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5 Ways to Turn Your Blog Into an Online Brand in 2018
The post 5 Ways to Turn Your Blog Into an Online Brand in 2018 appeared first on HostGator Blog . 5 Ways to Go from Blog to Online Brand in 2018 When I look back at the past two decades, a lot of websites, blogs, and social media platforms play through my mind — especially those that I personally created and worked with. From the most simple days of basic HTML and static websites, to the now advanced days of mobile usage and social media, it’s all above adapting with the times and providing value to an audience. In my past 22 years of making money online , one of the most pivotal moments would have to be when I launched my blog at ZacJohnson.com back in 2007. Not only was this a huge business and brand shift for myself, but it was also the first time I started using WordPress and didn’t need to rely on design software and HTML to create my sites. WordPress has changed everything and made the process of creating an online content-focused business or brand a whole lot easier. Since there are no technical skills required, and being that the software is free, everyone may soon have a blog. However, just because it’s easy, it doesn’t mean you are going to find success. Every day I get emails from readers of my sites, asking me why they aren’t making money with their blogs. To answer all of these questions and more, today I wanted to cover some of the most effective and important ways to actually turn a blog into a real brand and business. 1. Building Your Blog, Brand and Business from the Ground Up Before you even get started with a website or blog of your own, you need to know why you are doing this in the first place. For the sake of example, throughout this guide, we are going to focus on creating a blog to make money . In most cases, a blog should be very niche specific, provide a need or information to an audience, and also have some form of monetization as well. Getting a ton of traffic to your site is great, but without a clear focus or calls to action (for monetization) in place… it’s just another blog taking up space on the already saturated internet. While there are many ways to make money with a website or blog, many of them are by sending visitors away from a site or making a quick commission or sale for someone else . This is fine, but turning your blog into a brand and respectable source for information is even better. To invest in your online business and brand, you should have a professional logo design and a way to resonate with your audience even after they leave your site. This doesn’t mean you are going to need to spend a lot of time and money. Thanks to online design tools like Tailor Brands , it’s easy for anyone to create a professional looking logo, without the need to hire an expensive design agency or go through hundreds of freelancers to find the best design work. Below you can see a quick example of a few brand designs created in just a few seconds. Once you have a brand identity and image in place, you can build a great first impression and brand following online. This means posting the image not just on your site and blog, but also within all your social media profiles and email signatures if possible. Keep in mind that these same best practices can be used by freelancers and sole entrepreneurs as well. The long term value in your logo branding and online following can greatly influence the amount your site can charge for reviews, content contributions, display traffic, and affiliate marketing campaigns, and as well as how much you might be able to charge for consulting or related services. If you don’t think a professional logo identity and brand makes a big difference, go see how much it costs to buy banner ad places on a site like ESPN, versus that of another high-traffic sports blog that no one has really heard of. This is also why someone might pay more for a pair of Nike shoes or a Starbucks cup of coffee — it’s all about the brand association! 2. SEO is Dying, but the Long Tail Value is Here to Stay As much as I hate to say it, SEO is kind of making its way out the window. This is always going to be an argued debate, but we can clearly see that more people are moving away desktop usage and focusing more on mobile usage, social media, and online video to get their information. There will likely always be a place for searching websites and content online, but it likely won’t be through the traditional Google search and SEO methods that we are familiar with today. However, even with this in mind, the value in long-tail keywords is still extremely effective and profitable. When someone searches for something very specific on Google, they are likely ready to take action and buy something. The deciding factor in what site is going to get the sale is who is ranking at the top of Google for these terms. So what does this mean? In short, stop focusing on creating a lot of content, and instead focus on bigger, better, and longer content. At the same time, keep an eye on the latest case studies and trends from other top SEO blogs , as these are the sites that are often already ranking well and know what it takes to move up on Google with all of these latest algorithm and user changes in motion. Not only will this allow you to get more focused with your content and who your target audience is, but it will also help with the content promotion and your link building process as well. Keep a close eye on your competition and research not only what keywords and search phrases they are ranking for, but also the different types of content and length they are publishing as well. 3. Target Your Best Audience through Social Media Everyone talks about social media and the massive two-billion plus users across the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. However, not many are actually mastering the art of social media and converting