120 FAQs about blogging as a business

If you are new to the world of blogging you will find this list of FAQs about blogging as a business Go-to resource to get all your questions answered.

Every Newbie blogger sometimes gets confused by some technical terms and Jargons when trying to create a blogging business. Of course, Google is always there to answer your questions but sometimes you just don’t know what questions to ask to really drive your blog further.

Most people think that blogging is a technically demanding business, when in fact, it’s really not. If you are one of those who are struggling in understanding how blogging works of how to create a successful blog or have any type of questions related to blogging as a business, well… then you are just at the right places.

This complete compilation of frequently asked questions or FAQs on starting & growing a business blog will no longer let you be a beginner but instead, help you clarify all your doubts to drive your business blog to success.

Be sure to bookmark this page as you will find it very handy during your blogging journey. With that said, let’s start with the basics.

Fundamentals

What is a Blog?

A Blog can be described as a website in which posts are regularly updated in the form of written content revolving around the niche or theme of the blog. This blog that you are reading at this moment is a perfect example of a business blog.

Who is a Blogger?

Blogger is a person who is responsible for managing and running a blog. Blogger is also the owner of the blog and usually grows to become an authority in a particular niche. The writer of this blog post is a typical blogger writing about blogging as a niche.

What is Blogging?

Running and managing one or more than one blog is known as blogging. Blogging is a combination of different skills required to run a blog such as writing, advertising, marketing, promoting, etc.

What is the difference between a Blog and a Website?

A blog is often more updated and dynamic than a website. The blog has a categorized way of representing content, categories, and tags.

Blogs more often than not are categorized by providing a comment section at the end of each article or blog post through which readers can share their ideas, questions, or thoughts.

What is a Personal Blog?

A personal blog can be described as a personal online diary that is written by a person, sharing hers or his thoughts and ideas about a specific niche or topic.

How to start a blog?

Starting a blog is easy. You just need a domain name and a web hosting service from any of the domain and web hosting providers available online to set up your blog successfully. After some optimization and design work, you are ready to post your first article on your blog.

But if you aim to create a successful business out of your blog, the opposite is true. You will need to work hard, boost your skills with effective books and online courses, introduce smart strategies and practices, learn or outsource SEO, and digital marketing.

Which blogging platform is recommended for a beginner?

Starting your blog through a self-hosted platform such as WordPress is recommended for any beginners. There are of course other platforms such as Drupal or even free drag and drop platforms such as Blogger, Medium, WordPress.com, Wix, etc.

While drupal is way too complicated for a beginner blogger as the CMS is built for big corporations, Blogger, medium, Tumblr, Wix, and wordpress.com may be great options for a hobby blog.

Nevertheless, if you are serious about blogging and aim to create a business out of your blog choosing a self-hosted platform is the way to go.

Note: Before choosing your blogging platform, make sure to compare the diverse options, and to choose a platform based on your business requirements and needs.

Do I need any technical skills to start a blog?

No, not really. You don’t need to learn any advanced technical skills to start your blog besides maybe basic knowledge on how to use WordPress and set up a blog on your web hosting provider. All very basic skills that are not difficult to master.

Instead, good writing, digital marketing, and most importantly consistency are all key skills to drive a successful business blog.

What is a niche in blogging?

A niche is a topic or subject on which you’ll write about or create any type of content on your blog.

The niche of your blog is typically a topic or subject you enjoy writing about as well as a topic of public interest.

Note: Selecting a popular niche and writing quality blog posts around it, is honestly one of the best methods to build a successful blog.

How to choose a niche for my blog?

You should select the niche of your blog based on your interest and skills. Your blog niche should be a topic or subject you enjoy writing about. This ensures consistency and content quality, both very important aspects of a successful blog.

You should have a burning passion for writing and exploring in great detail your selected niche. You should also research the competitiveness and popularity of the niche, as selecting a niche without proper research can make you walk in circles.

What if I don’t select any niche in blogging?

Well, this is one of the most common mistakes of many bloggers. Not selecting a proper niche or topic for your blog sends mixed signals to search engines such as Google which results in a downgrade of your overall search results. So, make sure to choose a niche for your blog and be an expert on the topic.

My niche is highly competitive. What should I do?

The Internet is a vast place. There may be thousands of websites and blogs competing against the same niche. But remember, the quality of the content and inbound links are the driving factors that can differentiate you against your competitors.

Try to deliver a bit of variation or a new idea related to your niche to stand out from the crowd. Improving both the quality and quantity of the content, publish your post, and market it on social media, forums, discussion boards, or even through guest posting. I promise you, sooner or later your blog will also rank on Google and on other search engines.

My blog is not growing. Should I change my niche?

Changing the niche of your blog is only recommended when there is a very high competition related to your niche and that you are not able to compete against your competitors. In that case, you know that you cannot deliver the quality of content already provided by your competition.

