Category: Web Development

  • How To Manage A Blog To Success

    How To Manage A Blog To Success

    Are you ready to manage a blog to success?

    Starting a blog is more than just talking out your credit card, installing WordPress and publishing blog posts on a regular basis. It requires a lot of work especially in managing the blog and making it a huge success.

    How to start a blog fast?

    Starting a blog is always the first step and it is often the step which is overlooked by many beginners.

    Most of them start with free blogging site such as Blogspot only to discover that their blogs are deleted without notice after 6 months of hardwork.

    If you want to manage a blog like a professional, then here’s what you need to do.

    The last step involves installing WordPress, a good WordPress theme like this one and essential plugins for SEO and email list building.

    The process of starting a blog is very short and it doesn’t take long. With this guide, you can easily start a blog under 5 minutes.

    Manage a blog: Traffic versus conversion

    In blogging, I am a huge believer that conversion matters the most. You may have 10,000 visitors a day but if you are not converting them into sales, you are not getting any richer (anytime soon).

    When it comes to managing a blog, focus on conversion because conversion is going to help you make money and fast.

    When you manage a blog and aims for success, always focus on conversion as this will help you drive more sales and help you grow your blogging business.

    What type of content should I be publishing?

    how to manage a blog

    I love to answer this (even though I had answered this probably thousands of times). There must be a healthy mix of self-promotional, knowledge/information and comparison posts.

    Self-promotional blog posts can be considered as sales posts. These content are focused heavily in closing sales and selling the benefits of a single product. Here’s a sample of a self-promotional blog post: Thrive Themes Review

    A knowledge and information blog post is slightly different where it is meant to share information and provide education. Affiliate links are located within the blog posts to encourage readers to click on and with the hope of getting some commission generated from the sales. Here’s a sample of a knowledge and information blog post: How To Start A Web Design Business With No Experience (And From Home)

    Comparison posts involve comparing two or more products of the same nature. As buyers, we are often making comparison before making a purchase. Thus, publishing comparison posts allow you to have a better chance of converting website visitors into paying customers. Here’s a sample of a comparison blog post: Beaver Builder vs Divi vs Thrive Architect: Which is the best site builder for you?

    Are you ready to manage a blog to success?

    As a recap, managing a blog to success is simple and comes with these several steps.

    Always remember that the success of a blog is measured through the revenue generated from it and not through the traffic alone.

  • How To Create A WordPress Page In 5 Minutes (Or Less)

    How To Create A WordPress Page In 5 Minutes (Or Less)

    Yes, you read it right. You can create a WordPress page in 5 minutes or less. In this article, you will discover simple methods on how you can create a WordPress page fast and minus the hassle.

    Before that, what is a WordPress page? Let’s take a moment to see what WPBeginner has to say about a WordPress page.

    A WordPress page can be used for many reasons including creating landing pages and custom homepage. However, creating a WordPress page without the help of any tools would mean one thing — coding works.

    coding works

    So, how do you create a WordPress page under 5 minutes even when you are a complete beginner?

    Option 1: Use a WordPress page builder

    A WordPress page builder is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create pages in just a few clicks.

    Most WordPress page builders come with drag and drop builder which helps a lot especially when it comes to building a webpage from scratch.

    Top WordPress builders like these ones allow you to create landing pages fast without using any coding skills.

    If you are looking for quick ways to create a WordPress page, using a good WordPress page builder will serve you well.

    Option 2: Use a premium WordPress theme

    Most premium WordPress themes comes with drag and drop builder or a pre-made templates for you to create WordPress pages easily.

    For example, all StudioPress themes comes with landing page designs that you can easily 1-click import and install. This saves time and more importantly, no coding is required at all. Here are some StudioPress themes demos for viewing.

    Alternatively, you can also use all-in-one WordPress theme builder such as Thrive Themes (review) and Divi (review). These WordPress themes come with inbuilt drag and drop builder which you can easily create WordPress pages in a few clicks.

    The GIF below shows how you can use Divi to build your custom WordPress page without using a single line of code.

    divi 3.0 review

    Undecided? Here are some resources for you!

    Are you ready to create WordPress page in 5 minutes or less?

    How do you create a WordPress page fast? Do you use a WordPress visual builder like I do?

    Leave a comment below and tell me what you think!

  • Bad Web Host: The What, Why and How

    Bad Web Host: The What, Why and How

    How do you know if your web host sucks? How do you check if you are using a bad web host for your website? Or even worst, are you struggling to keep your server uptime on a positive side?

    In today’s web hosting market, there are just too many web hosting services that are under performing. Searching  for the term “cheap WordPress hosting” on Google will gives you an approximately 1,010,000 search results.

