 8 in one plugin) ReplyMe plugin for it.

Hopefully you’ll be able to make your blog more sticky, and make your readers stick with your blog by using my commenting strategies.

4. Be yourself and show your real face:

You might have heard before the term before “You’re the most unique thing about your blog”.

That is the thing. If you want to convert first time visitors into returning readers, you need to be yourself and show your real face into the everything you do on your blog.

If you’re providing solutions to people’s problem that thousands of others are doing, then what makes you different? Your voice, your human side and your personality.

The more highlight and accept it, the more chances you’ll have to make your readers love your blog.

5. Don’t let your blog get caught with It’s Pants down:

If you want to build a loyal readership on your blog, and convert first time visitors into returning readers, then don’t ever let your blog get caught with It’s pants down.

What I mean by don’t let your blog get caught with It’s pants down is that make sure your blog is ready and deserves to get huge traffic and to convert first time visitors into loyal readers.

Does your blog has enough quality content, a unique design and good first impression to convert new visitors to returning readers and subscribers?

If not, then you might get caught with your pants down. Ohh I mean not you, your blog!

I turn it to you now:

I’d really love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Guide to blogging community is not all about my ideas and tips, but also ideas and tips of a cool community of bloggers who interact and help each other.

Successful blogs always create a blog plan, and It’s important to give your blog a path to follow.

Planning is like a road map that gives you a right path to follow. It’s important not only in blogging, but in everything you do in your life.

Unlike most of the bloggers who blog randomly and hope for the success, successful bloggers always know what they should do to get what they want.

They always outline the strategies, propose the tactics, and list the tasks to be done to achieve their goals. In other words, they plan to success.

If you want a complete guide to planning out a successful blog, than you’ve come to the right place. This post covers everything you need to do, and know before launching a new blog.

If you’re new to blogging and want to begin, I’d strongly recommend bookmarking this post for future reference because you’ll need it.

Why You Should Plan a Blog?

Rather than randomly blogging day to day, a blog plan, like a business plan is REALLY important to give your blog a path to follow.

Planning a blog will definitely help you get your blog on the right track, and help you plan where your blog will go after one or two years from now.

There are a lot of benefits that planning will provide for bloggers, so you shouldn’t skip this step when launching a new blog.

Below are a few reasons on why you should plan a blog.

• Getting your blog on the right track:

Is your blog going on the right direction?

I hope It is, otherwise you’re going to waste a lot of time.

Blogging is like a long journey, and you’re likely to go on a wrong way. Therefor, a blog plan will help you get your blog on the right.

As I said above that a blog plan is like a road map, and will help your blog go in the right direction. When you have a plan, you’ll know how far you are form your destination, and how much you’ve already progressed.

Further reading: Is Your Blog on the Right Track?

• Finding your blog voice:

Who are you and why are you uniquely qualified to write this blog? Why should I read your blog?

A blog plan will help you find your blogging voice, which is a secret ingredient to a successful blogging. Something only you can bring to the table that will make your blog unforgettable.

• Anticipate the challenges:

Planning will help you overcome the obstacles, anticipate the challenges and risks that might happen in your blogging journey.

It will give you power to fight with obstacles, and find solutions to solve your problems to help you go on the right path.

• Determine your goals:
  

A blog plan will help you determine your goals for future, and help you to work out why you’re blogging. Is it purely for ego or self expression? To make money? Or to share your thoughts with the world? Planning will help you determine it.

• Gaining the trust:

If you plan a blog before launching, you’ll be able to show the capacity that you’ll be a successful blogger. People will know your blog’s vision, therefor you’re gaining the trust of people.

Further reading: 5 Ways to Gain the Trust of Your Readers

Okay, enough of the benefits of planning a blog. Now let me show you how to build a blog plan.

How to Build a Blog Plan?

Here I’ll list some of the most important things that you need to know before starting a blog. They might make all the difference.

If I missed any point, just drop a comment below and let me know about it.

1. Find Your Passion:

True passion really makes a huge difference in blogging.

There’s not a blogger in the blogospher (world) who became successful blogging about something he/she hates or isn’t passionate about.

You have to be knowledgeable and passionate about the topic you’re going to blog about, so that you can provide quality content with real experiences to your readers.

So how to find my passion? You may ask.

Just think about the things you really enjoy doing in your life and start blogging about it. For instance, I’m passionate about blogging and soccer, but I also love adding value to people’s life, so I blog about blogging.

Some people are passionate about more than one thing, so they blog about too many things which stretches them thin.

Blogging about too many things will confuse your readers and It makes it tough for them to realize what they can get from your blog.

If you’re also passionate about more than one things (like me), just blog about the one you can write the most on.

Be just abroad enough to have plenty to write about, but narrow enough to stay within your niche.

Further reading: Do you blog about the topic which you love?

2. Plan Your Goals:

Don’t fail to realize the importance of having goals for your blog.

A goal is a plan of what you want to achieve with your blog within a specific period of time which you must set. It will help you go in the right direction, and it can be used as a measure of success.

A couple of months ago I submitted a guest post to Basic Blog Tips about taking baby steps towards your blogging goals for success where I’ve written about how new bloggers could benefit more by setting some realistic short term goals.

Below are some of the examples of short-term blogging goals that I’d suggest every upcoming blogger set.

1. Publish 20 quality posts
2. Work on the design of your blog and make it stand out
3. Get your first 100 real Twitter followers and fans to your Facebook fan page
4. Leave 20 comments on other blogs in your niche for engagement
5. Build a readership with more than 20 readers a day
6. Do your first guest post on another blog in your niche
7. And hit the level of 100 unique visitor a day

And remember that faith without work is nothing, so put hard work to achieve your goals.

3. Find your Target Audience:

Before thinking of launching a new blog, ask yourself:

• Why does my blog exist?
• Who will read my blog?
• What makes me special?

You have to know everything about your target audience, where they live, what they do and what they like. You’ll know all it by doing a quick research about your audience and competitors, and by pulling up to Google and searching for “Best blogs about ________” (Your topic of choice in the blank space).

Prepare yourself to serve the needs of your audience and do better than other bloggers in your niche to achieve success, and to stand out from the crowd.

4. Think Up of a Good Domain Name:

Domain names are the addresses on the web. It’s the first and most important step of building a successful blog.

A good domain name plays a huge role in everyone’s internet presence, so here are some tips to help you think of a good domain name for your blog.

