The Easy Way to Make Your First Blog a Success (2024)

Want to start your blog today?

This guide covers everything you need to know about how to start a blog as a beginner.

Whether you want a hobby, side hustle or business blog, you’ll find the best way to set one up along with:

  • how to choose topics for your blog and get people to read it
  • inside tips on how to fast track your blog to financial freedom
  • why you shouldn’t use Bluehost, Elementor, Yoast or Jetpack
Lingua Asia The Easy Way to Make Your First Blog a Success

I’ve grown my blog from 300 to 30,000 monthly users in half a year with little experience.

Here’s how I’ve done it!

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I recently met up with an old friend in Korea who’s making a documentary. He heard I got serious about blogging in the last year and wanted to know more.

He asked me questions like,

  • “How many blog posts do you need to have before you start a website?”
  • “Do I have to write every day?”
  • “How much do I need to know about my topic?”
  • “What if someone already wrote about my topic?”
  • “Do you have people trolling you?”

It was a good reminder of how unsure I was at first, and inspired me to write this post.

My friend is more than qualified to write about his topic. He has a Master’s degree in film and spent over a decade in Asia.

Everyone has one good blog in them.

I’m sure he has fascinating stories to share, and would be successful if he just started.

In fact, I think everyone has one good blog in them.

I’d love to upload my blogging experience into his brain, so he could use the tricks I’ve picked up while avoiding my mistakes. Instead, I explained what I did as a beginner to reach my goal.

I want my friend to succeed just like I want you to, so here’s the same advice I gave him.

*** Update ***

My friend started his blog! It’s about Asian horror films.

***

Listen to this Article

How to Start a Blog in 5 Easy Steps

  1. Get a blog host (fast and reliable with good customer support) and choose a blog name (short, memorable, not too specific and not too broad)
  2. Pick a theme (fast and secure are the most important factors)
  3. Add key plugins (speed, security and SEO or searchability)
  4. Create content that you and others love (pick a keyword as a topic for each post and answer helpful questions about it)
  5. Get people to read your blog (rank your site on Google by keeping things organized and searchable)

Bonus step: start making money!

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Want to start your blog now?

  1. Cut to the chase by following the steps in these boxes.
  2. Then click the link to the next one. You’ll be done in no time!

Click here to skip to the first step.

Why should I start a blog?

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Blogging is great because you can make money while helping others. The more people you help, the more money you make.

You probably have your “why” in mind, but here are some more reasons:

  • As a hobby
  • To get to know yourself
  • To improve your writing and thinking skills
  • To promote a business
  • To sell your e-book
  • To sell your products
  • To sell other people’s products
  • To become self-employed
  • To network with others
  • To learn web design
  • To establish expertise and build an audience
  • To earn residual income
  • Just for the heck of it

Why are you qualified to write about blogging?

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I started this website as a blog for my translation business in 2015 that no one read. It was mainly to show clients that I had a real company.

Up until 2020, I disliked blogging. I told myself I didn’t want to spend all day thinking about blog topics or taking pictures.

In reality, I thought that no one would care about my writing.

It took me a month to write my first post, partly because of procrastination and partly because I wanted it to be perfect.

After five years of this, I had 10 visitors a month, most of which were bots.

I was suffering from a mental roadblock caused by preconceived ideas of what blogging is. I thought I had to share intimate details about my life every day. I also didn’t want to run around taking selfies in front of luxury cars I didn’t own.

This dead end would have remained until a close friend brought up a good point.

“It’s up to me.”

There’s a lot of middle ground between documenting every moment of my existence or writing an anonymous post once a year. Blogging can be anything I want it to be. He encouraged me to at least give it an honest try.

Once I made up mind, I worked with my partner to start making content.

In a six-month period, we grew our daily users from 10 to 1,000.

Obligatory Analytics and Search Console charts

Daily visits fluctuate, so we don’t always get these storybook results. Our traffic has consistently trended upwards though.