these followers into customers and visits on their site. At the same time, every social platform is different in the way not just content needs to be created, but also how you can reach and promote to such audiences as well. For example, simply by continually using any of the top hashtags on Instagram , you can instantly improve your impressions and exposure to millions of new users. The tricky thing about Instagram is that you aren’t going to be allowed to link back to your site, but it’s amazing for visual content creation, branding, and building a following. If you ever needed an example to follow, Kylie Jenner is the one to keep an eye on right now. With a net worth of over $900 billion, Kylie has built her massive make up empire through the use of social media and getting new attention, followers, and sales at all times. More often than not, if you take the time to examine your competition and see where most of their traffic is coming from, it’s usually from one social platform over a wide spread across all of them. With this in mind, it’s important to know not only which social network is best for attracting your target audience, but also which methods (visual, text content, paid ads) will work best as well. 4. Manual Outreach is Still King in the World of Blogging Like it or not, but in some cases, throwing money at your website or blog will only get it so far. It’s the time-consuming and annoying manual research and outreach that really helps content sites move ahead of the competition. There are many ways to get manual outreach working for your blog and brand. Instead of listing all of them within this article, I recommend you take a look at this detailed outreach resource guide . Whether your outreach is for an infographic, broken link building, or guest blogging… it’s all about the tone and conversation you start with. Here are some of the most notable and effective ways to start using manual outreach and promotion to grow your blog, brand or online business: Sending out emails to other websites and seeing if they would like to cross-promote your content on social media, through mailings, or even mentions in articles. These emails should be more personable and not an obvious template. Guest blogging still works extremely well, but it should only be focused on legitimate websites that have traffic and are relevant to your niche. Contributing to other websites and blogs is great for link building, but also for reaching new audiences and growing your brand. Broken link building is a huge opportunity, but again… this can be very time consuming (and rewarding). Analyze other sites within your niche, find where their broken links are, and then reach out through email and see if they will replace their broken link with a working one to your site. Depending on how you approach each of these methods, your personal outreach and research methods might vary. The good news is that many of these processes can be outsourced to freelancers who will do all of the manual work for you, or if you want to work on this yourself, be sure to consider your options with SEO analysis tools and software automation . No matter what route you go, the more ‘realistic’ your outreach and content emails look, the better they are going to work. At the same time, don’t just ask for backlinks, promotions, and favors — try to offer something in return. 5. Treat Your Blog Like a Business, Not a Content Distribution Center Last but not least, it’s time to talk about blogging as a whole and why there are now more than 300 million blogs in the world today… yet only a very few only get traffic and make money with their sites. We’ve all heard the saying ‘content is king’. While this may be true in theory, it’s actually misleading many would-be bloggers and entrepreneurs in their journey to online profitable. Gary Vaynerchuk also makes a good point, in saying “ Content is King, but Context is God! ” Content is great, but there is simply way too much of it. With more than a billion active sites on the internet today, I think we have a pretty good amount of content already out there. However, anything that can be improved, and anything we can use more of, is great content! If you want to rank at the top of Google, be a trusted resource for information online – and also get free quality backlinks, mentions, and references everyday – you need to be creating better content than what is already out there. As mentioned earlier, people are less interested in text content, and now they want visuals and online video more than anything. To make all of this work for you and your brand, keep the following in mind. Create less content, but better and more resourceful content. Longer content performs better in Google. Stay above 2,000-words in each post. Go after the longtail keyword and cover every topic in full detail. Have an exact form of monetization in place, and calls to action in each article. With all of these elements and factors in play, your blog is no longer just a blog. It’s a traffic generating revenue lead magnet that is also providing value to an audience in the process. This isn’t rocket science. Take a look at any of these blogging success stories , and you will find that each of them has their own unique target audience, topic they specialize in, and awareness of exactly why and how they are monetizing their traffic and turning new readers into revenue daily. Your Blog Is Your Business “Blogging” has a lot of different meanings depending on who you ask. I’ve already looked at blogging as a way to create content and build your own online platform. Others look at it as a way to get started with a website and having their own voice online. In short, blogging can be anything you want. However, if you want blogging to be a business — you need to have a business model! Run through each of the ideas above and make sure you have all of these methods implemented into your blog. It’s time to turn your blog into a blog business and potentially change your life and brand for the better. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading
5 Tips to Get More Guest Blog Posts for Your Site
The post 5 Tips to Get More Guest Blog Posts for Your Site appeared first on HostGator Blog . 5 Tips to Get More Guest Blog Posts for Your Site By accepting guest posts, your brand draws new attention to your site. Guest posting adds a variety of content to your blog and helps you develop meaningful relationships with bloggers. It is also an avenue to drive traffic and keep your readers engaged. “In an era where reputation is everything, it’s incredibly useful to build a network of trusted writers to verify each other’s legitimacy in a given field…When a guest author posts on your site, the author is implicitly agreeing that you’re an authoritative source,” states Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers . Are you ready to get more guest blog posts? Here are five tips to get you started. 1. Write a Guest Blog Page Information is important in our society of technology. Knowing about opportunities empowers people to take action. Your company can attract more guest bloggers by merely announcing your interest. Start by writing a guest blog page. You’ll want to include all your guidelines for submitting a post. State the desired topics, word count, sources, and other standards. Don’t shy away from giving writers every crucial detail. By doing so, you set expectations for your content. Bloggers will appreciate the value you place on high-quality writing. It makes getting their blog post accepted a badge of honor, rather than an item to complete on a long to-do list. In some instances, it may be helpful to include the entire submission process. Check out this example from Entrepreneur below. You’ll want to convey to writers the benefits of guest blogging on your site. Will they get featured in your exclusive email list? Or will they receive a small financial reward? Be sure to list all the advantages on your guest blog page. And of course, it wouldn’t hurt to mention all the notable bloggers who’ve already published on your site. This social proof will persuade bloggers to send in their submissions. Be honest and specific on your guest blog page. It’s the first step to receiving superb content from writers. 2. Give Guest Bloggers Credit Online communities rely on developing quality relationships with individuals. It’s an ongoing give-and-take bond amongst content creators. So, it’s vital that your business shows goodwill too. “Bloggers make up a large percentage of conversations happening on the Internet, especially on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. They can be tremendously influential. Which makes them good friends to have,” says best-selling author Jeff Goins . For writers, giving credit is one of the simplest things your site can do. Set up your blog to add multiple authors, and then ask bloggers to submit a short bio with their post. Providing a bio section is also beneficial to the reader. If they enjoy the post, they may want to read more of the person’s content elsewhere. Plus, it adds humanity to the words. Readers will know that an article wasn’t just pumped out from a content mill; someone actually took deliberate action to write a post to inform or entertain the reader. Get creative when showcasing your guest bloggers. You can invite them to a Slack community that matches their interests. Or refer bloggers to other brands seeking professional writing services. Guest blogging is all about highlighting other people’s expertise. By giving credit, you show your company’s appreciation and become a business ally. 3. Add a Guest Post Submission Form When you’re seeking guest posts, managing the entire process can become difficult. You have to promote an open call, draft a guest page, and sift through all the submissions. Depending on your brand’s popularity, you may receive a high volume of guest post pitches. And if you’re receiving them all by email that will flood your inbox. Creating a submission form is one solution to this issue. It’s a convenient way to organize all the pitches. Form tools, like SurveyMonkey and Typeform, let you build custom fields and export data into spreadsheets. CoSchedule uses a Google form to capture its submissions. They even require guest bloggers to fill out specific information. When crafting your form, you’ll want to ask for links to relevant writing samples and why the blogger wants to publish on your site. It helps to get a sense of the person behind the words. Remember to keep the form short by limiting your questions. More blogger details mean more unnecessary work. Don’t bog down your team by accepting guest post pitches via email. You can create a unique submission form to make the process easier. 4. Pay Traffic Bonuses Money is a motivator for many bloggers. If your site wants to attract the best writers, you may consider offering a few financial incentives. If the blogger is doing more than just writing, like following specific SEO requirements or adding the content to WordPress, it’s a signal to pay the guest blogger. Susan Gunelius , president & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., gives her perspective: “The more you expect a blogger to do, the more you can expect to pay that blogger to charge you to write for your business blog. The reason is simple: the more the blogger has to do, the longer it takes her to complete the project, and she should be compensated adequately for her time.” Financial rewards can take many shapes and forms. You can start with paying traffic bonuses to writers who exceed a particular session goal. Decide how you will track the traffic, maybe a custom URL . Then, the blogger and you can monitor the results on a designated dashboard on Google Analytics. With any financial agreement, you’ll want to draft a contract and speak with an attorney. It will save you the hassle if any problems arise in the future. Sometimes guest bloggers will need more than just exposure. You can up the ante by offering writers a monetary bonus. 