How To Start Your Own Blog

"A Complete Guide ON "How To Start A Blog"

     Do you want to start your own blog?...YES? here is a complete guide on "How to start your own blog"and "how to SEO" and "Earn money from it".

       Starting a new blog can be very confusing for many newbies because of lack of information about the blogging world.Two years ago when I started blogging, I Knew nothing about it.My friend suggested to use Blogger because its simple and easy to manage.So, from that day i started searching for "How To" guides on Google and I learnt alot in the first year, about blogging platforms, ways to earn money and how to stay away from scams.
      

        Here is a complete "step by step guide" for you based on my experience.I have divided it into "4 phases", some are long articles so i have just given a link here, by clicking the topic you will get to the desired article.

Phase#0 Some Info:   

• What is Blog ? What is Blogging ?

If you don't have much information about "what is a blog or blogging" and "whats the difference between blog and site" then before starting, read this short article.I have written the main points that you must know about blogging before starting your own blog....READ MORE "What is Blog? What is Blogging?"

Phase#1 Before getting started: 

• What are your interests and skills?

It all depends on your interests and skills, for example if someone suggested you to start a blog on finance because it will earn you money in future, BUT if you don't know much about finance then starting a blog based on that topic will be your first and last mistake.Because in the end its you who will have to do all the writing.

1. Get a paper and pen.
2. Write down your interests and skills.
3. Don't listen to others, its your interest that matter.

• How to choose a blog topic?

Choosing a blog topic is whole separate process. Many newbies ask other to help on what should be their blog about, which is a big mistake, as I have mentioned above that its your interest that matter.
You must read this article if you don't know "what should be your blog topic"....READ MORE "How to choose a blog topic"

• Selecting a Blogging platform.

After you successfully choose your blog topic then its turn to choose a blogging platform.The most popular blogging platform is definitely "WordPress" but its not the only best one, there are other well known platforms like "Blogger" and "Tumbler".Before starting to take a look at these options, you must answer a few questions:

1. Do you want your own domain or hosted?
2. Are you willing to pay or want a free platform?
3. Do you want be able to add custom plugins?

Keep the answers in your mind and take a look at the following information;

Blogger:

1. Free
2. Available for own domain, like "example.com" but you will have to pay and it needs some technical skills.
3. Very limited custom plugins.
4. 1GB storage.
5. 20-30 different themes(outlook or layout of your blog).
6. Hosting is provided.
7. It doesn't have the ability to make your posts appear under a specific category.

WordPress.com:

1. Free
2. Available for own domain, like "example.com" but you will have to pay and it "does not" required technical skills like Blogger.
3. 20 free plugins
4. 3GB storage.
5. 210 themes.
6. Hosting is provided.
7. It "does" have the ability to make your posts appear under a specific category.

Tumbler:

1. Free
2. Your own domain is possible.
3. Very limited custom plugins.
4. Unlimited storage.
5. Approximately 1000 themes.
6. Hosting is provided.
7. It "does" have the ability to make your posts appear under a specific category.

Phase#2 Getting started:   

• Pages you should add to your blog.

Pages(stand alone pages) have a great importance for your blog.A blog without *some important* pages doesn't give a good look to the viewers.Following are some important pages that you must add to your blog;

1. About
2. Contact us.
3. Disclaimer
4. Privacy policy
5. ....

Read More "Pages you should add to your blog", to learn why is it important to add the above pages to your blog.

LEARN "How to create a privacy policy for your blog". 

• How to make your blog look professional?

Adding the above pages will give a nice look to your blog but thats not enough, your blog need some more stuff to give it a professional look, like...

1. Use a simple template.
2. Blog template should not be too much fancy.
3. It should be user friendly.
4. Remove useless gadgets.
5. Add a Favicon...

                              

READ MORE "How to make your blog look professional"

• Writing your blog post

Congrats! most of your job is done.Now, your new blog needs "blood" and "soul", which is the content of the blog.Blog is nothing without the content or with very little content.Following are few tips that you should follow;

1. Post length should have atleast 500+ words.
2. Use images in the post.
3. Understand your audience.What they want to know about?What will interest them?
4. Impressive title
5. Write an introduction like what is the post(article about).
6. First organize the content then start writing.
7. SEO the content and blog.(It is described in phase 3 below)

Phase#3 Simple SEO tips:  {Click the titles to get to the articles}

• SEO Tips

5 simple SEO tips that you should apply to your blog.

• How to use keywords?

