2016 October 12 Archive - EXEIdeas – Let's Your Mind Rock

Are you thinking of starting a blog? Are you looking for practical and actionable tips? You’ve come to the right place. Creating a blog is not as hard as you may think. On the other hand, if you don’t start it the right way, you may end up wasting a lot of time and even giving up on your blogging career.So, how do you start a blog the right way? Here are excellent tips and tricks that a beginner can use to create a smashing blog.1. Domain Registration:The first step in setting up a blog is registering a domain name. This will be the name of your blog such as example.com. You need to choose a catchy name which is easy to remember. If you have absolutely no idea what name you want to use, you can look at some of the industry leaders in your niche. See how they name their domains. Let that guide you on how you’ll name yours.Make sure you choose a reputable domain registrar. A domain is one of the most important parts of a website; therefore, you want to get a registrar who will take great care of it. Different registrars have different packages, so make sure you check them out and see who gives you the best value.2. Host Your Blog:Your website files need to be stored on a server so that your visitors can access your content. That’s where web hosts come in. They are companies that provide storage space for websites. A good web host will ensure that your site is up and running smoothly 99.9% of the time. It will also have excellent offers when it comes to space, bandwidth, number of email addresses, number of subdomains allowed, etc.As usual, it’s best to start with market research to find the host that suits your needs. Make sure you compare 3 or 4 and choose the best one for you.3. Install WordPress And Relevant Plugins:WordPress is a valuable blogging software that is used by most top blogs all over the world. It is also a fantastic content management system that is very easy to use. Once you’ve installed it, you’ll be doing most of your work in WordPress. You’ll only log in to your web host once in a while. You may not really need to log in to your domain registrar unless you are making a payment or changing web hosts.Each web host has information on how to install WordPress in their knowledgebase. Get the information and use it to install it with just a few clicks. It should take you less than five minutes to get the installation done.Once you’ve installed WordPress, you’ll need to install plugins. Plugins are little pieces of code that improve the functionality of your WordPress blog. Below are some of the great types of plugins that you may need for your site:SEO (search engine optimization) pluginAnti-spam pluginWebsite caching pluginSocial sharing pluginLead generation pluginRelated posts pluginSecurity pluginThere are many more that you can use on your site depending on what you want to achieve.4. Install A Jaw-Dropping Theme And Optimize Your Blog’s Appearance:Yes, your blog needs to look like it’s worth your viewer’s time. Remember he/she has so many sites to read from, therefore, you need to visually convince them to stay on your site. You can choose from the many free themes or go for a premium, paid theme if you have a budget.Note that a theme is just a template that defines the general outlook of your site. You will still need to customize your site’s appearance for it to look exactly how you want it. Go to “Appearance” then “Themes” and edit the theme settings from there. You can also edit your sidebar widgets from the “Widgets” menu. Feel free to edit any other parts of your blog so that it looks exactly how you want it to.5. Add Content And Promote Heavily:You created your blog to meet specific needs. Create content that deeply solves the needs of your audience. You need to come out as a person who understands their innermost pains and provides useful solutions. Keep up with industry news so that you are always relevant in providing solutions.Once you’ve done a few posts, you can start heavily promoting your blog. Know where your target audience spends time and find the best ways to persuade them to check out your blog. There are different methods of promotions that you can try.One of the best is SEO. With proper SEO, your blog will keep getting a good flow of visitors who are actually searching for the solutions you provide. Apart from SEO, you can also try out social media marketing, YouTube video marketing, and guest posting among other methods.When properly done, blogging is not only fun, but can be very profitable. As you can see here, it’s not rocket science. Anyone can create a successful blog if they put their minds to it. Start taking action now.