• Easy to type and remember domain: You’ll lose the value of your blogging, branding and marketing If your blog’s domain name is difficult to type and remember due to It’s unremembered words, length or spelling.
• Get a .com, .net or .org domain: If you want to be a successful blogger over long time, than It’s best to choose a .com, .net or .org domain, because these are the best and high standard ones.
• Include keywords: Including one or two keywords in your domain name is a smart thing. Just brainstorm some top keywords related to your topic, or you can do it using the Google Adwords Keywords tool. Enter your main keyword in the “Keywords or phrase box” and hit the “Search” button. It will display a huge list of keyword ideas for the topic with It’s global and local monthly searches, where you can choose one which has good monthly searches with low competition.

Further reading: 10 Awesome Tips to Choose a Good Domain Name

Now If you’ve found a great domain name, It’s time to actually install your blog and It’s three step process:

1. Register your domain name
2. Get the best hosting (I use and recommend Bluehost, read my ultimate Bluehost review to find out why)
3. Install your WordPress blog

5. Build a Content Plan:

If you’ve been blogging for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard the term “content is king”.

And It’s true, content is definitely the king because an SEO optimized blog with a beautiful design will fail without quality content.

So you must build a content plan for your blog, and ask yourself a few questions before starting your new blog.

• What type of content will I provide to my readers to stand out from other blogs in my niche? (Text content, video content, audio content, interviews, case-studies or reviews?)
• Where will I find blog post ideas for my blog? (Other blogs, comments, search engines or online magazines?)
• How often will I update my blog? (Daily, twice a week, weekly or monthly?) Determine your posting frequency.

6. Monetizing Plan:

If you hope to generate income from your blog, you’ll need to address how you’ll monetize your blog and build a monetizing plan.

You can skip this step If your aim is not to make money from your blog.

It is also very important to think of the ways you’ll be using to make money from your blog before launching.

How will you monetize your blog? What ways will you choose do monetize your blog? When will you start monetizing your blog? From beginning or after you start getting thousand pageviews daily?

You need to answer all of the above questions in order to build a successful monetizing plan.

7. Marketing Plan:

In order to take your blog to the high level, you also need to build a marketing plan because no matter how great content you have on your blog, It can never walk up the right people on It’s own.

Now to build a successful marketing plan, ask yourself:

1. What social media websites will I choose to promote my blog? Facebook, Twitter, Google+, StumbleUpon or all?
2. How many guest posts will I do in my first three months of blogging journey?
3. How many comments will I leave daily? one, five, ten or twenty?
4. Will I join the online forums to promote your blog?

What Next?

Congrats! You’ve read it all and I hope you learned how to build a successful blog plan before beginning.

I think now It’s time to send you over to my ultimate guide to starting a blog.

If you think I missed a valuable point above, kindly let me know by posting a comment below.

It’s that time again.

I’ve again participated in a guest blogging contest hosted by one of my friend at Blogging Cage and again an opportunity for me to expanding audience reach and building good relationships with other bloggers.

In this post, I’ll tell you a ton of things regarding why participating in guest blogging contests will help you as a blogger, plus some reasons on why I’ve participated.

BloggingCage hosted a guest blogging contest where they’re giving away $650 cash prize and some other interesting prizes to the three lucky winners.

Why I Participated in the contest, and why YOU should too?

I love participating in blogging contests because It’s a way for me to add more weight in my blogging skills.

Participating in a guest blogging contest has a lot of benefits, and every blogger should not miss the opportunity when there is.

Below are few of the reasons why I do I always participate in guest blogging contests and also why you shouldn’t miss such opportunity.

1. Networking with other bloggers:

When you participate in a guest blogging contest, there will be obviously so many other bloggers to compete with. It’s a great opportunity for you to interact with them, share their articles, comment on their entry, and build strong long-term relationship with them.

You’ll be introduced to a lot of bloggers when you participate in guest blogging contest, so you can connect with them, share and learn with them.

2. Improving guest blogging skills:

If you’re new to guest blogging, participating in a guest blogging contest is like an everlasting article on GUEST BLOGGING 101 for you, because there will be so much to learn about guest blogging.

It’s a perfect way to add more weight in your guest blogging experience.

Further reading: How to improve your writing skills

3. Expanding audience reach:

Submitting your guest post to a blog which already has readers (be it a contest entry) will surely send some readers in your way, and according to Derek Halpern, It’s the best traffic source for bloggers. So you can reach to an expanding audience by participating in a guest blogging contest.

4. Building authoritative backlink:

Another major advantage of participating in a guest blogging contest is that If the blog where you submitted your guest post as the contest entry is a high reputable blog, It will help you build authoritative backlink and improve your blog’s search engine authority as well.

5. Developing authority:

For a new blogger, It takes a lot of time to build his/her authority, but when you participate in a guest blogging contest, you’ll be associated with a lot of bloggers in your niche. When they see you as an expert, they’ll start giving you the kind of respect.

So those were some of the reasons on why I participate guest blogging contest, and I’m sure I’ve convinced you enough to come and participate in the contest going on at Blogging Cage.

6: Getting rewarded:

Other than all of the advantages of participating in a guest blogging contest I’ve mentioned above, the bonus point is that you’ll get a chance to be rewarded with the cash prize and winning the interesting prizes.

The winners of the contest at BloggingCage will be rewarded as:

1st prize: $175 + $219/year WPMUDev Membership
2nd prize: $100 + $77/year worth premium membership from Blokube
3rd prize: $75 + $57/year SwiftThemes membership

My entry for the contest:

For the contest on Blog Engage, I wrote about 10 blog design mistakes that will kill your blog.

But, what about this time? Well It’s all about creating a VIRAL blog post.

This time I thought of making it more spicy, and wrote about how to write a spicy blog post.

Have you ever dreamed of writing that perfect blog post that will be read and shared by thousands of people?

I bet there isn’t a blogger who hasn’t dreamed of it.

I’ve shown how to make that dream come true in my contest entry post.

If you’re new to blogging, you’ll definitely get to learn something new from this post, but here I offer I little bit for everyone. From beginners to advanced.

Here’s the link of my contest entry that I’m sure will help you to create a VIRAL blog post.

A Dirty Guide to Create a Viral Blog Post in 6 Steps

What to do next?

If you love my contest entry post and think others will benefit by reading it, make sure you spread the word about it by +1ing it and sharing it on your favorite social profiles.

