Backup Your WordPress Blog With The Duplicator Plugin - A Critical Plugin to Have

Backup Your WordPress Blog With The Duplicator Plugin - A Critical Plugin to Have

If you are a WordPress blogger, then you must have a plan to backup your blog(s). The backup should include the database and all of the WordPress folders and files.

The are many choices available to do this. Some are rather costly and others are free. Some work, some don't. Some backup just certain things, but not everything.

The Duplicator plugin proved to be a lifesaver for me in April of 2018. I have been using it since April of 2014 and it is a First Class item to use with WordPress. And it is 100 % free, although they have a paid version also.

This is what happened to me in April of 2018.

I had 100 WordPress blogs spread over 2 domains (50 on each). Around April 25, 2018, both of my domains were hacked and everything got destroyed/deleted. This was from a very reputable hosting company.

When I realized something had happened, the hosting company was immediately called to find out what was going on. I will not disclose the name of the company, but I will never use them again or even suggest them.

They informed that my domains had in fact been hacked. After a few hours had passed, they sent me an email stating that they had a backup and could restore them. Again, this was from a very reputable hosting company.

They sent me another email after the restore had been completed and everything seemed to be back up and functioning. All of my 100 blogs were back up and functioning again.

Then 2 days later, the same thing happened again. Every blog on each domain had been trashed again. As soon as I realized there was another serious problem, I called the hosting company and told what was going on. Again, this was from a very reputable hosting company.

Somewhere between 2-3 hours later, since I had not received any type of communication from them, I called them to find out what is going on.

This time, they tell me they have NO backups to restore any of my 100 blogs. Again, this was from a very reputable hosting company.

Well needless to say, I was pissed, I was furious. As soon as I got off the phone with them, I try to compose myself and then I began looking for a new hosting company. I made up a list of questions to ask and after calling several, I found one.

This new company is much more reasonable with what they charge and they do daily backups. This is something that made me happy. So during each month they have 30 backups they can use to restore your blog(s), if they are any problems.

They helped me setup a new account. In less than 2 hours the new site was usable. While waiting for the site to be functional, I decided that instead of having 2 domains again, I decided to have 1 domain, with 1 blog and have 100 categories.

Now I could use the backups created by the Duplicator plugin and start re-creating each blog.

This plugin was and is a tremendous help to me.

Duplicator is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to:

1. Backup the blog's database

2. Backup the blog's WordPress files and folders

3. Restore a damaged or corrupt blog

a.) Database

b.) WordPress files and folders

4. Clone an existing blog into a new blog and then modify the new blog as you want

After creating a new blog, it might take anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours to get everything setup the way you desire.

By cloning an existing blog into a new blog, it takes less than 10 minutes.

Targeting Your Audience With the Right Blog Posts

Targeting Your Audience With the Right Blog Posts

When I first created a blog I was planning on using it to augment my small business. I had heard that blogs were pulling in amazing search engine results, better than "normal" websites, so I had to test this new technology for myself.

If you have ever managed an online business you will be aware of the importance of choosing the right target audience. Even with small numbers, as low as 50 visitors per day, you can get results provided those 50 visitors are the right target audience for what you are selling.

I started my first blog on the industry I was working in, proofreading, and I struggled. I am not a proofreader and while I enjoy running the business I have little interest in the actual industry. Coming up with new content for a blog on proofreading very quickly became tiresome.

I decided to change focus and began blogging about what I really enjoyed, Internet marketing. I started to write about my experiences setting up businesses online and told stories of my successes and failures.

Blogging about Internet business was a lot easier then discussing proofreading, but clearly the audience I was attracting to my blog was not very relevant to my small business. I created a new blog, specifically for the Internet marketing niche I was writing about.

MY FIRST ATTEMPT TO MAKE MONEY FROM BLOGGING

My new blog about Internet business grew really well thanks to my traffic strategies. A few months into it I decided it was time to attempt to make money - to monetize my blog.

Like many bloggers I first tried using Google's AdSense program [https://www.google.com/adsense/] and placed their contextual ad links on my blog.

The result - between $0 and $0.50 a day plus I wasn't happy with the ads that were displayed on my blog. A few months later I took the AdSense off.

Next I tried affiliate marketing where you recommend other people's products and get paid a commission if you make a sale. I wrote a good sales blog post telling my readers of a fantastic offer on a marketing newsletter subscription service with a bonus e-book that I thought would be very relevant to my audience.

