WordPress is a prevalent content management system (CMS), with 43% of all websites running on it. Many site owners opt for conventional web hosting as a self-hosted platform, regardless of running a personal page, blog, portfolio, or eCommerce site.

Many hosting companies, on the other hand, provide managed WordPress hosting. Compared to other types of web hosting, managed WordPress hosting provides several advantages and specialized features specifically designed for WordPress sites.

Continue reading for nine reasons you should pick managed WordPress hosting over normal web hosting if you use WordPress to develop your website.

WordPress Setup Made Simple

You’ll get an instant setup and basic plugins with a WordPress hosting service. Some hosting companies additionally offer a WordPress tutorial to assist users in setting up their hosting account and website.

Managed hosting allows you to manage many WordPress websites from a single account. As a result, you won’t have to switch between different configurations or hosting accounts.

WordPress-Specific Technical Assistance

Because WordPress is recognized for having a high learning curve, you may run into some technical difficulties. As a result, choosing WordPress hosting can help you navigate the process of website building and troubleshooting.

This is because WordPress hosting provides specialized technical support from WordPress experts. When configuring or resolving technical issues, having this information at your disposal can save you time. You’ll have more time concentrating on search engine optimization and marketing techniques.

Automatic Website Backup and Updates

Maintaining your website up to date is critical to avoid hacks and improve performance. WordPress automatically updates minor modifications on ordinary hosting, but site owners must initiate major upgrades.

Managed hosting, on the other hand, entails automatic updates. PHP updates are usually included, and some web servers additionally offer automated theme or plugin upgrades.

Furthermore, several hosting companies offer daily backups as part of their managed WordPress hosting package. Consequently, you won’t need to install any other plugins or deal with FTP accounts or phpMyAdmin to perform backups.

Improved Safety

WordPress is vulnerable to attacks because it is an open-source CMS. As a result, securing your WordPress website necessitates conscious effort. A managed hosting solution will provide you with a support team to assist you with this.

An SSL certificate is usually included with WordPress hosting services to encrypt your website. Some service providers include a website application firewall that filters and monitors website traffic. Managed hosting frequently provides built-in options to improve password enforcement, enable two-factor authentication, and limit login attempts for your administrator account’s security.

You may also use WordPress plugins to implement these security features on regular site hosting. However, setting it up yourself takes time and work, and it may not be as effective as the robust website security capabilities available with managed hosting.

Optimized Website Performance

Optimizing a website necessitates a thorough examination and ongoing monitoring of its entire performance. Server uptime, loading speed, features, and the website’s position in search engine result pages (SERPs) are all factors.

A managed WordPress hosting company helps you keep track of the technical aspects of your site and make recommendations for improvements. Websites hosted on WordPress hosting, for example, run on WordPress-optimized servers with the most up-to-date software to ensure peak performance.

That way, you can concentrate on developing high-quality website content and helping to improve site performance using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

Staging Environment with a Single Click

Some WordPress hosting companies include a staging environment as part of their managed hosting packages, while others charge extra. The staging environment serves as a replica of your website, allowing you to test changes and uncover issues before implementing them on the live site.

This feature can be useful for ensuring a safe website testing environment if you frequently experiment with your website or manage some clients’ WordPress websites.

Additionally, managed WordPress hosting providers can provide advice and tools to create an optimal workflow when making changes to your website.

Scalable Platform

You’ll need more hosting resources as your website expands. You may need to relocate the website to a new server in some cases, which may take time and money. Managed WordPress hosting, on the other hand, allows for easier website scaling.

Some WordPress hosting providers, for example, leverage cloud technologies to make resource upgrades easier. Others, meanwhile, offer a migration service to move rapidly-growing websites to a more advanced server.

Conclusion

Managed WordPress hosting is an ideal option for both beginners and experts. Although it may be more expensive than a standard hosting service, the additional resources, support, and optimized servers make it worthwhile.

IO Zoom is a privately held firm in Houston, Texas, founded in 2015. Our network is maintained by expert level administrators 24/7, and unlike others, we incorporate free DDoS protection of up to 10 Gbps with every plan. Don’t worry about missing out on web hosting opportunities! View our plans today. 

The post 7 Helpful Features of Managed WordPress Web Hosting appeared first on I/O Zoom.

Quicker Load Time

Most online users expect websites to load instantly. In a study, people click away after three seconds of waiting for a website to load. Every second wasted on a website to load is wasted potential. Therefore, it is crucial to choose a WordPress theme that’s quick to load—preferably less than three seconds.

Next, the theme should be clean, minimal, and well-optimized. The theme should also be easily optimized on the vendor level since the content management system offers optimized, hand-picked plugins. Before paying for the theme, test out its speed. However, if it’s free, evaluate its speed and performance first before applying.

SEO-Ready

Search engine optimization is a more necessary practice in content marketing. However, SEO is also important in choosing a suitable theme for your website.

A good theme should be well-coded to make it easy for web crawlers, or the search engine’s way to index all the information online, to go over it. Websites rank better if web crawlers can easily understand what’s the content all about. If they do not know what’s written on your website, it will be more challenging to rank on various search engines.

Easy Customization

Themes are the first thing that users see when they open your website. Themes must introduce the business, the brand, and what it stands for at first glance. Installing a theme that can be easily customized will make it easier for you to turn it into something that best represents your company.

By changing your website’s fonts, color schemes, and elements, people will quickly recognize that it’s your company that runs it. However, if the chosen theme has a fixed setting, it might be challenging to point to the path to which it should go. Most themes are customizable these days.

Responsive

In 2020, the number of unique mobile internet users stood at 4.28 billion—90 percent of the global internet population using mobile devices to go online. It’s safe to say that websites should adjust on any platform a user may use to go online, be it computers or mobile devices.

The recommended response for the growing number of mobile device users is to adopt a blog that employes a responsive web design—a design that automatically adjusts the layout and amount of content shown according to the aspect screen ratio of the device used. 

In effect, even if people go onto a website while using a tiny screen, they will still be able to interact with the page without adjusting for mobile devices size first.

Browser Compatibility

Users, in general, use various browsers to go online. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose a theme that will work on most browsers, if not all. Every browser can be different from the rest—some load texts too big, some load photos too small. 

The goal is to choose a theme that stays and looks the same in every browser that may be used. Meanwhile, for mobile devices, it’s all going to depend on how responsive the theme is. To test for compatibility, you can use a WordPress compatibility plugin.

Conclusion

Choosing the perfect theme shouldn’t only depend on how it looks on the website. Instead, it should support the website in any way possible. Most of WordPress’s themes are easily customizable, and every website designer wouldn’t have a hard time changing its aesthetics later.

Are you ready to launch your site? Catapult your online space through I/O Zoom’s WordPress VPS Hosting, available at affordable rates every month. Switch to a more cost-effective solution for website hosting by signing up on our website today.

The post 5 Great Attributes to Look For in WordPress-Hosted Themes appeared first on I/O Zoom.

Those running regular and professional websites can advance their level by using a virtual private server or VPS hosting for the security and advanced level extra features you can’t get on standard WordPress site hosting.

Today we’ll tackle some pointers on getting dedicated hosting services. A secure VPS host can help your budding site grow and level with professional sites.

Exclusive Hosting Features

WordPress has an easy-to-use dashboard and all the basic layout and site creation tools. But it is only limited in server capabilities—only suitable for small, independent startup sites on their servers. Here are the main reasons why this limitation will affect your site’s growth.

Site Security

In many WordPress comments sections, commenters have asked what the site host used is. Many fear losing the site content for some reason. We can backup our sites and save them elsewhere, but even backups may be lost or corrupted.

