Tag: blogging

  • 5 Steps To Create Passive Income Online Through Blogging

    5 Steps To Create Passive Income Online Through Blogging

    Want to know how to create passive income online thought blogging? You came to the right place!

    With the technology advancement today, creating passive income online is no longer a challenging task. As a matter of fact, you can start creating passive income even today.

    Yes, it doesn’t take more than one hour to setup a blog!

    Let’s dive into the exact steps you need to take to create passive income online through blogging, shall we?

    1. Choose a domain name

    A domain name don’t have to be long, and you certainly don’t have to purchase premium domain names.

    A domain name should be easy to remember, short and preferably with a dot com ending.

    A domain name costs around $10 a year and the best place to get is at NameCheap.com because it comes with free WHOIS feature. Currently, you can get a domain name as low as $0.99 on NameCheap (click here to check out their latest promotions).

    2. Choose a web hosting

    web hosting for bloggers

    When it comes to web hosting, you should focus on using only reliable web hosting services. For bloggers who are new, starting with a shared web hosting is the best choice because it is affordable and easily scaleable.

    Looking for a good shared web hosting service? BlueHost and HostGator are two of the best web hosting services as they offer:

    • Free domain name and transfer
    • One-click WordPress installation
    • check-circle-oFree website migration
    • Unlimited bandwidth
    • check-circle-oUnlimited domain hosting
    • check-circle-oUnlimited email accounts
    • check-circle-oAffordable pricing as low as $2.99 per month

    3. Choose the right WordPress theme

    If you want to create passive income online through blogging like the famous Pat Flyn (founder of Smart Passive Income), then you need to use a professional WordPress theme to showcase your work.

    Why?

    Having a professional (and clean) WordPress theme is like dressing well before a meeting with the big bosses. When you create the great first impression, the chance of selling/promoting a product is much higher because you are creating trust.

    With the number of websites today, it very hard to get attention from the web surfers. Therefore, a professional WordPress theme is going to help you to create positive first impression and increases the chances of making money through blogging.

    Looking for professional website designs? You don’t have to look any further. Here are the top ones I highly recommend:

    4. Install relevant plugins

    WordPress Plugins for Bloggers

    At this point of writing, there are 55,532 plugins that you can choose from. For blogs, you should always try to reduce the number of installed plugins because they will affect your website loading speed.

    Here are some relevant plugins that you should be using:

    5. Creating content for blog

    Content is king and if you want to create passive income online through blogging, creating great content is key.

    In order to create content, the rule is to do perform sufficient keyword research and finishing it off by publishing well-designed content.

    Keyword research is critical because this will be the main generator for traffic — your target is to find keywords that are high in searches and low in competition. The best SEO tool for bloggers (as far as I had used is definitely KWFinder). You can my KWFinder review or click here to try the demo immediately.

    Lastly, you finish off the task by creating content and when it comes to creating content on WordPress blogs, I prefer to use WordPress visual builder as it allows me to make my content come to live. For example, the usage of visual builder (e.g. Thrive Architect) allows me to control how my content will be displayed in real time and I’m also able to do advanced changes on the content without coding skills such as these:

    thrive architect font customizationthrive architect customize widthcustomize buttons using thrive architect

    See Thrive Architect in action.

    Are you ready to create passive income online through blogging?

    Finally, we have wrapped up the exact 5 steps you must take in order to create passive income through blogging.

    What are you waiting for?

    Need help? Leave a comment below and tell me all about it!

  • 3 Ways In Getting Traffic To Blog 2018

    3 Ways In Getting Traffic To Blog 2018

    Getting traffic to blog is not an easy task. Most bloggers (and business owners) face this daunting task on a day to day basis.

    According to Internet Live Stats, there are 1,871,364,591 websites which are active right now. That’s 1.8 billion websites!

    The number of websites that grow each year also increases year over year and the figures are not stopping anytime soon.

    website stats 2018

    As a blogger, I’m constantly finding more ways to get more traffic to blog.

    This task isn’t entirely a walk in the park, but if you have the right strategy, you are going to make it big. Here are the top 3 ways to getting traffic to blog.

    1. Getting traffic to blog using SEO

    Search engine optimization or SEO is one of the best way to get traffic to blogs. This strategy involves focusing on keywords that will increase traffic to your blogs.

    SEO involves:

    • Keyword research
    • Niche selection
    • Keyword density
    • check-square-oCompetitor analysis
    • check-square-oAnalyzing and monitoring

    There is no fast way to do SEO especially when you want to do SEO correctly. The right SEO strategy takes time, effort and patience.