Then, after another six months of effort, I woke up one morning to this:

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The moment when fantasy becomes reality

I did this without:

  • spending thousands of dollars on backlinks or guest posts (built most myself for free)
  • having a large network (only know a handful of bloggers)
  • experience (never worked as an online marketer or writer)
  • background in coding (failed an intro course in college)
  • social media accounts with millions of followers (mostly lurk on Reddit)

My philosophy is, simple is better. I look for solutions that are free, easy-to-use and effective both for my readers and my blog. I also recommend things I use, even if they don’t pay the highest affiliate commission.

These are real results anyone can achieve.

I’m now close to making enough off blogging to cover my living expenses. And the best part is, this is only the beginning.

If you follow this post, you’ll be successful in blogging.

Blogging glossary

These are a few terms that will help you on your journey. You can learn them as you blog.

Website: set of related pages and posts under a domain. It’s where your blog will be.

Domain: name of a website associated with a physical address on the internet. It’s what you call your website.

Post: timely content part of a series of posts in a blog. Use them for most of your content.

Page: static one-off type of documents. Use them for things like “About us” and “Contact us”.

WordPress: free, open-source content management system. You can use it to build your website.

Host: online service that allows you to publish your website files onto the internet. It stores and shows your content to people.

Top-Level Domain (TLD): part of the domain that comes after the “.” with “.com” being the most popular.

Plugin: bits of software that can be uploaded to add cool things to your WordPress site without coding. One of the best reasons for beginners to use a host for their website.

SSL certificate: allows you to move your website from http to https for more security. It’s the little lock symbol you see to the left of a domain that helps you rank on Google.

SEO: short for Search Engine Optimization. It’s how you get people to find your blog on the front pages of Google.

Backlink: an incoming link from another website. It’s one of the main ways to improve SEO.

Inlink: a link between two posts on your website. This improves site structure and SEO.

Outlink: a link from your post to another website. This improves authority of your site and SEO.

Traffic: number of visitors your website gets. Usually measured on a monthly basis.

Domain Authority: a third-party measurement to gauge your relative website strength and ability to rank on search engines. Google used to have their own, but discontinued it. Tools like Semrush and Ahrefs have their own versions that can give you a rough idea of how well your site is doing.

Keywords: words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for. You should focus on one per blog post.

Long-tail keywords: longer keywords that are less competitive. For example, instead of going after “boots”, which is impossible for a new website, try something like “best white hiking boots” which will rank easier.

Affiliate marketing: companies pay bloggers to advertise their products and services. You can make commission by recommending things you use.

Step 1. Get blog hosting and choose a blog name

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Blogging Shortcut – Step 1

  1. Go to Inmotion Hosting and choose the Core option.
  2. Select the One Click option to install WordPress.
  3. Click the option to choose your domain name and input it.
  4. Launch your blog!

Click here to go to the next step.

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Get a blog host

If you want to:

  • have a custom domain
  • own your content
  • use plugins to avoid coding
  • start making money

When it comes to hosting, these are the most important factors:

  • speed – quicker load times for visitors equals more traffic
  • reliability – less downtime equals more traffic and faster rise in Google search rankings
  • price – get the most bang for your buck
  • security – lower chance of being hacked

We recommend Inmotion Hosting for beginners. It’s one of the best kept secrets.

One-click WordPress Installation. This is great for beginners. No need to code or set up anything. They install WordPress from the start.

Great pricing – The starting rate is one of the lowest in the industry.

Great customer service – 24/7 U.S. based support. I remember asking very basic questions in the beginning and they would patiently answer them.

Faster servers – It’s a smaller company with fewer people on shared hosting, so you get more speed per dollar spent. Inmotion servers are also mainly located in the states. I get a consistent TTFB (server response time) of under 60ms.

Reliability – one of the highest up times at 99.9 percent. This will increase visitor retention and help you rank quicker on Google.

Security – They provide free SSL and have built-in malware and virus protection. They saved me from a major hack a few times.

90-day money-back guarantee – the longest in the industry.

