The Ultimate Guide To Creating An Awesome Blog

Blogging is a very good career for many people. Some successful people who blog get to live the lifestyle that they want, work and live where they want while doing want they love and are passionate about. Sounds like a great job? There are people making thousands if not millions of dollars from just blogging. Many people are making a lot of money from blogging. Examples include Pat Flynn, John Chow and Man vs Debt.

In this article we will show you how you can design and create your own blog from scratch and make money from it straight away. We will show you step by step on how to do it and what to do. We will also train to make it entertaining along the way. No guarantees, though. For those of you that don’t know, a blog is an online log which users can post content and text to. People can also comment and join discussions on the blog.

Blogs used to be used as an online journal and people used to record their thoughts and use their blog as an online diary but nowadays blogs are almost on any topic including health and fitness, internet marketing, business, football and almost anything else you could think of. You can start a blog and write about anything. A blog is a great way to get your voice heard and voice your opinion.

Creating your own blog can be easy and if your blog becomes successful, you will have a massive following and can command a massive influence on things. If your blog becomes successful you can become an authority on the thing you are writing about and be known as a specialist.

Many people use a blog as the foundation of their business and build around it including launching products and services, selling mobile apps or use it as a platform to become authored as an author. You can also you a blog to spread an idea.

There are a couple of options you can go for when it comes to creating your own blog and choosing a platform for your blog. You can choose a between a number of hosted websites like Blogger, Tumblr or WordPress.com. This just means that it is hosted on their services, so you do not own the content and they can do whatever they want with the content. You do not have to pay for hosting. You can still buy and attach a domain name to your blog.

The other option is to use the self hosted option. This means you have to pay a monthly hosting fee to have your blog hosted on your own server. It is usually a small fee a month but it is worth it because you have your own server and can do whatever you want as its yours.

You will have to use a content management system along with the self hosted option. An awesome content management system is WordPress.org. WordPress allows you to build amazing blogs and other websites like job board websites, video blogs, online store or photo gallery as well as many other websites, all you have to do is choose the correct theme and plugins. Most web hosts have a quick and simple one click install option for WordPress and you can literally have your site set up in minutes.

Whether you use to self host your blog or have it already hosted depends on your skill and experience. If you are skilled blogger then you should self-host your blog however if you are a newbie and just starting out or just wondering if blogging is for you, then you should choose an already hosted option and choose something like Blogger.

In this guide we will be using WordPress.org and will be using the self hosted option. In our personal opinion it is much better to self host the website yourself as it is more professional and ends up being more secure. As well as that servers usually load up faster and websites created with WordPress just look awesome. Just check out the WordPress showcase for some examples.

A great hosting company that we use is Bluehost. They have exceptional customer service and amazing value. If you have any problems, their customer service will solve your problem for sure. Bluehost also have the option for one click WordPress install.

Simple video showing you how to install WordPress on your Bluehost hosting account

Above is a video showing you how how to install WordPress on your Bluehost hosting account, however if you would rather read how to do it then carry on reading.

When you choose Bluehost as a host you get a free domain name along with your hosting. A domain name is basically the address of your website. So for example www.google.com or www.themarketingguy.net.

Tips on choosing the correct Domain Name

You can also get a domain name from Go Daddy from around $8-$10 a year but then you would have to transfer your domain name to Bluehost. Go Daddy also do hosting however Bluehost have a much easier user interface and it is a much better experience overall.

Finding a good domain name can be hard at first. All the good domain names are took up. Most one word domain names are took up so you might have to use two or three word domains.

The most important thing to remember is to make your domain name memorable because this is the thing that people will use to access your website. Try choosing a name related to your niche. So if your site is about bodybuilding it should have something to  do with bodybuilding in the title. It shouldn’t be called something like  www.racecarfour1.com. Let’s take the bodybuilding site for example, if you want a good memorable domain name for that you could choose www.simplebodybuilding.net.

Try to make your domain name the same as your company name so that there is no confusion. Lets take our site for example. Our domain name is www.themarketingguy.net and the name of our company is The Marketing Guy. It is alot easier for the user to remember.