    More importantly, you need to understand that SEO is a long term business. On average, you will see improvement in Google ranking within the first few months into doing SEO.

    When it comes to SEO, it is all about producing the right content and focusing on the LSI keywords.

    If you are interested to learn more about SEO, take a look a this step by step guide in increasing ranking on Google.

    2. Getting traffic through email marketing

    You should invest your time into email marketing. No matter how small or big your blog is, you should start email marketing like right now!

    Email marketing helps you get more traffic to blog by keeping your subscribers informed on new posts and updates.

    Email marketing works using this simple mechanism:

    3. Getting traffic to blog using social media

    When was the last time you share your content on social media?

    Sharing content on social media will drive clicks and traffic to your blog.

    By default, you should share new posts and updates on main social media platforms to ensure that your audience is kept updated.

    When it comes to social media, I recommend using Agorapulse for social media scheduling. It allows me to share the right content at the right time and to the right audience — without needing to pull my hair and waking up 3am in the morning!

    Plus, the metric is a killer!

    Agorapulse social media tool

    Summary: Getting Traffic To Blog

    Are you ready to get more traffic to blog?

    What is your top ways in getting more traffic? Leave a comment below and tell me all about it!

  • How Can I Improve My Content On Blogs?

    How Can I Improve My Content On Blogs?

    You want to generate more traffic for your blog and you understand that the only way is to improve the content.

    But you face with ONE major problem. How do you improve your content that will drive more traffic?

    I’m happy that you asked because I’m going to share my case study with you in this article.

    I decided to improve my content because I wanted more traffic and have better conversions. As an affiliate marketer, traffic is paramount for my success (and even yours). The more traffic I get, the higher chance for me to make money blogging.

    I dive in deep and took time to understand what went wrong — and took massive actions to solve the problem.

    The results?

    • check13.28% increase in organic keywords
    • check5.62% increase in organic traffic
    • check6.43% increase in visibility

    See the screenshots below which is taken directly from SEMrush. I use SEMrush because it is the best all-in-one monitoring tool for bloggers who want automated website improvement ideas. Get a free account here.

    how to increase organic keywords for seoincrease position in SERP

    If you are finding for the best way to improve your content for search engine optimization, follow these steps and watch your traffic grow under 14 days.

    Step 1: Produce MORE content

    The first step I took was simple. I do something that every authority figure in the world doesn’t recommend — producing more content.

    My previous content writing strategy involves publishing one or two articles (1,000 to 2,000 words) a week.

    I decided to do once a day publication and it was heavy on me. I will be joking if I said that it was ‘okay.’ As a matter of fact, I burned out within the first week of doing it!

    To my surprise, I coping up was easy. I stopped playing mobile games and spend two hours a day with content generation.

    The results: More content, better search results, more readers and ultimately, excellent search engine ranking.

    Step 2: Keyword research done right

    Again, I see people using hours and hours of doing keyword research. I ought to be different. I spend around 30 minutes on keyword research every day.

    Wait, what? Only 30 minutes?

    Yes, you read that right.

    1

    Google Search

    First, I go to Google to search for the topic that I’m interested to write on.

    Do this: Collect a list of automatic search results that pops out and the titles of the top 10 articles in the SERP.

    2

    Google Keyword Planner

    Head over to Google Keyword Planner and search for the seed keyword (seed keyword is the general keyword).

    Do this: There should be a more than 1,000 searches in a month to have higher profits and for the topic to be on demand.

    3

    Quora

    On Quora, search for each keywords you have collected. You can avoid using the whole sentence and use the main keywords only.

    Do this: You are looking for questions that has over 1,000 views (the more, the merrier).

    4

    KWFinder

    Use KWFinder (register for a free account here) and search for the top keywords you have gathered from Quora.

    Do this: Search for keywords that has at least 500 searches in a month and under 45/100 in difficulty.

    5

    KWFinder Alternative: Long Tail Pro

    If you like Long Tail Pro, sure — that is a great alternative to KWFinder. Here, you do the same thing which is to search for the top keywords you have gathered from Quora. Get a free trial using this link.

    Do this: Search for keywords that has at least 500 searches in a month and under 45/100 in Target Keyword Competitiveness.

    Step 3: Start crafting your content

    You have the targeted keywords. The next step is to craft the content that search engines love.