This site runs on it! – I’ve been a happy customer since 2015.

Choose a blog name

Domain names are becoming less important. After all, I’m writing about blogging on a website originally for a translation company. You can choose a name later or change it anytime as you go.

Here are some tips to help you narrow it down.

Short – shorter names are easier to remember and get clicked more often. A rule of thumb is to keep it under 4 syllables.

Memorable – you want people to come back and spread the word.

Your full name can work with nicknames or initials. For example, “joesmith.com”. If your name is taken, consider using initials, nicknames or alternate spellings.

You can also use a fun action phrase like “jentravelsasia.com”.

A domain name that sounds good can also work. Uber and Google don’t have any meaning related to what they do, but they sound pleasant. This works well if you’re writing about apps or software.

Unique – do research in your niche (if you have one in mind) to see what the common domain names are. For example, the prefix “trans” was everywhere in my industry, so I avoided it. Don’t worry too much about your niche, because you can change it anytime. Mine’s still a work in progress.

Easy-to-spell – use preferred spellings while avoiding hyphens and double vowels. Make sure others can write it down if they hear it.

Clean – don’t use profanity, even if you plan on using it in your blog. It will be hard to monetize it.

Use .com if possible – it adds the most credibility, but don’t be afraid to get creative with other top-level domains like .co (looks similar to .com) or .io (good for tech blogs or startups).

Not too specific and not too broad – you don’t want to paint yourself in a corner by going too niche like “dutchalbinoshoereviews.com” or too broad like “reviews.com”. Somewhere in the middle is ideal.

Positive – don’t use something negative like “pineappleonpizzasucks.com” unless its super clever and funny. People want to feel good when they go to your site.

Step 2. Choose a WordPress theme

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Blogging Shortcut – Step 2

  1. Go to GeneratePress.
  2. Click on Explore Premium.
  3. Select the one-year option.
  4. Install theme by uploading it to WordPress!

Click here to go to the next step.

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Get a premium WordPress theme

If you:

  • have no coding background
  • want to focus on writing
  • want to build and design quickly

When it comes to themes, the most important factors are:

  • user-friendliness – spend less time making the site
  • speed – quicker load times for visitors and more traffic
  • price – get the most features for what you pay
  • customer support – comes in handy when you have questions
  • SEO – easy for Google to crawl and index your content

I recommend GeneratePress Premium for beginners. It’s a lot lighter than most themes while being easy-to-use. You get unlimited support from real coders. It comes with a 30-day money back guarantee too!

Step 3. Install essential plugins

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Blogging Shortcut – Step 3

  1. Go to WordPress Plugins section on the left side of the dashboard.
  2. Click on Add New.
  3. Install SEO Framework, Google XML Sitemaps and Wordfence.
  4. Get WP Rocket to turbocharge your site!

Click here to go to the next step.

Lingua Asia_WordPress Plugins

Install plugins to make blogging easier

Google XML Sitemaps to let Google know your site structure and updates.

The SEO Framework is the lightest and best free SEO plugin I’ve found. It allows you to write meta descriptions that show up on Google search and other cool features.

Wordfence for security. It covers basic malware, virus and login threats. The free version is enough, but the paid one offers more frequent scans.

WP Rocket is a paid plugin that I highly recommend. It speeds up your site and saves you months of time getting indexed. I used the free version of W3 Total Cache for a few years with good results, but spent hours tinkering with the settings. In hindsight, I should have just gone with WP Rocket in the beginning.

Step 4. Create content that you and others love

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Blogging Shortcut – Step 4

  1. Make a list of topics that you know, enjoy or want to learn about.
  2. Go to WordPress and click “post” on the left side of the dashboard then “add new”.
  3. Write a catchy title.
  4. Organize your post using sections with descriptive headings.

Click here to go to the next step.

Find topics

Don’t get stressed out about this one. It’s an ongoing process that I’m still figuring out.