Calling all my readers: Do me a favor today by sharing that post on all networks and leave quality comments.

Below are the current top sponsors of the contest:

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsors

WP Kube – WordPress resource site

Bloggers Passion: Ultimate Blogging Guide

Would you want to be in a position to lose all your online income, reputation and business?

Of course, you’d like to control your blog and your online business yourself, and don’t want to let Google, Facebook or Twitter control it. Right?

To wrest the control of your blog from those sites, you’ve to develop your own traffic stream to your blog.

Now don’t get me wrong. By building your own traffic stream, I’m not saying you should ignore sources like Google, Facebook and Twitter completely. Those are the best sites to drive traffic to your blog.

What you need to do is siphon traffic from those sources to your blog, capture their names and emails, and create your own traffic stream.

This is also a top class advice for you If you’re stuck of working for search engines, optimizing your posts, and building backlinks etc. It can be an alternative traffic source for you.

Building your own traffic source:

Now before you get into building your own traffic source, I would like to tell you one thing that one of the most important thing that is needed to make money blogging is TRUST (other than traffic of course).

It’s the trust you gain and relationship you build with your visitors that will help you make money with your blog, so you need to learn ho to gain the trust of your readers at first.

Trust, relationship and honesty will go a long way in making people love your blog and make them loyal to you.

And trust of your visitors cannot be gained in just one or two visits to your blog. Therefor It is extremely important that you do your best capture the names and email addresses of as many visitors of your blog as possible.

To get their names and emails, starting a blog and an email list is very important, and It’s the most important thing that you should focus on as a blogger.

An email list is a group of people who have subscribed to your blog, It builds loyal readers and loyal readers are the ones that will help you grow your blog.

So, ones your visitors enters their details to your blog, they’ll get into your email list and that’s where you’ll begin the process building relationship and trust with them.

Instead of waiting for traffic, If you’ve an email list of 100+ subscribers only you can hit send and get a lot of attention to your new blog posts.

How to build an email list:

If you’re new to email marketing, you need to find a good email marketing software first, I recommend Aweber or Mailchimp. These two services lets you put forms on your blog easily, and comes with auto follow-ups to deliver eBooks and newsletters.

Getting started with building your first email list won’t take too long. Building my first form and putting it on my blog didn’t take more than a hour, I started collecting email subscribers.

If you’re completely new to email marketing, and need help in designing forms, putting it on your blog and increasing subscribers etc, I suggest you read my friend Greg’s email marketing 101 post.

How to convince readers to subscribe and grow your traffic stream:

Firstly you need to learn how to convince readers to subscribe and making them love your blog.

No one wants to give their email to a sketchy source. In order to really get subscribers, you need to know how to add value to their life, you have to offer them something that would be enough to make them love your blog.

Here are the four possible ways to increase email subscribers.

• Create multiple forms and put on different pages of your blog:

No one will want to give their email to you the first time they visit your blog, so you need to put the optin form to different and most popular pages of your blog and show them often times to encourage them to subscribe.

• Create a landing page:

One of the best way to let people know about your email list (traffic source) is to write a new page for it highlighting the benefits of subscribing to your blog. Write about the free stuff If you’re offering to your subscribers and about other goodies they can expect from you in your landing page.

• Offer an eBook:

A killer eBook on a helpful topic will bring a lot of email subscribers to you. I’ve got great feedback and hundreds of subscribers when I launched my first ever eBook launch called “Starting a blog 101” which is still FREE at the moment, but It won’t be forever.

• Show social proof:

If you’ve already got a decent subscribers count already, show the numbers to your readers or If you’ve featured on a top blog or website, let your readers know about it because If readers know that you’re good enough at what you do and you can serve their need, they’ll be more likely to subscribe to your blog.

Checkout the community page of my blog to get an idea.

What now? Get the traffic source in action:

Now, If you got a steady flow of subscribers, you need to set your autoresponder with some killer content. This content can be blog posts, eBooks, podcasts or videos that you think your subscribers will love.

Get your subscribers involved. Ask them to tweet, share or LIKE your posts, Ask them to comment and ask their questions as this will help you build strong relationship with them.

You need to make your subscribers feel that they know you not only because you send them quality emails, but because they interact with you on your blog, ask their question. Let them know you as a problem solver.

You have to make sure you’re honest with your subscribers. Be honest from the first email about what your intentions are. Focus on providing great content with incredible value to your subscribers.

Conclusion:

If you’re a blogger, you have to have a lot of traffic and visitors to make money from your blog! But you also have to make sure your blog has to be built on a foundation of trust and honesty. That’s what will help you grow your blog and make money online.

Good luck with your new traffic source, now tell me what’s up in the comments section.

The security of your blog should be your primary concern, especially If you’re running a WordPress powered blog.

So what should you do to reduce the risk of getting your WordPress blog or website hacked?

Some days ago when I published the ultimate guide to starting a blog, many readers asked me for some WordPress security tips and plugins to make WordPress blog 100% secure.

So, I though I would put a list of basic WordPress security tips along with some WordPress plugins in this post that you can use and implement to make your WordPress blog or website 10 times more secure.

If you want to run a serious blog than you must however take the security of your blog very seriously.

Useful WordPress Security Tips

Here are some basic and useful WordPress security tips and plugins to keep your WordPress blog or website secure from being hacked.

1. Keep WordPress Up to Date:

If there’s a new version of WordPress or a new update of a plugin, update it as soon as possible.

WordPress identifies the issues and updates their codes quickly and one of the good thing about WordPress is that it automatically notifies you in your admin dashboard when new version is released and you had to update it.

So, make sure you keep your WordPress up to date to make sure your blog is secure.

2. Keep your plugins up to date:

Another things which you can do to keep your blog secure is to keep the plugins which you are using in your WordPress blog up to date. WordPress will also automatically notify you in your dashboard when there are new updates for your installed plugins.

3. Be careful of plugins you install:

Before sometime I installed a plugin on my blog without checking it’s ratings and supports and that caused my blog hacked from someone, thankfully I had a backup file of my blog and recovered it quickly.

Be careful of the plugins you install on your blog and always install plugins from WP plugin directory that has a lot of good ratings and supports. This is the best way to reduce the chances of vulnerability.

4. Remove the default admin account:

The default administrator account has the username of “admin” and every noob hacker would know that, so using “admin” as your username is like having a backdoor to your house that every thief knows about, which makes thief’s life 50% easier.