Before writing an article, do a little keyword research.It is a good SEO technique.Google adword is handy tool for it....Click the above title to get to the articles

• Image Optimization 

Many newbies don't know anything about image optimization.It is an important article that I would suggest you to read it must....Click the above title to get to the articles

• How to add meta tags in blogger?

Its very easy to add meta tags to blogger....

• How to post a link in a comment?

Phase#4 make money from your blog:  *Incomplete* {Click the titles to get to the articles}

• How to earn money blogging?
• Make money with adsense. *Not posted yet*

• Things to do before applying for adsense.

There are a few important things to check before applying for adsense.....READ "Things to do before applying for adsense"

Read More

Pages You Should Add To Your Blog

 In this article the pages that I am talking are called "static pages" or "stand alone pages".Static pages are those pages on which the content doesn't changes every time.
      Pages(stand alone pages)  have a great importance for your blog.A blog without *some important* pages doesn't give a good look to the viewers. Pages makes your blog look professional.
     In blogger you can create only 20 stand alone pages .Blogger doesn't support Dynamic pages that can be updated everytime you publish a post.
Learn "How To Add A Page To Blogger"

Add few important pages that your blog needs

  Today I will share a few important pages that bloggers  should add to their blog.Following are the pages;

About:

    When you start a new blog, you must consider adding "About page".It is the most common used and the most essential page for your blog.It gives readers to your blog a whole picture of your blog and why they should subscribe and whats the purpose of the blog-Add this page even before starting posting content.

Contact us:

If your viewers like your blog they would like to contact you for some help or they can give some tips too and you can make them your blogs permanent readers by replying to them regularly - But for that your blog need a specific page so that readers to your blog can easily find how to contact you. 

Privacy Policy:

"A document or statement which declares or discloses a website's policy on how they collect, uses, releases  information about client's data."

Privacy policy is an important part of a blog.Adding a privacy policy page will make your blog look professional.If you want to use Google Adsense in future or using it now then you must add a privacy policy page to blog because its the requirement of Google Adsense.Creating a privacy policy is simple....

Learn "How To Create A Privacy Policy For Your Blog". 

Disclaimer:

"The main purpose of the disclaimer is to let your viewers/reader know about their responsibility and whats not your responsibility.Simply it means denial of power or responsibility."

For example you have a blog about "Hacking Tips" then you can deny the responsibility if someone use your information in a wrong way.

Subscribe page:

            Adding a Subscribe page can be very useful.As the pages appears in the navigation manue of the blog so it will be very helpful for the readers to easily find and subscribe to your blog.Also you can provide some more info about "How they will get emails etc" or "Why they should subscribe to your blog?".

FAQ Page:

       If your blog topic is very complex and reader asks too much questions, many of them repeatedly.You are tired of answering those questions again and again then you must add this page and answer those frequently asked questions.Also link this page from your blogs "Contact" or "About page".

These were a few important pages that you must consider adding it to your blog."Stand alone pages" don't play any role in SEO but they are very useful and essential for blogs.Your blog readers can get to the specific information easily and quickly.  

[Hope this article was helpful.If you have any problem in adding pages to blogger then please comment below...]

                

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How To Add A Page To Blogger

       There are a few important pages you should add to your blog for example; About, Contact us, Privacy policy...It gives your blog a professional look.
    In Blogger.com you can add pages to your blog and the process of adding pages to blogger blog has been updated.

        In this article you will learn how to add pages to your blogger blog.The process is very simple and its almost like posting other content.Follow the following steps;

Step 1:

Login to Blogger.com , go to blogger dashboard and click on your blog on Blogger dashboard.

Click 1:Pages > 2:New page

Step 2:

Write your content and give the title.In the following screenshot you can see its an "About" page.
After that click on options, you can allow and disallow comments .

After completing the page content etc, Click on Publish.You can also save the page to later just like in posts.After publishing, it will not appear in your blog Home page.
    In the above screenshot there is no option of "search description ", its because meta tag is turned off.To learn how to turn it on, check the article on "How To Add Meta Tags In Blogger".
                Publish the Page when its done.

Step 3:

Click on "layout" and then "add gadget".The page you created will not appear on your blog until you add the "Page gadget".

Scroll down and look for "Pages" and add this gadget by clicking the blue "+" icon.

Step 4:

Now you can see  "Home" and "About" page already there.

• Tick the "About" page(new page you just created) and Edit the title(for pages section*optional).
• You can put the pages either on top or in side columns of your blog.Click on save...
• You can re-order the pages.
• You can also change the 'Home page' name, where all of your posts appear.
• You a have a choice to add external links of pages directly, linking to an external site.