5. Promote Guest Posts Guest posting means nothing if no one gets to read the work. That’s why it’s so essential to promote your blog posts as much as possible. Depending on your business industry, how you publicize your content will vary. You may need to talk about the post in a community forum or syndicate posts on other brand sites. It may even be beneficial to enlist the help of an influencer . Well-known industry leaders can instantly spark people’s curiosity and drive traffic to the content. And don’t forget the power of social media. From Facebook to Instagram, your brand can use these channels to lure in more eyeballs on your guest posts. See below how Prisync promotes on Twitter. The best way to understand your customer journey, and how it relates to your checkout flow, is to rely on your analytics Let’s jump in our latest article “How to Understand Your Customer Journey from your #Ecommerce Analytics.” ( via @DivvitHq ) https://t.co/WayaPtyEnk — Prisync (@PrisyncCom) May 25, 2018 Avoid the desire to splatter your guest posts everywhere. Instead, you want to develop a target strategy. If a post discusses the latest baking techniques, find promotional channels around food and cooking. Promotion is a two-way street. Before asking bloggers to promote on their marketing channels, it’s key that you take the initiative. Promote guest posts like any other piece of content. Work with your team to get the most attention from your target audience. Earn More Guest Post Contributors Guest posting is beneficial for your brand and readers. It opens the doors to new relationships, while giving your consumers a different perspective. Ramp up your guest posts by sharing your blogging guidelines. You can entice contributors to participate with financial rewards. And you’ll want to promote guest posts as much as possible. It’s your turn. Start getting more guest blog posts today. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading
How To Get Backlinks: The Beginner’s Guide to Link-Building
The post How To Get Backlinks: The Beginner’s Guide to Link-Building appeared first on HostGator Blog . What Is Link Building? Once you launch a website and start working to figure out how to get found online, you’ll start to hear a lot about link building. Understanding what link building is and how to do it can go a long way toward making your website more visible online and more successful at reaching your goals. If you could use some help understanding the basics of this important, but difficult part of online marketing , here’s our guide on all the basics you need to know to get started. What is Link Building? Link building is one of the most important and difficult parts of SEO. Any tactic that helps a business or organization get links from other websites that point back to your website count as link building. There are a lot of different strategies people implement to try to gain new links, but even for the most consistently successful tactics, it can involve a lot of work, time, and failures in order to achieve a few successes. Nonetheless, in the competitive space of SEO, link building is one of the strategies that will have the biggest influence on how well you perform in the search engines and how easily people find your website. That makes it worth devoting some of your time and marketing budget to. Why Link Building Matters One of most important things any marketer or website owner needs to learn about SEO is that you are not the search engine’s priority – at least not as a marketer. The goal of Google and the other search engines is to deliver up the best, most useful results to their users. To do that, their algorithms look at various signals that suggest people like and trust websites (or that they don’t, as the case may be). Every time one website links to another, it communicates to the search engine that site A thinks site B has something worthwhile to say that its own visitors can trust. It’s like receiving a reference or a good review in SEO terms. And if site A is one that has a lot of links from other sites pointing back to it, then it’s like receiving a reference from someone really well respected, making it that much more valuable. While links are only one of many ranking factors that the search engines pay attention to, they’re one that holds a lot of weight in how search engines decide which websites are authoritative and trustworthy. When you have a lot of other sites linking to yours (especially other sites that are seen as authoritative and high value by Google), it makes you look like a more reliable pick to include high up in the search rankings for users. It’s specifically because link building is so difficult that it’s a really good way to set your website apart and stay competitive in the search engines. There are two main approaches you can take to link building: Trying to earn links naturally with the content you create. More proactively reaching out to websites to try to get your link included on them. Most brands that do link building will benefit from doing a combination of the two. 5 Steps to Earn Links Naturally Before anyone’s going to link to your website, you have to give them something worth linking to. That means that previous to starting on the more proactive link building strategies we’ll describe below, you should start with some initiatives that will set the stage for making your website worthy of getting said links. 1. Keyword Research SEO isn’t about getting just any top spot you can manage, it’s about ranking for searches that are relevant to what your website provides. For any SEO strategy, including link building, your first step should be to research what language your target audience is using and what information they’re out there looking for. Then, you’ll know what content to create and what types of links you want. Spend some time doing keyword research to figure out the main topic areas and questions your audience is interested in. This will form the basis of both your content strategy and your link building efforts. 