If you are still using the default admin account on your WordPress blog than create a new one and delete the old one for better security and make sure to attribute all posts and pages to new one.

5. Backup! Backup! Backup!

No matter how hard work you do to keep your blog secure from hackers, there’s still a chances of being hacked.

If a hacker is determined to break in, he will be able to. If you have backup file of your blog, you can get back your blog after being hacked.

6. Choose a strong password:

How strong your password is? Try to choose as strong password for your WordPress blog as you possibly can to make sure It’s more than just something MEMORABLE with numbers.

Your password should consist of more than 14 characters with the combination of numbers and alphabets in lower and upper-cases.

7. Scan your theme and check It’s authenticity:

Many free WordPress themes has some kind of evil code which you won’t be able to remove, and may threaten your blog’s integrity.

If you’re using a premium theme from a reputable provider, you’re free to skip this step.

Use the Theme Authenticity Plugin to scan your theme files and make sure there’s nothing threatening your blog’s theme.

Further reading: How to choose a perfect WordPress theme

8. Get a good hosting:

One of the first thing that you should consider before choosing a hosting for your website is to check how good the security is as It’s the first line of defense, and how strong the response is when something goes wrong. Plus how fast it recovers when your website is hacked.

This is the reason why I recommend Bluehost for WordPress bloggers. Read more about Bluehost hosting and It’s features in my ultimate Bluehost review.

Some Plugins For Better WordPress Security

Here are some security WordPress plugins you might want to know about to reduce the chances of getting your blog hacked.

1. Secure WordPress:

Secure WordPress is a great plugin which keeps your WordPress installation secure by removing error information on login pages, hides your PLUGINS and it also hides the WordPress version which is must to reduce the risk getting your blog stolen by a rookie thief.

• Official plugin page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/secure-wordpress/

2. Login Lockdown:

This plugin is a personal favorite of mine.

Login Lockdown is another security plugin which adds extra security to your WordPress blog by limiting the login attempts and by restricting the failed login attempts from a given IP range.

This is very effective way of stopping brute force attacks.

This is one of the best security WordPress plugin that I’ve been using from long time on my blog.

• Official plugin page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/login-lockdown/

3. WP Security scan:

WP security scan is a plugin that checks your WordPress blog for security vulnerabilities and it suggests correct action which you have to take to make some changes for better security.

I’m using this plugin from day one of my blogging journey, which is REALLY a great security WordPress plugin.

• Official plugin page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-security-scan/

4. AntiVirus:

Antivirus is most useful WordPress plugin that will scan your WordPress themes, plugins, comments, posts and pages etc from malicious everyday. It is very easy tool which can protect your blog again malware and spam injection.

• Official plugin page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/antivirus/

5. WP DB Backup:

I cannot stress how important this plugin is.

As I said before, backing up your blog is hugely important and the best security tip anyone can give you.

WP DB Backup is a FREE WordPress plugin which allows you to easily backup your core WordPress database.

• Official plugin page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

6. WordPress file monitor plus:

This plugin is like having some security cameras in your WordPress dashboard which let’s you see exactly what happened when something goes wrong.

The plugin will notify you through email when any files are added, removed or changed in your WordPress blog. It tracks all the changes in your to your file system.

• Official plugin page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-file-monitor-plus/

Your Turn:

What are you doing to keep your WordPress blog secure and what security plugins do you use? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

I’d bet you also have a lot of approaches to WordPress security, maybe more effective than what I described above. Post a comment below and let me know what you have to say.

Even most people still don’t know what is Gravatar and how to get their photos up there.

Gravatar is a free online service that automatically adds your photo next to the comments you leave everywhere on the web, be it a blog, discussion forums, online groups or other places around the web.

A little image that you upload to a certain email address, and ones you’ve done that you’ll get that little image next to your name when you leave a comment on a Gravatar enabled blog or website.

Just like responding to every comment on your blog and redirecting first time commentators to a thank you page, this little silly image is also very important that can help you to build your brand and authority around the web.

If you’re still confused on how to get a Gravatar, you’ll find some tips on how to get a Gravatar at the bottom of the post.

If you already use a Gravatar image to your comments. Hopefully this post will give you some advanced and extra hints to consider.

Why Gravatar is important?

• It helps you build trust: The main idea behind creating Gravatar.com is to let people see the faces behind when they read thoughts through comments, because people get curious when they read something interesting or some praising words, they wish to know who said that how he/she looks. Even when you split something bad, people will wish to see your face.
• It helps you build your brand: People who visit your blog often times start to become familiar with the image there (whether It’s you, your company or your product), so having a Gravatar image helps you build your brand and let’s others know that It’s you when you leave a comment somewhere.
• It helps in building relationships: Having your photo next to your comments makes you stand out from the others out there. At first you and your Gravatar might not get much attention, When I see your face constantly commenting on my blog, I get to know you more, and probably end up by visiting your website. Others readers can see the person behind the comment, and It’s very important for building relationship with other bloggers.
• It helps you develop authority: Sometimes a picture is enough to pique people’s curiosity. If you are someone who leaves quality and helpful comments (I’m looking at you Adrienne, Sapna, Shahzad, Raplus, Zion, Greg and all) and people see excellent comments left by you, they’ll start to see you as an expert in the specific niche.
• It helps you increase your traffic: This is also useful If you’re a small blogger and commenting on other blogs is a part of your traffic strategy, because people are more likely to click on your link If they see who’s commenting.

What should I use in my Gravatar?

What should you use in your Gravatar is extremely important because this is the image that will represent you, help you build your brand and introduce you around the web, so having a right Gravatar that grabs people’s attention and let’s people know who is the commentator after viewing the Gravatar image is must.

Most bloggers and webmasters prefer to use their own photo for their Gravatar, just like I do which is well. It’s just like a way of introducing myself around the web, so If you want to represent yourself as a blogger, marketer or anything else you do online – you’d go with a photo of yourself.

Or If you’re representing your company or product, you may want to use a company logo/icon or image of your product.

But, If you’re not going to product recognition specifically, I’d stick to photo.

How to get a Gravatar?

Okay, now you know how important it is to have a Gravatar image next to your name.

So, what should you do to get a Gravatar? It’s pretty easy. Go to Gravatar website, sign up, and then upload your photo (This could be a picture of yourself, a company logo or something unique). Make sure you use the same email address to sign up and to upload your photo that you use around the web for comments. If you’d like to use more than one email address, you can add them later onto the same account.