If a niche is of really high competition, unfortunately, there is very little place left for any newcomer. Still, you can truly achieve results working on a highly competitive niche, but that will only happen after years of hard work and dedication.

Is it difficult to earn money via blogging?

No. Working smart and consistently is the only key to success in blogging. You don’t believe me? Check these top highest paid bloggers and the crazy monthly income they earning from just blogging.

Whether you work on a highly competitive niche or low, sooner or later your blog will squeeze its presence online. You just have to maintain the standard and quality of your content as well as creating content based on your target group’s trends and interests.

There are of course some other factors such as SEO, keyword research, affiliate programs that you will eventually master through experience.

What type of content should I write when blogging?

You can write about anything of public interest as long as it is related to your niche. You can provide any educational content, how-to guides, reviews, tips and tricks, documentaries, research, etc… Really, anything that could be of your target group interest.

There are certain things you need to keep in mind while creating and posting your blog post. You should remember that while blogging you are creating and providing content on the Internet that is consumed by thousands of people worldwide, so make sure you do not create or deliver the bad, wrong, violent, disrespectful type of content. You should never hurt anyone’s feelings through blogging.

Should I need to complete any blogging course?

Information is Power. Blogging or businesses related courses will of course help you with the theoretical part of the business. And even if I do recommend some blogging courses before starting blogging, it is generally not required, especially for hobby bloggers. But If you want to make a business out of blogging, then good quality courses will shorten your path to success.

Following are my 10 best blogging courses to help grow your blog that I recommend reading before starting a blog.

Make money blogging

Do bloggers make real money?

Bloggers make real money! and lots of it if you ask me. Did you know that some bloggers are making more money than the president of the united states of America? It’s choking but true, check the following list of successful blogs and their monthly income.

You will be astonished to know that some of the top bloggers on the internet such as Tim Sykes are making over $1 000,000 per month. And even if 1 million dollars a month is not a norm, many bloggers are successfully generating a passive income out of their blogs.

How do bloggers make money blogging?

There are various ways of making money blogging. All you need is to focus on a strategy that attracts a healthy amount of traffic to your blog or website on a daily basis. When your blog is generating enough traffic (Generally above 25K/month) the rest is really straightforward.

Some of the most popular ways of making money via blogging are:

Monetization via AdSense or other popular Ads Network
Affiliate Marketing
Advertising
Branding
E-commerce
copywriting and many more…

How Long does it take to start making money blogging?

For most bloggers, The answer to the question seems to be at least after 6 months of hard work and dedication.

For a full-time income, be prepared to put at least 1 to 2 years worth of work depending on your niche and the amount of work you put into your blog.

In my experience, instructing bloggers starting their blog from scratch and working with a specific and targeted audience, I have seen them start earning money from their blog within 6 to 7 months. I’ve even seen some of the lucky and passionate bloggers earning their first income already after 3 to 4 months.

What is the cost of having a blog?

The cost of running a blog depends on the web hosting and platform you choose. There are various free platforms such as blogger, medium, Tumblr, wordpress.com, etc. But if you want to build a business blog and make money blogging, self-hosted platforms are the recommended way to go.

To answer the question, the price of a self-hosted platform such as WordPress hosted in a web hosting provider such as Bluehost can cost you between $3 to $10 per month providing various optimization and functionality.

What is advertisement in blogging?

Blogs or websites can be an amazing way to advertise any type of product or service as a large number of people visit blogs on a daily basis. In fact, blogs are seen as one of the best ways to market a product or service online. So various companies and startups launch their Ad campaigns and try to include their ads on various niche related blogs, this way, businesses get more visibility and potential leads for their products and services while the owner of the blog (you) earns money from the ads network.

What is an ad network?

Ads Networks are the online service or platform which serves as a mediator between a group of advertisers and a group of products and services. Some of the popular online Ad Networks are Google AdSense, Adknowledge, Facebook Audience Network, Amazon Publisher Services as well as premium ad networks such as Mediavine for bloggers with more than 50K visitors a month.

What is Google AdSense?

Google AdSense is the most popular advertising program for many type of blogs and websites. It is the first choice of every beginner blogger who wants to make money online.

When your blog starts to drive a significant amount of traffic, you may want to explore other premium alternatives such as Mediavine as they pay up to 7 times more per click than Google Adsense.

How can I analyze my website traffic and stats?

There are various tools available online to check or analyze your website traffic. Google Search Console and Google Analytics are the most popular tools used for website health and traffic analysis. They are very easy to use and provide very detailed stats of your website such as speed, quality, and source of traffic, etc. and best of all, did I mention they are free!

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a Google webmaster tool that provides all types of web services for checking various stats such as website health, backlink quality, security actions, and organic traffic analytics of your website or blog.