Site security hassles are easy for premium hosting since it has automated backup features. It keeps the most recent version ready for site restorations or other backup problems. Keeping sites safe from hacking or errors is much easier with competent VPS hosting services.

Cloud-Based Data Protection

WordPress uses a shared server, just like many other websites. Your data is more vulnerable in this kind of host server setting. Problems such as malware, data breaches, and unauthorized access on any of the other sites will affect yours. Hosting issues can also cause errors on your site.

Your site is safer with a secure VPS host under your control. The site will remain unaffected by errors and security issues.

High Performance

Active sites with heavy traffic and online purchases can slow down when the WP servers are overloaded or are also engaged with other heavy traffic. User experience quality will go down and can affect your ranking in addition to your regular users. Another issue is server downtimes, which means further lost earnings from selling and advertising.

We recommend a VPS as soon as possible if you want to remain steady. Downtimes are less likely in a dedicated server since your date will remain stable in the Cloud. In addition to exclusive server hosts, all WP updates run automatically to handle the most up-to-date changes to elements and plugins.

Final Thoughts

It’s your site’s time to evolve. But that will not happen on a regular WordPress server. You will be under the mercy of a public server without your control and security protocols. Any errors or site issues on their end will also end up on your site, causing hosting issues and slow sites—lost cash for businesses.

The best decision is to use a virtual private server to let you focus on your site. IO Zoom will handle the VPS hosting to keep your site secure and updated with competitive plans and pricing available. We’re just a message away for better site performance.

The post Why Your Business Needs a Dedicated WordPress Host appeared first on I/O Zoom.

The post cPanel WordPress Toolkit Launch appeared first on I/O Zoom.

These themes can also be responsive, letting them work on almost all devices around the world with minimal tweaking needed: you won’t have to re-design your free website over and over again to make your business work on mobile platforms, for example. A lot of them are also highly customizable, from colors right down to the way that they interact with particular parts of your website.

4) WordPress Isn’t Locked Down

One of the biggest problems with website builders is the fact that you create a site and are forced to use certain hosting options. Once you build a website, WordPress gets around this issue by using a wide pool of developers and contacts, meaning that you will never be locked in place and forced to deal with people that don’t gel with your business properly. You also get plenty of control over how your business website is hosted, how you are using WordPress, and the domain name of your site.

Not only does this offer you more freedom in general, but it also means that things like plugins aren’t restricted to a certain host: if you want to use something on your website, you can, regardless of who is managing your website or now you have set up the agreement. You can sometimes even install multiple plugins alongside each other and have them work together, or alter them yourself to change how they function. 

5) WordPress is Easy to Understand

WordPress makes great websites for free, and using WordPress never feels like a chore. Whether you want to create a full online store with open-source third-party shopping plugins or just set up a little blog site that you can use for your own rambling thoughts, it doesn’t take much effort to start using WordPress. You can throw a website up in 10 minutes or less and
tweak it as you see fit, with no need to consult any kind of verification system or fight against the plugins you are trying to use.

6) WordPress has a Great Reputation

Not only is WordPress a very reliable site in terms of security and performance, but it is often a recognized domain name. If you use WordPress, most people will be able to tell what “WordPress . org” or  “WordPress . com” is supposed to mean, even though WordPress . com,
and WordPress . org are technically two different websites. Companies that use WordPress don’t just improve the chance of them getting business, but it can also benefit their own reputation since they have a much lower chance of hosting viruses or loading slowly.

7) WordPress is Older

While this might seem like a bad thing at first, WordPress’s age makes it the perfect choice for building a website. If you use WordPress, you aren’t going to have to figure it out yourself. There are tens of thousands of tutorials for making a WordPress website across dozens of languages, and it isn’t hard to find guidance if you are stuck with a certain feature or detail. In fact, many plugins even come with their own tutorials to support the installation, and you rarely need any kind of direct assistance to make something work.

8) WordPress is Popular

WordPress, as a platform, will see millions of views every day, making it one of the biggest powerhouses in the blog world and an equally powerful hosting tool. At the very least, this kind of high-traffic hosting can mean that you are more likely to get new customers simply by being part of WordPress’ network, and that is on top of the improved SEO features that
can market your content to more people than most other platforms. A high market share is also never a bad thing when it comes to hosting.

This can also help if you are a new business, too. While hosting your own website can be more impressive in tech industries, having a well-made WordPress-based website can often make you seem far more professional and might even help you lock down business deals or secure support from people interested in what you offer.

9) WordPress is Accessible

WordPress is both a website builder and a coding tool, but thirty-party users don’t have to commit to one or the other. You can use WordPress as a drag-and-drop site through their themes and plugins or code an entire website from scratch, with plenty of opportunities to do both if you have the skills for it. On the other hand, if you are completely new to website
building and don’t know how to code anything, it is easy to piece together a functional site in a single afternoon.

10) WordPress Works

There are plenty of third-party hosting sites out there, but many people use WordPress anyway. Not only do people like WordPress, but it sounds like some people actively support WordPress because they want to see it grow and become better than ever before. Your only barrier to entry is a name, email address, and whatever skills you might need support with: in a short amount of time, you can make a website with every e-commerce and social media feature you want and need. If WordPress wasn’t effective, it wouldn’t have become so popular.

Why should I use WordPress for my website?

In general, WordPress is an amazing service, one that still continues to grow and expand with every major update. Features like improved SEO and extra plugins can be added at any time by both the WordPress team and the open-source community, so you are not stuck relying on a single company to update the platform: if something needs to be changed, somebody will
create their own plugin or code to make it work.

It is also a platform with no real downside. You get full access to a huge range of tools and optional extras, a massive community, hundreds of hosting options, and even have the opportunity to rebuild your site from scratch at any moment. Whether you are a large company owner or a single person who just needs a small place to show off their newest hobby-based creations, there is almost no problem with using WordPress at either a personal or professional level.

If you are interested in starting your own WordPress site, take some time to look into things you should do before your website launches so that you are prepared for the big reveal. On the other hand, if you are ready to start hosing straight away, come and see what kinds of benefits you can get from a WordPress host.

The post 10 Reasons to Use WordPress For Your Website appeared first on I/O Zoom.

You want to ensure that your WordPress website ranks high in SEO so that people who search for specific terms relevant to your content will find you.

As you know, there are thousands of search engine results for any term that you enter.

This is your competition, and to get views and engagement, you need to be able to stand out from the crowd.

We are going to help you do this by sharing the ten best WordPress SEO tips to improve the optimization of your website.

First Step: Find A Reliable VPS

Before you can work on search engine optimization, you first need to set up a WordPress site.

When it comes to VPS web hosting, you want to find an optimized platform that offers high levels of security to keep your data protected.

IO Zoom is the best hosting provider for WordPress. We have several hosting plans available for this site that include high-performance SSD and DDos Protection, so you can find the right hosting plan for your needs.

Not only is web hosting an important factor for security, but it can also enhance SEO organically and is one of the best practices to do for this reason.

When you have a secure, fast-loading, and reliable WordPress website, such as one protected by a web hosting provider like IO Zoom, it will rank higher on search engine results organically.

How To Increase SEO On Your WordPress Site

The following are the best WordPress SEO tips that are guaranteed to improve the search engine visibility of your website. With the following SEO tips, you will be making it easier for search engines to rank your website higher.

Google and other search engines have a specific list of considerations that go into the way they rank a website in their search results.

Using the following SEO tips will make your website rank higher in search engines and therefore gather more traffic and engagement.

1) Install Yoast SEO Plugin

Yoast is a WordPress SEO plugin that offers automatic search engine optimization and does everything from creating XML sitemaps to making URLs SEO friendly on WordPress.

This is a free plugin that you can add to your WordPress site and is an all-in-one SEO solution. Even if you do not have the time or the skills necessary to improve your SEO, this plugin will do it for you, which is why it is one of the best tips to use.

