I have always wanted to create a list of blogs that I love to read, share and link to because I think it'd be nice to see them in a listicle rather than just adding them to Feedly (my favorite RSS reader). Moreover, I didn't want to add tons of blogs to my RSS reader as I hate to see hundreds of unread items.
And hey, you should also have a list of your favorite blogs. You know why? Because if you are a blogger, or marketer, or whatever you are supposed to stay updated about what's happening in your industry. The idea is to stay focused all the time.
By the way, you DO NOT have to follow hundreds of blogs in your niche. Just a dozen of them is pretty enough. Because you will see yourself landing on more and more related blogs and blog posts as you go.
For instance, it's been a month since I checked my Feedly feeds and now it's got over 600 unread items (and counting). The problem is I was reading less and less all these days and weeks as I already had enough research stuff in my Evernote and saved for later articles in my Pocket.
And yet, I was landing on a lot of interesting blogs and blog posts and whatnot. In fact, that's what inspired me to write this very blog post.
First Published: November 17, 2016; Last Updated: Thursday, February 1, 2018.
You know, you should really repurpose your content. But the disclosure is that I haven't started it yet. I first came to know about repurposing content when Darren published How to Repurpose Your Content [and Why You Should Do It!].
However, I wasn't that interested as I didn't have plenty of blog posts on my blog then. Even today, I have less than 300 published blog posts but I realize that it's time to diversify the traffic sources.
First things first.What is content repurposing?
Content repurposing is all about extending the life of your original content (blog posts in most cases) by leveraging more mediums. Submitting a blog post to a dozen of social networks or updating/republishing one of your archived blog post is not exactly repurposing. It’s just sharing and resharing.
Repurposing is done by taking an existing blog post (or content) and using it to create something else on another medium (in an easy to consume way) thereby reaching an audience who wouldn’t have found your content otherwise.
That is, it involves reusing your own content to serve a different audience or the same audience in a different way. The good thing about content repurposing is that you are actually getting more traffic by creating less content — as these mediums are already known to have millions of active users.
First Published: March 3, 2015; Last Updated: Wednesday, January 31, 2018.
Blogging is one of the most powerful modern marketing medium out there. The only problem is --- you cannot expect overnight success. Why? Because it's a marathon and not just a sprint! So, always go term!
"I've worked in marketing since 1987 and nothing I have used, studied or witnessed, comes close to the marketing power of an effective blog. Period." --- Jim Connolly
When I compiled the blog marketing resources I mentioned that I do not have a blog promotion strategy. Still, I wanted to share my blogging strategy with you and realized that it's better to publish a new blog post.
So, that's how I come up with this topic and it's all about how I increased my organic traffic from 250 to 1,500 to 3,000 without spending a penny.
You want to make money blogging? You do? I can help you. But don't think I am going to give you yet another 101 ways to make money online. Because it doesn't work that way at all. Seriously.
If you already have a blog and is exploring ways to monetize your blog then here's a list of over 40 Google AdSense alternatives to make money blogging.
Over the past several months, I have been trying to scale-up my content creation process --- to create more blog posts per month in a consistent way. However, I was not able to do it and is yet to find a way that works for me.
But the good thing is, I ended up doing a lot of maths. I love maths. No, not the stuff that you and me learned at school --- differentiation, integration, algebra, matrices, etc. --- but the one applied in real life.
In fact, that's how I ended up writing a fun blog post about How Much Traffic Do You Need To Make $100,000 a few years back. It was all about traffic and income and surprisingly it became one of the most popular posts on my blog.
So, today I just wanted to do a reverse blog post based on the numbers that I have worked out.
That is,
How Much Money Should You Invest In Content Marketing To Generate 1,000,000 Pageviews And $3,000 Per Month
And it's about traffic, income, and costs too.
The only problem is, the math that I have used on the previous blog post can be applied to almost any blog/website out there. But the current math can't be as it's mostly based on my own traffic insights plus few case studies.
So, there's every chance that the actual figures applicable for your own blog could be a lot different from mine. Needless to say, it ultimately depends upon your website's niche, authority, and marketing efforts.
For instance, the number of pageviews of a blog depends very much on its bounce rate. Even a slight change in bounce rate means a lot in terms of pageviews.
My bounce rate is over 85% and the number of pages per visit is 1.30/visit. Now if I've managed to reduce my bounce rate to say around 80% then the number of pages per visit will be around 1.50/visit.
And it will easily result in a 15% jump in pageviews (with zero additional content creation).
Coming back,
Make Money Blogging: I just want to decode four questions
How Much Traffic Does Your Blog Need To Make $36,000 Per Year In Ad Revenue
How Many Blog Posts Do You Need To Generate A Million Pageviews Per Month
How Much Money Should You Invest In Content Marketing To Generate A Million Pageviews Per Month
How Much Time Does It Take To Reach Your Traffic Goal
So you want to start a blog? That’s fantastic! Blogging is simple and fun but not easy. Definitely not easy. Even though you can set up a WordPress blog in less than 10 minutes, it takes countless hours of focus and patience to make things look the way you want. So my aim is to help you set up a blog from scratch on the world’s most awesome blogging platform – WordPress.org.