That’s all. You have to do it one time, It’s like set it and forget it only till you change it yourself.

If you still need help in setting up a Gravatar, post a comment below!

Some Gravatar tips to make it memorable and BRANDED:

There are a lot of things that you can do to get your comments noticed, and make your Gravatar memorable and branded. Below are a few tips that you can apply.

1. Your Gravatar image will be your representation on the web, so don’t hesitate to invest some money to hire a PROFESSIONAL photographer to get some very good head shots from different angles, so that you can find a best one amongst them to use.
2. If you can’t afford to pay to a professional photographer, than spend sometime on getting some good shots or you should get some of your friends or family to do it for you, and than tweak it a little bit on PHOTOSHOP to make it more appealing.
3. If you’re using your own photo, this will be your introduction, a kind of “Hey, I’m Ehsan (aka the founder of the Guide to Blogging community)” so make sure choose a photo where people can see your face well.
4. If you’re looking to establish a long term identity on the web, try to represent yourself as a lively and energetic person in your photo. There’s no need to be overly animated.
5. Don’t use UNRECOGNIZABLE and low quality photograph. If you’re that shy of using your own photo, go with a LOGO of avatar of your blog. I’ve also been noticing a lot of members of the community using using random photographs from the web which is not good from many perspectives.
6. Do not hesitate to use your logo as a Gravatar. As I said above that there’s a big movement in the blogging world about showing your real face to people, and If you’re that shy of using your own photo, then you can use your logo to represent your site just like Ileane from BasicBlogTips.com and Glen from ViperChill.com does.

That’s not all obviously. Leave me your comment below If you have anything of your own Gravatar tips or If you think I’ve missed anything.

So get a Gravatar Today:

What are you waiting for? Pop over to Gravatar website and get one now If you haven’t yet. Then come back here and leave a comment below to see the live demo of gravatar in action.

Hope to see some new faces in comments section.

If you’re new to blogging and need inspiration on starting a blog, this post in front of you is an ultimate guide and a perfect place to get started.

ABOUT THIS GUIDE:

Blogging is a fantastic activity that can help you show your expertise to the world, and connect with like minded people, but starting can be tricky.

I wrote this guide here because starting a blog is simple, but It’s not easy-otherwise everyone would do it. You need to do it right and take every step carefully in order launch a successful blog that YOU can use today.

This massive 4000+ word guide is dedicated to all my friends and awesome readers community who constantly ask me questions on starting a blog.

If you need answers of questions like:

• How to start a successful blog
• Why to blog
• Why blog on WordPress.org
• How to grow your blog faster
• How to show your expertise to the world
• How to do SEO for your blog
• How to make money blogging
• And learn every aspect of blogging…

…Than you’ve come to the right place. I’ll break it all down below.

Anyways…

Howdy, I’m Ehsan, that’s me on the right. I started my first blog back in 2011 with the intention of making money online, and now two and half years later blogging is my life.

Blogging is what I love, I think of and I do on daily basis. To read my full story, go to About me page.

Whether you want to start a blog to promote your business or you just want to share whatever you’re passionate about with an audience, this post will show you all the steps you need to take on starting a blog successfully.

You ready? Let’s begin!

Why to Blog?

People still ask me that is blogging important for their business or anything they do in their life, so I’d like to start with a few reasons on why blogging is important and why you should start it today.

• Networking:

A blog is a place where you can share your thoughts on a specific topic and connect with like-minded people who are interested in what you do.

I started off this blog with 0 readers, but it quickly grew. Now everyone who visit my blog in interested in BLOGGING, and they connects with me on Twitter and Google+.

Today blogging has connected me with thousands of like minded people who loves what I love.

• Authority:

Blogging has given me an opportunity to establish myself as an expert and helped me build authority in my field by sharing legitimate advice and by helping people through blogging.

• Income:

Blogging is one of the best ways to make money online, but make sure that you blog about a topic you’re passionate about and don’t just blog for money.

Keep in mind that a blogger’s job is to do the work at first, and serve the needs of your audience. If you do blogging with full passion and potential, you’ll of course make money doing it.

• Fun:

It’s a lot of fun sharing your ideas and advice on a topic you’re interested with others. Isn’t it?

Enough of the potentials of blogging tough, now let me show you how to blog!

Starting a Blog Table of Contents:

This is definitely a long guide. In order to make it easy for you to go navigate through all the information on starting a blog, here’s the list of 20 tips and advice you can go through this long.

1. Planning a Blog
2. Choose a perfect blog topic
3. Choose a good domain name
4. Get a hosting
5. Get on the right Blogging Platform
6. Set up WordPress
7. Choose a WordPress theme
8. Install Necessary WordPress plugins
9. Secure your WordPress blog
10. Start writing and improve your writing skills
11. Include images in your posts
12. Do basic things to improve your blog
13. Network with other bloggers
14. Learn SEO to improve your blog
15. Go global with Guest Posting
16. Leave comments on other blogs
17. Be open minded
18. Come up with blog post ideas
19. Pay attention to your readers
20. Learn every aspect of Blogging with Guide and News

This is the top 20 tips and advice with absolutely everything you need to know about starting a blog successfully.

You ready? Let’s dive in the details of it.

Planning a Blog:

Successful blogs always create a blog plan, and It’s important to give your blog a path to follow.

Unlike most of the bloggers who blog randomly and hope for the success, successful bloggers always know what they should do to get what they want.

They always outline the strategies, propose the tactics, and list the tasks to be done to achieve their goals. In other words, they plan to success.

Planning will help in:

• Getting your blog on the right track
• Finding your blog’s voice
• Determining your goals
• Building authority and trust
• Anticipating the challenges and risks

If you want a complete blueprint on planning out a successful blog, you should definitely read my article on planning a blog where I’ve covered everything you need to DO and KNOW before launching a new blog.

Choose a perfect blog topic:

“The journey of thousand miles starts with one step”

Similarly your blogging journey starts with the right topic selection and choosing the perfect topic for your blog will decide whether you fail or succeed online.

People will only read your blog If you write quality and useful articles in a specific topic that serves their needs, so how could you write a quality article on a topic you don’t have any knowledge on.

One of the common mistake bloggers are making these days is that they aren’t blogging for a particular group of people and writing about too many topics on their blog which is confusing their readers.

Make it clear who the blog is for, say to a particular group of people, and target the specific audience.