I woke up the day after posting that sales letter to no sales. During the next week or two I made about $26 total, not exactly a roaring success.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

After my failure at making money from my blog I was in a bad mood and I decided that all my efforts during the past months to grow my blog traffic must have attracted a readership with no money to spend, or I was pitching products that they weren't interested in.

Needless to say I went on after my initial problems to make money from blogging (I've since had a day where I made over $900!) but the lesson I learnt was a good one. Know the target audience you want to attract, know why you want to attract them and implement traffic strategies that will bring in only that target audience.

It's better to bring in one targeted reader than ten random surfers. Your traffic strategies must reflect this.

WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?

Take a second to jot down exactly who it is you want reading your blog. You can define such characteristics as:

- Age bracket

- Sex

- Income

- Phase in life (university student, retiree, etc)

- Industry

- Job Status (manager, CEO, employee)

With a target reader profile you should find it easier to conceptualize and generate the content to appeal to them. You can "step into their shoes" and brainstorm the best traffic sources to draw from that will attract the right audience. Remember in almost all cases it's *quality* over quantity when it comes to blog traffic.

7 Things Your Readers Want to Read in Your Next Blog Post

7 Things Your Readers Want to Read in Your Next Blog Post

As you probably already know, there are some things your readers will want to read about more than others.

I've been using 7 simple guidelines to make sure I don't bore my readers, and I'd like to share them with you. Hopefully, they're going to help you when you write your next blog post, so sit back, relax and enjoy!

1. They Want to Read What's Interesting to You

If you do everything right, your followers will love you. They will want to be a part of your life. They'll want to know what interests you, what bores you, what makes you sad or happy.

If you do everything right, your readers will be your friends, and they'll be genuinely interested in what makes you tick.

Some people say you should keep your blog on topic, and you can't lose focus from the fact that the main thing your readers want is what you can teach them about what they're interested in.

That's true, but they do want a little bit of what's going on inside your head, even if it's not related to the niche.

(Please note that I said a little bit, not a whole lot.)

2. They Want to Read About Your Personal Life

This goes along with what we just talked about, but in a different way. We just discussed who you are as a person, and now we're going to talk about how you live.

A really good example of talking about your personal life and tying it to your niche is a story that Frank Kern talked about. He used to run a successful dog training business online, for which he used a pseudonym.

One day he realized he's going to hit a million dollars in sales that year, so he decided to film the actual event of making that money. As it so happens, he was actually on vacation with his family when this was happening, so he talked about that as well.

He told a story about how he was going to fly the whole family some place, but then he realized it would actually be better to just charter a plane, so they did.

This was fun, the people hearing the story were entertained, but he also strengthened his position as an expert in the field, killing two birds with one stone.

3. They Want to Read News

Anything new happening in the market? Any trends you've spotted that will lead to changes for your readers?

Whenever you're looking at what's going on in the niche, and noticing there's something new happening, go ahead and post about it.

Your follower will eat it up. The earlier they get the news, the better, so timing is very important here. It goes without saying, that if you're late and the market is already talking about it, then it's better for you to say nothing and move on.

4. They Want to Read About Strategies that Worked for You

This is my all time favorite. Nothing can beat a strategy, a system, a trade secret or a killer tip that you know is going to help your readers. Before you share a trade secret, however, you need to make sure that it works, which means you need to test it yourself.

On top of that, before you sit down and write about your test results, you need to plan your content carefully, so that you're able to present the whole strategy in such a way, that everyone can take it, implement what you tell them and succeed with it.

You don't want to leave important details out, as that would cause your readers to fail. Obviously, when they fail, they think what you're saying doesn't work and you lose authority. You don't want that.

5. They Want to Read About How You Work

One of the main reasons people follow you is you get the results they want. No matter what market you're in, people want to get what you have.

Now, this doesn't usually require going behind the scenes, so to speak, and looking at how you work, but a post like that every now and again will make your blog much more interesting.

For example, you're in the fitness and bodybuilding niche, and you focus on mostly on getting a toned body once someone has already gotten rid of the excess weight.

Obviously, you share them pretty much everything they need to know, and they're happy implementing your advice.

Now, although they don't really need it to succeed, go ahead and take them to your gym. When you're there, have someone record you as you work out. This might seem strange to you, especially at first, but it's awesome to see your idol work.

6. They Want to Read Funny Stuff

This is pretty self explanatory. If you have something that's both funny and related to your niche, go ahead and share it.