It is free to use and has a very user-friendly interface.

What are the benefits of using Google AdSense?

There are various benefits of using Google AdSense for advertisements on your blog or website. The quality of the Ads shown by Google AdSense is far better than all other beginners Ad Networks. Using AdSense, you will show the highest paying ads related to your niche on your blog or website.

The tool provides a personalized Ad experience as the Ads will be displayed according to the theme and content of your blog or website. You will receive the highest pay-outs corresponding to the clicks and impressions made by your audience.

Of course, when your blog starts generating a healthy amount of traffic, you may want to consider other premium Ads network alternatives as they provide a much higher PPC (pay per click) than Google Adsense.

Why should I use Google AdSense over other Ad Networks?

When compared to the more premium Ad networks, Google Adsense does not have any special requirements to join the Ads network. Which makes it relevant to beginner bloggers with low monthly traffic. Besides, the tool provides various great features and functionalities that make the tool the very first choice for monetization of any new blog or website.

AdSense is also easy to set up, you just need to add the Adsense code on your blog and AdSense will start showing ads.

And besides the premium network ads, for beginners, AdSense is still one of the highest paying Ads networks. It is worth mentioning that Google Adsense, being owned by Google provides trust and security.

How should I apply for Google AdSense?

First, you have to register for an AdSense account by providing your personal or business information and details such as name, address, and payment method. Now login and open your AdSense account, create your AdSense ad based on your requirements, generate a code, and place it wherever you want the ad to show on your blog or website.

AdSense will need to run its verification and approval process. Unfortunately, AdSense does not approve all types of blog niches. Casino, betting, and adult-related niches are generally not approved to run Google ads.

It’s worth mentioning that your blog or website needs to strictly follow Google standard and quality to be legit to run Adsense. Which honestly is not a hard task to achieve. If everything is according to Google terms, you will receive an approval or confirmation email. Now you can start using AdSense to show ads on your blog or website and earn money depending upon various factors such as impressions, clicks, traffic, location, etc.

How can I earn money using Google AdSense on my blog or website?

After getting an approval email from Google, you just have to place your ad on your blog or website. If your blog has a good amount of traffic or audiences on a daily basis, you will start earning money every time the ad is shown or clicked on your blog. By using the Adsense stats you will be able to monitor your earnings as AdSense will optimize and calculate your earnings based on traffic, impressions, clicks, from day one.

What are clicks or ad clicks?

Ad clicks are the count of the number of times users have clicked on an ad placed on a blog or website.

What is an impression or an ad impression?

An ad impression is the count of the number of times your Ad has been shown to any viewer or audience. An ad impression is counted whenever an ad is displayed within a blog or website.

What is CPC?

CPC means cost per click. It is a rate or the money your blog earn per each click. A good CPC usually earned from premium Ad networks can enhance your earnings considerably.

CPC depends on various factors including the location of your audience and the niche of your blog or website. You should always do a little research about the CPC of your topic and niche before running a network ad on your blog or website.

What is CTR?

CTR means click through rate. Numerically it is the number of clicks divided by the number of exposures. You can also calculate it in percentage by multiplying it by 100. For example, if you have an Ad running and it has 100 views with 20 clicks then your CTR is 20%.

What are the factors affecting AdSense Ads CPC?

CPC can play a vital role in your overall earnings through blogging. CPC from Ads can vary depending on various reasons such as:

Type of content
Type of audience
Niche
Ad-blocks
Location or Country
Blogging platform
Placement of Ads

What are some of the best AdSense alternatives?

Outside the premium alternatives such as Mediavine, for bloggers with a low amount of traffic, AdSense is one of the best network ads to effectively earn money via monetization. But getting approval from AdSense for your blog or websites is not always easy. They have some strict rules of standards and quality not always possible for every blog to follow.

If you are not approved by AdSense due to any kind of reason, you have a whole list of AdSense alternatives to earn money from. Some of the best AdSense alternatives are as follows:

How can I protect my AdSense account from spams?

You should be ready to get your AdSense account banned if you don’t protect it from spams. Losing an AdSense account can be your worst nightmare as a beginner blogger. I have seen bloggers closing their blogs as a result of an Adsense ban. This is why protecting and securing your Adsense account is a priority for any blogger.

There are fortunately some tips and tricks you can follow to avoid spams affecting your AdSense Account. Some of are:

You should never try to make invalid or unusual clicks on your AdSense Ads
You should never send an Email with Ads
Do not use AdSense on any Unsupported language blogs
Do not use Aggressive or contextual Advertisement labels
Do not alter or change the AdSense code

There are some software and plugins available which can help you save your AdSense account from getting banned due to spam. Some of them are free while others are of a premium type.

How can I increase traffic to my blog?