2. Content Marketing Other websites won’t have many good reasons or natural opportunities to link to your website’s homepage. What’s the likelihood the information you have there is going to add something important to an article or other webpage on their website? For other people to want to link to your website, you have to create the sort of content they’d have a reason to link to. That means embracing content marketing . For most businesses, that will mean starting a blog and making a commitment to create original, high quality content to publish on it regularly. It’s a lot of work, but in addition to being an important step in link building, it also gives you more opportunities to connect with your target audience. When you provide them with helpful information, that gives them a reason to care about your brand, follow you, and likely think about you first the next time they need whatever you’re selling. 3. Content Promotion With so many blogs and media sites out there, people are unlikely to stumble across your content without you putting some effort into making it easy to find. Obviously, SEO is part of that equation – when people can find your content in the search engines, that’s one of the best way to drive new views to your website. But for most websites, obtaining links and search engine rankings will only come after you put some effort into helping your first readers find your content. For each piece you publish, plan a strategy for getting it in front of people. That could include sharing it on social media, sending the link to people you expect would be interested in it, posting it in relevant forums, or even using paid promotion on Google or social media sites to boost its reach . The newer your blog is, the harder it will be to get your first followers, so expect to spend some time (and possibly money) working to get your content seen. Nobody can link to your awesome posts until they know they exist. 4. PR While people in the PR industry don’t necessarily tout themselves as link builders, PR work includes helping brands get coverage in the media and on a number of websites – often with links. By either working with a PR person or creating an in-house PR strategy , you can find more opportunities to gain mentions of your brand on other websites, position people in the company as thought leaders, and encourage coverage of initiatives you take that could be considered newsworthy, like a charity drive or creative stunt s. 5. Relationship Building People are more likely to link to brands they know and trust. For people to know you, you have to make connections. A whole industry has grown up around identifying and figuring out ways to connect with influencers . Think about ways to interact with other people and brands in your industry that doesn’t make it all about you. Participate in online communities they’re in, join Twitter chats you notice they regularly attend, or ask them to be an expert source for a piece of content you’re writing. When it comes to the link building strategies we describe below, you’ll get a very different response from someone who knows who you are and already feels a connection to you than someone who sees you as a total stranger. 5 Common Link Building Strategies Once you have some good content on your website that you’re confident in and a baseline of relationships with various people and brands in your industry, you’ll be in a strong position to start employing common link building strategies. Here are a few of the tactics people find the most success with. 1. Targeted Content Promotion Most of your content promotion efforts will be trying to get your content in front of a large number of people in your target audience. This tactic involves identifying a number of individuals you think would be likely to like, share, or link to your content and sharing it with them more directly. If it’s someone you already have a relationship with, tagging them when you share the post on social media may be enough to get their attention. If it’s not, then you can try crafting an email making the case for why you think they’d like your content, citing similar content you’ve seen them share or times they’ve written about related topics. The biggest risk of this tactic is coming off as an annoyance to the people you’re trying to reach. You’re essentially asking strangers to do you a favor, so you should always do your best to think about how your content might benefit them rather than making it about you. And if you’ve spent time building relationships like we recommended, this tactic will go a lot smoother. 2. Brand Mention Campaigns Every time someone mentions your brand, that’s an opportunity for a link. Using a link reclamation tool, Google Alerts, or advanced search commands in Google, you can find places around the web where someone’s talked about your brand and any of the high up people in your company that may be seen as thought leaders. In every instance where your brand or CEO or founder gets mentioned that doesn’t include a link back your website, craft a pitch to the website owner asking them to add one. Pro tip: Do not send a template email to every website without taking a minute to actually visit the site. If they’re criticizing your company, you risk annoying somebody who already doesn’t like you. And if the mention actually has nothing to do with your company but is some other use of the term you use as your brand name, you’ll both be wasting your time and look lazy to the recipient. But for websites that are mentioning your brand because they think you’re worth talking about for positive reasons, they may be inclined to take a couple of minutes to add the link at your request. 