The key is, to be relaxed about it. If you just crack a joke casually, for example, you'll do great. If, on the other hand, you try too hard, what you say won't be funny, and it'll seem weird. Just have fun and your readers will have fun with you.

7. They Want to See Pictures and videos

There's nothing more boring than a block of plain, mundane text.

You don't have to just plain write if you don't want to. You can use pictures, screen capture videos, talking head videos, pictographics, diagrams, audios, comics, or anything else that will help you to break things up.

Just use your imagination, come up with something fun, and enjoy it.

How Do You Monetize Your Blog step by step

When you have a good amount of blog posts and readers it's time to monetize your blog. Do keep in mind that, first and foremost, your blog should be about sharing your ideas and providing value to your audience, not just about making you some extra money.

Here are 5 ways to start monetizing your blog.

1. Sell Your Own Products or Services

One of the quickest ways to monetize your blog is to sell your own products or services. If your readers know that you deliver useful advice in your blog, they'll be ready to buy more information from you because you're offering a solution to their problem or desires.

You can produce information products like eBooks, reports, tutorial videos, etc. Your readers can download these instantly after purchase. The great thing about information products is that you produce them once, and they can be sold again and again.

2. Sell Affiliate Products

As an affiliate you sell products or services that have been created by other people. These can be digital information products or physical products that are delivered to the customers door.

An affiliate earns a percentage of sales off each product that someone buys through their special affiliate link. It's one of the easiest ways to monetize your blog because you don't have to worry about payment systems, product delivery or customer queries as the product owner takes care of all of that.

3. Google AdSense

There are a variety of advertising networks that you can become a member of to monetizing your blog. Google AdSense is one of the most popular networks. By placing the ads on your blog, you can tempt visitors to click on them. Then each click earns you a share of the profits Google makes. Although a couple of clicks won't earn you much, a high flow of traffic and clicks can really add up to a substantial amount.

4. Sell Advertising Space

Some popular blogs sell advertisement space on their blogs. Advertisers want to place one of their banners on popular blogs that reach their target audience. You get paid based on the traffic numbers you bring in to your blog and the prime space available on your blog.

5. Product Reviews

You can do both paid product reviews as well as unpaid reviews of affiliate products. It's important to be very honest in all reviews, paid or not.Ask your readers for testimonials and aim to get positive reviews on sites like FourSquare and Yelp. This will help to develop your reputation as an expert in your niche and will encourage more people to ask you for reviews.

Some Basic Search Engine Optimization Tips for Bloggers

Some Basic Search Engine Optimization Tips for Bloggers

I still remember the days when I was newbie in blogging. Search Engine Optimization, SEO for short was a puzzling word for me and it's now one year passed in my blogging career and still I am struggling to learn the full myths of SEO. 

Well, I just can one thing that SEO is an endless sea that no one can swim completely. But still some basic SEO tips can help the newbies to get the right direction in their blogging career. So here I am posting the basic SEO tips for bloggers

Choose Blogging Platform Wisely

Yeah, it matters a lot in blogging. The very first step in the blogging is to decide the platform that you are going to use. 

The most popular blogging platforms are WordPress and Blogger. Most of the newbies choose to go with the blogger as it is easily manageable. But from the SEO point of view, the best blogging platform is WordPress. 

In fact, you can go with any platform according to your ease, but selecting the WordPress will be a wise thing to do. No doubts, it's tough to maintain, but not too tough, that you can't learn it with a bit of research.

Constant Blogging

Readers define the success of your blogging. If your blog is getting good no. of visitors, then you are touching success in blogging.

 Readers like to visit the blog which provides the quality and informative content and that also in the daily routine. No one will like to visit a blog with old posts or better we can say, a dead blog.

Use Plugins

Considering that you select the WordPress as your blogging platform, you can use plugins to ease the SEO tasks. WordPress plugins database has got thousands of plugins related to SEO. 

These plugins can do the SEO work, very easy for you. Many awesome plugins like 'All in One SEO' and 'SEO by Yoast' are the recommendations of every SEO expert for other bloggers.

Link Building

You can't take your blog on the first page of search results, for your targeted keywords, until you are not doing the link building for it. 

In fact, quality link building is required for higher ranking of your blog. You should focus on getting links from the blogs having the same niche as of yours. 

Commenting and guest posting are the best methods to make quality backlinks for your blog.

Social Media Promotion

Social media is an important part of blogging and is a good source of traffic as well. The social shares of your blog posts also play a role in defining the rank for it on the search engines. You should not miss the social media promotion part of your blog.