There are several SEO plugins available at WordPress, but Yoast is the most popular to use as it has a lot of free features you will want to use to get started.

You will need to locate the plugins section of your site and choose to Add New plugin to install Yoast.

Once this plugin has been installed on your site, you will now be able to optimize every blog post published to make it SEO friendly.

2) Find The Right Keywords

Creating content that is optimized for search engine rankings means that you are making sure it contains the relevant keywords that rank the highest in results. 

The more keywords you have within your content, the greater it will perform in Google search results.

You want to make it easy for your audience to find your posts and pages, so make sure to add keywords that are constantly searched into Google.

Before publishing, perform some keyword research and make sure you have a list of:

· The focus keyword for your content

· Alternative versions of the keyword

· Long-tail keywords to target specific people

3) Optimize The Title

The post name is another vital way to improve the SEO of your site, so effort needs to be put into writing it.

The title of your content must relate directly to the topic so Google can determine if it is relevant to the keywords people search for.

For this reason, the page title needs to include the main keyword in the title.

One of the best tips and tricks when it comes to writing titles for a post or page is to make sure that the keyword is as near the beginning of the title as possible. This is because Google and other search engines list website titles in their results.

4) Configure Subheadings

A website like Google will check your site and posts for subheadings to determine whether it is relevant to the keywords in your title.

This is one of the easiest WordPress SEO tips but is something a lot of website owners neglect.

All you need to do is format the subheadings within your content, so they are recognized. Just putting them in bold or underlining them is not enough. What you need to do is give it H2 heading tags.

To do this, simply highlight the subheading, click the setting for the paragraph, and choose Heading 2 from the drop-down menu.

It is important that you choose the Heading 2 option, as blog posts should only have one Heading 1, and that is the title.

5) Add Keywords To The Opening Paragraph

Just like the Google search console assumes that you will add the keywords into the heading of your content, they also assume that you will do the same to your opening paragraph. 

Keywords are a vital part of SEO, and they need to be used in both internal and external elements of website content.

Adding keywords into the opening paragraph should be easy, as this should be an introduction to your content, and the main topic will need to be addressed. 

Without the main keyword in your opening paragraph, Google Search console will assume that your post is not about the topic mentioned in your title and will rank your site low in their results.

6) Add Keywords To The Closing Paragraph

This part of WordPress SEO is the same as above. To make sure that your website ranks high in search engine results, you need to continuously use keywords.

The last part of your post is considered to be a conclusion, which means that it is only natural for the main topic to be mentioned again as you sum up your points.

7) Keyword Density

Keyword density refers to the ratio of keywords against the size of your website content.

Search engines like Google will once again assume that as your content is focused on a specific topic, so the same keyword should be used throughout as you refer back to the main point. 

This is one of the trickier SEO ranking factors because it requires you to use the keyword a decent amount to be noticed by search engines, but not too much to impact the readability of your site.

If you use your keyword too sparingly, then search engines will not register it. But if you use it too much, they will think you are using black hat SEO tools that use keyword stuffing to add in as many keywords as possible and are not accepted on search engines. Using too many keywords on your site can result in you being penalized.

The best way to attract organic traffic to your site or social media is to ensure that you are using keywords enough without having to duplicate content.

8) Add Keywords To Meta Descriptions

We have already stressed the importance of keywords, so it should come as no surprise that they also need to be included in alt text and internal links.

Creating meta descriptions is something that can be done easily using Yoast SEO.

Through this plugin, you can create a concise meta description for your posts that will be used by search engines to determine the relevancy of your work.

To ensure that your website ranks high in results, ensure that keywords are used within the meta description.

9) Optimize Your Images

To ensure that your site is deemed high quality by search engines, all elements of the

XML sitemap need to be optimized for SEO. This includes the standard internal and external links, but one part of WordPress SEO that many people forget is the images.

Optimizing images means adding at least one alt tag to every image that is used on your site.

This is easy to do: simply go to the settings reading within the visual editor of your content and click the pencil icon. This will open an editing dialogue and is where you can write a short description of the image.

Ensure that this includes keywords to enhance the relevancy of your site permalink structure.

10) Check With Yoast

Yoast is the best WordPress SEO plugin for a reason, as it makes it easy to optimize your site and WordPress posts before publishing anything.

You can use this plugin to take a look at your blog posts before publishing to see what you need to amend for SEO.

The post 10 Tips To Increase Your WordPress VPS SEO appeared first on I/O Zoom.

Moving a website into a new host server, for instance, can be both stressful and frustrating. Most businesses eventually need to move to a new host due to specific problems, but the process itself can be rather challenging. Migration can be delayed, and mistakes often surface, leading to downtimes and damaged websites. 

Your WordPress website will eventually need an upgrade soon, thereby prompting you to take careful steps for migration. Thankfully, the process does not have to be daunting, so don’t let the fear of mistakes inhibit your plans for growth. 

The process of migrating your WordPress website can be very straightforward, so long as you follow the approach correctly. Any problems that may occur can also be reversed without any hassle. 

To ensure a smooth process, here is a step-by-step guide for you:

Step 1: Back up all your website files

The first and often-overlooked step to do before transferring your files to your WordPress site is to back up your website files. Backing up your files is an important step to prevent your hard work from disappearing or malfunctioning unexpectedly. This is especially important when you’re moving to a new host and making major overhauls.

This process can be automated through tools such as plug-ins, which have features that allow you to back selected files up at a designated destination and frequency. When you’ve successfully backed up your files, you can now proceed to the next step.

Step 2: Begin exporting your WordPress website database

Exporting your WordPress database requires you to access the phpMyAdmin application after logging into your cPanel account. Once you’ve opened the application, look at the sidebar on the left and select your WordPress database. After this, look for the Export option on the navigation menu. To export your database, click on Go, and your computer will automatically download the file after the export process.

Step 3: Begin the migration process 

Moving into your new host will require you to create a new database, which will then allow you to import all your important SQL data. To do so, you must log in to your new host account. Upon successful login, begin connecting to the cPanel software. 

The platform will allow you to keep track of the entire process, as it essentially acts as a control panel. Should your new host provider lack the software, don’t hesitate to contact customer support. They’ll help you figure out how to create new databases catered to their systems, so that your website can successfully be rehomed into a better host. 

Making the Complicated Easier to Digest 

As shown from the steps above, migrating onto a new hosting platform doesn’t have to be difficult. Your WordPress website need not suffer from irreversible damages—so long as you follow each step carefully, migration can be easy to perform. The key is to take your time and double-check your work. Make sure to keep your options available—should anything untoward happen, for instance, you’ll be able to bring back the original website version. The technical side of the business may be daunting, but with the right knowledge and tools, you’ll reach success.

If you require the services of web hosting professionals, however, I/O Zoom is ready to help. We are a privately owned company based in the USA, home to professionals catering to hosting solutions. We have over 8 data centers all over the world, ensuring that our clients have access to the best hosting services at affordable prices. We offer your fast servers, unparalleled uptime, and of course, excellent customer service. Amplify your business potential today—reach out to us to learn more. 

The post 3 Steps To A Successful Manual WordPress Site Migration appeared first on I/O Zoom.

What does WordPress do?

As we mentioned before, WordPress is a CMS designed to make managing a website easier. It does this by allowing you to control your website’s aesthetics, functions, and performance. Essentially, it is a backend interface that allows powerful editing and functionality.

It is open-source software that can be used to create and manage websites, from humble blogs to e-commerce stores. It takes the design and programming out of web development, allowing those with even just a basic knowledge of web design to create their own site.

Right now, some of the largest brands that currently use WordPress are BBC America, TechCrunch, and Vogue.

What are some of the benefits of choosing WordPress?

