Blogging

What, Why & How

By: Gaganpreet Singhfb.com/CreativeBloggingIdeas

Agenda

I. What is a blog

II.What is blogging

III.Why you should blog

IV. How Blogs make money

V. How to choose a blog niche

VI. How to choose Blogging Software

VII.How to choose Domain Names

VIII.How to choose Hosting

IX.How To Choose Blog Themes/Templates

Agenda...

I. Structure of a Blog

II. Essential Pages of a Blog

III.Blog Design Elements

IV.How to get post ideas

V.How to write blog posts

VI.How to market a blog

VII.How to make money with blog

VIII.Questions

What is a Blog ?I. Everyone has different opinion

II.Blog is a abbreviated version of “Web Log”.

III.Blog is a website with some key features

IV.Articles are listed in chronological order with the newest article at the top

V.It’s easy to add new content

VI.Content is updated frequently

VII.Blogs allow people to leave comments

VIII.People trust blogs more than normal websites b'coz blogging is a conversation

History

I. Got popular in 1998

II.Open Diary - 1998 – Where people used to come and add their entries and others used to read them and comment on them

III.Then came Live journal in 1999

IV.In 1999, Pyra Labs create Blogger

V.In 2003, Internet giant Google, bought Blogger and then the magic started happening

What Is Blogging

Every skill you need to run and manage a Blog is called blogging

Art of sharing your thoughts, knowledge, experience with others

Includes writing, editing, designing, SEO, Social Media Marketing etc

Building relationships with your readers and other Bloggers

Why you should Blog ?

I. If aim is Money = Quit Blogging

II.Successful blogs all have one thing in common – they improve people’s lives.

III.If your blog is to do the same, you have to determine what it is you can offer that can improve the lives of.

IV.Other people – what is your gift to give to the blogosphere?

V.Try to be a Problem Solver and money will start coming automatically

Why You Should BlogI. Its free & easy – Why not giving it a try ?

II.Help others by Sharing Knowledge

III.Eg Maths Teacher near my house, he has a blog, why ? Just for sharing knowledge

IV.Increase your writing skills

V.It's fun – Meet like minded people, attend blog camps. IndiBlogger Meets – Free Drinks :P

VI.You’ll be famous – Darren Rowse, Yaro

VII.Grow your business

VIII.Making Money

How Blogs Make Money

I. Print magazines make money by selling advertising. More the circulation, more the money

II.Blogs also make money through Ads Paid Posts / Sponsored Reviews Image Ad Slots & Text Links (Direct Ads) Affiliate Marketing Adsense & Similar Ad Networks

III.More Quality Traffic = More Money

IV.What is Quality Traffic ?

How To Choose Blog Idea – Niche Selection

I. Everything starts with RnD

II.Passion vs Profit

III. Bad Blogger will run after Profit

IV. Good Blogger will run after Passion

V. Profit = Find niche that people spend money in. Do not sell “ice” in Himalayas !

VI. Interest + Knowledge & Skills

VII. Create a Chart & Choose a Topic Wisely

Niche Selection

Niche Selection Chart

I. Who are you ?

II.What gets you up in the morning?

III.What do you do for a living?

IV.What do you love to do?

V.What are your hobbies?

VI.What do you have passion for?

VII.What do you dream about?

Niche Selection Chart

I. What do you know a lot about?

II.What do you have a talent for?

III.What skills and abilities do you have?

IV.What do you know that’s both rare and valuable?

V.What are you experienced in?

VI.In what topics are you better than other people?

Niche Selection

Find a Topic: What are Your Interests? Work Experience Hobbies Education Personal Attributes

Niche Selection Tool

I. Amazon – Go to category and find best selling and top products

II.Udemy – Go to top courses

III.Adwords Tool

IV.Google Trends

V.Flippa - GoldMine

Niche Selection Tool

I. Amazon – Go to category and find best selling and top products

II.Udemy – Go to top courses

III.Adwords Tool

IV.Google Trends

V.Flippa - GoldMine

Choosing Blogging Platform

I. Many Blogging platforms out there

II.Best of the best Blogger – By Google WordPress – Com & Org

III.Both have pros & cons

IV.Lets discuss in detail:

Blogger – Why & When to use

Advantages

I. Its free

II.Provides environment to design your own templates/themes/designs

III.Provides unlimited bandwidth

IV.You can create unlimited blogs

V.No downtime

Disadvantages

I. Limited features

II.Not SEO friendly as WordPress is

Use Blogger if :

I. You do not have initial investment to start a blog

II.You are new to blogging

III.Not much technical – No Programming :(

IV.You want to start a personal blog

WordPress – Why & When to use

I. One of my favorite blogging platform

II.Most flexible blogging platform

III.Lots of option to customize your template

IV.Plugin feature makes it easy to add new features to our template

V.Best for professional blogging

VI.SEO friendly, Google loves WordPress

VII.Advance Level Options

Use WordPress if:

I. If you want to start a blog and you want to take it to the topmost level, I would recommend you WordPress blogging platform.

How To Choose Domain NameI. Dot Com – Recommended

II.Should match the topic of your blog

III.Easy to remember

IV.No hyphens

V.Check your domain with Archive.org

VI.Check if your domain is ban from Adsense or not

VII.Avoid Trademarks

VIII.Ban from Facebook or not

IX.NameCheap, BigRock & Godaddy

How to Choose Web Hosting

I. Initially go for Shared Hosting

II.Cheap & Reliable

III.Shared - HostGator & KnownHost

IV.Private Server – Digital Ocean

V.Go For Unlimited Space & Domain Plans

VI.Before buying, make sure it has Live Chart Support

Structure Of A Blog

I. Header Logo Ad Banner

II.Navigation Bar

III.Search Box – Google CSE

IV.Sidebar

V.Post Content Area

VI.Post Excerpts

VII.Footer

Essential Pages of a Blog

I. Home Page – Index Page

II.Post

III. Page

IV.Category

V.Archive

VI.Search Page

Blog Theme Selection

I. Blog design is called Theme / Template

II. 4 Types of Themes Minimal – Highly Recommend Magazine Style – For news site with very

high no. of articles per day Business / Corporate Themes Portfolio Themes

III. For blogging Minimal Magazine Style

Quality Of a Good Theme

I. White or light colored background

II.Good Typography – Open Sans

III.2 Column Theme – Recommended

IV.Fast Loading

V.SEO Friendly

VI.Genesis Theme (Recommended)

Where to find Awesome Themes

If on Blogger

I. Btemplates.com

If on WordPress

I. ThemeForest

Blog Design Elements

I. Theme Color

II.Fonts

III.Header

IV.Post Content Area

V.Sidebar

VI.Comment Box

VII.Footer

Theme Color

I. Any light color

II.White background recommended

III.Never use dark background – low Avg time on site

IV.Color Combination Blue (Trust & Confidence) – Business Blogs Red – Excitement – Movies, Songs, Food,

Dating, Love Green (Natural) – Health, Nature

Font

I. Gotham : http://www.typewolf.com/site-of-the-day/fonts/gotham

II.Open Sans : http://www.typewolf.com/site-of-the-day/fonts/open-sans

III.Font size – 16 px or 18 px works great

IV.Font color – Dark on Light but not opposite

Header

I. Left Side = Logo

II.Right Side Banner Ads Social Icons Link to important pages Lead Generation Form Search Box

Navigation Bar

I. Link to Categories & Sub Categories

II. Search Box

III.Top Categories – Top Pages

IV. Link Ads

Below Header

I. Lead Generation Box

II.Featured Posts

Home Page – Content Area

I. Post Excerpts

II.Thumbnails

III.Read More / Continue Reading

IV.Social Icons – Not Recommended

V. Date of Published Article

VI.Author Name & Pic – moz.com/blog

VII.Category

VIII.No. of Comments

IX.Pagination

Sidebar

I. Top – Social Icons

II.Subscription Box – FeedBurner by Google

III. FB Page Showcase

IV. Ad Slots

V. Related Articles

VI.Popular Posts

VII.Recent Comments – People like to be featured

VIII.Other Widgets

Post Page Inside

I. Post Title

II.Ads below title and above the content

III.Social Icons

IV.Author Name, Category, Comments

V. Relevant Image & Content

VI.After Content ends again Social Icons and Related Articles

VII.About Author Bio box

Footer

I. Least important area of a blog

II.But should be optimized

III.Includes small info about the blog

IV.Info about the blog owner

V. Links Important Pages

VI. Subscription Box

Before You Start a Blog

Mindset - Why you want to blog ?Blog TopicAwesome Blog NameBlogging Platform (I) Blogger (ii) WordPressBlog HostingBlog Template/Theme/DesignEssential Blog Elements