    The truth is, there are many (and I mean M-A-N-Y) web hosting companies that offer super cheap hosting services but comes with subpar performance. Downtimes, inaccessible websites and above all, unsecured ports that leads to website hacks are just a few to name.

    I’m sure you get the point and even heard about them!

    How do you determine a web host is bad?

    The million dollar question, if you ask me.

    I used a fair share of shared web hosting services and this often comes lingerring in my head.

    How do I know the web host I’m using is a bad web host?

    How do I determine if the web hosting service I use is not ideal?

    Carry on reading below on some of the ways you can determine if the website is good (or bad) for your website.

    1. Bad web host makes your website slow (slow website loading speed)

    slow loading speed

    How fast does your website loads? Does it takes over 5 seconds to load or under 1.5 seconds?

    Here’s what Google says.

    2 seconds or less — that’s how fast your website should load if you want to retain the happiness of your website visitors and getting love from Google.

    And here’s a BIG, BIG fact to take note.

    You don’t need to use premium WordPress hosting like WP Engine (click here to see its latest pricing review) to make your website loads under 1.5 seconds. You can achieve that simply by using a shared web hosting like I do in the test below.

    fast website loading speed

    As you can see above, my homepage is massively 2 MB and it takes 1.37 seconds to load completely. So, how do I achieve such results?

    It is important to understand that the above combination is required to achieve the fastest loading speed for your website. Of course, a good web host will outdo the bad web host at anytime of the day!

    If you want to dive more into website loading speed, here’s a quick video for you.

    How to check for website loading speed?

    My favorite go to tool would be Pingdom Website Speed Test. It is free to use and works like charm. It also comes with a good reporting feature that allows you to understand which part is slowing down your website and how you can solve the issue for a faster website.

    test for website speed

    Diving through the reports will give you an idea especially if you are using a bad web host. The response time (in milliseconds or ms) will help you to easily weed out the bad web hosting services.

    2. Bad web host gives you a lot of errors on Google Search Console

    Another way to check if you are using a bad web host is through Google Search Console.

    Head over to Google Search Console and select your account/website of choice.

    This is what you will see on the dashboard.

    errors on google search console

    A bad website hosting company will often lead to many errors including server errors and 404’s. At some cases, you will also get server connectivity issues which means website visitors will have problem trying to access your site.

    If you are a freelance website developer, freelance writer or affiliate marketer who uses website to generate leads, you are going to literally cry because you are not getting sales!

    no sales

    I’m using a bad web host! What should I do now?

    You are at the cross road and I totally get it. We all make mistakes and the pain is real. You might also feel sad and disappointed with the current web host because they are making you lose business.

    If you are looking for a good web hosting service that doesn’t burn a hole in your wallet, Host With me (web hosting for beginners) is a great option to start with. At only $6.99 per month, you are going to get a way much better shared web hosting performance and experience — and I can guarantee you that or 60 days money back guarantee no matter what your reason!

    If you are looking for an enterprise web hosting or web hosting for high traffic sites, WP Engine is an excellent choice. The performance, security and support levels provided by WP Engine is best to none that I have tested.

  • Server Uptime & Website Availability: How To Avoid Website Going Down?

    Server Uptime & Website Availability: How To Avoid Website Going Down?

    Do you know that server uptime is important? 

    A website that is down will lead to many issues, from losing revenue generation stream (if you are selling anything on your site) to losing readers.

    As a blogger and affiliate marketer, no one wants to have an inaccessible website. However, do you know that you need to pay attention to your server uptime?

    Must Read: The Ultimate Guide in Finding The Best Web Hosting for Small Business

    What is server uptime?

    what is server uptime

    Server uptime is considered the time the server is running. When the server is up, your website is accessible and all the good things happen.

    Uptime is a computer industry term for the time during which a computer is operational. Downtime is the time when it isn’t operational. Source.

    You get website visitors, chance of selling your products online and more importantly, opportunity to make more money online.

    Now, let me ask you. Do you know what happens when your website is experiencing downtime?

    • No accessible
    • Zero or low count in web traffic
    • No chance of solving unless someone notices it
    • Loss of potential income

    More importantly, the feeling of having a website downtime is bad. You are angry, feeling miserable and it certainly felt like having the world crashing down on you (when your primary income generates directly from blogging).

    Take a look at the image below.

    is my website down

    See the traffic drop (red arrows) which happened to one of my niche site in the month of April 2018.

    Few days back, I was trying to understand the reasons for my low earning from this specific site. After going through Google Analytics, I was shocked and angry.

    My cheap VPS service failed me big time.

    As you can see in the images, there are several downtime experienced which leads to the overall server uptime. In this case, my website was not loading properly and visitors are getting errors.

    How to check website availability?

    One of the best way to monitor website availability is through ManageWP.

    What is ManageWP and What Does It Do?