Perhaps the most appealing benefit of WordPress is that it’s free. All you’ll need is a web hosting platform and a domain name. Once you have both of those pinned down, you can start building a website with no problems,

It is also open-source software, regulated and managed by thousands of volunteers worldwide. There are plenty of volunteer-made tutorials and guides for its use all over the internet.

Another benefit of it being an open-source software is the vast plug-in library that will be available to you as the manager of a website. Whatever function you need on your website or on the backend, there is likely a plug-in out there for it.

If you’re not so good at web design, there are plenty of themes to choose from as well. Many of these themes are customizable so that you can create the website you desire.

Another great thing about WordPress is that, on top of all these features, it is designed to rank well on Google and other search engines. This means you will likely reach a wider following, whether you’re running a website for business or as a personal blog.

Why is WordPress open-source and free?

The goal of WordPress was to make publishing accessible to everyone with an internet connection. It was meant to make it possible for anyone to share their thoughts, stories, ideas, products, or services with the world. This mission is also why the community surrounding WordPress has grown to such a massive degree.

Final thoughts

WordPress has come a long way from what it was when it was founded in 2003 by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little. From a humble personal publishing framework, it has become a powerhouse and engine of change for the internet, ushering an exchange of ideas hitherto undreamt of. If you already have web hosting and a domain name in mind, why not use WordPress to manage your content? You’ll make your life easier at the cost of nothing.

If you’re looking for web development services to go with your WordPress site, including VPS hosting and web hosting, send us a message at IO Zoom. We can help you get that website up so you can start posting as soon as possible.

The post Understanding WordPress and Its Uses in Website Development appeared first on I/O Zoom.

It’s able to support hobbyists and starting businesses that do not usually have the technical expertise to build a website through its hundreds of themes and tutorials. On the other hand, it can also accommodate bigger organizations that demand more complex features and functionality.

If you are planning to create a website for your business, WordPress could be your best bet for a robust content management system. However, the next step is to select the right WordPress hosting provider. This can be a daunting task, especially to those with little to no technical background.

To help you make the right decision, we will explore four essential factors that you must consider when studying your hosting provider options:

1. The type of website you are building

Before anything else, determine the features and functionality you want for your website. For example, for simple personal blogs, a low-cost hosting platform may be sufficient for your needs. On the other hand, for business websites, the minimum requirements are security, speed, and flexibility.

2. The type of hosting you need

There are three main types of hosting that you should familiarize yourself with:

• Shared hosting: This is the most affordable of the three options, but it comes with a drawback. As its name implies, you share the available space and resources with other subscribers. If another subscriber takes up all the space, your website may respond slowly.
• Managed hosting: With this option, the service provider stores and maintains your information for you. If you do not have the technical know-how to maintain your hosting, or if you want an uninterrupted service, this will be a good option for you.
• Dedicated hosting: Unlike shared hosting, you don’t share resources with other subscribers in dedicated hosting. This means you have unlimited resources, control over your hosting, and flexibility. Considering this, dedicated hosting often comes with a hefty price tag.

3. Security

Businesses are facing an increasing number of digital threats each day. Because of this, security should be among your top priorities as you browse through your hosting provider options. The leading providers should be able to offer you the features you need to protect your data from cyber-attacks and breaches, as well as offer secure payment transactions.

4. The support you require

Remember that you have the option of hosting the website on your own or going with a WordPress hosting provider. When you choose the latter, you have the advantage of having a team of tech experts to assist you with any technical issues that you might come across. Some providers also offer round-the-clock customer service to offer prompt responses.

Before you choose a hosting service, determine what type of support you require to efficiently run your website.   

Conclusion

Selecting the right WordPress hosting provider is the first step to building an effective website. Remember that you should find one that can support not only your current needs but also your anticipated growth conveniently. On top of that, you can also take advantage of free trials as they help you decide whether your provider offers the service and security you need.

If you’re looking for a flexible and reliable web hosting company, get in touch with us today. We offer LiteSpeed VPS hosting and other top-notch hosting services to help you build a website that’s fast, secure, and functional!

The post 4 Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a WordPress Hosting Service appeared first on I/O Zoom.

But these numbers don’t stop millions of people trying to make it big through blogging. And out of all these aspirants, some still made it.

They waded through the volatile battleground of the digital world and successfully turned their blogs into thriving businesses. So naturally, we reached out to them, curious to get more insight behind their success.

So naturally, we reached out to them, curious to get more insight behind their success.

Despite the fierce competition, how can a beginner blogger stand out? And what are the key ingredients you need to grow your blog into a successful business?

And what are the key ingredients you need to grow your blog into a successful business?

35 of the top bloggers we contacted to give their most valuable advice to beginner bloggers below.

Table Of Contents

As this post is quite long I have created a table of contents so you can more quickly identify the relevant parts.

Simply click on the section and you will be taken there.

1. Ryan Biddulph        –    Blogging Paradise
2. Henri Junttila          –    Wake Up Cloud
3. Anil Agarwal            –    Bloggers Passion
4. Jacob Whitmore    –    Blogging Titan
5. Himanshu Gupta    –    Blog RAGS
6. Raelyn Tan              –    RaelynTan.com
7. Lorena Garcia       –    Call Me Lore
8. Gary Dek                –    Start A Blog 123
9. Janice Wald          –     Mostly Blogging
10. Cory                          –     Growing Dollars From Cents
11. Lisa Tener            –     LisaTener.com
12. Chris Lee              –     A Blog On Blogging
13. Marko Saric         –     How to Make My Blog
14. Mike Brown         –     The Blogging Buddha
15. Harry Goyal         –     Best Geeky Tricks
16. Lindsay                 –     Design Bombs
17. Susan Velez        –     SusanVelez.com
18. Alee King            –     The Beautified Life
19. Nekraj Bhartiya –    SEO Free Tips
20. Claire Broadley  –     Websites for Writers
21. Kory Woodard   –     KoryWoodard.com
22. Morgan Timm  –      Mostly Morgan
23. Francisco Anes –      Passive Income Wise
24. Prosper Noah   –      Tips On Blogging
25. Todd Maltzahn –     Learn to Grow Wealth Online
26. Hena Bilal          –     Mending with Gold
27. Scott Chow        –     Blog Starter
28. Yuwanda            –     Inkwell Editorial
29. Mike Lambert   –     Avoid Online Marketing Scams
30. Darren Burton  –     Many Income Streams
31. Bria McKamey  –     TendrilWild.com
32. Elvis Michael    –      Blogging Pro
33. Holly Sutton      –        A Branch of Holly
34. Anna Bogushevskaya – Digital Drive with Anna
35. Fabrizio Van Marciano – Magnet 4 Blogging

Ryan Biddulph

Blogging Paradise

Follow your passion over profits. If you mainly blog for fun you will become a student of blogging, working on your writing and creating and networking skills which help you become a successful blogger over the long haul.

Being in the game mainly for your passion also detaches you from money and traffic outcomes, both of which trip up most beginning bloggers who obsess over outcomes which do not manifest.

When you blog mainly for fun, the work/play/blogging is the reward. Everything else is extra or a bonus. This is the perfect energetic space for entering the blogging game because you will focus on learning blogging, studying blogging and putting your newfound knowledge into practice.

Ryan Biddulph can help you retire to a life of island hopping through smart blogging at Blogging From Paradise.

Henri Junttila

Wake Up Cloud

To find your own way, and not get stuck in how it ‘should’ be done.

Find what works for you, and what resonates with you.

Everyone gives pretty much the same advice, but how many follow it?

When I started, I began by finding a mentor, and I learned from him. I found a few key things that worked for me (guest posting is one of them), and I focused on it to grow my blog from 0 to 10,000 subscribers.