Here are some topic ideas to get you started:

  • Unique experiences you’ve had
  • Things you enjoy doing in your free time
  • Things you’re curious about and want to learn more
  • Your expertise in a subject like photography

Think about what your primary aim in life is. Do you want to collaborate with others, or do you want to write from a cabin in the woods? This can help guide you on the topics you want to explore.

Make a list of topics and pick the easiest one.

If you’re having trouble getting organized, just write and don’t care about who reads it. You need a foundation to grow your blog, so go nuts.

Focus more on topics that you enjoy and have commercial intent as you go.

Each topic you write about should be one keyword, which is your focus of that post. For example, if your topic is “night photography”, that will be your keyword and topic you discuss in detail.

You’ll answer all the questions one would have about the topic while injecting your personality and knowledge.

For more topic ideas for new posts, break that topic into smaller chunks like “tripod for night photography” and “best time to take pictures at night”.

You can consider this a series or a collection of related posts.

Organize your posts into topic clusters (after a few months, look at what you’ve been writing and interlink them).

If you want some extra help in finding topics, you can join Semrush and find low competition, high volume and high CPC keywords.

Post on WordPress

Go to WordPress and select create post.

Your permalink for that post will be https://yourdomain.com/night-photography

Think of a catchy title

  • Be specific about what problem your post will solve
  • Ideally from 50 to 60 characters
  • Put your keyword in the title
  • Use superlatives and words that evoke emotions
  • Avoid sounding like spam
  • Use odd numbers for lists
  • Add the current year when possible
  • Add brackets when possible
  • Use title formats you like from other blogs

Examples

Here are 10 post formats with title templates

  • How To
    How to improve ____
  • Listicles
    X number of ways to _____
  • Question
    Which ____ are you missing out on?
  • Reviews
    I tried out ____ and here’s what I found
  • Where, What and Why
    Why your site is ____
  • Mistakes, Fixes and Errors
    Fix broken links with these easy tips on ____
  • Ultimate Guide (or Complete Checklist)
    The ultimate guide to improving ____
  • Keyword Triggers
    Bounce rate: how to _____
  • Increase, Boost and Grow
    Boost your traffic with these easy tips
  • Versus
    WordPress VS Wix: the final showdown

Step 5. Get people to read your blog

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Blogging Shortcut – Step 5

  1. Get backlinks
  2. Keep your site organized
  3. Build links on your site
  4. Promote your posts on social media

You’re all done, congrats!

How to get my blog posts indexed?

Backlinks – You don’t need backlinks to get to your goal, just like you don’t need a car to get cross country. It will just speed up the process by a few years.

Regardless of what others say, most backlinks will help you when you first start.

This includes:

Once you reach a point when your DA (Domain Authority) is around 20 and you’re competing with larger sites, these backlinks won’t help much. Then you want to focus on backlinks from sites with actual traffic and a healthy backlink profile.

Organized site structure – keep your site organized in really simple categories. Ideally, no page or post should be more than two clicks away from the homepage. It’s a good idea to keep your permalinks as short as possible. For, example, your post format should just be (https://yourdomain.com/postname).

Outbound links to reputable sites – make sure to link to big name sites like the New York Times and Britannica when possible.

Internal links between your posts – always link to relevant posts in your content. For example, if you’re writing a post about cameras and you have existing post about lenses, put up links between them.

Social media shares – it’s a good idea to make social media accounts on the biggest platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Then you can share posts on them to boost their visibility. Make sure to add buttons linking to each profile on your site.

Ping – this one’s up for debate, but it doesn’t hurt to ping new posts you create.

Bonus Step. Make Money!

Once you have some traffic, now the real fun begins. There are endless ways to monetize a blog. Trying different things will help you think of new topics and niches you can try.

Ad networks. The quickest way to start making a hundred dollars a month is by adding Google AdSense. They’ll pay you per impression and click. The only downsides are it will slow down your site and affect your user experience.

You can join other ad networks once you have the minimum monthly traffic volume.

Networks like Mediavine and AdThrive have less impact on your site’s performance and pay more. But, they have high minimum traffic requirements.

