So, you want to become a hotshot in the blogging world, huh? Awesome! It’s definitely possible, although it will require consistency, dedication, the right blogging tools and hard work over a long period of time.
But, if you choose a niche that you’re truly passionate about and can easily express your views and knowledge, you’ll keep pushing until you find success.
Now, bloggers exist all around the world and no two sites are ever identical; individual personalities, opinions and writing styles get to shine.
That’s crazy when you consider there’s around 1.3 billion websites across the internet. Anyone can turn blogging into a career, though. The only thing that differentiates pro bloggers from blogging hobbyists is monetization.
You see, everyone is in the same boat; uploading posts on a daily, weekly or monthly basis in a bid to attract visitors to read their content.
Those that desire a career from blogging will monetize their site in many different ways, including affiliate marketing, ads and sponsored posts.
But, the similarities that every blogger share come in the form of five essential tools. All bloggers start by putting a tick in the box of five different areas, because without them, you won’t have a functioning site to start uploading your blog posts.
So, if you’re new to the blogging scene and are ready to get started, here are the five tools you must have…
1. Domain Name
The first thing you need to when starting your blog is to find yourself a domain, and then get it registered.
If you’re unsure of what a domain is, then it’s just the name that you’ll see in the search bar; the name that people will type in to visit your site.
For instance, it could be “www.onetwothree.com,” but of course you’d choose a domain that is the same as what you’re calling your blog.
To get yourself set up with a domain on the internet, it isn’t free.
Not if you want to embark on the professional route from the beginning, which will save a lot of hassle in the future when you’d need to migrate over to your own hosting.
Luckily, though, there are plenty of providers out there where you can register your domain for a year for next to nothing.
Nowadays, most providers also offer other functions which empower you to link your domain to your hosting and website in just a few clicks.
So, the reason why you want to choose your own domain right from the off, is because it looks a lot more legit.
People scouring the web are more prone to clicking on a site that seems professional.
When you choose the free option, you’ll have the providers name in your domain too. For example, it could be something along the lines of “www.pineapple.onetwothree.com,” which informs people that you don’t actually own your site.
We strongly advise you to opt for Bluehost; that applies to those who are just starting out and people who have been blogging for years. Why?
Because millions of people around the world utilize Bluehost as they’re so reliable, offer great functions and give superb 24/7 customer support. Plus you get,
-
- Free Domain
- Free Site Builders
- 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
- Over $150 in Ad Spend Offers
We Recommend : Bluehost
Search for your domain name right now and get it before someone else does!
2. Hosting
The next thing you’ll need is hosting, which is essentially an area on the internet where your site will sit.
In a nutshell, your site won’t be able to go live without hosting, because it’s that what will power you blog and allow it to be stored on the web.
When you opt for a certain hosting provider, you’re basically renting space on their servers for all of your files.
But, the provider will assign an address to those files so that your site can be found by people browsing the net.
Alongside that, you’ll have the ability to customize your blog in any way that you desire, because you’ll own your site.
That means you have full freedom with the design, retain all of the income generated through on-site ads, and will be able to cater for a large amount of traffic when you reach that stage.
Like with a domain, we recommend choosing Bluehost as your hosting provider. It’s super-straightforward to set up both your domain and hosting at the same time, which will save you a lot of stress, time and frustration.
Oh, and all you need to do to link them to your site is use their one-click installation.
It also helps that they offer one of the best hosting services on the market, so you’ll never have to worry about your site going down.
Plus you get,
- 1 Click WordPress Instal(Very Easy)
- 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
- All for as little as $3,95 per Month
We Recommend : Bluehost
Choose your Hosting Plan Below
3. Platform
So, by this point, you would have already got your domain and hosting sorted, so you can tick both of those boxes.
Now might be the time to get excited, because you’re all set to launch your new blog onto the internet and start putting all of your ideas, knowledge and advice to good use.
But, the last thing you need to cater for before being able to do that is to choose a platform.
A blogging platform is a service that allows you to publish your content to the internet; they’re also known as Content Management Systems.
They do tend to come in different forms, as you either have blogging platforms or website builders, but both will allow you to start running a blog.
When you sign up to a platform, you’re provided with a centralised hub where you can control your whole blog.
Everything from the settings and privacy, to the themes and content can be managed from your platform account.
Without a shadow of a doubt, WordPress is the only blogging platform we suggest using. According to research, around 25% of all websites are powered by WordPress, and 14.7% are in the top 100.
They give you plenty of customization options, it’s extremely simple to use, and you can rapidly install a vast array of different plugins.
Plus you can,
- Build a blog, website, or both.
- Start free. Upgrade for advanced customizing or business tools. Or stay free!
- Create Hundreds of themes.
- Get thousands of different plugins.
We Recommend : WordPress
Start your WordPress Adventure Now!
3. Autoresponder
There are so many methods for monetizing your blog, but they’re performance driven.
Ads thrive off traffic, affiliate marketing flourishes with creative, subtle sales copy and sponsored posts pay individually.
So, really, you aren’t actually building a sustainable business that has longevity.
Other than the selection of traffic that keeps returning, you don’t have any loyal customers that you can keep marketing to for years and years.
So, what would happen if your blog suddenly collapsed? Politely putting it, you’d be screwed!
Therefore, you need a way to capture contact information and a service that will allow you to automate your communication with them.
Meet the autoresponder. All you need to do is sign up to an autoresponder provider, set up a function on your blog to capture emails (you may need to offer something for free, such as an E-Book or some other value), and then use the autoresponder to keep marketing to them.
You could provide valuable content, update them on new blog posts, use it for affiliate marketing or even sell your own products. The key is retaining those loyal subscribers, so you can’t just sell, sell, sell.
An amazing provider is Get Response, and that’s because all of their plans are scalable based on the amount of subscribers you have.
The starting package for beginners is very affordable, too, and comes equipped with landing pages.
So what do you get?,
- Very affordable with great choice of plans
- Build you own landing pages
- Great customer service and reputation
- 30 day free trial.
- Very easy drag and drop builder to perfect your campaigns
We Recommend : Get Response
Check out the plans below and start growing your list!
5. Analytics
Once you’ve got your blog up and running and you’re regularly producing content with the hope of drawing in hundreds-of-thousands of visitors, you’ll need a way to track your statistics.
By doing that, you’ll give yourself tons of data that you can utilize to fine-tune your blog or aid your marketing efforts.
An analytics provider will tell you how many daily, weekly and monthly visitors you’ve had, what device they’re visiting your site on, what area of the world they’re from and much, much more.
That’s all nice and fancy, and if you see the numbers rising you’ll gain confidence, and when they dip you can quickly find a solution.
But, arguably, the most important piece of data that it will give you is the channels that your visitors are arriving from.
Those channels are typically broken down into organic search, paid search, referrals, direct and social media.
With that information you can really find out where you need to place more attention, and where you’re already performing highly.
Not only is it completely free of charge, but you can add as many sites as you want, the data is broken down cleanly so it’s easy to understand, and they measure sessions which produces more accurate results.
So why Google Analytics,
- It's Free
- It's Google 🙂
- Used by just about everyone who has a website
- Very easy to understand
- Great online instructions
- Helps you understand your website traffic much easier.
We Recommend : Google Analytics
Leave a Reply