There is no magic formula. Get to work, and have fun.

Henri Junttila writes at Wake Up Cloud, where he helps people live their passion and do what they love.

Anil Agarwal

Bloggers Passion

First things first: blogging is becoming so much hard. You have to spend time from writing posts to optimizing them to increase traffic to those pages. If you are just starting out, here’s a quick tip from me: “start using SEO tools”.

SEO tools such as SEMrush can be so much helpful in saving both your time and money in the long run.

So if you’re in a hungry to build a blog that makes money, make sure to invest your money first in such tools.

Apart from that, start networking with other bloggers and start promoting their stuff. That’s how you build a long-lasting business by adding value to the blogging community.

Influencer marketing is also one amazing thing that never gets old and can bring you a ton of traffic, sales, and brand recognition if done right. Just make sure to provide value to others first before seeking help from them. Learn how to write captivating emails that get opened. I also recommend you to analyze the competitors in your industry to find out what’s working and more importantly what’s not.

Finally, building a profitable blog takes time. You just need to be consistent.

Anil Agarwal is the guy behind BloggersPassion.com, where he is helping his blog audience in taking their blog traffic and revenue to the next level.

Jacob Whitmore

Blogging Titan

Just to start!

It might seem overwhelming but if you want to be a blogger you just have to start.

It took me 5 months debating on whether to start a blog.

It has opened up many opportunities for me and definitely worth it.

Jacob Whitmore likes to travel, work and make websites! You could say he is a geek.

Himanshu Gupta

Blog RAGS

“Write about what you love”

Yes, you need to follow this to be actually successful. There is no point in writing about something which you don’t love.

Make sure you love what you do or otherwise it will only waste your precious time.

Some important tips to earn from your blog-
1. Make sure that you connecting with your readers. The content is the key.
2. Building the trust is important to gain leads.
3. Consistency and Patience is the key.

Hope this helps  

I am a blogger and an internet marketer for the past three years. I only write which matters.

Raelyn Tan

RaelynTan.com

The most underrated trait – GRIT.

Work hard, do not give up, and you will gradually reach your goal. Eventually, anyway.

Most beginner bloggers start with a half-hearted “I can, oh maybe I can’t” attitude, but a mindset shift is needed.

Beginner bloggers should instead aim to have an “I can, it is only a matter of time before I succeed with blogging” attitude in order to grow.

Raelyn Tan is a blogging and digital marketing strategist at raelyntan.com. She enjoys writing about the latest digital strategies online to help bloggers grow a successful blog + biz.

Lorena Garcia

Call Me Lore

Blogging takes time, dedication, and a lot of hard work. Because of this, it can be easy to become discouraged in the beginning.

My advice to beginner bloggers would be to really know what sets you apart. The blogging world is very competitive but if you can define what makes you different and consistently create content that is high quality and engaging, you increase your chances of success.

It’s also so important to market your content effectively. You’re going to spend a lot of time creating amazing content, but it’s just as important to know how to promote it and get it seen by the right audience!

This is what will allow you to connect with your readers, build a following, and meet your goals.

Lorena Garcia is the Co-Founder and Head of Business Development at Bloguettes, a branding, training and consulting, and education company. She also has a personal blog, Call Me Lore, where she shares a behind-the-scenes look into her life, work, and family.

Gary Dek

Start A Blog 123

The best strategy to becoming a successful blogger is to start a blog on a topic you are passionate about.

If you are an expert or can invest the time researching and writing the best content in your niche, that will give you an edge over the competition because your site will always be better than others.

However, excellent content alone is not enough. Like a professional or career, you always need to be marketing yourself.

Reach out to other bloggers and experts, introduce yourself, encourage them to become familiar with your blog/brand, and let them know when you publish incredible content.

Similarly, learn basic SEO and social media marketing.

By structuring your blog and content properly, you will ensure you eventually get the traffic you deserve!

Just be patient!

Gary is a digital marketing expert who currently runs multiple niche sites with a total of 5M+ visits a month.

Janice Wald

Mostly Blogging

Step 1: Pick a needed niche. Buzzsumo.com can tell you where people’s needs lie.

Step 2: Promote your posts everywhere. This includes Question and Answer sites, Forums, Twitter, Flipboard, Facebook groups that allow self-promotion, JustRetweet, ViralContentBee…

Step 3: Take steps to increase your followers at sites that have followers. My post explains how to grow your Twitter followers. I have followed these tips and have over 13,300 Twitter followers.

Step 4: Create a lead magnet. When your followers see your posts and come to your site, you want them to see an irresistible free offer to compel them to sign up for your blog.

My post lists 50 lead magnets you can create.

The more followers you get at these sites, the more high profile you are. You will find advertisers pursue you to promote their brand to your followers.

Step 5: Create a 2-tier content marketing funnel with a big ticket item and a small ticket item. Email your blog followers time-sensitive offers about your big-ticket item. If they say they don’t have the funds, sell them your small ticket item.

In closing, follow these steps. By the time you get to Steps 4 and 5, your blog will have transformed into a business.

Wald is an author, a freelance writer, a blogger, and a blogging coach. At MostlyBlogging.com, she shares tips for bloggers and marketers. Her blog was nominated for the 2017 Most Informative Blog Award at the London Blogger’s Bash. 

Cory

Growing Dollars From Cents

Start email marketing as soon as you start your blog.

Use an email marketing service like MailerLite which is easy to use and free up to a specific amount of subscribers.

This makes it perfect for new bloggers on a budget.

Once you get the hang of MailerLite and have grown your blog into a profitable business, you should upgrade to ConvertKit.

That email marketing service is designed specifically for bloggers who want to grow their online business.

Building a healthy email list from the start is the cornerstone to most successful blogging businesses.

Cory is the founder of Growing Dollars from Cents, a blog about personal finance, freelancing, entrepreneurship and online business. He aims to empower millennials in managing their finances along with discovering different ways they could make and save money by doing things they love.

Lisa Tener

LisaTener.com

5 keys to successful blogging:

1. Know Thy Readers: KNow who you are writing for. If you don’t know who they are and what they want, ask them! Keep your core audience in mind when you write. Maybe even have a specific person in mind as if it’s a conversation.

2. Be consistent: Try to write at least once a week so that readers know they can count on you and stay engaged

3. Invite engagement: Invite your readers to share their own experiences and opinions, as well as questions they have for you.

4. Develop a theme: In the beginning, you may experiment as to what your blog is about. You may explore more than one theme such as writing, mothering, and cooking.

It may turn out that you can weave these 3 themes together and that’s great. But if you blog on several disparate subjects, see what gives you the most enjoyment and what readers respond to and focus on that.

5. Use keywords in titles, URLs, headers, text and for tagging photographs: keywords tell search engines like Google what your blog post is about. They will help readers find your articles.

6. Use Yoast in WordPress–this amazing plug-in will help you make your post highly readable and also help you improve the SEO (search engine optimization) of your post.

7. Break up text with short paragraphs, bullet-pointed lists, pull quotes, sections with new headers and images.

All of these will make your post easier to read and will help readers stick with it to read the whole post!

An authority on book writing and publishing, award-winning book coach Lisa Tener guides experts, entrepreneurs and visionaries to joyfully write and publish highly successful books. Lisa blogs for the Huffington Post serves on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s publishing course and teaches Award Winning Book Writing Courses.

Chris Lee

A Blog On Blogging

From my own personal experiences, the key ingredients to successful blogging is time and consistency.

I would say “great content” is key but that only comes after the experience (time + consistency).

Many new bloggers quit just after a few weeks, which is not even close to how much time you need to make a blog a successful one.

Keep at it for a few months, consistently, and you will start seeing some amazing benefits around the 6 to 12 months mark.

It’s all about giving it time! No successful blog was launched in 3 days.