Click "Save arrangement".

Your new page is successfully added to your blog.

• You will get information about the page views and comments on that page.
• You can edit and view the page.
• Share the page on Google+.

[Hope this article was helpful.Please comment below if you have any questions left]

More Articles
How to choose a blog topic
How to earn money blogging
Blogging platforms 
*Image optimization

Read More

How to choose a blog topic

     This is the most important phase when starting a new blog.If you are serious about blogging and want your blog to succeed then you should be very careful in choosing a blog topic.

     Choosing a blog topic is a whole process through which you have to go through to decide a blog topic.In this article I will show you "How to choose a blog topic" for your new blog in a very simple way.
  

Whats the best blog topic for you?

     Many newbies take this part very easy and they just pick any topic and start blogging about it, this will be your first big mistake even before starting your blog and you will regret it in near future.The thing is that "choosing a blog topic" is the most hardest and the most important part of blogging.So lets start;

What are your ambitions for Blog?

How do you want your blog to be in future and what do you want from your blog;

• A long-term blog.
• Vast audience/lots of traffic.
• Earn money from it.
• Easy for you to add more content.

         Anyone who want to start a new blog will have the above objectives in their mind.If you have the above ambitions for your blog then you would need the best topic to start with.

1:Ask yourself the following Questions:

Your first job here is to do some research on yourself and answer the following questions;

1. What are you interested in(any topic)?
2.  On which topic you like to talk with your friends?
3. In which field you are expert and have the most knowledge?

Above are the most important questions you must ask yourself because in the end it all depends on you and your skills.

2:Answer the above questions:

      Now take a paper and pen and write down a few topics in which you are interested in and have the most knowledge about.

     You will start a blog on one of the topic that you have noted down by answering those questions you asked yourself.

   Now that you have short listed the topics, I will tell you the characteristics that the "one finale" topic should have, But first I will tell you the wrong start that many newbies make;

Wrong questions lead you to wrong TOPIC:

The mistake that most of the newbies make is that they do not research on their skills, interest, knowledge etc instead they are looking for a topic of;

• More popularity
• Topic that will earn them money (profitable blog topic)etc

 Why are they wrong by doing this?

                Its because you have to do all the writing and if you have selected a blog topic which is popular and will earn you money etc BUT you don't have much knowledge about it then HOW will you build your blog and write articles? You have skipped the first major step which is research on yourself first...

3:Characteristics of the Blog Topic:

      Now that you have finished the research on yourself and shortlisted some topic, its time to research on these topics you have selected.Most of the newbies do this step first;as i have mentioned above.Following are the characteristics that your blog topic should have;

• Choose the most popular topic from the shortlist:

"Most popular" means that many people are searching for information about that topic (in search engines) or info related to that topic because your goal is to get the most traffic so you will achieve this goal by having a blog topic which is popular in internet world.
Read: How to make your blog look professional 

• Don't choose a topic which is interesting for you but not for other people:

Even if you are very interested in a certain topic and you have lots of knowledge about it BUT there is not enough demand for it in the internet community THEN just simply ignore that topic because you will not get any traffic to your blog.

• Choose a topic you like researching about:

You will have to research about that topic more and more to get more knowledge even if you already have some.If you know "What is blog and blogging?", the unique aspect of it is that bloggers give new, fresh, meaningful content about a certain topic.So you will have to research about your blog topic and in order to be successful, you need to enjoy reading about it and keeping up with news and events related to it.

• Choose a topic that you like to teach:

You have to interact with your readers and answer their questions. This will give a good impression and is very important to keep in contact with your readers.

[This post is a part of "A complete guide on How to start your own Blog"]

More Articles:
SEO How to use keywords
How to post a link in a comment
How to create a privacy policy for your blog
Things to do before applying for adsense

Read More

What is Blog? What is blogging ?

            Anyone new to blogging world would ask this question.So, if you are  new to blogging and want to know explore this new world then here is some basic information worth reading.
      
           A blog is different from traditional websites.Blogging is getting popular day by day.There are millions of people blogging everyday, many do it as a passion or share information, some do it to share their personal stories other do it to make money.Following is some info to answer your questions;

 What is a Blog ?

• A blog is a personal webpage or website on which people can share information related to a specific topic or a number of categories.
• Blog topic depends on you, whatever you are expert or interested in, for example; you have knowledge about "Birds" then start a blog about birds, as the topic "birds" is a vast topic, the topic can be specific for example a blog about "eagle types".
• A blog is regularly updated and new stuff is added daily, weekly or monthly.
• The word "Blog" is derived from "weblog".
• Blog often reflects the personality of the auther.