3. Skyscraper Content The first step in this strategy is to spend some time seeing what shows up on the search engine results page (SERP) for a number of relevant keywords for your brand. What you’re looking for here is content in the first few spots that isn’t actually that good or that’s outdated. If you feel confident that you can create content that’s better (or already have), then these are your targets for the skyscraper content strategy. For each of the identified terms, create really awesome content or improve the content you already have. Aim to make it some of your best work and definitely make sure it’s more thorough and helpful than the content that currently claims those top spots in Google. Once your content is published, find out which pages include links to the sub-par content you’re wanting to replace on the SERP (most SEO tools include a feature to help with this) and get to work contacting those sites to recommend they link to your content instead. Be careful in how you word your emails. You do want to make a case for why your content is more valuable than the content they link to now, but you don’t want to sound like a pompous jerk. If the other content has outdated information, point that out. If your post is more thorough and includes more actionable tips than the competitor’s, emphasize that. Focus on what makes your content valuable rather than trashing your competitor. 4. Guest Posting Part of what makes link building so difficult is because it often involves asking someone to do work that benefits you more than it does them. Guest posting is a useful tactic because when you write a good guest post for another website, you’re doing something valuable for them and their audience. Including a natural link back to your website in the post doesn’t require any work on their part and, if you do it right, will provide value to their audience in the process. It’s a win-win. Start looking for blogs in your industry and in related or complementary industries that accept guest posts. You can use Google for this – do searches for terms like industry “guest post” or industry “guest post submission guidelines” and start visiting the sites that come up to get familiar with the kinds of topics they cover and what their typical posts look like. Brainstorm topic ideas that are in line with what they cover (but haven’t been written about on the site before) that will provide you with an opportunity to link back to a page on your own site. Then send a pitch that follows their guidelines. Not every pitch you send will get you a “yes,” but as long as some do, you’ll be able to build a number of links this way. You do have to be willing to put in the work here to write a really good guest post that’s up to the standards of the blog you’re writing for. This is a tactic you have to be prepared to commit some serious time and work to. But it can double as a way to get a link and to reach a new audience with your content, while also starting a relationship with the blog you write for. 5. Broken Link Building This is another tactic based on the idea that you can provide the website owner value at the same time that you ask for a link. Broken links cause a bad experience for a site’s visitors and make them lose trust in a website that looks sloppy or outdated. If you can identify broken links on websites that once pointed to content that’s relevant to what you cover on your website, congratulations: you’ve found a link building opportunity. You can either create new content based on the broken links you find that addresses the same topic that the outdated link had been about, or you can try to spot broken links on topics you’ve already covered. In either case, by contacting the website owner you’re accomplishing two things that can make their life easier: Alerting them to a broken link on their site that they likely didn’t know was no longer working. Providing them an alternative link to replace the old one, so they don’t have to do the work of finding a new resource. As usual, take a minute to visit their website and make sure that the content you’re suggesting will make sense on the page you’re recommending they add your link to. As long as your content is helpful and high quality though, there’s a decent chance your recipient will consider giving you that link. Developing Your Link Building Strategy As you can see, when you get down to the particulars, link building can mean a lot of different things. You don’t have to try every tactic suggested here to start building links. Each brand can pick and choose which tactics seem to make the most sense for you. But if you want to compete in the search engines, doing some form of link building is an important part of achieving that goal. For expert help with your link building and other SEO initiatives, contact HostGator . Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading
How to Start a Food Blog in 5 Steps
The post How to Start a Food Blog in 5 Steps appeared first on HostGator Blog . How to Start a Food Blog (Step by Step) Are you an aspiring food blogger who’s dreaming about making a living by sharing your recipes with the internet? To make that dream a reality, you need to take the plunge and set up your own website. But how do you get started? It might seem super complicated to start your own website but these days anyone can start a blog that looks professional and will attract a ton of traffic. Let’s break it down. Here’s how to start a food blog, step by step. 1. Pick a Name and Buy a Matching Domain If you’ve already been thinking about starting a food blog, you might have a couple ideas for names. If you haven’t decided on a name yet, start brainstorming. A good blog name is easy to remember, descriptive and short. For instance, She Simmers is a great example of a catchy name that includes a pun on cooking. After making a list of blog name ideas and deciding on the best option for your food blog, you need to purchase a domain that matches. You can purchase a domain from HostGator starting at only $12.95 per year. Before you purchase your domain, you need to make sure the name you chose is available. HostGator allows you to search a domain to make sure no one else has already taken it. If the name you want is available, you can go ahead and make it yours! 