Chris Lee is an internet marketer and drop shipper making a living online after many years and many failures.

Marko Saric

How to Make My Blog

Best advice for beginners is just to start.

Simply launch the blog that you’ve been thinking about.

That’s the only way you can get experience, you can learn and get better.

Thinking, dreaming, planning, talking about and other theoretical activities will not help you much compared to the knowledge you get from actually starting a blog and taking action.

Blogger at How to Make My Blog. I write about content marketing, social media, and blogging.

Mike Brown

The Blogging Buddha

The best advice I can give to a beginner blogger when it comes to starting, let alone growing a successful business based blog is to make sure before you do anything else, determine if your niche is profitable.

Finding the product/market fit is the essential first step in launching a profitable website. Get as niche specific as possible.

There are many techniques that will teach you how to “niche down”. Follow this rule and you will be ahead of the curve.

I’m the founder of the Blog Creators & Marketing Academy and I teach people how to start profitable blogs

Harry Goyal

Best Geeky Tricks

For the beginners I would like to say that always stick with your blog and never loose hope.

As most of the beginners stop blogging just because they fails to get some audience, but you should never stop blogging.

Just stick with your blog and keep sharing your knowledge.

Always share valuable stuff and try to understand your audience.

To grow your business you can try these methods:-

1. Always post valuable stuff, mean post the stuff which people wants to read and are looking for.
2. Try to understand the audience of your blog niche and try to cover the questions which they are having.
3. Never forget to share your blog posts on social media sites like facebook, twitter, google plus etc.
4. Never write for search engines, write for people. Think as a reader and write in the way, which you would like to read. As most of the blogger start posting for the search engine by adding more keywords in the post but they forget to add valuable content. So this is the other reason they fail to get the audience.
5. Build email list from the day one and always send new content or useful stuff to your subscriber to get more audience.
6. You can also try give-away as they will help you to get more audience.

So these are the ways which I use and most important thing is to give your blog time. As it takes time to get success, so don’t lose hope and keep working and posting useful stuff.”

I am Harry Goyal from India and I am blogging since 2012.

Lindsay

Design Bombs

Those wanting to start a blog, or better yet, grow their blog into a successful business, face many challenges. And one of the biggest is not knowing where to start.

Fortunately, there is a tremendous amount of information out there advising people on how to approach starting a blog.

To start, there are the logistics. And to that I suggest the following:

– Self-host your blog on WordPress so you can brand yourself appropriately and look professional
– Choose a domain name that not only matches your niche, but is everlasting as your industry changes
– Explore the different hosting providers available
– Pick a versatile theme that matches your brand and appeals to your target audience
– Research the must-have plugins so you can add the right type of functionality to your website
– Find a solid commenting system so you stay engaged with site visitors
– Invest time in social media as it powers a lot of traffic to your site
– Monitor site behavior with something such as Google Analytics to continually make improvements

The thing is, this information is easily accessible across the internet. You can find article after article suggesting which theme to use and why, which plugins are the best, why WordPress rules the world, and so on.

But I find that the most valuable advice that any new blogger should heed is this:

– Network. Take risks and reach out to those who have accomplished what you seek to achieve and ask them for help. Ask for guest posting opportunities. Comment on their content and show an interest. Andbe nice. You would be surprised how far being nice will get you when just starting out.

– Learn. Scour the best resources available that relate to running a website, marketing a business, and anything related to your niche. There is always something you can learn that will better you in the future.

– Just Write. Try not to focus on being perfect from the start. Get your content published, whatever that may be. Encourage people to read your stuff. And, watch your following grow organically as you continue to develop what your business model is truly going to look like.

In the end, starting a blog can be overwhelming. But it is so rewarding if you just stick to it. Plan the details and get a solid foundation, and then throw yourself out there and see what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised at the positive effects such a loose attitude can bring you.

Writer at DesignBombs

Susan Velez

SusanVelez.com

I’ve personally found that by taking the time to comment and share other people’s content on a regular basis, gets me more shares and likes.

I make it a point to visit and read other people’s blogs each and every day I’ll then leave a valuable comment that adds value to their post. Don’t leave a one-line comment that says “nice post” or “great article.”

After leaving a thoughtful comment, don’t forget to share the post. I always share the content that I comment on.

Do this consistently each and everyday. While you won’t see traffic or shares coming immediately. It takes time and consistent daily action to build online friendships.

Once you’ve done this for a few weeks. Now it’s time to reach out and ask the blogger if you can write a guest post for their blog.

This is what’s been helping me grow my blog. Just remember, it takes time, don’t expect overnight success. You need to keep working on building up those relationships.

This is what I’m currently doing to build up my blog. It seems to be working and I’ve made some really great blogging friends online.

Susan Velez is helping people start, grow and monetize their passions through blogging. She loves helping people with the techie side of blogging sign up for her free 7 days WordPress Course at susanvelez.com

Alee King

The Beautified Life

My most valuable piece of advice for bloggers just starting out is to just take the leap and follow your creative dreams, with no reservations!

We can think of a million reasons (many of them justifiable) why it isn’t the ”right time” to start a blog. But if you never take that leap, you’ll never reap the benefits.

And are there ever benefits!

Blogging can open loads of doors for you, and copious amounts of bloggers are making full-time incomes because they took the leap.

Don’t let your fears hold you back.

Don’t spend months perfecting your blog design.

Don’t agonize over perfection.

It doesn’t exist.

Just go for it! You’ll be glad you did.

The key ingredients for growing your blog into a successful business include many factors.

A few that have helped me:

1) Find a profitable niche. Write for THEM. Address their pain points in your content and you’ll have raving fans coming back time and time again.

2) Write everything with a clear purpose. Don”t just write — ensure you’ve gone over your goals for each day, week, month, and year, and create your content with your purpose or end goals in mind, always.

3) Diversity your income streams! Affiliate marketing is excellent, but so is creating your own products (e-courses, e-books, masterminds, etc).

4) Work on building your blog traffic, an email list, and a content strategy, and the rest will come!

Alee King is a blogger, professional B2B freelance writer, and blogging coach. On her blog, she teaches moms how to start and grow profitable blogs and learn how to turn their passion into profit.

Nekraj Bhartiya

SEO Free Tips

Great Question IOZOOM Team,

For Beginners, I would suggest to first find who is your audience, Where do they hang, Which social media sites do they used most?

Find all about your audience and write for them, Promote your post in those channels.

For Example, If you write about fitness, then your audience is more likely to use Instagram rather than LinkedIn.

Same If you are cook blogger, then promote your content on Pinterest rather than Facebook.

It applies in every niche. Build a persona of your targeted audience and focus on “Super Laser Targeted Traffic”.

To convert your blog into a successful startup, you need to build an email list, do proper research before writing your post, help others and doing proper SEO is the most important ingredients which will lead you to success.

People called me SEO hacker, but I am more than that. I help companies and businesses to grow their revenue from Internet Marketing.

Claire Broadley

Websites for Writers

Blogging is all about consistency. Write about the things you care about. Starting a blog outside your own area of expertise is tricky, and it’s very difficult to build momentum if you don’t have the ongoing drive to write for your blog.

Professional freelance tech writer and blogger.

Kory Woodard

KoryWoodard.com

Consistency! When you’re just starting out, it’s really important to work on building your brand, getting your name out there, and establishing your expertise.

The easiest thing you can do to accomplish that is to consistently publish new content on your blog and social media.

That doesn’t necessarily mean 3-5 posts per week, but whatever schedule you pick, make sure you stick with it for a while.

Kory Woodard works with professional bloggers and female-led lifestyle brands to create purposeful and beautiful designs for their brands and blogs because she believes that the right design can transform your business.