First things first.Why WordPress?
Because it's a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress started as just a blogging system, but has evolved to be used as full content management system and so much more through the thousands of plugins and widgets and themes, WordPress is limited only by your imagination and tech chops.
If you have already started a WordPress blog in the past then you have some edge, and if you are also willing to spend some money on marketing and promotion then you are even better placed to start a WordPress blog than another beginner.
Just a friendly reminder, as a newbie blogger no one will be aware of your blog, no one might read your blog posts. It will be just another blog. Well, it’s a start. A beginning. And yes, in time, you can make all the difference.
So let's get started!
How To Start A Food Blog (Step by Step)
I don't cook (and am not a foodie either!) However, I do manage a food blog (its technical aspects, SEO, and monetization) that belongs to my sister who is a big-time foodie.
Apart from that, I also get a handful of emails from my readers who love cooking and who wants to get into food blogging. That is, they want to start a food blog and make money. Well, it's simple but not easy.
You know why? Because anyone can start a food blog and all it takes is around $100 per year and few hours a day (to actually publish recipes). But that doesn't guarantee a single penny.
Oh yeah, there are a ton of how to start a food blog and make money kind of tutorials on the web but the reality is that you're hardly going to make any money (at least for the first few months or even years) unless you already know what you need to know about food blogging and digital marketing.
If you have already started a WordPress blog in the past then you have some edge, and if you are also willing to spend some money on marketing and promotion then you are even better placed to start a food blog than another beginner.
Just beware that as a newbie food blogger no one is aware of your blog, no one might read and use your recipes. It will be just another food blog. Well, it's a start. A beginning. And yes, in time, you can make all the difference.
A blog is basically an online diary where our blog content (also known as blog posts or simply posts) are sorted chronologically – usually in a reverse chronological order. The act of updating a blog (with fresh content) is known as “blogging”. So how’s a blog different from a website? All blogs are websites but not all websites are blogs. Simple as that.
"Blog" is an abbreviated version of "weblog" that features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse chronological order. — WordPress
You can start a blog for FREE on any of those platforms so that you’ll get a blog like your-name.blogspot.com OR your-name.wordpress.com OR your-name.tumblr.com. In other words, you can’t get your-name.com for free from any of those platforms (unless you pay for it). Starting a blog on any of those platforms is simple and easy as it's just like updating status on your Facebook or Twitter – so it takes less than 10 minutes to actually create a free blog.
WordPress is web's favorite blogging platform. It’s a software that lets you create, manage and publish your content seamlessly. That’s why over 20% of the web or almost 50% of all blogs are powered by WordPress. WordPress has two flavors, namely: WordPress.com (the free hosted version — like example.wordpress.com) and WordPress.org (self-hosted version — like my blog).
WordPress.com is the hosted version of WordPress.org itself and is owned by Automattic (the company who created WordPress). Since it’s managed by Automattic, you don’t have to worry about upgrades, installation, security or maintenance.
WordPress.org is an open-source blogging software. So, anyone can download the WordPress software from WordPress.org and install on their website for FREE. And then you own it and you manage it. It’s limited only by your imagination (and tech chops) as there are thousands of themes, plugins, and widgets available to transform your WordPress site into almost anything that you can imagine.
When you sign up for a free WordPress.com account your blog address will look like your-username.wordpress.com and if you choose the self-hosted version of WordPress (that is, WordPress.org) then you can start your blog with a branded address like your-name.com.
So my aim is to help you set up a food blog on the world's most awesome blogging platform – WordPress.org.
And I'm going to assume that:
You want to start a self-hosted WordPress blog (that is, your own .com blog).
You CAN'T start a WordPress blog in 10 minutes. And you can’t start a blog in 10 hours either. You know why? Because it takes countless hours to customize WordPress and make things look the way you want (unless you are a WordPress geek). And hey, I didn’t even count the actual time required to actually create content. That’s the real purpose of a blog, right?
I have noticed several times that whenever I start a WordPress blog, I end up doing the same things over and over and over. So below are the steps that I personally follow when I start a new WordPress site. And no, it’s NOT another start a WordPress blog in 5 minutes kind of guide or video. Yes, I (and probably you) have seen a gazillion "How To Start A WordPress Blog In 5 Minutes" videos and tutorials.
But the reality is that it doesn't work that way. Why? Because they’re all basically about how to buy a domain name (that is, a .com), web hosting plan (that is, your own server space where you can upload files), and install blogging software (that is, WordPress). Yes, that's all you can do in 5 minutes or even 10 minutes and it's far away from a perfect blog as there are a lot of other things that you must know and do.