2. Choose a Hosting Platform and Install WordPress After you’ve decided on a catchy name for your blog and purchased a domain that matches, you’ll need to choose a reliable hosting platform where your website will live. It might seem like a crazy, difficult task to create a beautiful website but it’s actually super simple and you don’t have to know a thing about code. Step one is to purchase a hosting plan. HostGator is a great option for beginner bloggers because it’s affordable, it’s easy-to-use, and it’s fast. After purchasing your hosting, the next step is to download WordPress which is very simple. After you sign up with HostGator and login for the first time, head on over to your Control Panel. There you’ll see a button called “One-Click Installs.” Click on it and then choose WordPress. Perform the simple steps that follow and then a progress bar will let you know when the download is complete. Once it’s finished, you’ve got a website for your food blog. 3. Pick a Gorgeous Theme We eat with our eyes first and that applies to your delicious food blog as well, so you’ll need to pick a gorgeous theme for your site that will have your visitors wanting to stick around for a long time. There are tons of free and paid WordPress themes that you can install with just the click of a button that are easy to navigate and mobile-friendly. Choose a theme specifically designed for food blogs so you’ll get all the features you’re looking for. This theme from Foodica is a perfect example of a clean, minimalist design for food bloggers who want their recipes to be the center of attention . It offers six different color themes and a featured slider and carousel to showcase your best recipes. 4. Download Plugins Next you need to download some WordPress plugins to ensure your website is fully stacked and optimized. There are a number of free plugins you can download for your WordPress site that provide value, including: Yoast SEO to make sure your site is optimized for SEO WPForms to create a contact me page MonsterInsights to connect your WordPress site with Google Analytics AddtoAny Share Buttons to enable your followers to share your content on social media There are also some WordPress plugins designed specifically for food bloggers that can really step up your blog game. Tasty Recipes formats your recipes for search engine optimization, creates print-friendly recipes, adds star ratings, and more. 5. Start Blogging and Get Some Subscribers Now that your website is all set up, you need to start blogging. Begin creating content that your visitors will love and will keep them returning to your site again and again. You’ll also want to start growing your email list , it’s one of the most important aspects of any blog. Having an email list gives you the ability to reach out to your audience any time you want, whether you’re emailing them about a new recipe you posted or announcing a sale for your new cookbook. You can easily gain more subscribers by adding popups to your site with OptinMonster’s lead generation software. OptinMonster provides numerous options for grabbing the attention of your visitors and enticing them into clicking that subscribe button, including an Exit-Intent popup that can track when a user is about to leave your site and send a popup at exactly the right time. Start Your Food Blog Starting a food blog isn’t as simple as just writing some recipes and posting them on the web but it doesn’t have to be difficult either. With these tips you’ll be able to start the food blog of your dreams that will have people salivating. Congratulations on your new food blog. Now get out there and start blogging! Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading
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15 Best Social Media Blogs for Business
The post 15 Best Social Media Blogs for Business appeared first on HostGator Blog . The Best Blogs for Business Social Media Help Social media can be both a productivity killer and an important business tool – it all depends on how you use it. At this point, your customers expect you to be on social media. But using social media to represent a business brand effectively is an ongoing challenge, and finding and connecting with your audience on social media platforms can often feel like an uphill battle. There’s always more to learn. And luckily, there are a lot of resources out there to help you learn the ropes and get more out of social media over time. These are some of the blogs out there providing advice and best practices for social media marketing. 1. Social Media Examiner Social Media Examiner is one of the best known and respected blogs covering social media marketing. The blog provides actionable tips, tutorials, and case studies for all the different social media platforms. In addition to regular blog posts, they also publish original research and long-form guides on marketing for different social media sites. Whether you’re still learning the basics of using social media for your business or wanting to dive deeper into more detailed recommendations, Social Media Examiner provides good information. 2. Buffer Buffer both provides a product for scheduling social media posts and has an active social media presence as a brand, which provides them with a lot of data on what works. They’re known for good long-form blog posts that provide detailed, actionable advice based on data and case studies. The blog publishes posts on all the different social media platforms businesses are likely to use. 3. Hootsuite Like Buffer, Hootsuite provides a product to help businesses schedule and organize their social media updates, which means they know a lot about the subject of social media marketing. Their posts cover a lot of different social media tips, best practices, and research for all of the big social media platforms. They’re another one of the main go-tos for the industry. 