Traffic is the driving force that makes a particular blog successful or unsuccessful. Unfortunately, many beginner bloggers struggle to increase traffic to their blog or website. And it’s really not a surprise as besides delivering valuable, quality, and interesting content there are other certain important practices and strategies often ignored by most bloggers but are truly vital to increase traffic to your blog or website.

SEO or Search engine optimization: You should try to learn or contact an SEO specialist to implement SEO on your blog as soon as you can. Without SEO your blog will never grow organically. SEO is responsible to rank and attract reliable and targeted traffic and audience to your blog or website.
Subscription form: You should try to convert your visitors or readers into subscribers. Subscribers are your reliable followers that will provide better growth and conversion to your blog. Make just sure to maintain your subscribers with reliable and interesting content.
Email marketing: With a list of subscribers continuously growing, you should opt for Email Marketing, as still, it is one of the best ways to drive direct traffic to your blog or website in a consistent way. It might take some time to learn to implement an effective email marketing strategy, But trust me, it will do you good in the long run.
Keep your blog up to date with the latest technology: Try to implement the latest technologies on your blog, such as prompt notification, push notification, or chatbox, etc. It will help you increase your subscriber list and build persistent traffic.
Social media: You should use social media and community sites such as Quora, Reddit, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, to drive more audience and increase your reach.

There are many ways to increase your blog or website traffic. Make sure to test the different options and be consistent. Also, remember that everyone has their way and experience in achieving the results.

Technologies and terms related to blogging

What is coding?

Coding can be described as a process of using a programming language to instruct and command a computer to perform a certain task in a specific way. It is used to design and develop websites and blogs. This blog for instance is developed using html, php, css, and javascript as programming languages.

Do I need to learn to code?

No, for blogging you don’t need to learn to code. You should thank the ever-evolving technologies that have made it easier to design websites or blogs by using drag and drop installations and features.

Besides designing, you can also optimize, analyze, and even create your blog’s user experience tailored to your target group with powerful content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress and Drupal.

How much programming is required to set up a blog?

Technically, Zero! You can set up and design a blog without writing a single line of code. There are various prebuilt blog templates available, some of them are free while others are premium. You just have to customize them as per your requirement.

Customizing and designing your blog also depends on the platform used for your blog. For example, Blogger platforms offer limited customization to layouts and templates while WordPress and drupal offers full customization to your website or blog.

However, it will never harm you to learn some web programming languages while blogging. This will help you in debugging any kind of problems you may endure with your blog in the future.

What is a domain name?

Domains can be described as the address of your blog or website on the internet. People will type your domain name in the address bar or search it on search engines to access your sites. A domain name is often explained as a digital address for your blog or website.

Some examples of Domains are google.com, facebook.com, kliwo.com, etc…

Can I get a Domain for free?

Yes, you can get a domain for free. Various platforms can provide you with free domain names. But that domain name will be associated with the provider’s name.

For example, let say you have a business called “business of kliwo”, if you now choose a blogger platform that provides free domain names, let say Tumblr, when creating a page on Tumblr you will automatically get a free domain address such as https://businessofkliwo.tumblr.com/ where your business name is associated with the platform root domain name.

What is the problem with the free domain name?

A free domain name is always associated with the provider’s name and this is not considered to be a good branding or SEO (Search Engine Optimization) practice.

What are the different types of domains?

There are certainly different types of Domains that you can use as per your requirements. Different types of Domains are as follow:

Top-level domains
Generic level domains
Country code top-level domains
Second-level domains
Third level domains

What are the top-Level domains?

As the name suggests top-level domains are at the top of the domain name hierarchy. The most popular top-Level domain is .com, it is mostly used for commercial purposes. Some other examples of the top-level Domains are .org, .edu, .gov, and .mil. For blogging, you should always go for a popular top-level domain such as .com.

What are generic level domains?

Generic level domains are part of the top-level domain. It is just a slight variation on the top-level domain. Generic top-level domains have generic domain names that may or may not resemble the niche or subject of the website or blog.

These types of domains are best suited to build a brand and advertise it online.

What is the country code level domain?

Country code level domains are part of the top-level domains and as per their name, they are related to a country. Each country has its own country code level domain. For example .se is the country code level domain for Sweden.

Note: You are not restricted to use country code level domains because you live in a certain specific country.

What is the second-level domain?

Second level domains (SLDs) comes after the top level domains in the hierarchy of domain names. Second-level domains are the text showing on the left of the final dot in a domain name. For example, the word “kliwo” in kliwo.com is the second-level domain.

What are the third-level domains?

The third-level domain comes after the second-level domains in the hierarchy of domain names. Third-level domains can be found on the left side of the second-level domains. It is also known as a subdomain. For example, the word “www” in the “www.kliwo.com” is the third level domain.

From where should I buy a domain?