Morgan Timm

Mostly Morgan

Beginner bloggers really need to just keep pushing.

Starting out as a blogger can be so discouraging when you see everyone around you getting tens of thousands of pageviews or huge opportunities that you can only dream of at this point.

But the only way to get to where your blog heroes are is by persisting. Create and publish great content that you’re proud of every week and don’t give up.

There will be that “ah-ha” moment where everything clicks and all of the sudden your pageviews are growing and opportunities are abundant.

You just have to push through to get to that point.

I’m a life and style blogger based out of the midwest that has been in the industry for nearly 4 years. In that time I’ve learned a lot about the business of blogging and love sharing my expertise on my blog and YouTube channel.

Francisco Anes

Passive Income Wise

Time is money.

That’s why I recommend taking a course on how to blog instead of reading every blog on the internet. Invest in yourself.

While you can find a lot of information on other people’s blogs, it will take a lot of your time and effort to find the useful information.

As I said, time is money, so you want to learn as quick as possible and implement what you learn to get the results you are looking for.

In my experience, the key ingredients for growing my blog into a successful business which makes over $1,500 per month were two:

Rock-solid strategy. I created my own strategy by doing blogging courses.

I learned a lot from other bloggers and how they did to succeed in different aspects of blogging.

Your strategy should consider a publishing schedule, email marketing, social media, monetization planning, outreach and every single aspect of blogging. Learn from the best bloggers and create your own strategy.

Determination. You need to believe in your blog. No matter how hard things get, keep going. Big empires don’t appear overnight.

Blogging is not easy at the beginning and requires a lot of time and effort, but the payouts are amazing.

When you think about giving up, stand up and keep fighting.

Hello, my name is Francisco and I run the personal finance blog Passive Income Wise. On my blog, I write about saving money, budgeting, pay off debt and making money blogging. I also publish articles about how to make a living and succeed blogging from home.

Prosper Noah

Tips On Blogging

Yes, for Sure the easiest thing in the blogosphere is starting a blog, the most important aspect is growing that blog.

When I started blogging back then in 2014 I publish more than trice a day thinking its what brings in traffic

What a beginner thought

Growing a blog takes some time, you really can’t start that damn blog and make it successful immediately.

Here are my tips for beginner bloggers.

– Work on Publishing Contents that readers will love.
– Promote that contents: You can’t grow a blog without visitors who actually read your post.

You need to get them to see your posts first and there are simple ways to do that.

– Visit other blogs in your niche,
– Leave in-depth comments on the posts and share or tweet the articles:

The Authors will get to notice you and your blog better as time goes on.
The same happens with the readers, they get to visit your blog and as well share your contents, leave thoughtful comments and many others.

A friend of mine Ryan Biddulph always say “The best way to actually promote yourself is to promote others”

When you promote others, for sure they gonna promote you. This way you get more exposure for your new blog.

When you get these readers, visit their own blogs from time to time, build your email list using Mailchimp so new readers can keep coming back when you have a new post on the blog.

Build your Friend Network and you’d see the massive growth within some time.

Don’t worry about traffic when you start newly, follow above tips and you’d get to see the traffic you so desire, don’t be discouraged.

Continue Practicing, get more results.

It might take some time before you start seeing a significant result in your following, however, don’t relent in your efforts.

Have a great time and wish you much success!

Prosper Noah is the Brain behind Tips On Blogging. Starting a blog is one step, another and most important is growing the same blog. His tips have helped a lot of people Start and Manage their own Blogs.

Todd Maltzahn

Learn to Grow Wealth Online

Build your list and try to be unique. There are too many copy-cat blogs out there.

To grow a successful blog stick to a posting schedule and connect with as many other bloggers as possible.

Just stick with it and good things will happen.

Todd is an occupational therapist and internet marketer. His website teaches people the best ways to make money online without spending thousands of dollars.

Hena Bilal

Mending with Gold

Finding a great plan-of-action and committing a 100% to it without losing focus.

A stay at home mommy learning and sharing through her journey into blogging.

Scott Chow

Blog Starter

When beginning bloggers reach out to me, my advice is typical to focus on blogging about things you are passionate about.

Sharing your passions with the world is extremely powerful and will deliver the best results in terms of people connecting with your words.

Focusing on generating the best possible content is the best thing for any blogger to do, as your business will only grow based on the audience that you are able to foster.

Scott Chow helps people start blogs through a free step-by-step guide, called The Blog Starter, created especially for beginners. His guide is set up to help people learn how to start a blog quickly and easily.

Yuwanda

Inkwell Editorial

This is for those who are “for profit” bloggers; ie, those who want to make money blogging.

1. Choose your niche wisely. Some niches are harder to monetize than others. So why make it harder for yourself by starting with a difficult niche?

Caveat: NEVER discount passion. Although some niches are harder to monetize if you LOVE something and are willing to put in the work, don’t discount it because it may be considered a difficult niche.

2. Learn SEO (search engine optimization). Blogging without knowing this is like trying to find a place you’ve never been to without directions. You don’t have to become an SEO guru, but to learn the foundational basics. You’ll be lightyears ahead of others, and start to get traffic and sales that much sooner.

3. Create a blog plan: How do you plan to get traffic; how often will you blog; what will you blog about; how will you monetize your blog? These are some of the basic questions you should ask — and answer.

4. Never give up: A lot of blogging is just sticking with it long enough to figure out what works. Many bloggers give up before they ever find success — because “making money blogging” is not as easy as throwing up some content and/or sticking in affiliate links.

That’s why all of the above is important. If you approach your blog like a business, you exponentially increase your chance of success. 

Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com, a site devoted to “Making Money Writing … for Yourself or for Others.” Yuwanda puts her writing skill to use in several ways: writing and self-publishing ebooks (almost 100 to date); developing courses, and writing online (SEO) content for small and mid-sized businesses.

Mike Lambert

Avoid Online Marketing Scams

There are actually many moving parts to building a successful blog but in saying that I feel the best advice is keep it simple.

The best advice I feel I received when I was just starting out was write your content as if you were talking to your buddies this makes a connection with your readers and has served me well over the years.

Getting people to comment is the key to your blogs success and to do that you need to make that connection being to analytical with your writing won’t get people to engage, but writing like your the person next door makes your readers feel comfortable in asking questions or leaving comments which will help your sites rankings with search engines.

A well structured website is very important, having an easy to navigate website will pay off big time, this will keep your visitors on your site and reading more of your content, there is nothing more frustrating for a visitor when they can’t navigate your site with ease, make sure your categories make sense.

If you have a header make sure your most important links are the first in the header and the last, stats show that visitors will click on the first and last topics in your header the most.

Use black text on white background and avoid the use of red unless you want people to stop, greens and blues are passive colours that should be used.

If you are hesitant about participating in a niche because you feel you need to be an expert on that topic then think again.

Knowledge is acquired over time, as you explore and write on topics for your blog your knowledge on your niche topic will grow also.

I started in the weight loss niche, didn’t have a clue about weight loss other than my own experience. Knowing that I couldn’t write about topics that I didn’t have knowledge about I registered for newsletters from places like Harvard.

I read many research papers on various weigh loss studies comparing various weight loss techniques and other relevant research info.

Over time my knowledge and expertise surpassed my wildest expectations. Not many people start out as experts, you need to work at becoming an expert but it will happen if you find the right resources and put in the effort.

When setting up a blog post make sure you use images as breaks, nothing scares of your visitors more than a sea of text. Use relevant images that help make your point. Use bold headers, set your post up in a way that you answer your readers questions….

What
Why
Who
Where
how much

You will find that laying out the headers for paragraphs on your page and then going back and filling them in will give your post a nice flow and before you know it you will have your 1500 words which should be your goal for SEO purposes.