Read my guide on choosing a perfect topic for your blog to avoid choosing wrong topic and get ideas on some of the money making topics on that post to give you better idea about present bogging scenario.

Choose a good domain name:

A domain name is your blog’s address on the web, like www.YourBlog.com.

A good domain name that makes for people easier to find you is the first and most important step of being a successful blogger.

Domain name plays a huge role in your internet presence and It is the key to success in blogging or any other online business.

Forget yourname.blogspot.com or yourname.wordpress.com. Get your own personal domain name for your blog that must be brandable, SEO friendly and user friendly. See the ultimate guide on how to choose a domain name.

Get a web hosting:

If you’ve registered a good domain name for your blog, now you need to find a best web hosting service.

The web hosting is known as “space” on the web to put your blog files, images, articles and theme etc.

There are millions of web hosting companies on the internet offering different packages according to the needs of the customer.

It is very daunting task for a newbie to find a perfect web hosting service because there are a lot of things to consider before choosing a web hosting service, with that keeping in mind I have written a guide on how to choose a web hosting service that will help you to decide on the best hosting service.

Recommended hosting:

My choice is Bluehost for the easiest install and It is the best hosting service for WordPress bloggers. If you’ve any doubt, read my ultimate Bluehost review for WordPress bloggers where I’ve shared the top 10 features of Bluehost that makes it different from other hosting providers.

Get on the right Blogging Platform:

The most common question comes in mind when starting blogging is “where to blog?”

There are a lot of blogging platforms you can start with like Blogger, Tumblr, Typepad, Posterous etc, but you will be benefit more from WordPress.org

If you want to be a successful blogger and willing to make money blogging than you need to think about the right blogging platform.

A couple of months ago I discussed about this topic briefly on which blogging platform to choose which can help you through the process of choosing the right blogging platform.

If you start with WordPress.org, you’ll get:

1. Easy to customize themes and designs to make your blog look however you want
2. Your own domain name without .blogspot, .tumble or .typepad
3. Easy setup and use
4. Access to premium themes, just like Theme Junkie
5. Plugins feature which is a life saver
6. Unlimited ways to make money blogging
7. Improved SEO
8. Massive support from real expert people

It’s more easy to launch a blog on WordPress.org than It seems to be. The process is just to choose a hosting plan, register a domain name and install your WordPress blog.

Set up WordPress:

If you’ve been here for any amount of time, you might know that I suggest everyone to blog on WordPress.org, because there’s a lot of reasons for this.

WordPress powers the 22% of all websites worldwide and as of 2o13 is the most popular blog software.

I’ve already shared some tips on how to install a WordPress from Cpanel on your hosting in my post I’ve linked above which says “Which blogging platform to choose”, so now the next step is to set up a WordPress blog after install.

Now If you’ve registered a domain name and selected the best hosting service, It’s time to go through some steps that are essential to perform to fully set up your WordPress blog.

• Manage author: After installing your WordPress blog, you need to remove the default admin account for better security and create a new account making yourself the administrator. After removing the default account, go to your WordPress dashboard, click on Users > Add News and fill out the form.
• Change the permalinks: The default posts permalink in freshly installed WordPress blogs is like http://www.guideandnews.com?p=420 which is too annoying. In order to make it SEO and user friendly, you need to change it to something like http://www.guideandnews.com/starting-a-blog. You can go to Setting > Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard to make these changes.
• Set up general settings: Navigate to your WordPress dashboard, click on Settings > General and fill out the form of general settings correctly. If you need help in setting up the general settings of your WordPress blog, leave your question in the comments!
• Upload and activate your theme: If you’ve found a theme for your blog and want to install it, go to the Appearance > Themes > Install theme. Upload your theme and activate it.

I know there are a lot of other useful steps that I’ve missed which should be taken to successfully set up a WordPress blog. If you got another one, add a comment!

Choose a WordPress Theme:

Selecting of a perfect WordPress theme is a frustrating process for almost every newbie blogger.

When It comes to WordPress themes, there are two types of WordPress themes: free WordPress themes and premium WordPress themes.

The first process is to decide you want to use a free theme or premium theme.

Free themes are really great just because they’re FREE, so If you want to consider your blog as a business and you want to make money from your blog than you need to spend money on premium themes.

If you want to start a persona blog to explore your interest, you can use a free theme, but If you consider your blog as a business and you’re serious with this BLOGGING this, you should spend money on premium ones.

Pick a theme related to your topic or industry:

The most important step of choosing a perfect theme is that you should find a theme related to your blog niche. e.g. If you have a news related blog than Newspaper type WordPress theme is perfect theme for you or if you have a photography related blog than find a perfect theme which suits your blog content.

If you’re having trouble on choosing a theme for your blog, you probably want to read my guide on how to choose a WordPress theme.

Install necessary Wordpres plugins:

Plugins are blog add-ons that do a lot of things for your WordPress blog, like show popular posts, social sharing buttons and related posts etc. There is a plugin for any WordPress feature you can think of.

There are approximately 22,801 plugins in WordPress plugins directory at a time of writing this which makes it quite difficult to discover the beneficial addition to your blog.

WordPress has proven Itself a dependable bogging platform due to It’s easy to use and install, that is the reason I’m madly in love with WordPress.

If you’ve just started a blog with WordPress and you aren’t familiar with useful WordPress plugins to use, here’s the list of some of my favorite WordPress plugins:

• Akismet: Protects your blog from spam comments.
• All in one SEO: Best plugin to handle SEO concerns of your blog.
• TF Social share: The plugin to show social sharing buttons in your posts, see below!
• nRelate: Shows related posts, see below!
• XML Sitemaps: Allows you to create XML sitemaps easily and quickly.
• Broken Link Checker: Notifies you about broken links and missing images on your blog content.
• Login Lockdown: A must have WordPress plugin to secure your WordPress blog.
• WordPress Popular Posts: A simple plugin to show popular posts widget on sidebar, check out mine on the right.

Have I missed any other useful WordPress plugin? Let me know with your comment below!

Secure your WordPress blog:

It scares everyone If someone hacked their blog, especially when they spent hours on building their blog.

What If your blog was a target of a rookie hacker, honing his skills to make it to the big league? All of the hard work you put on your bog, hundreds of hours you spent on building your blog, growing your traffic and readership would be lost forever.