There are various popular and well-known domain name providers over the internet. Just do a google search and get a domain of your own choice.

Some of the top-level Domain name providers are Bluehost, Namecheap, Godaddy, Wix, Alibaba cloud, and Domain.com.

Why should I go for .com domain?

.com domain is very popular for its branding and advertising purpose as people always remember the brand name more than its domain extension. They usually add .com after the brand name and try to access it anywhere on the internet.

You will never regret using the .com extension in comparison to any other domain extensions available to you at variable costs.

How do I buy a perfect domain for my blog or website?

Buying a perfect domain name for your blog or website can be tricky especially for beginners. As you can’t change your domain name in the future after establishing your blog. However, there are certain things you should take into consideration before buying a domain, some of are:

Go for .com domain extensions if possible.
Use a slight variation in the second level domain if the required domain is not available.
Try to select a domain that can be easily typed without any spelling errors.
Select a domain name that you can share verbally without any verbal compications.
Avoid using the names of any brand or existing company without their consent. This can create a copyright infringement issue.

Required domain is not available. What should I do?

The top-level domain name providers sell thousands of domains every single day. So there is very little chance that your required domain is available. Today, most of the simple and catchy domain names are occupied. So, why not try adjusting your required domain name with some variation so that you can get the available domain as similar as possible to the name you have thought of.

What is web hosting?

Hosting or web hosting is a place on the internet where all the data, files, settings of your websites or blog are stored and made accessible for you and your audience online. It’s a kind of an online service that provides you the service of publishing your website or blog on the internet.

Can I get a web hosting for free?

Yes, some web hosting providers offer free web hosting. The most popular ones are Tumblr, Blogger, and wordpress.com where you can host your blog free of all charges.

Blogger is the most popular among the above mentioned as it is very stable and of course owned by Google.

There are various other free web hosting providers such as Hostinger, 000WebHost, InfinityFree, and AwardSpace.

What is the problem with free web hosting providers?

Web hosting is the ground base of any blog or website. It is the place where you manage and run your blog or website. Your web hosting is as well responsible for your website uptime, speed and security. There are various other important services provided by your web hosting such as SSL certificate, ftp access, email provider service, etc…

Of course these extra yet indispensable services for any serious blogger or online business owner are premium services, and so, are not free or available on any other free web hosting provider.

From where should I buy my web hosting?

There are various web hosting services providers available online to provide web hosting services according to your budget and terms of use. After doing some research, you can easily find a suitable web hosting adapted to your blog or online business.

As a beginner, you should always buy a starter pack and then switch or upgrade to an intermediate plan as per your future requirements.

What is a server or web server?

Servers can be described as physical data and information centers you can assess remotely. These web servers are managed and run by a web hosting companies who provide you with all types of web hosting services, important functions, and security.

What are the different types of web hostings?

Hostings or web hosting are managed by powerful technology that allows you to run and manage your website or blog. However different websites and blogs need different web hosting technologies as each individual business has different requirements. This is where the diverse web hosting plans and services come to play.

Types of web hosting:

VPS (Virtual Private Network) hosting
Cloud hosting
Dedicated hosting
Shared hosting
WordPress hosting
Reseller hosting

What is VPS (Virtual Private Network) hosting?

VPS hosting provides a private virtual server with root access and dedicated resources to handle your website or blog. VPS hosting is best suited for websites with medium to a high levels of traffic. VPS is also one of the most popular web hosting services used by bloggers.

What is cloud hosting?

Cloud hosting distributes data across different servers as cloud servers exist in a virtual environment. Cloud hosting provides optimal uptime and availability along with fast speed.

Cloud Hosting is also more scalable when it comes to handling different numbers of users and functionalities at the same time.

What is dedicated hosting?

Dedicated hosting is a premium web hosting in which the owner is provided with an own physical server. Dedicated servers are recommended to businesses as they offer full access control over the server, it’s performance, and security. They are also optimized according to your nique requirement.

Dedicated servers are also more complicated to manage as they require a good server and network understanding to really manage your server optimally.

What is shared hosting?

In shared hosting, multiple users share a web server and its resources. It is often recommended for beginners as these web hosting plans are cheap and fully managed by web hosting providers. It is a good and economical option available for those who are building their very first blog.

What is WordPress hosting?

WordPress hosting is fully optimized to manage and run WordPress optimally. It provides enhanced security for WordPress sites, automatic version and plugin updates, as well as a one-click WordPress installation.

There are two different types of WordPress hostings:

Managed WordPress Hosting
Shared WordPress Hosting

What is reseller hosting?

Reseller hosting is a different kind of hosting service. In a reseller hosting, you buy a particular web hosting plan from a hosting provider and later resells it. This option is recommended for web designers or businesses that provide web design services to their clients such as web agencies.

