Ways to Generate Revenue With Your Blog

by sitemanager

Looking to generate revenue with your blog? It's actually a lot easier than most people realize. Just check out some of the following ways to generate revenue through blogging. Sell Ad Space Assuming your blog receives a decent amount traffic, you can always sell out space to other webmasters and marketing companies. This basically involves creating empty ads on your website, with a placeholder image saying something along the lines of "Rent this space for $X dollars per month." Keep in mind, however, that selling ad space requires a bit of work. You must manage billing, ensure clients' crea...

Checklist for Launching a WordPress Blog

by sitemanager

Thinking about launching a blog using WordPress? While this content management system (CMS) can be used to create all types of websites, it's particularly effective at developing blogs. WordPress supports multiple authors, visitor comments, tags/categories, and you can schedule postings, all of which are helpful tools when blogging. Define Your Niche The very step in launching a WordPress is to define your blog. In other words, what do you want your blog to be about? Going broad with a generalized topic rarely works, simply because there's too much competition for broad keywords. A smarter a...

5 Trust Signals to Make Your Blog More Trustworthy

by sitemanager

Lack of trust is a serious problem that can cost blogs and other websites tons of sales. If visitors view your blog as being untrustworthy, they won't feel comfortable making a purchase or taking any other direct action. Trust Seals What the heck is a trust seal? It's exactly what it sounds like: a seal (kind of like a logo) that's designed to instill trust in visitors. One of the most common and well-known trust seals is the Better Business Bureau (BBB) logo, which is found on numerous websites, big and small. Surprisingly, though, BBB isn't the most effective trust seal. A study conducted ...

Top 5 Reasons to Use a Responsive Web Design for Your Blog

by sitemanager

Tablet illustrating responsive web design

Does your blog have a Responsive Web Design (RWD)? If not, it should. There's been a growing trend towards the use of Responsive designs, and for good reason. It's a simple and effective way to improve your site's traffic and functionality, but this is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits offered by RWD. To learn more about Responsive designs and why you should use it, keep reading. What is Responsive Web Design? Basically, it means designing a website or blog to function the same across all devices -- smartphones, tablets, desktops with huge monitors, and laptops...

Top Tips to Build a Loyal Blog Following

by sitemanager

The success of a blog relies heavily on the loyalty (or lack thereof) of its readers. If visitors feel a connection with the blog, they'll return to it regularly to check out its new posts and articles. But how do you develop a strong following of loyal readers? Be Consistent With Your Blog's Content You won't develop a strong following of loyal users unless you are consistent with your blog's content. Google has said that publishing high-quality content is the single most important thing webmasters can do. Content is the force that drives people to visit websites, and it's the force that en...

How to Promote Your Blog via Article Marketing

by sitemanager

Article marketing is one of the oldest forms of web promotion. It involves writing and submitting articles to various directories, in which you can include a link pointing back to your website or blog. This can be simple way to promote your blog. If this is your first time attempting article marketing, however, there are a few things you should know. How Article Marketing Works The basic principle behind article marketing is fairly simple and straightforward. There are hundreds of websites out there which allow users to write and submit articles on a topic of their choosing. Known as article...

What Is Microblogging?

by sitemanager

Screenshot of social media and Twitter handles

Microblogging has become increasingly popular over the past few years, with millions of people using it for both personal and commercial purposes. But what exactly is microblogging? And does it offer any real benefits over traditional blogging? These are just a few of the many questions that we're going to tackle today. The Origins of Microblogging According to Wikipedia, political writer and blogger Jonathan Gillette (AKA why the lucky stiff) coined the term "microblogging" when describing Christian Neukirchen's Anarchaia.org online activities. Gillette said blogging had "mutated into simpl...

5 Blogging Tips I Wish I Knew as a Beginner

by sitemanager

Photo of a t-shirt that reads "I'm blogging this. Are you?"

#1) Choose Your Domain Name Wisely Many beginners rush through the process of registering a domain name simply because they want to get started NOW. But the domain name is the heart and soul of your blog, which is why it's important to choose a meaningful and appropriate name. Think about what you hope to accomplish with your blog, the niche, and your target audience. Choose a domain name that's relevant to all of these elements. Ideally, it should be a brandable dot com name with no hyphens or numbers. #2) Your Content Management System Matters Yes, you can technically build a blog using N...

How to Use WordPress More Effectively

by sitemanager

Do you use WordPress to blog? There's no denying the fact that WordPress is a powerful blogging platform. It features a massive directory of plugins and themes while preserving a clean and user-friendly interface. Backup Your Files Don't forget to backup your files. Many first-time WordPress users make the mistake of only downloading their core files via a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program. But WordPress isn't static, and most of its data is stored in the form of a database. Therefore, you'll need to download both your core files, as well as the database associated with your site. If all ...

WordPress Plugins to Reduce Your Blog’s Load Times

by sitemanager

How long does it take visitors to load your blog? Load times play an important role in the usability and overall function of a blog. If visitors are forced to stare at a loading screen for a long time, some will click their browser back button. Thankfully, WordPress has a massive directory of plugins, many of which can be used to reduce a blog's load times. W3 Total Cache Arguably, one of the most effective ways to reduce a blog's load time is to enable browser caching. Rather than forcing visitors to reload the same files each time they visit your site, browser caching will automatically st...

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