A-Z Guide To Start WordPress Blog

An A to Z Tutorial to start a Spartan WordPress site

Starting a Wordpress Site From Scratch? Then this is the best guide for you.

All right! So you have finally decided to stand out from the crowd of digital werewolves and weave your own nest in the World Wide Web.


The very thought of doing what you believe in is like experiencing nirvana without trying too much for it. But even as Spartans had to wage a war against the most terrifying monsters for their immortality, launching a Wordpress site might also seem like climbing Mount Everest if you don’t know A B C of the entire process. So to help you create an attractive Wordpress site sans clichéd digital tantrums, we have got you an A to Z guide to launch a WordPress Site/Blog From Scratch , at your doorstep. The idea is to use more time for developing business than building a website. Here we go:

Website planning

Working on creating a Wordpress site without a well-thought detailed plan is like watching Lionel Messi doing salsa with football on the ground that has no goal posts whatsoever (There is just no fun in it) You got to have a target. It is essential. So what you can first do is do some research around to know the kind of website you want to run. It will also help you have an idea of the structure of your site. In fact, research is not always important to understand what you want, but also important for what you don’t want. You get to know about the mistakes made by other people and this enlightens you in a way. In the beginning, you can try brainstorming the following ideas:

Try to find out what you really want to achieve from your Wordpress site. Think about this from business and personal perspective.

Know your audience. Understand who would be visiting your website the most. People visiting your website frequently should have something unique in store for them. Plan accordingly.

Content plays a very tricky role. Your audience should know about your business the moment they land on your digital plot. A lot goes into doing that. Work hard on it. Give it some time.

Apart from what you want to show to your audience, you want your audience to react to your content and make a move. What if you can influence their moves? Instead of waiting for them to make a move, force them to make a move. Figure out what you want them to do—join mailing, purchase a product or just make a query.

Once you have brainstormed all the above mentioned ideas, you start writing as much detail about all of them as much you can. This is actually very important in the planning phase. The more details you will have, the easier it will be to structure your website. The idea is to have it in your imagination first before it has been created in reality.

Brand identity

From Jackie Chan fighting for it in Who am I to Guy Ritchie loosing it after every 15 minutes in the cult thriller Memento, identity is essential for existence of anything and anyone.
You should understand the art of creating a strong brand identity that leaves an imprint on your audience. The idea behind branding yourself or your business is that people can recall you the moment they see your logo or hear about you or your product anywhere.
The idea is to have a strong recall value that is not possible without a strong brand identity. Why don’t you ask yourself the following questions before you foray into creating a strong brand value?

1. What do you want your audience to recall about you the moment they hear about you?
2. What message do you want them to receive after seeing your logo?
3. How can you stand out from other blood-sucking Zombies like you on the World Wide Web?
4. What is your vision?
5. What value is there for your audience?

Try to find a way to define your brand identity. Design a plan that reflects the way you want your website and your brand to communicate with your audience.

1. Think about your logo. How should it be? How should it communicate it with your audience?
2. Select the right fonts and colors that go really well with your brand and logo. If you are not really good at it then you can even hire a me to do the job. This can reflect your ideas well on your website.

Hosting and domain name

In this virtual world, your domain name is the address of your business and your hosting account is the plot on which you have built your virtual office. In this virtual office, you will have all your files and other important documents stored. So it is important to have a domain that can help your audience find you on the go irrespective of where they really are:

1. Your domain name should clearly tell about what you do. It should reflect the core purpose of your business, your logo.
2. A lot of businesses tend to have their domain names like they are Da Vinci Codes. Hard to break. Keep them short, simple, and easy to recall. Don’t be Dan Brown! (:-)

There are loads of companies out there that sell both hosting and domain name. There is specifically one that I always recommend for my clients and start-ups because of they're just That GOOD You can buy both of them from the same company if you get a good offer. There is a specific coupon designed for customers from this blog that you can use.. <

Install the Zombie (WordPress)

The old classic drop-dead gorgeous Zombie in the world of web development is WordPress. And it’s now time to have it in your lamp and host some magic. There are loads of companies out there that provide easy installation of WordPress. You can even check out some video tutorials on installing WordPress on Youtube.