Sell ad space. You can put up ad banners for companies and charge them a monthly subscription fee.

Sell consulting services. Once you establish your expertise, provide a way for your readers to contact you. You can gain financial independence with one good client.

Affiliate links. You can start joining affiliate networks from the beginning. Simply add affiliate links to your content and get paid a commission on actions like sign ups and sales. Don’t forget to add an affiliate disclosure to your site.

Lead generation. Collect contact info of people who are interested in a service or product. Relay that info to companies for commission.

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What is blogging like?

It’s like helping a large number of people a little bit at a time. It’s amazing when you have your first 100 visitors, even when they visit for just minute. I wake up every day to questions and comments about my posts. It’s a pleasure to help others and most people are nice. You get small commissions from some by recommending things that have helped you. Then one day after months of effort, you wake up to a big commission. That’s all it can take. One year to start making supplementary income.

Reasons to start a blog

Money (with a big caveat): You can absolutely have money as a reason to start a blog. I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t a key motivator for me. But, you have to put the needs of your audience ahead of yours and you have to be ready to grind for at least a year without getting paid. The advantage of using WordPress is that you’ll own everything you create. It’s kind of like investing in a retirement plan.

Improve your skillset: You’ll learn everything from coding, writing, design, SEO to personal qualities like empathy, patience and discipline. You’ll even gain a better understanding of people.

Reasons not to start a blog

Get rich quick: It can take years to make money. You’ll have to be patient and consistent.

Inside Tips about Blogging

General

Bogging is a number’s game. The only way to fail is if you quit.

Organic search traffic, mostly from Google, is the best way to drive traffic to your blog. It’s still good to diversify, with social media and YouTube on the side.

The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll hit your goals. Google takes a lot of time to index your site, up to six months (depending on who you ask) and 1 to 30 days to index individual posts.

No one will see your first few blog posts. This may seem like a bad thing, but it’s liberating. You don’t have to worry about perfection, because no one’s watching.

A post doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be good enough to be readable and add value.

You won’t be good at first. I cringe when I read my old posts, which is great, because that means I’ve improved.

Focus on one blog. I actually have 5 websites now and for a time I was dividing my attention between 3. It will take three times as long to hit my goals this way, so I decided to laser focus on one so I can monetize it and cover my living expenses quicker.

There are many strategies on how to grow your blog quickly. The most efficient one I’ve found is to focus on one long-tail keyword per article with low competition. Write slightly more than the minimum number of words based on the average word count of the top ten search results and move on.

Blogging never ends. Make a list of your weekly accomplishments if you have a type A personality, so you can feel a sense of accomplishment. Make a weekly list of things to do if you’re type B, so you can stay on task. Always take breaks every few months.

If you don’t feel like writing, but want to do something, learn CSS or design.

Summer months are usually slow. It makes sense. People are out enjoying nature and not at home looking at their computer screens.

Structure

Posts vs Pages? Pages are usually permanent content like “about us” or “contact us”, while most of your writing will be posts.

Organize your site so it makes sense to readers.

Every page and post should be two clicks away from the homepage.

Keywords can be one word or a phrase that represent a topic of interest. Shorter and more general keywords like “Korean” are way too competitive and don’t have commercial intent, so don’t go for them. Longer ones like, “Korean jobs for foreigners” is a long tail keyword with some commercial intent that I had some success with.

Searchability

Understand search intent. My first topic was a blog post on Korean translation, because that was the main language pair my company focused on. Little did I know, “search intent” makes a huge difference. People who search for that keyword look for free translation, like Google translate. I’ll never beat Google and other machine translation sites. Especially when people would see my long-winded article and simply leave in a few seconds.

Long tail keywords with commercial search intent are the best way to grow.

Ratings like Domain Authority are third party metrics that Google doesn’t use. They can be useful as a quick way to see how much potential a site has, but they can be gamed with spammy links. High DA doesn’t equal high traffic, and traffic is what matters most.