What is Blogging ?

• Anything you do in your blog is called blogging, for example; writing posts/content, uploading images, videos, optimizing your posts for search engine etc.
• A blogger is a person who blogs (do blogging).You need to learn or should have all the necessary skills to be a blogger for example; writing skills, how to optimize your articles and images in blog, how to communicate with your audience etc.
• Each new item submitted to blog is called post.
• Articles or posts appears in reverse chronological order in blog.

Difference between Blog and Website:

• A blog is updated regularly, even some bloggers update their blogs several times a day, it depends on the blogger while websites are not updated regularly.
• Information on a website is about something which dose not change, so it rarely needs any updates. But Blogs are updated daily, weekly or monthly.
• Another difference is that a website is a little harder to maintain than a Blog which is very easy to use and can be easily updated.
• Blogs provide a commenting system and encourage conversation on each post.

Is Blogging Free?

• There are many Blogging platforms some provide free service and paid both while other provide paid service.
• There are advantages and disadvantages of both paid and free.
•  If you want your own domain name e.g "Abc.com" without "blogspot.com" or "wordpress.com" then you will have to pay for that.

Blogging Tips:

Click the following to read the articles;

1. Blogging platforms
2. How to make money blogging
3. How to make your blog look professional

[This post is a part of "A complete guide on How to start your own Blog"]

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How To Post A Link In A Comment

You read an article and after that you want to post a link of another article or site/blog that you know, which is related to that article, in the comment section.

But you don’t know how to give a link, so that when someone read your comment and click on the 
link that you have given, will lead him/her to the desired site. 
And you want a title in place of that link(url)...
So here is HOW to post a link (which just shows a title in place of that link)

   It’s very easy to do. Following is the code;

        

  <a href="URL">Title</a>

Replace “URL” with the link.

Replace “TITLE” with your desired title name.

NOTE:

• Don't post many links in comments or it will be detected by Google as spam.
• Don't post link in comments just to build backlinks to your blog.
• Don't post links which are not related to the article.

More Interesting Articles:

1. How to add meta tags in blogger
2. SEO Tips: How to use keywords
3. Image optimization

Read More

How to Add Meta Tags In Blogger

      Dear Bloggers, as we know the fact that Blogger templates are not well optimized for SEO and you have to add a certain things manually like keywords, meta tags etc.On the other hand WordPress templates are optimized for SEO and that's one of the reasons why WordPress lead Blogger.
       But If you are Blogger user, you need to optimize your template and its not so hard, you will learn how to do it, in this article, within few minutes.
   
        There are two methods;

1. Adding Meta tags to whole Blog.
2. Adding Meta tags to each Blog post. 

You will need to do both.So lets start with method 1...

1:Adding Meta Tags To Whole Blog:

Meta Tags are placed between  <head> and  </head> tag of your blogger template. Login to blogger and follow the following steps;

Step 1:

Go to Template > Backup/restore > Edit HTML 

Step 2:

Now Press Ctrl+F and search for </head> or search for the following code;
<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
and past the below code before  </head> or after the above code...

<meta content='DESCRIPTION HERE' name='description'/>
<meta content='KEYWORDS HERE' name='keywords'/>
<meta content='AUTHOR NAME HERE' name='author'/>

• Write the description of your blog in place of "DESCRIPTION HERE".
• Write the keywords in place of "KEYWORDS HERE".
• Write your name in place of "AUTHOR NAME HERE".

As you can see in the following screenshot;

Don't add a whole list of keywords just 5-6 are enough and separate the keywords or author names(if they are more than one) with comas.
                                 Congrats! Coding is done.

2:Adding Meta Tag To Each Blog Post :

Now I will show you how to add meta description tag to individual Blog post.

Step 1:

Go to Settings > Search preferences >  Meta tags>Description>Click on edit

Now check the box YES and it will enable the search description.Write a  brief description of your blog up to 150 characters.

Step 2: To Individual Posts 

After completing step 1 you will be able to add meta description in each blog post.

Just go to edit post(new post) and look for search description.

Write a short summary (important points) of your article in the search description.This description will be shown as a summary of your article in search engine.

                     
I hope this article was helpful.Please share your thoughts in the comment section bellow.

More Interesting Articles:

SEO: How To Use Keywords
How to make your blog look professional
How to create a Privacy Policy for your blog

Read More

Blogging Platforms

  Top 10 Blogging sites      

       Blogging is getting popular day by day.There are a lot of Blog Hosting Sites over the internet. Some of these sites are free to use while others aren't. For a beginner, it is very hard to decide which service to use. Here i have gathered Top10  blogging sites, along with their some info... SO LETS START...