Get the WordPress theme

Since you have already acquired the best in town domain name and hosting, it’s now time to be a part of your own version of Project Runway by trying to style and design your own beloved website. There is a host of some incredibly beautiful WordPress themes available for you on the web that can’t just imagine. Free WordPress themes are great but there are some extra benefits with themes that you can buy. Here are some: Extra features for more customization. WordPress developer support for any type of technical glitches while installing. Plugins to increase functionality of a particular theme. There are some more. You got to buy them to experience all of them. Step-by-step guide to install a WordPress theme First of all go to the WordPress dashboard. Then go to Appearance—Themes Click Add New button Click Upload Theme button Now click Choose File and select the zip theme file from your computer to upload. Now click on Install Now button And finally click Activate link. Once you are done installing the WordPress theme, you are now required to let run your creativity go wild in the woods of imagination. Customize it all your way. Add a dash of your own branding with a tinge of uniqueness, colors, and fonts. You can now also have a logo uploaded. And if you are not really sure about installing it all on your own or customize your site your way, then you can even hire professionals to do the task for you. They will install and customize your WordPress site and theme so that you can focus on hypnotizing your audience and building the business. You can also create content meanwhile. Launching the rocket high in the sky Congratulations and high time to celebrate the glory of finally starting your WordPress site. You can check out how to Build Authority Backlinks To Your Site Easily. Thanks..

Read More

Google Adsense Ad Placement Techniques [Infographics]

Google Adsense is no doubt, the best cotextual ads network for publishers. If you still haven't read my guide to get approved on AdSense in less than 72hours , then I will recommend you do.

There are several techniques or ad placements that determine how much you earn with adsense. Here is a well illustrated infographic showing you how to earn more with Google Adsense.




Source: WhoIsHostingThis.com

Read More

Multiple Avenues To Earn Money From Your Blog!

Earning money is a common need as well as a responsibility for everyone of us. It is an undeniable fact that none of us can survive without money. Therefore, many of us believe that money is life and no life without money. At some level, it looks true as well. This is a reason, every individual is running in the game of money making. Though, money making is not a joke as it requires one to be highly qualified and skilled in some trade. So, what about those who are still learners? How to make money if you do not have any special commercial skill? How will you survive without having degrees from top-most institutions of your country? Well, it is possible just you need to bear in mind that “nothing is impossible in this universe; as IMPOSSIBLE itself says “I M Possible”.

It is not that I’m making hollow statements, but it is the truth of my life. Today, I am making money online out of blogging. You must have heard about “BLOGGING” somewhere or if you are an internet user, you must be quite familiar with this term – blogging. There are countless people who are today earning their bread and butter from blogging. It clearly shows that the profit is surely there for which modern individuals are taking a great interest towards making a blog to earn money.

How I Stepped Into Blogging To Make Money:

Since, my school days, I was quite keen about finding out some way out to make money from the web. I always wanted to work for myself as I did not prefer to work under someone else as I wanted to be my own boss. With this vision, I browsed the internet and everything I browsed, I found blogging was appearing before me again and again.

I started my first blog right then and after that, I tried finding out ways to make money out of that blog. Though, it was merely a beginning, that blog didn’t help me made any money. After working hard for many years, today, I’m capable of earning $200,000 a month. This is my reality. I dumped many blogs of mine during this period and ultimately, I got to the right track on making money in a certain way.

With my experience, I am going to share my BLOGGING secret to help other individuals in making money. By following this experienced path, the positive outcomes are assured. Like me, you will also see increasing income every month. You just have to be cautious about the guidelines I am going to discuss here for monetizing BLOGGING.
                                        

Who Can Benefit From Money Making Out Of Blogging Guidelines:

Every money making enthusiast who owns a blog or wants to make a blog for earning money can get outstanding benefits out of these guidelines. It does not matter in which group you fall for blogging – a business or commercial blog or merely a hobby blog – monetization is certainly possible for all. The idea is not for getting wealthy in a quick way; however, if it is done rightly, you can financially support yourself or your family too. For this purpose, you have to dive in with us to explore the ways to get profit out of your blog.