Block robots from crawling unnecessary content using plugins.

When you start getting spam comments and messages through your contact form, you know you’re on the right track. You’re doing even better when people are offering guest posts.

When you hit 1,000 organic visitors on Google Search Console, you will be featured on “Discover”. I got a little bit of traffic from this and then none. There’s no way to control this AFAIK, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Backlinks

You want to treat your backlinks like a stock portfolio and diversify them.

You’ll want to build a foundation on rock, not sand. I don’t recommend blackhat tactics, because Google figures them out and devalues them. In the past, Google might have deindexed your site, but now they just ignore spammy links.

Avoid seedy sites and spammy links. If a link costs under 50 dollars, they’re probably not worth paying for.

You get the biggest SEO boost from the first backlink from a site. The second one from the same site has less effect.

Look for backlinks that are:

  1. Dofollow
  2. relevant to your blog
  3. have traffic
  4. from reputable sites
  5. preferably on the homepage

You’ll get a lot of random traffic from bots and Ashburn, Virginia. This is home to a massive Dulles technology center that Time Warner, Amazon and AOL route their traffic through.

Speed

Loading speed is becoming a bigger factor in search rankings, so keep plugins to a minimum.

Security

Backup your website once a week. It will save you so much headache. I’m guilty of wiping my whole site when I was starting out.

Keep themes and plugins updated to prevent vulnerabilities.

Avoid plugins that haven’t been updated in 6 months or have a small number of users.

Consider getting a CDN for extra layer of protection.

Avoid using “admin” as your WordPress username. It’s the number one choice for hackers when launching brute force attacks.

Never give your WordPress username and password to anyone. They can install code to gain backdoor entry to your site and hold it hostage.

Metrics

Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console to see what kind of traffic you’re getting.

Schedule your Google Analytics views so you’re not checking it all day long. I find that it’s best to check at the end of the day, because traffic fluctuates and the final count is the one that matters.

Use Semrush or Ahrefs to research your competitors’ keywords if you have no idea what to write.

Blog growth strategies

There’s more than one way to be successful at blogging. Make sure to use all the resources you have at your disposal.

I’ve focused on beginners with little social media presence and resources in this post. Here are some alternative strategies.

  • For those with no experience or budget: Low volume, long-tail keyword focus to get ranked on Google.
  • For those with a large social media presence: Turn your social media posts into blog posts and link them accordingly.
  • For those with popular YouTube channels: Transcribe and organize your videos into blog posts.
  • For those with a large budget: Hire writers to do guest posts while writing your core blog content.

Which host should I use?

You might have already seen a lot of ads for Bluehost on other people’s sites. They pay the most commission per sale and have some of the slowest speeds, since they run multiple hosting services on one server and offer subpar customer service. Other hosting companies share servers with multiple hosting companies and millions of websites. Other hosts have TTFB (Time Till First Byte or the host’s loading time) that fluctuate wildly.

Bluehost actually used to be good until 2010 when they were bought by Endurance International Group (EIG), which is a conglomerate that goes around buying up tons of web hosting companies. EIG currently owns 80+ web hosting companies. No matter which one you go with, try to avoid them.

I use Inmotion Hosting, because it’s a smallish hosting company ran in the USA where I want most of my traffic. It was easy enough to set up a WordPress site as a beginner. Customer service has been fast by email and incredibly helpful. Downtime has been minimal since I started my site in 2015. For a shared hosting plan, it’s been great and I haven’t seen a reason to switch as of now.

FAQ

Can I still make money blogging in 2021?

I remember doubting this in 2020 when I decided to get serious about blogging. People were talking about Podcasts, YouTube and TikTok as the new hot platforms. They also said that no one reads blogs anymore. There will always be those who want to listen to someone talk, and there will be those who want to read at their own pace. Visual vs auditory learners. With 3.5 billion searches a day on Google, there’s enough blog traffic and new topics popping up to cover your living expenses. Internet searches are still increasing as well.