 Also using the social share plugins is recommended as it allows the visitors to share your posts on their social networking profiles.

SEO was puzzling, is puzzling and will always be. But you can cut the curtains of puzzle a little bit, by following the above mentioned basic SEO tips.

How to Make Good Content for Blogs

 How to Make Good  Content for Blogs

Most bloggers are faced with the problem of getting great content for blogs.

The article will discuss some of the best ways to get great content for blog posts.

1. News jacking.

News jacking is a viable and quite an easy strategy to use. It involves searching for a trending topic and using it for blogs. Bloggers will have to spend some time finding the right content that fits their niche or industry.

2. Tags. Social bookmarking services.

Social bookmarking service involves internet users recommending topics that are popular to them to blog. A tag are mini-categories for blog content.

Tagging is done by a visitor or blog owner.

A combination of the two can help bloggers to search for popular posts within a certain category which is based on traffic or other recommendations.

Tags and social bookmarking services help bloggers to identify topics that are popular at that particular time.

3. Top search results.

A blogger can also find out what internet users are searching for, with some help from search engines. The popular result makes great content for a blogger because it affects or influences people in a certain area.

4. Research.

Bloggers can read what other people are writing so that it can inspire them to write their own content. This goes beyond popular stories and news. This will help bloggers to keep up with what is going on around them.

5. Tracking stories beyond the headline news.

A blogger can go an extra mile and track a particular story that is trending. Sometimes headline news do not tell the whole story. This gives a blogger a chance to shed some more light on the issue.

This is a good way to get great content for blog posts because it digs further on the issue or story.

6. Using facts and statistics.

Bloggers can get great content by checking out facts and statistics on a particular topic. There are numerous resources that contain facts and statistics e.g. WHO (Health) Google Scholar (Scholarly resources) Statistics.com etc.

These tips will help bloggers get good content for their posts. They will keep the engine of their content strategy going on for unforeseeable future.

Bloggers all over the world try to get good content and some write on their own. It's important to have content related to your niche..

Stay focused.

Blogging can be amazing and interesting. Start with a blog today.

How to Promote Your Blog to Reach the Widest Audience and Readers

How to Promote Your Blog to Reach the Widest Audience and Readers

Just putting your blog online is not enough. Once your articles have been well written and posted online for your readers to read, it is time to start promoting your blog. Promoting or marketing your blog is hard work, to say the least.

 Promoting your blog will put it in front of people. Thankfully, there are myriad of ways to do it - all it takes is time. You will want to be sure that once your blog is developed and in place, that it is positioned correctly to capture your market. In doing so, you will discover that your blog markets itself.

To begin, you have to find your niche and focus on it. Defining your blog's niche is straightforward. What kind of reader do you wish to entice? And what are they interested in? Does your blog cover it? Once you are able to answer these questions correctly, you are good to go. 

You can then plan where you want to market and approach visitors. You will also be able to track your competition. This will enable you to know where best to comment!

Going through your blog should, quite literally, mesmerize people and draw them in. It should arouse their interest in reading your posts, and more importantly, be completely on point for what they were expecting. 

Your blog should contain all the unique contents as you can possibly manage - it should ALWAYS be unique. You will avoid Google's copy content filter, and better than that, you will have a reputation for not pursuing the herd.

In the circumstance of internet marketing, this does include advertising about launches, but one of the primary blunders most bloggers (and mailing list owners!) make is that they feel that they HAVE to share the mailing information they are given, as an internet marketer. 

This is a mistake because like seeing the same image over and over again, people will start to block out affiliate based ads; so instead of sharing what you've been given, word-for-word, why not write your own ads?

Unique contents and will interest people far more than flashy music or templates. You need to consider making your blog at least a little memorable. Choose a template that speaks to you on a professional level; a template that is interesting and easy to use. 

There is no point using a flashy template if you have little or no knowledge on how to make it work.

Making your customers aware that your blog exists is a bit hard, but not impossible. Most internet marketers have access to forums, mailing lists and more - so use them to tell people about your blog. If you are lucky, a big marketer will see what you are talking about, and link to you. 

These big marketers might also consider running a solo ad for you, but you may have to pay for it, and unless you're in exactly same niche as they are, or at least one that overlaps considerably, this may not be all that worthwhile for you.