1.  CPM / CPC Ads To Make Money Blogging:

The most common method of making money from a blog is by placing multiple ads on the site. CPC which is also known as PPC ads and CPM ads are two types of famous ads that bloggers get paid from.

Let us explore what CPC and CPM ads are here:

• CPC Ads: CPC stands for cost per click or is also named as pay per click ads which are banners that often placed in the sidebar or within the content. Every time a visitor or a blog reader clicks to that ad, the blogger gets paid for those clicks.
• CPM Ads: CPM Ads which are referred as cost per thousand impressions are those advertisements for which bloggers are paid a certain fixed amount according to the number of views on the ad.

How Advertisers Link Up To Blogs & Different Ad Networks:

For placing both types of ads on blogs, the most prevalent network is Google AdSense. This program automatically gets advertisers connected to bloggers and thus, it eliminates the need to contact advertisers for placing their ads on your blog personally. Just place a banner on the blog or website and let Google work to place relevant ads on your site. Google itself selects ads that go apt to the content of your blog. By placing ads this way, the chances become quite high to get clicks of viewers on these ads. If you feel that you are not getting expected outcomes from AdSense, then you can choose other Ad programs or networks like Infolinks, Media.net and Chitika.

2.  Private Ads Selling Can Be More Profitable:

If you think that ad networks are the only way to make money blogging, then somehow you are underestimating the power of it. So, to sell out ads, ad networks are certainly not the only way. If your blog succeeds in getting higher traffic, then you will be contacted from the advertisers directly. At that time, advertisers will request you to give space to their ads on your blog or site. They will offer you profit percentage or a fixed price to display their ads on your site. Moreover, you may also ask advertisers to place their ads on your blog. The only and major difference in this method is the unavailability of a middle man that means, set your conditions and prices on your own.

Private ads selling can be in  the type of buttons, links and banners. Even, there is a scope of making money by writing several sponsored posts. In these posts, you should write about the product or service of the advertiser or submit a review of it. In addition, you can write a series of posts where you can take any topic to write about, though you will be paid for “Brought to you by” mention within your content. So, there are multiple ways to make money by this way. For example, there can be a one-time payment for putting a link in the post, or if you host a banner ad, then you may either charge on the monthly basis to the advertiser.

Profit making bonus idea for you: To increase your revenue, you may sell sponsorship place within your podcasts, videos and newsletters also.

3.  Add Affiliate Links:

When it comes to making money blogging, affiliate marketing is one of the greatest methods that most of the bloggers rely on. Check out these tips on how you can benefit from affiliate marketing.

Every advertiser wants to sell off his product or service. For selling off a product, the advertiser gives the bloggers some commission from every sale; if a buyer comes from your blog or site. 

     Advertiser gives the blogger an exclusive link which tracks down the affiliate code of yours. This link enables him to know if the buyer has come from your blog to buy their product.

     You may either include the affiliate link on your site or blog. It can be added directly within the content of the blog or in banner ads. At times, a reader of your site clicks on the unique link and also, purchases a product recommended by your site, it helps you earning some percentage from their purchase.

     Affiliate marketing can be made through multiple ad networks such as Amazon Associates. Or you may also make private ad partnerships with businesses and advertisers through the affiliate program.

4.  Put Digital Products To Sell On Your Blog:

If the idea to sell the products or services of other advertisers on your site is not something that attracts you, then you may go for selling digital products on your site. This can prove to be another brilliant stream of regular income. In digital products, you may add:

•       Digital workshops or courses
•       Apps, theme or plugins
•       eBooks
•       Video, Music or Images to encourage users to add their content

Important Tip To Keep In Mind:

When you head towards choosing any of these digital avenues to sell on your site, to remember to add a relevant product that your website users are interested in. Generally, a majority of bloggers make a mistake by thinking as they are going to make a product available for readers that they would have required. Though you should listen to them first and after that, make a product according to their demand.

5.  Use Your Blog As The Content Marketing Solution For The Business:

Blogging has an exceptional power to give businesses remarkable revenues. If you own a business, then you can use a blog to sell off the physical products of your company. This way, it helps in generating more income for businesses by working as a powerful marketing tool. Though, it is requisite for you to take the blog as a tool of content marketing, rather considering it as a money making platform as it will bring more visitors to the site and will help in growing your business.

