Digital Marketing

Advanced blogging with WordPress

Break into the blogging industry with WordPress

If you have a blog of any size or want to grow a large blog, this article is for you.

Simple tool to manage your content stream

Do you work within WordPress and have multiple writers or other people managing your blog content? Instead of messing around with spreadsheets and Google Docs, try the EditFlow plugin for WordPress. EditFlow is a plugin that allows you to do things that, for example, are only visible to editors. Only people who are editors can see the comment. You can have a dialog right inside the post! It provides a searchable and sortable calendar so you can see all the articles that are written in an easy way. You can post “need images” and other comments in the sidebar to manage your content flow.

Is it too late to start blogging?

As a new blogger, you may think that it is too late. You might think that the other successful bloggers have too much of an advantage. With blogs, anyone can develop a voice. People who start blogging now are not too late. It’s certainly messier and there are a lot more blogs, but this opens up opportunities to network and grow faster. While there are plenty of people blogging today, no one has the exact same set of experiences, stories, skills, and perspectives. Take advantage of what you have that is unique. It’s a great way to break into the blogging industry.

Techniques to attract and engage your blog visitors

The editorial mix that goes into a successful blog varies. But for the most part, successful bloggers put out a newsletter every week (Thursday or Friday) with tips for the weekend. With a team of writers and some guest writers, two original articles are published daily. To interact with as many social networks as possible takes a lot of time. So to be successful, you need to strategically plan and schedule your resources. During the week, there is usually a “challenge” task for visitors to take and build on the tutorials that are posted earlier in the week.

Blogging template:

People are much more likely to read tutorials if they have been inspired to do so. The key things used for the success of a unique blog include a successful editorial model. Every blog is different, but for the most part this editorial calendar works.

Incorporate three things into the editorial calendar:

  1. Information – 90%
  2. Inspiration
  3. Interaction

All of this is free content. Posts four days a week, twice a day, plus a round-up newsletter once a week to compile the tips and summarize the information published during the week.

What is long form content and why does it work?

Long-form content is a trend that is working very well on blogs. Long-form content can be called “meatier” content. While typical news content includes articles in the 500-800 word range, long-form content is different. The average content of an average blogger was around 1,000 words or less. Articles heavily focused on SEO, including keyword optimization. The only problem with this strategy? Bloggers were getting a lot of search traffic, but not a lot of return traffic, direct traffic, or branded searches, and user engagement metrics like bounce rate and time on site were pretty low.

Long-form content, on the other hand, is not only rewarded by search engines, but also resonates with readers. By creating longer, deeper content that provides a lot of value to an audience, bloggers’ content strategy has seen success with improved engagement metrics.

Ideal blog content size

According to statistical data, the ideal blog post takes seven minutes to read and is around 1,600 words. This is not light reading, but it is worth the extra time and investment because some blog publishers report that with long-form content, the average time on site has more than tripled!

Additional content ideas

Contests (with a prize) and polls (or discussions) are important. Community and commitment are key. Anything you can get a reader to “do” on your site is important. Second, it teaches you a lot about your readers. At the end of the month, a monthly survey with a follow-up post to review the data is helpful for readers. Also, other blogs will consider your content as good research data that they will want to link to.

Forums: Although a bit of old school technology, it is still interesting for readers. Readers can have discussions and show some of their own ideas. Forums are easy to set up, and in most cases your web host will offer you a free tool that is easy to use.

Plugins for improved functionality

With the growth of long-form content, the user scrolls down to read the full article. This causes sidebar items to, in most cases, scroll up or temporarily disappear. The ability to keep some of the most important sidebar elements visible and remain persistent is a great solution to add to an existing blog.

  • floating sidebar
  • light boxes
  • Get out of living boxes
  • End of mail mailboxes appear
  • What do you want the user to see when they reach the bottom of the page? If you can offer something different there, you can increase page views or newsletter subscribers.

Where can I get these plugins?

Most of these plugins are available on WordPress.com. If you are looking for a more specific plugin geared towards professional blogging, you might consider joining problogger.com. If you become a member of problogger.com/download-center, you will find all the plugins they have developed for professional blogging.

Plugins for bloggers include:

  • facebook Tracking,
  • sticky top bar messenger,
  • Blink plugin to absorb images on your blog
  • EasyDigitalDownloads – Manage All Your Ebook Sales From WordPress
  • WordPress Editorial Calendar – Helps to display all the posts that are scheduled and you can drag and drop to change the publication date

Monetizing your website

There are many ways to monetize your content. If you’re limited to just a few and can’t spend too much time trying out all the available monetization options, then you can limit your energy to ebooks and affiliate links.

Monetization eBooks

Ebooks are a profitable income stream. If you release 4-5 eBooks a year, it provides you with a good income over the years. Writing and publishing electronic books is quite a strategy that will be detailed in a different article. There is so much information that is needed to fully explain this monetization strategy.

More monetization ideas

Affiliate promotions like Amazon links also provide good income. Newsletter ads and banner ads can also be lucrative as a publisher. Good old Google AdSense can be profitable for a blogger if you offer a high level target with your content. It’s hard to beat in terms of direct sales. As with any monetization, be patient, persistent, and use only high-quality, original content.

web hosting for blogs

While most bloggers use WordPress, there are some bloggers who still use b2evolution or other blogging tools. For the most part, all web hosting providers offer WordPress for free. The question of whether you need a cheap web host or a partner that really specializes in WordPress with plugin support or help with migration may be necessary. Every blog is different and the type of web hosting you use is something that you, the business owner, will need to decide on. Create a brand that advertisers want to align with and even with low traffic, if you have really good topics, you can make a living from your blog.