Try making the name as unique as possible while trying to make sure you have a .com, .net, .co.uk or other top domain extensions. It does not matter too much about this but try to get it right.

If you want to buy a domain that someone already has purchased you can do this through Go Daddy Broker Service. If you want a domain name that is unavailable, Go Daddy Broker will be the middle man between you and the website owner. If the person is willing to sell, Go Daddy will negotiate a price that both you and the other party are happy with. You are assigned with your own personal domain agent and they will negotiate for you.

Obviously you will be paying more for using their Broker service and you don’t actually need to use it however if you really want a domain name that has been took up than maybe its time to use Go Daddy Broker Services.

Registering your Hosting and Domain Name

There are many domain name providers and hosting providers out there. You can use Just Host, Hostgator and many others out there. But the one we highly recommend is Bluehost. Bluehost is the host we use and as we have said before they are amazing. You get a free domain name when you take out their hosting package. The best thing about it all is that you can host an unlimited amount of domains on your Bluehost hosting account.

So it is not only limited to you only having one domain name. You can attach a multiple amount of domain names to your hosting account.

Step 1 – Go onto the Bluehost website and click sign up or ‘get start now’. If you already have a domain name you can transfer it to Bluehost, free of charge. This is a very quick and easy process. Bluehost will help you transfer your domain name to Bluehost and it only takes around 5-10 minutes. However if you do not already have a domain name then it is not a problem at all. Type the domain name in that you would like and click next. If the domain name is available it will take you to the next page, if not it will give you suggestions for different domain names.

 

Step 2 – Fill in all your personal details and choose the hosting package that you would like. We recommend choosing the 24 month package, which should be about $4.95 a month. Bluehost will try to up sell extras however it is not really necessary to buy the extras. If you want you can make domain registration private but this is not necessary either. This just makes your details private so people cannot see who owns the domain name. Once finished click next.

Step 3 – When you have done this you should have your username and password. Login to your cPanel(Control Panel) and you should be able to install WordPress from there. From the main Control Panel, click on the WordPress icon. Here it will start to load the Mojo Marketplace. Don’t Worry, this is all part of the installation. Click the Start a new Install button. Chose the domain name you want it to install WordPress on (if you have more than one domain). Once installed you will get your own WordPress login and password.

Step 4 – Your WordPress site is ready to go! It is all setup. You can edit your WordPress site by entering into your browser www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin. Obviously you are going to change yoursitename.com to your own domain name. Your WordPress login page should look like this.

Plugins

Plugins are extensions to your WordPress site. They extend your site to do almost anything . There are some amazing plugins out there that are honestly unbelievable.

These are just some of our favourite plugins. There are thousands of awesome plugins and it can take a long time to go through all the plugins. Pick some. Some of the great plugins extend your site to do stuff like add extra features, make your site into an e-commerce store, photo gallery, add social media buttons and many more great things. Below are just some of the plugins that we like to use:

WordPress SEO by Yoast – In my opinion the best SEO plugin out there for WordPress.. Extend your sites SEO features. By using this you will honestly increase the ranking of your blog in search engines like Google and Yahoo. The plugin also gives you helpful hints and tips on improving the PageRank of your site and articles. This will lead to you getting better traffic and more better traffic.

It analyses your content brilliantly and tells you how you can improve the functionality of your site as well as the META description and title among other things. This is the only Plugin you will be needing for SEO. If you want more tips on how to get to the top of the search engines, then check this article out.

S2 Member Membership Plugin – S2 Member is a truly revolutionary plugin that allows you to turn your WordPress site into a fully functional membership site. You can start charging money for people joining your site and becoming a member of your site and you will be able to collect payments from them in a number of ways including PayPal.

The plugin integrates well with email marketing clients like MailChimp and Aweber and is also compatible with a number of 3rd party applications including Share-a-Sale and Commission Junction.

Viperbar -This plugin adds an attractive bar at the top of your site in which you can advertise your email list or RSS feed. Viperbar helps increase your conversation rate to your email list or RSS feed. It integrates well with MailChimp and Aweber.