There are countless possibilities to develop the business with the help of a blog. It is an amazing platform to sell products like hand-made stuff, manufactured items, and books and so on. Moreover, many businesses use it to help their customers explore their product information in a more accurate way and thus, it converts them in becoming loyal customers.

Clearing it more deeply with a practical example:

Say to assume you refurbish or resell the used phones from your home and want to grow your income from your blog. So, use your blog to get the attention of the visitors towards your site where, all your refurbished or resalable phones are listed for sale. In your blog, you should cover a range of relevant topics like DIY refurbishing the phones, benefits of refurbished phones etc. This idea serves dual purpose as it encourages buyers to buy a refurbished phone as well as it helps growing a brand.

In the words of famous social media expert Jay Baer, 

“I was at a conference a few years ago, and this is where I first sort of started thinking about this concept, and their founder, Robert Johnson, was speaking…” Furthermore, he said, “Well our best customers are the people that think they can fix it themselves.”

Eventually, this idea would take you away from the core – as here, you need to decide who are you deciding to call? If you are trying to call up anyone randomly who you just discovered from the Google or you call up someone whose logo you just have discovered around in a small video.

This principal also applies to varied industrial services; for example, if you deal in repair services for electronics, in contrary to any physical product. The same blogging concept would work to enhance the brand awareness as well as in conversions.

6.  Membership Selling:

When it comes to money making from your blog, the membership selling emerges as a significant option. In this option, the advertisers pay the bloggers to get an exclusive corner in their site. For example, if you have a blog related to career counselling, an advertiser may get ready to pay you $10 every month as it will help users to get access to the job boards of the advertiser. Similar, if you have a business blog, then you may sell the membership in your website forum where users get multiple advice for their business.

The main key of this option to provide an exclusive membership to users which has to be more useful and effective than anything that they get for free on the web. Therefore, think of bringing out of the box ideas to make membership users feel that they are getting service worth the cost.

7.  Build Up Your Credibility On Your Blog:

Many bloggers use their blog for credibility which is another fabulous idea to bring several monetizing opportunities. Taking an example of a finance related blog where people start taking the interest in the information written within and ultimately, the blog gets unexpected popularity among masses. Thus, the credibility of your blog will make you a renowned figure in entire finance segment.

After having this authority, many people would approach you to be a co-writers for a book on a subject like debt management or you may get opportunities to be a speaker at finance conferences or get invite to train employees on financial affairs.

However, it is not a straight money making method from blogging, yet it benefitted many bloggers this way. So, there are chances that it may work in your case too. Coming to straight profit stream, a blogger can earn the profit in 4 to 7 figures by selling off the blog to others. It is called selling a brand to some other interested person and if your blog is popular, the profit can be unexpectedly higher.

The most considerable thing to remember when you want to make money from your blog is; to keep doing something with your site, rather than putting your website up and then, let it rest there. For revenue generation, you have to give your time to your site as the mentality that just build it and revenue will come on its own will surely not work in this case. It is seen that some bloggers do not see any income for sometimes and sometimes for years. Though the profit is assured, but it requires dedication, time and effort.

When you fully decide on monetizing your blog, keep the following advice in your mind to be a successful blogger and earn in 7 figure every month.

Quality Content Is Must:

The quality content is a key factor for making a blog successful. When a reader finds the content quality up to the mark, he likes to read it further. A poorly written content always gets dumped by the readers. Therefore, do not neglect the value of content quality, but considering users’ perspective, put high quality and interactive content that must be worth readers’ interest.

Focus On Spending Time To Build Up Relationships:

To make a blog popular, you have to concentrate on making fruitful relationships rather just focusing on content. Make good relations with the affiliate advertisers, sponsors and bloggers as they are the direct traffic source for the blogs. Ensure that a good amount of time has to be spent on various forums and blogs that are a great way to make up relationships.

Indulge In Experiments:

Here, we have mentioned several tips and sources of income that you can use to make money blogging. However, the experiment in this money making game is always good. You can tweak these tips to see if you get better outcomes relating your readers or blog popularity or not.