1.Word Press.org            

WordPress Users produce about 42.6 million new posts each month. Over 409 million people view more than 14.4 billion pages each month.

• Founded in May 2013
• Total users are 60 million
• You need to get a domain name and web hosting first.

2.WordPress.com

Free blog hosting site.You can get a domain name like "truefoxarticles.wordpress.com" or you can buy your own domain name.

• Founded in November, 2005
• Total blogs 56 million
• Easy to use but less customization 

3.Blogger

Pros: Its completely FREE, and easy to use.
Cons: Variety of Templates are not available.Mostly simple are available.

• Founded in 1999
• Bought by Google in 2003
• You can buy your own domain name too $10 per year e.g www.abc.com 

4.Tumblr: 

Tumblr is a micro blogging platform. 

• Tumblr hosts over 192.9 million blogs.
• Founded in 2007
• Bought by Yahoo
• Easy to use but less professional.

5.Weebly

• Founded in 2006
• Hosts 15 million websites
• Very easy to use
• Less user control 

6.Square space

Good for business owners who want to get on web.Recommended for individual, business owners and websites.

• Founded in 2004
•  founder:Anthony Casalena
• Elegant design.
• You have to pay for a few features.

7.Hubpages

It started as an article network.Good for social networking.

• Founded in 2006
• 74,000 total users
• Free to use and nice place to start writing.
• Less ownership of your work

8.Medium

• Founded in 2012
• Founder Evan Williams and Biz stone.
• Total users?

9.Livejournal

Good for writing a diary, blogging and journaling. 

• Fonded in 1999
• Total users: 39 million accounts
• Founder: Brad Fitzpatrick

10.Svbtle

• Founded in 2013
• Founder Dustin Curtis
• Its new and different
• But no commenting feature in it yet

       Hope you like the list.I haven't given much information about some blogging platforms because i don't much about those and I use and recommend Blogger for newbies.Its easy to use, although its templates are a bit childish but there are many free templates out there online which you can download and use it in blogger.

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How to make your blog look professional

Blogging Tips

Your blog need a professional look no matter what is the content in your blog.I know your content is very important but without a good look of your blog or website, it just doesn't give that taste you want your readers to get.

Blogging is getting popular day by day.the top most blogging platforms are - Blogger and Word press. Both are good for newbies but Blogger is a bit simpler then Word press and I recommend Blogger for newbies I will share a few tips that you must apply to your blog that will give a better professional look to it.

Pages you should add to your blog:

Lets start with the pages you must add to your blog.Following are the pages;

• Privacy Policy:

       Privacy policy of your blog is very important.You should add a separate page (stand alone pages) for this.In privacy policy you.In privacy policy you discloses some or all of the ways party gather and manages a clients data.If you want to apply for Google adsense you should must have Privacy Policy.
      I have an article on How to create a privacy policy for your blog, read my article, its easy to create but very important.

• Contact us/me :

        Another page you would need is contact us page.If you are writing unique and useful articles on your blog but don't have any contact info, its just not fair.Your readers/viewers of your blog want to know about you so you should give them some info about how can they contact. You can give your email address, Google+ and Facebook id.

• Disclaimer:

        In disclaimer you let your viewers/readers know about your responsibility and their responsibility and give information about the content of your blog, like how you got this info or images, and you wouldn't be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with your blog/site.Check out disclaimer of this blog, so that you get some idea about it Click here.

Design/Template :

Design or template of your blog should be simple not much fancy.Simple means that it should be user friendly and they can get to any part of your blog easily.It should not slow down your blog/site loading time.

Favicon : 

Favicon is important to give your blog a professional look.It represent your blog.In the following screenshot you can see my blog favicon.

You must have noticed the impression that you get, from blogs with their own favicon and blogs not having their own favicon.It really gives a good look to your blog.

 Remove useless gadgets :

  Your blog don't need to be full of gadgets.It does slow down your blog loading time.First thing you should do is to remove all those useless gadgets.There are a few useful gadgets like +1 button, logo, labels, popular posts etc.

Use images :

Use images in your articles etc.Images will give a better look to your content.But do not use it too much after all your written content is more important than images.Be careful of copyright images, you can use public domain images or from free stock.

Connect to social media:

Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media platforms.You should be active on such platforms and add a Facebook or twitter  gadget to your blog to let your viewers follow on those platforms too.

Have fun bloggers!
Feel free to ask questions

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