    Here are some guidelines on how to improve “website content” for SEO:

    • checkAt least 1,000 words long
    • checkKeywords within the content
    • checkKeyword within the title

    Installing third party WordPress plugin such as Yoast SEO and All-In-One SEO Pack will help you further improve your content in SEO perspective.

    Step 4: Improving the user experience (important)

    You may have the best content but if your content is not interesting, you are not going to make the visitors stay on and read the article.

    How long does users stay on a web page?

    7 seconds. That’s exactly how long you have to impress your website visitors.

    With advanced WordPress editor, you can focus on increasing the average session duration for your site.

    I use Thrive Architect to build each blog post. This plugin allows me to create interesting elements within the article such as styled boxes, coloured checklists and many more.

    While there are many other WordPress editors that you can use, I highly recommend Thrive Architect because it is fast and super effective to use. You can read the review or try the demo here.

    Step 5: Record, publish and embed videos

    Don’t just stop at writing blog great blog posts. I take it further by recording videos and embedding videos within the blog post.

    Why?

    When a reader stay on the blog and watch the video, it increases the duration of them staying on my blog. The longer they stay on my blog, the better search engine ranking I’ll get (thanks to RankBrain).

    question

    How long is the dwell time?

    According to Brian Dean from Backlinko, the best dwell time (average session per user) is around 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

    Now, stop right here for a moment.

    Open up Google Analytics and check on your site’s stats by going to Google Analytics > Audience > Overview.

    average user sessions

    If your stats is under 3 minutes, it’s time to seriously improve your content.

    best average session duration

    See the above image. It is taken from one of my client’s site.

    It certainly took me sometime to get her understand that she need to increase the average session duration before she can see bigger jump in traffic.

    Step 6: Do not publish the content (yet)

    Keep the content for at least a day and revisit the content for more improvement. Usually, 24 hours is more than enough to get the job done right.

    Just trust me on this, would you?

    Step 7: Add photos and images to the blog post

    Now that your content is pretty much ready, add in photos and images where neccesary. I add at least 5 images on every blog post to keep the content interesting.

    Plus, humans are often more attracted to images than words.

    If you are using Thrive Architect, you can easily add images and photos through the drag and drop feature.

    Step 8: Before publishing the content

    This is the last step. Optimize your content for SEO to improve the ranking on search engines.

    There are several ways to get this done correctly and fast.

    1

    Check density for main keyword

    If you are using Yoast SEO or All In One SEO Pack plugin, you can easily check the keyword density. I recommend it to be under 2% for most cases.

    2

    Use related keywords/LSI keywords

    You should add related keywords to your blog post. The fastest and easiest way is to use LSI Keyword Generator. Enter the main keyword and a list of related keywords will appear. Input some of the keywords into your blog posts (anywhere necessary and logical) is good SEO practise.

    You should also use third party tools such as KWFinder and Long Tail Pro to search for low competition keywords to improve your content.

    3

    Use ALT-text

    Last but not least, make sure that all your images has ALT-text for SEO purposes. ALT-text shouldn’t be long and should be under 7 words (my personal choice).

    4

    This Publish!

    Yes, finally. Publish the content knowing that you have improved the content the right way.

    Why should you improve your content?

    Improving your content doesn’t only increases the web traffic for your blog, it helps you make sure that your audience is more engaged with the content. Overall, it will help you generate better leads and even higher revenue from sales (or affiliate sales like I do).

    Are you using any website strategy plan to improve blog content? Let’s discuss further!

  • What Is The Best WordPress Hosting Site?

    What Is The Best WordPress Hosting Site?

    Best WordPress hosting site. I’m sure the answer varies and it is highly dependable to individuals. For me, I have my fair share of experiences using shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting and even virtual private servers (VPS). In this post, I’m going to share with you the best WordPress hosting sites based on price and more importantly, server performance.

    The Best WordPress Hosting Site

    Top choice: WP Engine – Excellent performance and customer support

    Plans: As low as $35 per month (25,000 visits)

    Advantages using WP Engine

    • VPS environment for speed and performance
    • Inbuilt cache feature
    • One-click automated migration
    • Bulletproof security
    • 24/7 chat support
    • Staging environment
    • Transferable installs
    • PHP 7 ready
    • LargeFS
    • Automated SSL certificates
    • Content Delivery Network (CDN) (optional and higher plans)
    • GeoTarget (higher plans)
    • Content performance (higher plans)
    • Launch readiness assessment (higher plans)
    • Multisite ready (higher plans)

    Limited Time Offer – 2 Months Free

    Disadvantages using WP Engine

    • Pricing is higher than traditional shared hosting

     

    Secondary choice: FlyWheel – Affordable pricing and unique billing feature

    Pricing: As low as $14 per month (5,000 visits)

    Advantages using FlyWheel

    • No overage charges (only automatic upgrade to next plan)
    • Free site migration
    • Free SSL certificate
    • Free staging sites
    • Transferable billing to clients
    • Content Delivery Network (CDN) (optional and higher plans only)
    • Multisite (higher plans only)
    • 24/7 support via email only

    Try FlyWheel today!