What is a cPanel and from where can I get it?

cPanel is a hosting based control panel where you can view and manage all functionalities, security, FTPs, email setups, and files of your blog. It provides various options to manage your website in a very easy and straightforward dashboard.

You will usually get access to your cPanel when you buy a web hosting service for your blog or website.

What are the important things we can do with a cPanel?

You can secure your site with the help of an SSL certificate or set up your professional email for your blog or website purpose. You can also install WordPress or another CMS with one simple click. There are a lot of options available on your cPanel.

What is a professional email?

A professional email is a business email that ends with the name of your domain name. It plays an important role in the professional career of blogging. It provides trust and professionalism in comparison to other mainstream email addresses such as Gmail or Hotmail.

How do I set up a professional email?

Most of the popular web hosting service providers offer free business email services with your chosen hosting plan. You can access your email configuration dashboard through cPanel to create your professional email address.

You can also set up your business email with the help of G Suite. This service usually has a monthly cost of 5$/month.

What is CMS (Content Management System)?

CMS is a software that helps you to manage, modify, and create content on your blog or website without any technical knowledge. The CMS allows you to install and manage your blog or website themes, plugins, and even create users with different access rights.

Some of the popular Content Management Systems are Drupal, Joomla, Magento, WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular CMS that is widely used to run a blog quickly and effectively, without any technical knowledge.

Note: WordPress is a CMS that empowers more than 35% of all websites in the world!

What is WordPress.org?

WordPress.org is a free and open-source CMS or web platform that is widely used to build blogs or websites. With WordPress, you’ll have full control over your website or blog and can implement all types of great themes, plugins, addons, or even custom code on your blog or website. It is by far the most popular CMS in the world.

What is WordPress.com?

WordPress.com is a web hosting service. This Hosting service has various plans such as Free, Premium, E-commerce, VIP, etc. The web hosting service automatically updates and backups all your important data and information.

The premium plans offer a great deal of customization and the option to add your custom themes and plugins. Unfortunately, this service is not recommended for serious bloggers or business owners due to SEO and optimization limits.

What is the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

WordPress.org is a popular CMS or content management software that is widely used to design and develop websites or blogs without any technical knowledge. WordPress.org is installed and managed on a web server of your choice.

WordPress.com is a web hosting company that offers to host your blog or website on their platform with some valuable services as well as limitations.

WordPress.org is open source and completely free while WordPress.com charges you for their paid plans which offer some customization options and support.

What is a Blogger?

Blogger is a free online blogging platform hosted by Google. It is the most popular platform to host free blogs as it is fast and reliable. Unfortunately, Blogger provides less personalization and customization in comparison to other solutions.

What is the difference between WordPress.org and Blogger?

Well, this can be a huge and heavy topic, but let’s touch on the basics. WordPress.org is a free CMS providing great functionality to customize and design your website or blog according to your needs, but you’ll have to buy a hosting server with a domain to run it.

Blogger, on the other hand, is a free blogging platform that also provides free hosting and domain. Blogger is well trusted as it is owned by Google and that’s the reason why it is believed to be reliable, fast, and secure.

However, there are many limitations with Blogger in comparison to WordPress, which is why it is not preferred by serious and professional bloggers or online business owners.

What are the limitations of Blogger?

Blogger is a popular and free blogging platform providing fast loading time and reliable uptime. However, Blogger (Blogging platform) has many limitations in comparison to WordPress, Drupal, and other CMS, which is why it is not recommended for serious blogging.

Some of the limitations of blogger are:

There is always a risk of losing traffic while migrating your content to another blog or any other blogging platform.
Blogger has the right to remove or delete your blog without your consent in case of a violation of any of Google’s content policy.
Designing and customizing your blog is going to be difficult even for a savvy designer. The CMS comes with prebuilt themes and templates that are far from being fully customizable.
Blogger does not provide any options to add plugins or addons to enhance functionality. So you will be missing a lot of additional functionalities and features.

Despite the many disadvantages and limitations, Blogger is still the most popular free blogging platform and is widely used by newbie bloggers to gain their first blogging experience.

What is a WordPress theme?

WordPress theme or template is the layout, color, and design of your blog or website. There are various themes and templates which can be used while designing and developing your blog or website. WordPress provides all types of themes, both free and paid options to give your blog or website that look and feel you require for your business branding.

What is a WordPress plugin?

WordPress Plugins are PHP scripted components that extend the functionality and provide various add-on features to WordPress. There are all types of plugins available to achieve all types of features and functionalities such as speed optimization, SEO and security.

Most of the plugins are free, while others more premium plugins are paid. You can use them as per your requirement and needs.

What is a WordPress widget?

WordPress widgets are used to add additional features and content on the sidebars of your blog or website. You can also use them in your footer or in some other areas of your choice.