The idea of money making out of your blog is a persistent affair, though it gives long-term revenue if one starts it from the scratch. Here, it is not mandatory use all the money making ideas altogether, but you can take inspiration from other emerging or famous bloggers and see what the latest blogging trend is.

With time, you sure understand which avenue is the most profitable for you and which is not. So, after reading on these ideas, if you are planning to make a blog and convert it in a money making platform, then we would love to hear from you which avenue are you going to start with.

Do not hesitate to share your feedback in the comment section below as we love to hear that. 

Read More

A Comprehensive Guide On How To Make Money From YouTube

It is always said that necessity is the mother of invention and this can be truly proven if your habit or your passion start filling your pockets. Going precisely by the passion, we meant to ask if you have the capability to capture people on camera in the most amazing manner then voila, you are just a step behind from making money.

And that’s where we come in the picture. This amazing passion of yours needs a platform and none other than YouTube can be the best platform. This is where you need to know how to put things in the right order so that the dollar starts rolling into your account.

Well! As Andy Stack, the partner product manager of YouTube reveals that in actual there are 4 key players when it comes to YouTube monetization. To know those 4 basic players, watch out that not even a single word from this article on how to make money from YouTube goes missing.

1.    Viewer

Viewers are those people who wish to have YouTube as the best place to fetch informative and entertaining videos for all times. YouTube viewers play a key role in monetizing this video platform in a money making platform. It is because, when viewers come on YouTube to watch videos, the chances are quite high for them to attract towards ads appearing on those videos. Thus, by uploading interesting videos of viewers’ interest, you can invite several advertisers to get space around your content; so that they can have customers from there. Thus, on choosing YouTube as your money making platform, you should give utmost importance to the viewers.

2.    Creators

As a creator, it becomes a responsible job to create sustainable content and thus generate revenue. Creators are those people who make video content and then upload it to the YouTube. By the continuous flow of content, the creators develop an interest in video viewers. So, to generate revenue in terms of money, it is mandatory for them to contribute useful and informative content that has a purpose and value to viewers. A valuable content creator always enjoys the appreciation for the work and has more chances to make money on YouTube.

Source

3.    Advertisers

Advertisers, on the other hand, have to be precisely more cautious on where to put their advertisements so that they can reach the right audience. After viewers and creators, advertisers play a major role in making YouTube a money making platform. When the advertisers find a video content worth their money, they prefer to spend money on buying space around that video and move to negotiate with the creator. More the advertisers take an interest in your uploaded YouTube videos, higher the chances to grow in this business. The increasing number of ads around your videos result in increasing revenue.

4.    YouTube

Source

The whole effort of a video content creator, viewer and advertiser can only work when it gets a reliable platform like YouTube. This is a reason, we give YouTube a worthy place in the list of 4 basic money making players. Today, YouTube has emerged as the main platform to accomplish the goal of money making. A number of video creators are tending towards YouTube to get money out of their passion for video making.

Although, these four basic elements work mutually to give monetary benefits to individuals; yet we should not forget that all the four of these have their own key interests that must be kept in mind.

To give you more clarity on it, read on this example:

If I can play good guitar and upload a video of the same on YouTube, the viewers from all around the world can check the video. All viewers would have an individual purpose of watching a guitar-related video like some of them would love to learn how to play the guitar, they might come for enjoyment or any other purpose they wish for. Here, the advertisers who wish to reach their right audience help fund this experience.

Though it is not as easy as it looks to upload a video content on YouTube, but there are many things that you should take care of while stepping in YouTube for money making.

Top 5 things that must be kept in mind while making a video for uploading on YouTube –

a)    Always be prepared with all the info that you need to deliver in the video. Like if you are making a video for your product, say a mobile phone then be prepared with a script on when, how and where to say all about the descriptions of that phone. You should be prepared with the updated information related to that mobile, price, availability, special or unique specification and its other features.

b)    If you have the skill on something then you can teach others too by creating videos on the same. Sharing your knowledge with others is such a wonderful experience as it does not only educate others, but also enhances the skill at a great extent. However, when you decide to share your skill to tutoring others, you should not give inappropriate information. But what should be kept in mind is the step by step guidance. Moreover, you can also take the help of Google trends of you wish to know the demand of that particular niche. This way, you can make relevant and more demanded video contents that would be in high demand among users.

c)    Don’t avoid doing the long tail keyword research.

d)    Always keep posting videos with more content on the same niche as it helps in good ranking on YouTube and Google.

e)    Try adopting affiliate marketing as this is a reliable online money making method that allows you to make sales commissions when a viewer buys a product online by your suggestion.