This plugin does wonders for building your email list and you will notice you will get more subscribers. The great thing is you can customize it to how you want including changing the message and colour of the bar!

Shareaholic – This awesome plugin adds a sleek and sexy social bookmarking and sharing widget to your posts and pages. You can also add a related content widget to your site with this plugin. It includes all the popular social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and many others.

Shareaholic also provides analytics and tells you how many people have been sharing your content, which in my opinion is a very useful feature to keep track of sharing. This will be the only plugin that you will need to help increase your social media popularity.

 

WooCommerce – Have you ever wanted to sell your own products on your own online store? The only problem is that web developers are quoting you thousands of dollars to develop and create the online store. Don’t worry, we have a solution for your problem. WooCommerce from WooThemes turns your WordPress site into a fully functional E-Commerce site. The best thing is that this plugin is absolutely free!

Through WooCommerce, you can accept many different payment methods including Bank transfer and PayPal. You can keep track off how much sales you make and what you are selling right from your WordPress dashboard. You can also buy plenty of extensions through WooThemes that will extend WooCommerce‘s features to work even better. Themes are available also, and you can purchase a theme to completely change the look of your site that has been specifically designed to work with WooCommerce.

Google Analytics – Google Analytics is a great application which you can track your website visitors. You can check who visits your site, where they come from, their demographics, gender and much more. Google Analytics is available as a WordPress plugin as well as a standalone app. You can easily set it up in less than 5 minutes.

If you would like to check out some more amazing plugins that will completely change your blog, then check this article out.

Pick out an Amazing Theme

Once you install a new theme onto your site, it changes the whole look and functionality of your site. The great thing about WordPress is that there is thousands and thousands of different themes to play about with. So you can find and choose the one you like and just download and install it. Its as simple as that.

There are plenty of themes out there that are completely free however there are tons of themes that are paid and range from a couple of dollars to hundreds of dollars. It all depends on the theme you buy.

Profit WP Theme – Is your website not making as much money as you want it to? Then you need this theme. This helps you increase the click through rate of your Google AdSense Ads.  It is very easy to use and is simple to customize. Profit WP Theme makes it easy for you to get ranked in search engines and get tons of traffic completely for free.

 

Appendipity Themes – These themes are spectacular! They are very beautiful and they are all fully responsive, meaning that the themes adapt to different browser sizes, resolutions and devices. So this means whatever your user views your website on whether it be laptop, computer, tablet or mobile phone; your website will look absolutely beautiful. The best thing about Appendipity Themes is that you can purchase al their themes for a discounted price and then you have full ownership of all their themes.

 

WordPress Theme Bundle – You get full access and ownership to 475 premium WordPress themes. And you get them for a fraction of the price that they should cost. You get access to premium themes from the likes of top developers such as WooThemes, iThemes, Studiopress, Theme Junkies and many others.

This bundle saves you over $3000 as well as being SEO ready. Plus there are other bonuses including free reports, free software, free video training courses and more premium themes as well as a 60 day money back guarantee. You really don’t want to miss out on this

Thesis Themes – Some of themes that you find on the internet end up looking similar to each other. You can fix this problem by buying themes from Thesis Themes. They are very sleek and beautiful and just look awesome.

 

There are also many themes out there that are free. There is nothing wrong with getting free themes and some are just as good as some premium themes out there. You can have a look at thousands of themes on the WordPress.org website and take your pick.

I would also recommend you check some of these articles out to help you find the theme you like:

• 35 Free and Professional Looking WordPress themes
• The Best 40 WordPress Themes
• 275+ Free Responsive WordPress Themes
• Selecting the Perfect Theme for WordPress
• Uncovering the Best WordPress themes (Free or Paid)

Writing Killer Content

Now that you have installed WordPress and got your WordPress site setup including a good theme and installing some plugins, you will want to get the proper work started; that is writing content.

It can be a headache coming up with fresh and original content. First you have to find a topic to write about. Then you have to do your research on the topic. Then you have to plan your content and plan out what is going to go in your article.