Lets Start with Content Ideas & Writing Tips

How To Get Post IdeasPillar Content – Eg. Mobile Site, daily changingAnalyze popular blogs – See what they're writing and add some extra value

Analyze comments on popular blogsUse forums helpdesk – Look for the questions and give solution on your blog

Write about latest newsWrite List ArticlesUse Delicious & Stumble Upon for post ideasInterview other famous people and publish it on your blog and see the magic

How To Get Post Ideas

Write “How To” ArticlesLook for problems around youWrite Curated ContentAsk your readers eg. BloggerBusterWrite about Product Reviews in your nicheCheck out trends in your niche and start writing on it. Google Trends

Check out keyword tool what people are looking in your niche

How To Write Blog Posts

I. You will need editors

II.Two Types In Built editor – Recommended Third Party – Like MS Word

How To Write Blog Posts

I. You will need editors

II.Two Types In Built editor – Recommended Third Party – Like MS Word

How To Write Blog PostWrite eye catching post title Make post title SEO friendly Short introduction – If intro is not good, no one is going to read the article.

Make it very simple & to the pointAlways write in points. No one reads long paragraphs

No grammatical and spelling mistakes Give relevant images & screenshots Use bullet points, Heading, Sub Heading

How To Write Blog Post

Organize the contentReaders should know, what is in the article in the introduction

ProperInterlink with other articles Ask for comments and feedback Is the content already written – Give Extra - Download my guide : How To Write High Quality Content

Include to CTA at the end

How to write blog post

I. Ask Questions in the post

II. Valuable content first. Eg. Mobile Review

III. Do not make it too long If its too long, divide it in series. Eg. CBI

Design Series, Traffic Series Ask for subscription and Audience will come again

How To Market a BlogLeaving comments on other blogs – If possible be the first one to comment – Everyone reads reactions – Eg FB

Reply to all your comments. Eg YouTube Channel : InHouseRecipes

SEO is the key to traffic Write Guest Posts Build audience through ForumsPodcastingWriting Case Studies

How To Market a Blog

Relevant Social Sites If Video site : YouTube If Image Blog – Pinterest, Reddit If Text Site – FB, StumbleUpon etc

Webinars – Gave me a good exposureLink Exchange with other bloggersBlog Engage - blogging community where all bloggers submit their latest blog articles for exposure

Blueprints

Make Money With Blog - Mindset

I. Not a simple process

II.Can take upto 6 months to 1 year

III.After you've good number of posts

IV.After you've a good design

V.After you've a decent traffic & audience

VI.Then think of making money

VII. Quality Traffic & Awesome Content is the key to make money online

Making Money With Blogs - Adsense

I. Simple & Effective Method – Adsense

II.Approval is difficult

III.Google Network

IV.Do not click on your own Ads

V.Do not ask anyone to click on your Ads

VI.Place Ads, optimize and let rest of stuff happens naturally

VII.Do not try to game the system

VIII.Try to be smart but not over smart

Make Money With Blogs – Media.net

I. Yahoo & Bing Network

II.Easily approved than Adsense

Make Money With InText Ads

I. My two favorite intext ad network Infolinks Kontera

Making Money With Blogs – Ad Selling

I. Register your site on BuySellAds

II.Set a price

III.If advertiser finds your site useful, they will buy the ads slots

Resources

31 Days Build A Better Blog - eBook

HowToMakeMyBlog.com

BloggingCage.com

ShoutMeLoud.com

Blogging Mastermind Course – Blogging Course

CreativeBloggingIdeas.com

http://goo.gl/lVOHcc - How To Write High Quality Content

Questions