Use your keywords in your topic headers when it makes sense to do so, this helps with SEO also.

Building an authority blog takes time similar to a brick and mortar business. You need to prepare yourself for at least a years work before you really start to see the dividends of your hard work.

You must use a keyword tool to write all your content. Using a keyword tool will help you rank well with search engines if you don’t use a keyword tool you are just blindly pumping out content that more than likely won’t rank. Only a small percentage of internet users search past the first two pages so your goal should always be to reach the first two pages of Google with your content.

It will take roughly 15 posts before Google starts to view you as an authority on a topic, after that you should start to see your posts rank much better.

Keep a regular writing schedule, Google likes to see that you are posting on a regular schedule and will reward you content with favorable rankings.

Try and focus on one category at a time, you want to be an authority on a topic if you are jumping around writing content on a multitude of topics on your site it will take that much longer to establish your authority with Google.

Wow! I could go on and on, but these are the main points about creating a successful blog. Have fun, keep a schedule, ask for feedback, offer value and always strive to inform your audience, have a great day. Mike avoidonlinemarketingscams.com

Mike Lambert: Affiliate marketer, creator of multiple websites in various niches.

Darren Burton

Many Income Streams

The best piece of advice I can offer on starting and building a successful blogging business is to learn from those who have already done it.

Whether you sign up for some official training, or just follow other successful bloggers and reach out and make connections with some of them.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. While everyone is different, there are certain principles that have been proven to work over an dover again; such as good keyword research and SEO, providing quality content that gives your readers value, writing content that people are happy to share on social media.

Another key ingredient is good old-fashioned persistence.

It takes time to build an online business, and if the goal in financial reward, you can’t expect to see money coming in within days or weeks of starting a blog.

It all takes time, especially in the beginning. Treat your blog like a business, stick with it and the rewards will come as a natural by-product of your efforts.

Many Income Streams is all about how to make money online and create multiple streams of income. Living the dream lifestyle of time and money freedom is possible online. I’ll help show you how.

Bria McKamey

TendrilWild.com

In my years of blogging, I’ve found two things that are central to my success: remaining consistent and staying true to what feels right for me.

Anything you work at requires consistency to see results. You can’t decide to start a blog, pluck at it for a month, become discouraged by a lack of progress, and give up right then and there. Blogging is not a hobby or a career that develops overnight. I firmly believe there is little to no immediate success when it comes to blogging.

But there is a lot of hard work. With that hard work there must be consistency in your efforts.
And that consistency can produce success. But more importantly, it can produce satisfaction from the knowledge that you created something you believed in, and you brought it to fruition.

A second factor that needs to be present in your blogging endeavors is only doing what works for you. Don’t lose sight of your goals and why you started blogging in the first place for shiny new marketing strategies or the newest course that promises wealth and thousands of followers.

Those tactics may work for some people. But I’ve had the most success when I develop my own ways of doing things and sticking with them instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing.

Keep your head down, focus on your own creative abilities and unique talents, and new opportunities and results will gradually come.

I’m Bria, founder of TendrilWild.com, a blog devoted to self-care and personal development for introverts. Lorelai Gilmore taught me how to embrace my sass and speak my mind. I’ve never met a library I didn’t love, and I believe in quality over quantity when it comes to friendships.

Elvis Michael

Blogging Pro

It’s safe to say that starting a blog is both an art and a science. As such, here are the key ingredients to help maximize your chances of success:

While niching down is not absolutely necessary, it can greatly help you succeed in the long-run. This ensures that your content resonates closely with a specific audience, as opposed to creating a hit-or-miss culture within your blog.

Have an end-goal in mind and don’t merely post for the sake of traffic and brownie points. Study your audience to learn what they want, then provide an outstanding solution after building a great relationship.

On a related note, forget about publishing frequency and focus much more on branding/marketing. Build a solid relationship with relatable bloggers and followers alike. Link to their content, befriend them on social media, help them out, build a niche mailing list, and be a good sport. This gradually leads to reciprocity and authority, which is undoubtedly huge in this business.

Speaking of business, always treat your blog as such. New and established bloggers sometimes feel like abandoning their website indefinitely. It’s okay to step away, but implement a solid strategy in the process. For example, schedule one or two pieces in advance or hire a temporary virtual assistant to keep the business running; not doing so can lead to dire consequences.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel but refrain from being a generic blogger. Most successful blogs have something that helps them stand out: Will you host a monthly contest? Is your blog’s sense of humor irresistible? Will you provide an audio/spoken version of every article for those who prefer this format? Think outside the box here; readers and fellow bloggers will notice and appreciate it.

Everything else revolves around continuous learning, tweaking, and repeating.

Elvis Michael is an avid blogger and e-entrepreneur, endlessly exploring new ideas and effective ways to inspire.

Holly Sutton

A Branch of Holly

My most valuable advice for the beginner to bloggers is always thinking about your target audience.

The more specific you can be about who you are blogging for, the more you can create content that actually attracts the right audience.

Sometimes you think you know what your audience wants from you, but you still struggle to get views and engagement.

At that point, start asking your email list and Facebook fans what you want to read and learn about, and start creating content around that instead of what you assume they wanted to read.

It seems like such a simple thing to do, but that is what completely changed how I run my blog for the better!

By creating valuable content you know your audience wants to read, giving away information for free and getting people to sign up to your mailing list – those things, in turn, work together, so that when you’re ready to sell products or services, your audience is ready to buy from you too!

Holly is a motivated, positive, tea-drinking millennial from North West England. Additionally, she’s an award-winning blogger, social media manager, and blog coach, with years of experience in the online marketing industry. Holly enjoys inspiring other bloggers and small business owners through strategic planning to get their own breakthrough.

Anna Bogushevskaya

Digital Drive with Anna

1. Start from choosing a good hosting for your website. Choose fast and reliable hosting solution. It will affect your SEO and user experience so much. Don’t pick cheap hosting companies, quality is a key.

2. Make sure you don’t follow any spammy techniques that may lead your new blog to Google Penalty. Don’t stuff your blog with a lot of ads. It will give a red flag for Google and your readers won’t be happy as well.

3. Do some SEO for your blog. But remember it is a long process. When you optimize your blog, do not expect that organic traffic will come fast. Instead, promote your blog on social media while it’s new, get some reputation, and more important – enjoy!

Anna Bogushevskaya is a founder of “Digital Drive with Anna“. Anna specializes in WordPress website design & SEO services that help entrepreneurs create, improve their websites and get more organic traffic.

Fabrizio Van Marciano

Magnet 4 Blogging

In my opinion, there are two very essential ingredients required for growing your blog into a successful and profitable business.

The first one is ‘passion’, you’ve got to have passion and lots of it. You’ve got to love what you do, whatever that may be. So, find a niche, skill, or subject that you’re all-out crazy about and start there.

The second vital ingredient is adopting a ‘business mindset’. With a business mindset, your goal is to make a profit from your blog.

You’ll eventually want to earn a living from blogging, right?

So you’ve got to have the mindset of a business owner and look at your blog as a profitable business venture.

With a business mindset, you’ll easily learn how to become a problem solver blogger, and how to best serve your audience.

You can then market that through your blog content, videos, eBooks, podcast, and all the rest of it.

Now the hardest part, of course, is trying to combine passion with a business mindset.

Because occasionally, being crazily passionate about a niche or subject, won’t necessarily mean that you’ll be able to turn it into a profitable business venture someday.

So, think, research, and plan very carefully.

Fabrizio Van Marciano is a full-time blogger, WordPress developer, web designer, and digital marketer from the UK.

This Expert Roundup Post Was Organized and Published by Ninja Outreach

The post How To Turn Your Blog Into A Successful Business: 35 Experts Talk appeared first on I/O Zoom.