4. Rebekah Radice Rebekah Radice has an award-winning blog that covers social media and other related digital marketing topics. Her posts get into topics like social media etiquette, developing a strategy for social media, and tips and tricks for getting the most from each particular platform. She often mixes in infographics, videos, and podcasts with the written content, so those who prefer other types of media have options as well. 5. Ignite Social The social media agency Ignite demonstrates the knowledge learned from over ten years of social media marketing in their blog. They cover social media news and trends, tips for specific social media channels, and how to handle an array of social media issues when they arise. Their posts can both help you stay on top of what’s going on in the larger social media industry, as well as answer smaller questions you might have about how to use social media for business. 6. Sprout Social The Sprout Social blog is another good resource that covers a lot of social media territory. You can find posts that get into the details of doing social media marketing for different industries, hiring for social media positions, and a lot of good how-to posts on getting specific things done on the different social media platforms. Their content is consistently useful for companies of all sizes and types . 7. Social Media Hat Social Media Hat offers a lot of tutorial posts about how to do different tasks on the various social media platforms, along with posts on larger social media trends and news stories. In addition to publishing posts on using the main social media platforms, they provide tips and advice for blogging and email marketing as well. 8. Hey Orca The Hey Orca blog provides a lot of the same type of content we’ve described on the other blogs on this list – general social media tips, trends, and news coverage – but they also mix in some less common types of social media content, like coverage from social media conferences, interviews with various influencers, and social media success case studies. It’s a blog with a lot of good content and personality and is worth adding to your list. 9. Socially Sorted Socially Sorted is the blog of Digital Content Strategist Donna Moritz. The blog answers common social media questions, provides helpful tips, and collects good social media examples you can learn from. She often provides additional media like templates or infographics to make her posts more useful. She has a particular expertise in visual storytelling, so this is a great blog to turn to for tips on creating more visual forms of content for your social media channels. 10. Peg Fitzpatrick Peg Fitzpatrick is another social media influencer who shares her knowledge with regular blog posts on how to reach and connect with your audience on social media. While her blog touches on all the major social media platforms, she especially gives attention to Instagram and Pinterest– channels that often get less attention on some of the other blogs on the list. 11. Top Dog Social Media Top Dog Social Media is the blog of Melonie Dodaro. While the blog includes posts on a number of digital marketing topics, its main focus is on LinkedIn marketing. You can find posts covering the range of tips and advice you need for reaching customers for B2B marketing on the professional social media platform. 12. Jenn’s Trends Jenn’s Trends is one of the best blogs out there about Instagram marketing. While she’ll occasionally touch on other social networks or digital marketing tips as well, the primary focus on the blog is how to get followers on Instagram and interact with them effectively. If your brand’s on Instagram, this is a good blog to keep on your radar. 13. Tailwind The Tailwind blog is another one with a narrow focus on just a couple of main networks: Instagram and Pinterest. It tackles questions like how to get more followers, when to post, and the types of content you should create to do well on both platforms. For anyone using the more visual social media platforms, it can be a useful resource. 14. Linked Into Business This is another blog with a primary focus on just one of the main social media platforms: LinkedIn. The blog does sometimes venture into broader topics like content marketing and communication tips, but most of the posts cover topics specific to the features and best practices for marketing on LinkedIn. For B2B brands that use LinkedIn as a marketing and sales tool, it’s a good blog to follow. 15. Mari Smith With all these blogs covering specific networks, you may have wondered when we’d get to one focused on the biggest social network of them all. Mari Smith’s got you covered with a blog all about Facebook marketing. She goes into how to use the various features Facebook offers, important news about the platform, and tips for using Facebook for marketing effectively. Conclusion As you can see, there’s no shortage of good resources you can turn to when learning how to use social media for your business. It can be daunting when you’re just starting or still struggling to make headway, but learning from those who already have a good amount of experience and knowledge can be a big help to moving your own social media efforts forward. Spend some time reading about what works and craft your strategy around the tips and research shared by the experts. 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Tagged business, digital, hostgator, industry, instagram, knowledge, linked, rebekah-radice, social, social-media, social-network, sprout-social
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