All this can be very time consuming. It can also give you a really big headache. You may experience writers block and feel like punching a whole through your computer/laptop. But then you realize that its pretty expensive and your guarantee has ran out.

You don’t have to do any of that. With this piece of software called WhizzPress you don’t have to do anything. WhizzPress does all the hard work for you. WhizzPress creates awesome engaging content for your blog so you don’t have to. You can just put your blog on autopilot and let WhizzPress do all the work for you. It even works with multiple blogs.

If you purchase WhizzPress through our link you will a massive discount of nearly $200! Also normally you would have to pay a monthly fee but if you purchase WhizzPress through our link you will only have to pay a one of fee and it will be yours.

There is also another software called WordPress Article Automation. This nifty software helps you to create unique articles and content. This software lets you schedule content ahead of time and in about 40 seconds you can add 456 unique articles. As well as this awesome software, you also get bonuses along with it. You get a full 60 day money back guarantee when purchasing this product.

But for those of you that would rather write their own content and save on some money, we also have some advice and tips on how to write better quality content that will get you ranked better in search engines.

To start you will need to write a good headline. Your headline is one of the most important things for your article. It is the first thing that potential readers see. So it is really important that you get your headline right. A good tip on creating a great headline is to involve emotion. Newspapers and Magazines have been doing this for years. An example of headlines like this would be I’ll Never Look At This Inspiring Seventh-grader The Same Way Again or My Heart Broke After Hearing This One Statement.

Another great tip for creating an awesome headline is to let readers know what they are going to learn. This could be done in a number of ways. For example you could have a title like; 7 Things You Can Learn From Successful People or 10 Tricks That Will Help you Build Muscle. Try to include numbers into your headlines, for some reason people like seeing numbers in headlines. Make the headline interest and something that will get your reader to want to click on the article and read it.

Once you have got headlines down, you will want to create some killer content. You will want to grab the readers interest from the first paragraph. The first paragraph is the one of the first things that your reader will see and if it is boring or crap, then guess what, your potential reader will go somewhere else. You can do this by telling a story, cracking a joke, asking questions that involve the audience.

The post needs to have a purpose and a reason. What will your reader learn or benefit from reading the article. Is it a solution to a problem? Does it educate the reader? Make sure when writing your content you make it informative. Content is the main foundation of your blog. Without content your blog would not see much traffic.

Include a Call to Action at the end of the article. This could be a ‘connect with us on Facebook and Twitter’ or it could be you selling your product like ‘ If you would like to improve your ranking in Google, then you need to buy our product and its on sale for only 3 days for $xx’. It could even trying to sign them up to email list.

Also to generate discussion try including questions towards the end of the article. This doesn’t have to be anything philosophical or life questioning. It can just be questions related to your article. Or it could be questions like ‘ Did you enjoy this article’ or ‘What did you think of this article’ and ‘We would love to hear from you’.

If you need more advice on creating killer content that people will love, then you need to check this article out.

Here are some articles that will help you to run your blog efficiently:

• 5 Invaluable Lessons for Starting a Business Before Diving In
• Need a Business Idea? Here are 55
• How to Identify your Target Market
• 63 Free (or almost Free) Ways to Market your Business
• Using Social Media for Your Business
• How to Build a Business Empire Like Richard Branson

Conclusion

It can be very hard to build a blog at first, especially when you are new to this. You don’t know where to start and there are loads of people telling you different people, who do you listen to? This article is a great resource for creating your very own blog and gives you loads of information to create an awesome blog.

There are challenges in creating an blog and it wont be easy. Don’t think you will make your blog an overnight success. You still do have to work hard to bring traffic to your blog, write content and market your blog.

If you would like help with blogging then you need to join the Blog Success program. They setup your blog for you and help you all the way. They help you build and grow your email list, which is one of the most important things to do. This is a great training program and if you want help with blogging then you need to purchase the Blog Success program.

I would like to wish you luck on your journey to building a successful blog. If you have any questions please leave any questions in the comment section below and we will get back to you. I would like to thank you for reading this article.

If this article has helped you, I would appreciate it if you could share this on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

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