Some examples of WordPress Widgets are customizable sidebar, menu, and sign up forms.

What does SEO mean?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. As the name suggests SEO is the combination of tricks and techniques that are used to optimize blogs or websites to rank higher in the search engine results. Ranking higher in the search result means you can gain more traffic which can be converted into profit.

Action Plans and strategies

What are the steps to start a blog?

In summary, the steps to start a blog are simple and it goes in the following way.

Buy a hosting
Buy a domain (if it’s not included in the hosting).
Open your cPanel and install WordPress.
Plan your bog or website design by installing any free or paid theme.
Connect your domain with your hosting and check the functionalities.
Find your niche or topic you want to blog about.
Start writing at least 5 to 7 quality blog articles.
Preview your blog and then publish it.

How should I pick the best content to write about?

You should only write or make content related to your niche of choice. You should do some research and write about the trending topics focusing on the right keywords related to your niche.

If you don’t feel comfortable enough writing quality SEO friendly content, you should join an online content writing course. Gradually you will learn how to write masterpiece content, along with SEO, plagiarism, keyword researching, etc.

What is plagiarism?

It simply means copying someone else’s content and using it on your blog or website without their consent. If the content is not copyrighted and is available for use publicly then there would be no problem. But if the content is copyrighted then the owner is the sole owner of its rights.

Plagiarised or copied content can never make you successful in blogging. Your content has to be unique and interesting. Copied or very similar content can make your blog or website perform poorly in any of the search engine results (SERP).

There are various plagiarism checkers available online to verify the uniqueness of your content such as Copyscape. So it’s better to create your original, unique, and interesting content than copying someone else’s content already published on the internet.

How can I check if anyone is stealing my blog content?

You can check for the plagiarism of your content or verify its originality and uniqueness with the help of various online plagiarism checkers such as small SEO tools, Duplichecker, Unicheck, Plagramme, Copyscape, etc.

What is a keyword in the content or article?

The keyword is a special word (short-tail keyword) or a collection of words (long-tail keyword) on which your article is focused. Using it in the right place can help you rank higher on search results (SERP). It is an important aspect of SEO to dominate search engine results.

What is keyword researching?

Before you start writing any article, you should research your topic through keyword research. This will help you find and later use the right keyword in your content to rank higher in the search results and deliver more organic traffic to your blog.

How can I find the right keywords for my content?

Finding the right keyword is easy these days, thanks to various online keyword researching tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMRush, Ahrefs, UberSuggests, KW Finder, and many more.

There are various free and paid keyword researching tools that you can use to find the right keyword or set of keywords. You can also use the Google Auto-Suggest feature by typing the first or second word of your keyword on the google search, add space to find the most searched keywords.

What is a long-tail keyword?

As the name suggests long-tail keywords are more specific and longer than simple keywords. They may get less search traffic but they do often provide a higher conversion value. They are most commonly searched by a highly driven and motivated audience.

Long-tail keywords have more value and can be easier to rank on search engines in comparison to short-tail keywords.

How can I find long-tail keywords?

You can use the same method used to find simple keywords. Additionally, you can use various awesome tools and software that can help you find long-tail keywords easily.

Some of them are KWFinder, SEMrush, Google Auto Suggestion, WordTracker Keyword Tool, and Long Tail Pro.

What is a short-tail keyword?

Short-tail keywords are the keywords of two to max three words. Most of the short-tail keywords are one word. They can be highly competitive as they have a huge search volume.

You can gain huge traffic if you get ranked with any short-tail keywords. It’s not easy, but, with good on-page optimization, backlinks from high domain authority websites, and great content quality your page may just hit that first page on Google for a short-tail keyword.

How to write quality content?

As a beginner, good practice and much reading will be a great start. Gradually you will slowly but surely start writing masterpieces that ranks and deliver great traffic to your blog. Of course, make sure to study your niche as you have to understand your audience first to write your content according to your target group.

Your content need above all to satisfy your reader’s needs. You should know their desire and expectation. Try to personalize your writing style according to your audience rather than going “Shakespeare mode”.

How do I know if my blog is ready for launch?

Yes, after designing, researching, optimizing, and posting 5 to 7 articles, your blog will then ready to go live. Please try to be consistent in the initial days. Schedule your blog posting as per your business requirement. You can post an article once a day or once a week.

After publishing your blog, just try to be consistent with your work and don’t expect any earning for at least a couple of months.

How do I backup my blog site?

It’s simple to backup your blog or website, just log in to your WordPress account, click on My Blogs, and then Dashboard. Hover over tools and click on export.

Making a backup of a blog is somewhat different if you are using Blogger for instance. You can backup your blog post as well as the blog template.

To backup, your blog post simply navigates to the blog you want to backup, click on Settings, and then “Others”. Under the blog, tools click Export blog. Now you have backed up your blog post and comments in the XML file.