This kind of online video marketing ultimately helps in converting the viewers to buyers for the advertisers, money for the creators, enjoyment, knowledge and valuable products for the viewers. All at one place, i.e., YouTube.

But that’s not all, there are many questions that need to be answered. Before clearing with these questions, you cannot expect to have fruitful results from your video content on YouTube. As said earlier, we are here to make you familiar with all the aspects of how to make money from YouTube; so here are some of the questions discussed for your reference.

What is YouTube partnership program?

Source

This program is nothing but monetizing the videos uploaded by you to indulge in the revenue sharing program. By participating in this program, Adsense ads will be shown in your videos by google and when any viewer clicks on any of those ads, you will get some percentage of revenue generated via such commercial ads. Thus, the role of YouTube partnership program is quite effective to money making via YouTube.

The next question that comes up is how to become a YouTube partner?

The most important thing that you should keep in mind before becoming a YouTube partner is that you own Gmail or google account. Having such an account enables you to sign in each of its products. Post owning an account, you need to sign into YouTube account with the help of that account. In the YouTube account, you need to create a channel of yours so as to get into the partnership program.

Step by step guidance for creating a YouTube channel-

a)    After you have successfully signed into the YouTube account using your Gmail account, you will find a “My Channel” option on the left side at the top in your account screen.

b)    Click on that option.

c)    Post clicking on the option you will be asked to enter the name of the channel. It is suggested that you enter a unique name for your channel that relates to the type of your video content.

d)    Now, click on the “Create Channel’ option.

e)    Clicking on this option, your account will be created.

f)    Post creating the account, choose your profile picture, cover and enter a much-needed description for your channel.

g)    After you are done with all the above steps, you need to verify your YouTube channel.

Verification of your channel-

There are many benefits of verifying your YouTube video channel after you have created one have logged into your YouTube account. The most important feature that you get to enjoy is that after verification you are allowed to upload long videos otherwise you can upload videos not more than 15 minutes. Now, to complete the verification process of your YouTube channel, follow the given below steps-

a)    Log in to your YouTube account as discussed earlier in this article.

b)    On the account, screen clicks on the Video manager option given on my channel option which is at the top left side of the account screen.

c)    Now, on the left side, enter the channel by clicking on the channel option.

d)    Post entering, you need to click on the verify option which is given on the right side.

e)    After you have clicked on the verify option, a new page will appear where you have to go for the text me and then you will be asked to enter your mobile number.

f)    Now on your mobile number, you will receive a verification code.

g)    Enter this code in the verification box and hit the submit button.

h)    Post submission of the code, your account will be verified.

Enable your YouTube channel for monetization

When you have decided to make your living out of your YouTube videos, the monetization becomes a priority. You cannot earn a single penny without enabling your YouTube channel for monetization. Therefore, we believe that it is the most important step. Though, it is very easy to do as you just need to follow our simple directions which are available here for your reference.

a)    Once you have entered into your channel after signing into your YouTube account, click on the monetization option given on the right side.

b)    There, click on enable option.

c)    Post clicking on the enable option, you will be redirected to a page where you have to click on the “Enable My Account” option.

d)    After clicking, a page will appear describing the terms of YouTube partner program will appear. Here, click on the “I Accept” button. Your account is now monetized.

After achieving all the above-given steps, associate your AdSense account with your channel so as to get paid. If you don’t have an AdSense account approved in your name, then you can get one approved and try associating the same. Post-association, you will be directed to the YouTube + AdSense page. On this page, click on the “Sign in” option. Once done with the signing in, start uploading your videos and see dollars rolling in your account. Once you start your earning, we are sure your passion of creating more and more videos will get a boost and so does your earning.