How many blog posts do you need to have before you start a website?

You can make a website without a single post. The most important thing is to simply start and invest time regularly.

Do I have to write every day?

Not at all. I write when I feel like it. Some weeks I’ll write 3 posts and some weeks I’ll write none. I’ve still been able to grow my blog consistently.

How much do I need to know about my topic?

You need to know more than the average person about a topic to write about it. It’s like they say, “you just have to stay one chapter ahead to teach the class.”

What if someone already wrote about my topic?

Write about it anyways. You’ll likely have a different perspective, experience and point of view. Make sure to be original though!

Do you have people trolling you or leaving mean comments?

Not once so far. I keep my blog tone light and helpful, so that probably lowers the chance. Maybe you can be the first!

How to make a blog that someone reads and makes money?

You either have to be funny, interesting or helpful. I’m not very funny or interesting, so I focus on the helpful part.

It’s also a good idea to treat your visitors like clients, not ATMs. You protect your client with honest info that genuinely helps them. This leads to a long-term relationship.

Why focus on Google search for promoting my blog?

Ranking your site on Google is the best way to drive consistent traffic to your site. It dominates the market with 92% of all searches. No other source comes close, but it’s still a good idea to diversify with social media and YouTube.

Blogging VS Podcasts/YouTube/TikTok

It really depends on who you are. If you prefer to write only when you feel like it, blogging’s the way to go.

If you enjoy being seen and heard, and don’t mind the pressure of having to upload something every week, then one of the three will do. You’ll still have to do some writing in the descriptions, but it will be less than blogging. Regardless, I recommend having a WordPress site you 100% control where you can upload your video/audio files, because other platforms can close down your channel/account anytime.

Who should start a blog?

Any self-starter with a passion for a topic who doesn’t mind wearing a lot of hats and learning new things.

Why do people read blogs?

The number one reason according to Hubspot is to “learn something new” at 33%, followed by “be entertained” at 20%.

Why should I blog about Asia?

There’s still a large knowledge gap between content in English and the rich cultures and fascinating histories of Asian countries. There are also fewer English speakers in countries like Japan, Korea and Thailand than elsewhere. Korea and Japan are actually the two most homogenous countries in the world.

Ultimately, you can blog about anything you’re passionate about, but living in an Asian country gives you a huge advantage over others, since you can simply go outside to gain inspiration and ideas.

Which WordPress plugins and software should I use?

Look for light (small size) and discrete (no shortcuts on your WordPress dashboard)

  • Everyone needs an editor. Grammarly or Ginger are great proofreaders if you’re working alone.
  • Wordfence for security. It’s one of the best free plugins out there that prevents brute force attacks.
  • W3 Total Cache for a free speed boost. WP Rocket for an even bigger speed boost.
  • SEO Framework for search optimization.

Which WordPress plugins and software should I avoid?

Avoid heavy, globally loading plugins. They will slow down your site and not provide much benefit. The following are the most popular offenders:

  • Contact form 7
  • Akismet
  • Elementor
  • Yoast
  • Jetpack

How do I design my logo and site?

Here are the easiest ways I’ve found to get help with design.

  • Canva – DIY with user-friendly tools. Beats watching YouTube videos to learn Photoshop or Illustrator.
  • Fiverr – Hire others at a reasonable price. There are some great freelancers on Fiverr who can do things like logos for cheap.

How do I get free backlinks as a beginner?

Backlinks are like job experience. You’ll naturally get them once you’re ranked on Google, but you need them to get ranked.

Regardless of what others say, most backlinks will help you when you first start.

This includes:

  • nofollow
  • directory submission
  • blog and forum comments
  • social media profiles

Once you reach a point, when your DA is around 20 and you’re competing with larger sites, these backlinks won’t have much weight. Then you want to focus on bigger fish.

Focus on backlinks from sites with actual traffic and a healthy backlink profile.

Did we miss anything?

Starting a blog is easier than ever.

Let us know your blog tips or questions in the comments below! 

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