    ManageWP is a WordPress management console (or dashboard) which comes in very handy to those who need to manage more than one WordPress site at a time. 

    ManageWP is a free to use, website monitoring tool that allows you to monitor not only the server’s uptime but as well as the overall health of your website.

    You can easily customize your dashboard setting and it works well with Google Analytics too (which is a huge plus).

    managewp dashboard

    While ManageWP is a free tool to check on your server uptime, there are additional options you can go for such as getting real time notification on your website and SEO monitoring which starts at $1 per service.

    Change web host to experience better server uptime

    You know I’m always a fan of web hosting and working with a web host that cannot guarantee my server uptime is really bad.

    The biggest problem when it comes to server uptime and web hosting is that most web host services offer 99% uptime. But do you know that the 1% downtime equals to 87 hours or slightly over 3 days?

    Time is money, and I rather pay more money than having my website constantly inaccessible.

    Yes, I moved host. Previously, I’m paying around $12 per month for a VPS. I got to admit that it is way better than most shared web hosting services but the downtime is killing me.

    Bonus Material: Finding for the best and cheap web hosting services that come with great performance? Read this post.

    I went on migrating to the all-time-favorite, FlyWheel.

    With FlyWheel, I get:

    • checkVPS even for the smallest plan
    • checkNo downtime to worry about
    • check24/7 support and monitoring from FlyWheel’s team
    • checkA server that is optimized for WordPress
    • checkGuaranteed server uptime
    • checkSecurity issues are no longer a problem for me

    The pricing structure for FlyWheel is really good and it is way better than most of managed WordPress hosting services in the market.

    Here’s the pricing structure:

    getflywheel pricing

    My niche site isn’t huge and it is slightly below 5,000 visits in a month. Thus, spending $14 ($2 more than my previous VPS) is a no brainer. More importantly, it is a massive win for me!

    FlyWheel Alternative?

    WPEngine is the next closest alternative to FlyWheel and WPEngine is often recommended as one of the best managed WordPress hosting for beginners and business owners. 

    The new pricing package for WPEngine starts at $30 per month and comes with Content Delivery Network (CDN) services to further speed up your site!

    Bonus: Spot checking your website uptime

    Do you know that you can also check your website uptime on the web?

    Here are some sites you can use to check if your website is accessible or down:

    Summary: Server Uptime and Website Availability

    To recap, website owners need to play more attention on server uptime and monitor the website availability.

    Having a website down is bad only for your income streams but also for your brand.

  • Keyword Suggestion For Website Owners: Top 5 Tools You Need To Use Today

    Keyword Suggestion For Website Owners: Top 5 Tools You Need To Use Today

    What is the best keyword suggestion for website?

    I wish I have a definite answer to that, but sadly I don’t. There are many keyword suggestions tools you can use but there is no one size fits all.

    Don’t worry, I got you covered. In this post, you will find the top keyword suggestion tools that I personally use and recommend.

    My all-time-favorite keyword suggestion tool — KWFinder

    kwfinder review 2018

    I have used many keyword suggestions tools and KWFinder is by far the best tool money can buy.

    KWFinder comes with a free account (up to 5 keyword searches a day) or you can get subscribe to remove the limitations.

    When it comes to finding the best keyword suggestion for website, KWFinder is the best if you are serious in ranking your website on the first page of Google.

    While KWFinder pricing starts at $49 per month, there’s a free version that allows you up to 5 searches per day.

    Affordable keyword suggestion for website — Long Tail Pro

    long tail pro 2018

    Make no mistake. Long Tail Pro is still one of the best keyword suggestion tool when it comes to performance and pricing.

    Long Tail Pro is a cloud software which allows you to find long tail keywords easily with the goal of ranking well on search (Google).

    While the SEO competition is stiff, Long Tail Pro is still a popular choice among top bloggers such as Neil Patel and Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income.

    Long Tail Pro offers a free 7-days trial and pricing starts at $25 per month. In terms of pricing, Long Tail Pro beats KWFinder out of the park anytime of the day.

    All-in-one keyword suggestion tool — SEMrush

    Last but not least, SEMrush is definitely one of the must-use keyword suggestion tool for 2018.

    SEMrush doesn’t only offer keyword research but as well as monitoring and social media management under the hood.

    SEMrush can be challenging to use for beginners but once you get a hang of it, it will be one of the best tools you will ever use (even with the massive price tag on it)!

    You can try SEMrush for free using this link only (worth over $99).

    How to choose the best keyword suggestion for website?

    At the end of the day, it boils down to the performance (your needs) and the amount of investment you are willing to make.

    KWFinder, Long Tail Pro and SEMrush are all great keyword suggestion tools and in the right hands, they can easily increase your website ranking in just a few short weeks.