    Disadvantages using FlyWheel

    • Smallest plan only suits for really small websites
    • Pricing is higher than traditional shared hosting
    • Lack of live chat feature is a game changer

     

    Third choice: SiteGround – Excellent pricing with a scaled down performance

    Pricing: As low as $3.95 per month

    Advantages using SiteGround

    • 24/7 live chat
    • Super affordable web hosting plans
    • Scalability

    Try affordable WordPress hosting with SiteGround.

    Disadvantages using SiteGround

    • All plans are based on shared hosting
    • Server performance is based on plans you had signed up
    • Advanced support is considered ad-hoc services and chargeable

     

    New entry: Kinsta Hosting – Blazing fast servers powered with Google Cloud Platform

    Pricing: As low as $30 per month

    Advantages using Kinsta

    • Powered by Google Cloud Platform (VPS)
    • Blazing website speed
    • Scalability and powerful web hosting for both small and enterprise websites
    • Staging area
    • Inbuilt cache system
    • 24/7 live chat

    Click here to see all the benefits using Kinsta!

    Disadvantages using Kinsta hosting

    • Pricing is steep for small website owners/beginners

     

    What is the best WordPress hosting site?

    Personally, I would choose for WP Engine as my first choice. For the price of $35 a month, I can rest assured that my sites are always protected and secured. More importantly, downtime is never a problem and the support team over at WP Engine is willing to go beyond simply because they could. For me, this is definitely a deal breaker as I do not want to be charged for every support I require. Take a look at this post and you will understand why.

    If you are a web developer, FlyWheel (or GetFlyWheel) is a great choice for you because it provides easy billing features. In other words, you can transfer the charges over to your client through FlyWheel’s dashboard. There is no more mess and you can focus on the thing that you are best in … which is designing the site. The downside of FlyWheel is the plans are pretty much similar to WP Engine and therefore, you will get a better deal when using WP Engine instead. The Tiny plan from FlyWheel allows up to 5,000 visits in a month and let’s be real honest — that is really insufficient for most bloggers.

    SiteGround is the lowest in the comparison tier. While the low plans are great for starters and beginners, the servers are optimized for WordPress hosting but they are still shared web hosting. This means that it is NOT managed WordPress hosting and you will get lower performance servers when compared to WP Engine and FlyWheel.

    Last but not least, the newest entry is Kinsta hosting. Kinsta offers a simple solution for both entry level websites and business websites. With pricing starts at $30 per month, Kinsta offers top notch VPS performance (thanks to Google Cloud Platform) and inbuilt cache plugin that makes your website loads insanely fast. Plus, the support team is available 24/7 via live chat to answer all your doubts and challenges you may face in web hosting.

    What do you think? Leave a comment below and tell me which web host you are currently using!

  • 4 Steps To Build A Brand For Your New Blog

    4 Steps To Build A Brand For Your New Blog

    Do you know that branding is as important for bloggers as it is for big names? The process of building a brand is often overlooked by many bloggers, and as a result, they will lead to many ‘˜challenges’ such as infringement and trying to be different as they move along their blogging journey.

    According to Entrepreneur, the definition of branding is ‘The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.’
    CONTINUE READING

  • 14 Ways To Prevent Your WordPress Website From Being Hacked

    14 Ways To Prevent Your WordPress Website From Being Hacked

    How to secure WordPress website from hackers?‘

    As a blogger (now, freelance writer), the above is one of the most common questions asked by new bloggers and website owners.

    My answer to them often goes into the deep conversation as I am a huge believer that securing WordPress website from hackers requires more than just one step. As a matter of fact, there are many steps you need to take to secure WordPress website from hackers.

    Two years back, I wrote an article on WordPress security, and it was a huge success. Not only that post became one of my most popular blog posts, but it was also featured on Harvard University’s blog!
    CONTINUE READING