To backup your blog template, simply click on the template on the left sidebar, you will find a button “Backup/restore”, just click on that and download the full template.

Web hosting provides do provide automatic backups. This way you leave the backup to your web provider and concentrate on what you know best, blogging!

What should I do along with posting content?

You should try to share your article and posts on different social media platforms, forums, blogs… Sharing your articles and posts can increase your reach and bring more viewers or traffic to your blog. Sharing also helps in ranking and building trust with different search engines.

You can manually share your blog posts or articles or you can use WordPress plugins for that. Certain WordPress Plugins automatically share your blog posts or articles right after publishing.

Note: Don’t forget to create your professional social media accounts for sharing your articles and build your community of followers.

How can I block spam comments?

Spam Comments can be irritating as they disturb the visitors to have healthy conversations and leave an unprofessional impact on your blog or website. Some of the spam comments have malicious links for hacking purposes.

There are many ways by which you can stop spam comments on your blog. Some of them are:

You can create a list of blacklisted words so that your website or blog mark flags on any of the spam comments received.
You can reduce or set the number of links allowed on each post. This is an effective way to block spam comments having malicious links.
You can also restrict comments to only subscribed or registered users.

If you don’t want to use any trick and stop spam comments instantly then you can always install an anti-spam comments plugin. You just make your audience communicate in the comments and the Anti-spam plugin will take care of the rest.

What is an email marketing tool or software?

Email marketing tools provide you with various services for email marketing. You will have access to many functionalities and features using email marketing tools such as testing, optimizing, reporting, and creating email campaigns adapted and optimized to your target group.

There are various email marketing tools available online such as MailChimp, Moosend, MailerLite, SendinBlue, etc. They also provide business emails and have solutions for almost any problem related to your email marketing needs.

How do I save the email of the visitors visiting my blog or website?

Well, you can easily save emails of those visiting your blog or website by asking them for their emails with any of the subscription form displayed as Popups, Intent Popups, Delayed Popups, sidebar forms, Footer subscription form, and many other ways.

You can also use Push Notification for this purpose.

What are facebook ads and do they work?

Facebook ads are simply the ads shown on your Facebook feeds. Facebook ads are a great way to promote your blog and gain more traffic and work best for branding purposes.

Note: In comparison to Adsense, Facebook ads deliver a much poorer conversion rate. But deliver better reach in developing countries.

Facebook ads are often used by bloggers to advertise their blog or website and gain more reach.

How should I use Facebook ads to promote my blog?

To gain more traffic and more reach you should use Facebook ads very carefully to promote your blog correctly.

Just start with creating your Facebook page, make sure your Facebook page represents the theme and branding of your blog. Then go with the Facebook Ad Manager and click on the “Ad” button. Select the appropriate ad campaign goals. Now select your budget and targeting options. Write the ad copy and then choose the featured image along with the headline and you are ready to publish your ad.

How can I gain more traffic using Pinterest?

You can easily gain more traffic using Pinterest with the help of Pinterest marketing. Create your professional business account on Pinterest and attach your website or blog.

Now set up the relevant boards with similar keywords and related Pins. Use attractive and high-quality images for Pins and apply for Rich Pins for your blog or website.

Try to gain more followers by following and interacting with other people with similar pins or boards of high traffic and engagement.

Build a strong profile and try to categorize it well. You can also use some automated tools and software such as Tailwinds to post content or pins on your board.

How can I automatically schedule Pinterest Pins?

You can easily automate your Pinterest Pins and its scheduling with the help of various online Pinterest Scheduling tools or software such as Tailwind, Viraltag, Hootsuite, and Buffer.

How can I check the speed of my blog or website?

There are various ways by which you can check the speed of your blog or website. The most popular way is to use online tools and software such as GTMetrix, Pingdom, Web page test, and Google Page speed insights.

My website or blog is slow, how can I speed it up?

Slow speed or a slow load time of a blog or website is frustrating, it can increase the bounce rate of your blog or website and affect your ranking on the search results.

Speeding up a website or blog and decreasing its loading time can be more technical than you think. However, as a beginner, there are some tips and tricks you can follow for quick results. Some of are:

Make sure your website or blog is running on the latest version of PHP. Some websites and blogs are using an older PHP version which is one of the reasons why they lag behind the websites and blogs using the latest version of PHP.

Web Hosting plays an important role in speeding up your website or blog. So try to research and choose web hosting providers that deliver good loading speed.

Use only necessary WordPress Plugins. Unnecessary use of plugins can slow down your blog or websites.

You should only use compressed or optimized images as Heavy images can also be the reason for the slow loading of your websites or blogs. You can use any of the online image compression and optimization tools such as Tinyjpg, ShortPixel, iloveimg, C ompressor.io, etc.