Other people's blogs are also a great way to attract traffic - after all, they've already got people from your niche coming into their blog - the leg work is done - and the really big ones in your niche also have a nice secondary effect. MOST blogs, when you comment on them, or comment about them, trackback will provide a link back to your blog, with your comment.

The people who agree with you, especially on controversial topics are automatically more likely to comment on your blog - and once someone opens a dialogue, they usually continue it.

 That's not to say you should troll blogs to disagree with others. You shouldn't deliberately look for a reason to pick a fight on another blog - in fact, it's usually good practice not to argue at all on blogs. If you truly believe the person blogging is presenting a 'fake' point of view, by all means call them on it.

Choosing The Right Blogging Platform For Your Blog

Choosing The Right Blogging Platform For Your Blog

People who think of starting a blog, at first never think about which platform would be the ideal choice for them to blog. Believe me choosing the right blogging platform must be the priority of every blogger.

The right blogging platform will make your blogging more smooth and the bad choice can be painfully frustrating.

The blogging platform you choose to blog on becomes a part of your blogging journey too. So, taking some time out to research for the ideal platform is well worth.

The ideal blogging platform is one that provides an excellent user-friendly interface and good themes that allow making your blog flexible, responsive, thus making it looks and feel unique.

Finding the right platform to blog is not so difficult but takes some time to research on all various available platforms, doing this you will find the perfect blogging platform in no time.

The first step in deciding which type of platform is suitable for your blog, is sorting by priorities in terms of ease of use, level of customization you want to have, the UI & UX, community support, flexibility etc. 

High customizable blogging platforms like WIX, Weebly etc is sometimes quite difficult to carry out some tasks.

Whereas platforms like WordPress which are automated is comparatively easy to use and blog. If you are someone who is alien to web development, then you may not be able to create a custom background, integrating forms, or making some custom design changes in your blog template. But people who are familiar with HTML, CSS, Javascript and php can feel the restrictions of a user-friendly platform to be frustrating.

One thing that you should know is that there is nothing such as the perfect blogging platform because it depends upon each blogger what type of function they seek in a blogging software.

Individual bloggers have their own unique sort of taste for their blog. So, different platforms are available that are made keeping in mind to meet the needs of different kinds of blogger undertaking different kinds of blogging topics.

So many blogging software gives newbie bloggers the chance to try and get accustomed to the ones that suit their level of technical aptitude.

Read reviews of every blogging platform you find correct for you and try them once to see if anyone of them is worth the choice.

Remember there is no such thing as the perfect platform for every blogger, so instead of looking for the "best" platform, look for the best platform for your that matches your specific conditions.

5 Ways To Boost Your Blog Right Now

5 Ways To Boost Your Blog Right Now

Blogging is an important resource for marketing any business. A good blog will help to build your business, especially if your business is an online business. Here are 5 simple ways you can boost your blog right now to create more momentum in your business.

1. Check Your Headlines

The headline is the first thing a visitor sees. It must be interesting enough to get that person to stay and read the rest of your post. Think about frequently asked questions, skills they need in their niche, and more. What are the things your audience struggle with? Offer them real solutions.

2. Examine Your Content

You can start improving blog content with your opening line. It should be 8 words or less and "lure" your visitor right away by building the curiosity to read more. The content should be simple to read. Break up text by using bulleted or numbered lists, subheadings, bolding, italics and images. Use transitions between paragraphs to bring the reader from one idea to the next. Write about the Who, What, When, Where and Why of your topic. Finally, you can add in the How of any topic too and come up with a great blog post.

3. What About Your Visuals?

Content without images can be very boring on the eye so include at least one relevant image in each post. It gives the visitor a quick and easy view at what the content will be about. People are very visual, and if you use an eye-catching image on your blog, your readers are much more likely to share your post on social media.

4. Check Your Stats

While there are many different blog statistic programs, most continue to use Goggle Analytics because it works the best. 

The three things you should look for are:

1. Traffic source: Where are your visitors coming from?
2. Bounce rate: The percentage of people that visit your site, but don't dig deeper and end up leaving. A high bounce rate can indicate something is wrong in your blog causing them not to stay.
3. Site overlay: For the people that choose to stay, where are they going in your blog? Or more crucial yet, where are they not going?

5. What's Your Call-To-Action?

If you want your visitor to go somewhere from your blog post, you must have a highly visible means of getting your visitor to go there. A highlighted word that contains a link could accomplish that. Or use a colorful button that tells them to do something like 'Subscribe', 'Download' or 'Get It Now'. Make it simple but yet highly visible.