If you want to run a serious blog than you must however take the security of your blog very seriously. With that keeping in mind I’ve written about some WordPress security tips to help you secure your blog.

Start writing and improve your writing:

Write the best articles you can. It is no doubt that an effective writing is a blessing for a blogger and people will love to read your content If they life your writing style.

You need to engage your readers, encourage conversations, make them enjoy and keep them interested with your writing skills. If you’re going to say what everyone else is saying, don’t bother saying it because, you’ll sound stale and trite. Read my post on how to improve writing skills.

Keep in mind that great content matters so much and every new visitor to your blog will subscribe If they see your content is useful, so share your experience and know-how and publish it.

Include images in your posts:

See how many images I used in this post? Doesn’t it look good?

I know it does, even an image is enough to spice up a blog post.

I always use images on each of my blog post because I know the power of it.

Images gives the reader a chance to click through that post even If they don’t want to and having an image to your blog posts will improve the look and design of your blog and make it more appealing, so always find a good and catchy images in your blog posts.

Urgent tasks to do after blog launch:

Now If you’ve launched your blog reading the guide above, It’s time to post-launch period, isn’t it?

So here are some critical must-dos for you and your newly launched blog.

• Change your theme: It’s quite easy to change the theme of your blog. Go to appearance > Themes > Install Themes > Upload and then find your theme. You can search for free themes, or you can browse premium themes, like Theme Junkie which I’ve used for about 2 years.
• Create an about me page: Write an everlasting about me page immediately after your blog launch. If a reader is curious about what your blog covers, they’ll read the about me page to find out more. If It’s missing, they’re gone.
• Allow visitors to subscribe via email: Let your visitors subscribe to your blog via email and for newbies Feedburner may be great option, but many people still don’t know how to use it. Email is preferred way to subscribe to content, so make sure not to neglect it.
• Sign up for Google Analytics: Google analytics will help you to track your visitors check the traffic stats of your blog. Analytics offer a wealth of data that can improve your blog.
• Verify your blog in Google webmaster tools: Verify your blog in Google webmaster tools and let Google send traffic to your blog and tell you what to improve on your blog.
• Build a sitemap for your blog: Build a sitemap for your blog to allow the search engines to easily find and index your blog archives. Google XML Sitemaps is a great WordPress plugin to build a sitemap for your blog.

Network with other bloggers:

I’ve written tons of articles on my blog about the importance of relationship building and why It’s important for bloggers.

According to me, It’s one of the best strategy to grow a blog because no matter what niche you’re in, you have to build a community of people related in what you do on your blog.

I’ve making en effort to responding to every comment on my blog because the interaction is what’s important. The long term goal of mine is to build a huge community on my blog, build authority and credibility. It’s time consuming, but It’s a lot of fun too. Below are few ways to network with other bloggers and build relationship with them:

• Get on social media: You want to be where other bloggers and your readers are, these days people are on social media like Twitter, Facebook and few other socializing platforms.
• Comment on other blogs: Commenting on other blogs in your niche is one of the best way to connect and build relationship with them. It can bring in lots of benefits If used widely.
• Join blogging communities: Blogging communities are where all blogging elites hangs out and few of the best blogging platforms which you should join are Blog Engage, BloKube and Bizsugar.

Learn SEO to improve your blog:

You might already know the importance of SEO (search engine optimization). Without having sufficient knowledge about SEO, you cannot be a successful blogger at all.

SEO had became a large part of blogger’s lives and If you want to make money out of your blog, than you have to learn the SEO strategies, tips and techniques to get organic traffic on your blog from search engines.

Now a days, Internet itself is a treasure of information about SEO as information are shared widely and most frequently, so you don’t need to go anywhere and to spent money to learn SEO.

I’m also a learner of SEO and I’m still researching and cannot entitle myself as an optimizer, but I know what have worked for me and what haven’t, so I shared them on my post on SEO tips where I’ve written all you need to know about SEO and top 10 SEO optimization tips to get 1st rank on Google.

Go global with Guest Posting:

If you think you can blow up by just starting a blog and writing on your own blog, sadly It doesn’t work like this.

Smart bloggers write all around the globe to get their name out there.

Guest posting is one of the best and most effective way of connecting with other bloggers, getting traffic and backlinks from other reputable blogs.

Guest posting is when you write an article for another blog in your niche. At first It may seem like volunteering for the competition, but actually helps you both on the long run.

Guest posting will help you get yourself on those circles where the blogging elite hangs out. Practically this is the easiest way to build connections, while allowing others to see you as an expert on the subject. See how guest posting on other sites can help new bloggers.

Leave comments on other blogs:

If there’s one piece of advice for building traffic to a blog for newbie bloggers more than any other, It is about leaving comments on other blogs.

Through commenting on other blogs, you’ll be reaching out to other bloggers in your niche and It is the start of fruitful relationships.

So, whenever you found something interesting to read, leave meaningful comments, bookmark blogs in your niche and revisit them regularly to build relationship with the blog owner.

Leaving comments on other blog has a lot of benefits If used widely. Read 5 things I did to increase my blog comments.

Be open minded:

Be open minded, and always be on the lookout for new things that can help you improve your blog.

You need to be experienced in order to take your blog in the right direction, and experience comes by trying, by learning new things and by being open minded.

It’s good to collect as much information as you can collect and increase your knowledge of blogging and your niche.

Read other blogs in your niche, exchange experiences and write guest posts for each other and so on. Always try to be a learner and improve your blog.

Come up with blog post ideas:

There are times when bloggers don’t feel of writing and they feel their mind is empty of ideas to write on their blog.

Everyone runs out of things to write on their blog and this is one of the biggest challenge every blogger will face.

What to do in this case? Well, what you need is inspiration and you don’t have to force it out.

Read as much as you can, take notes and get inspiration and ideas for your future blog posts. Read my post on 10 ways for finding blog post ideas.

Pay attention to your readers:

Do anything of the blue to acknowledge your readers, show them that you value them, connect with them on social media, highlight them to your other readers and convert first time visitors into returning readers.

You should strive to build loyal readership for your blog because money comes automatically when you’ve targeted traffic and loyal readers and subscribers on your blog.

Build loyal readership first and than convert those readers in customers and make money from your blog, That is one of the best way to make money blogging.

Here’s the 10 ways to make your readers love your blog and 5 ways to gain the trust of your readers which you should definitely read to power up your blog.