How to check your YouTube Channel earning:

To check how much money have you created from your videos on YouTube, the process is very simple. You can see your earning by using the YouTube analytics which will reveal the amount earned by you as per the number of visitors you have on the daily basis on your videos. Once your earning reaches the mark of 100$, you will be get paid into your account. Therefore, it is necessary that you keep your account details updated in the payment settings of your AdSense account.

We are sure that this article will help you to earn dollars if you are passionate about making useful and interesting videos of viewers’ interest. Making relevant content is actually the real key of making money from YouTube. Additionally, a high-quality video also plays a vital role in maintaining your fan following; therefore, we suggest you to use a quality camera to make impressive videos worth appreciation.

So, follow our guidelines now and convert your passion into money-making business right away.

Read More

Top 5 Blogger SEO tips for startups to fight marketing Zombies

To compete with already established companies in the industry, startups have to find a few great website designs and play with some out of the box marketing strategies. This can prove like waging a war against a whole nation of Zombies when you are cash crunched. Using traditional mediums for marketing such as print and television is even more painful if you are searching for cost-effective marketing strategies.

So should a startup dream just succumb to this expensive trend of the industry? No. Fortunately, you do not require any budget and expertise to run a blog, which is one of the most effective marketing tools for a startup to introduce their products to the targeted audience.

Blogging not only helps a startup generate traffic, but also increases interaction with the audience. So let’s have a look at some of the best blogging tips for startups. Here we go:

1.   Plan your stories

         

         

Startups offer a variety of innovative solutions to specific industry types. And your stories on your blog should reflect the same uniqueness and, at the same time, has to be relevant to your business domain. Produce informative stories that people will like to read about. Give them a reason to return to your blog. Make your blog a one-stop window for all the information one can get on particular industry types.

You must consider the following factors before you start running a blog:

Target audience

Challenges and other problems faced by your target audience

Purpose of running your blog

Ideas

Writing style

Updates

Subjects

Content management

2.   Get a perfect resource page

         

Just like a motor bike, your blog runs on two wheels of content and in-depth resources. Resource pages are useful for generating traffic by attracting audience who are particularly interested in strong practical information. Your newsletter or email sign-ups may shoot to an all time high just because of a quality resource page. They can create a buzz around your newly launched products boosting your revenue by manifolds. However, just any resource page will not do the trick. You need to keep in mind a few things to make most of a resource page. Here are they:

Ensure that your resource pages are comprehensive covering detailed information about your company, products, and services.

Make your resource pages engaging by utilizing images, videos, and graphics.

Toss freebies in the air for your audience who would want to know more about your company, products, and services. Lure them for sign-ups with freebies. It works and helps in building a good fan base.

Create some evergreen content that can be used for several years to come. A short lived story may not help in generating long term SEO benefits and traffic. 

         3.   Know competition, know gain

             

             

To have that extra edge over other businesses, you must deliver extra benefits and uniqueness to your clients. Otherwise, why would they choose you? Research competing business blogs are the best ways to attain ability to offer extra benefits.  

SEMRush.com is a great online tool to help you search keywords that are boosting ranking for other websites. BuzzSumo.com helps in searching for most shared articles that are doing the rounds on social media. You can always swear by Google’s Keyword Planner that can help you stand out in no time.

        4.     Think beyond social media

              

All right! Growing interest of businesses in social media promotion is quite like Lindsay Lohan’s fascination for drug rehabs. Instant hits and possibilities of going viral are the two key reasons why almost all the businesses today do not want to think beyond social media when it comes to promoting their products, services, and solutions. This trend has been further hyped by those who have tasted a moderate level of success by using social media platforms for promotion.

However, exploring just one type of a platform for some marketing benefits for a very long time soon turns out to be exploitation. Its crème evaporates with time leaving you with no benefits of social media promotion after some time. So it is important to go beyond just social media to reap long term benefits. Email marketing and guest blogging are two strong marketing tools to reach out to your audience.

        5.     Email marketing

             

While abusing social media for promotions, a lot of businesses tend to underestimate the importance of email marketing completely. Although it is important to be there on social media and build a strong online presence for your company, you should also think about a marketing tool that gives you total control of your reach.

According to a study, email marketing gives one of the highest return on investments (ROIs). For every USD 1, the average ROI is around USD 44.25.

Read More