Learn every aspect of Blogging with Guide and News:

Guide and News, aka Guide to Blogging community is a very cool community of bloggers where you’ll learn tips, tricks and strategies that can help you grow your blog.

I’ve written hundreds of articles on the strategies to help bloggers, so If you’re new here, brew a cup of coffee and start by reading my welcome post that I’m sure will convince you to stay around.

Aside from bookmarking this blog, there are certainly other ways to keep in touch.

If you want to get the best of the blogging community then subscribe to my email list, and I’ll send you a copy of my eBook “Starting a Blog 101″

Yep, I’ve written a whole book for you, and It’s FREE right now. It’ll be until the 1000 copies have been downloaded.

I also wrote a post on the insiders view of how I launched my eBook to help you launch yours.

Sound cool huh?

Use the form below to join the community and grab your copy of “Starting a Blog 101″.

Further reading to really power up your blog:

Now If you’ve launched your blog, congrats! It’s time to get to work by reading this posts.

• How to secure your WordPress blog
• How to set up Google authorship
  
• How to get indexed by Google fast
• How to get Google sitelinks
• How to convert first time visitors into returning readers
• Top SEO optimization tips to get 1st rank on Google
• 8 things to consider before publishing your next blog post
• How to spice up every blog post
• Get your blog on the right track
• And more.

What now?

I hope that you’ve found the post to be helpful one that has given you complete guide on starting a blog and taking it to the next level.

I love blogging and I think It’s the best way to make money online.

But It’s not easy!

Don’t let people tell otherwise.

I’d like to finish off by saying that I’m here for you, not only as a guide when you begin or continue your blog, but as a friend. So If you have questions regarding any blogging step, ask me by posting a comment below. I’d love to hear from you and answer questions on blogging topics.

If you’ve ever wanted a guide to deciding between starting a blog or buying a blog – this is a post for you to bookmark for future reference.

Please give Shahzad a warm welcome, enjoy the post and SHARE.

If you are regular visitor of the guide to blogging community, you might have found a lot of articles discussing about starting a blog from scratch. You might have also read the eBook on starting a blog 101 written by Ehsan.

Being said that, It’s really difficult to start a blog from scratch and take It to the next level. You know It needs a lot of time and hard work.

I rather find buying blog as a much easier and better task comparing to starting a newer one again and have recently bought one myself.

But, It does need some kind of skill and knowledge, so If you’ve never had a blog before, and want to start your first one – than starting might be a better decision for you rather than buying.

When should you start a blog?

Though I am a great fan of buying an existing blog that has nice traffic, engaging community and quality content, buying blog is not a right decision for everyone.

Here I’ll explain who should consider starting a blog instead of buying.

1. If you are total newbie:

If you are new to blogging or any other kind or internet business I’ll suggest you to start a blog from scratch instead of buying an existing one.

Buying blog can be much riskier especially because you got to spend nice amount of money for the acquisition. So better to create a new blog and learn how internet business and marketing works.

Starting out is always easier. You just need to buy a domain and hosting, install and set up WordPress, start to write content and publish it. It is about spending less. So obviously risk is also less.

2. If you don’t want to spend enough money:

Are you looking for spending some bucks for buying a quality blog? Then for sure, you are on the wrong way.

There were days when people sold out their high traffic blogs for few bucks. It was before the advent of Flippa. But now things have been changed a lot. You can never get a quality blog for few bucks.

I said spend ‘enough’ only not more. You can still bargain. But never ever try to get a low quality blog. It would not be a right decision for long run.

3. If you don’t want to take risk:

For me buying is breeze. It is like playing a game Full of fun…

However, buying a blog can be much riskier if don’t know what each and every Google Analytics data indicates.

Before jumping to buy a blog, you are required to analyze the Analytics and earning stats of the blog and should determine the performance and potential of it.

Anyhow, after buying never expect that everything will be going as you wish. So be prepared to take risk or just go on and start a blog instead of buying.

Read: The ultimate Bluehost review for WordPress Bloggers

When you should buy a blog?

2 months ago I was just a below average blogger… with no yearly blogging plans, no enthusiasm, striving harder for getting more traffic to my old blog. To be honest I was literally trying to reinvent the wheel.

But I’ve made a better decision. I moved forward and found a suitable blog in my passionate niche and just bought it.

Within 60 days since the acquisition I’ve learned a lot, create more recognition for myself in the blogosphere, crossed my overall monthly earning records and still moving forward to cover more milestones.

Though buying can be risky. There are a lot of advantages of buying blog. Here are some of them.

1. Leeeaaaap forward in blogging:

Building blog from the ground up is very very slow process.

At first you got to get a good domain name and hosting. Secondly install WordPress, themes and necessary WordPress plugins on your host.

Then craft some content that no one reads. Go everywhere in the world and spread the word of your blog.

Trying to start link building??…Stop!? Wait until Google sandbox period is over. Hunt for traffic and repeat the whole process forever. Got tired? Check the stats… you got pissed, right?

Nuff said… This is why I prefer buying blog. Just buy it and start rocking! It is so simpler.

2. Merge with your current site:

Do you have any kind of website or blog and wanted to bring it to next level?

Then you should buy another site on the same niche and merge it with your current website or blog. Now you’ll have a single website with more content, increased traffic and obviously that make more money!

Merging of many sites to a single site can be a nice idea especially if you have more than one website with high quality content and each have less traffic.

3. To sell it again:

Buying and selling blogs can be a great business. But in this case you got to be more professional.

If you are buying a blog for selling it again for big price, then you should spend more time to write more great content, to get more traffic and to monetize it further.

This may take few months or years. However, once you find that your blog has grown to saturated level beyond which it would harder to get more traffic and make more money, consider selling it for big price.

Note that having nice performance stats for your blog means more money you can make it by selling it away.

4. Buying is great investment:

If I had more money I would have consider buying more online digital assets as investment rather than investing it on offline premises.

By buying a website you are building a business. According to your approach this can be considered as either passive or active business.

Comparing to offline investments, online investment would have higher ROI (Return on Investment).

Final thoughts:

If you are someone who is literally reinventing the wheel on your blog, I would suggest you to look back and learn where you’ve made mistake.

Check if the niche you are blogging is a right one. Start considering building another one or buying, but make sure that you never do the mistakes again!

Over to you:

So what do you think about buying or building blogs? Share your thoughts in comments section.

Shahzad recently bought a blog WPBlogTips.com. Read his complete guide of buying and selling websites here