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How to Make Money with a Website in Less Than a Week

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Do you know about making money with a website in less than a week? Most people wouldn’t know, but it can be possible if you know how to do it. Here are a few easy steps you can follow to get your website up and running.

Gather Your Information

Before you get started, you’ll need to gather some information about your target customers, like their demographics, where they live, how old they are, and what their income is.

To find all of this information, head over to Google and type in the keywords that you want to focus on. If you want to start a website for moneymaking purposes, you’ll want to choose a niche like weight loss, online marketing, or family and baby.

Find Your Niche

When you find the keywords that you want to target, do your research to find out what other websites are already talking about in this niche. For example, if you want to target pregnancy related websites, you can look up what other websites are talking about and find the best and most reliable information to use in your website.

If you’re still on the research step, click on the search engine that you’re looking for (like Google) and click “Search for” or “Search by …” If the website that comes up has more than one article, scroll down to the bottom of the first article and click the “Last Article” button.

How to Develop a Blog

Once you’ve gathered a list of relevant keywords to use in your website, it’s time to create a blog to develop your website. There are a few different types of blogs, but most successful websites have a combination of both types.

Related: How to Migrate your Blog

If you want to make money with a blog, start by deciding on your focus. You can decide on your niche by seeing what articles in your niche are popular. Then, your blog will create a list of things to talk about in the future, like how to cook the best eggs or what amazing products are out there that you can get on the cheap. You can then use these blog posts as inspiration for future articles on your website.

Add a Poll to Your Blog

For those sites where you want people to contribute questions for your community to answer, you can add a poll to your website to get visitors to engage with your site. For example, you could have a poll that asks how many of your readers have lost weight using a particular diet.

Related: Top 11 Myths About Blogging

Post Frequently

You’ll want to post to your blog at least once every week, if not more. Posting to your blog helps you build links back to your website and builds traffic to your website. The more traffic that your site has, the more chance it has at making money.

Don’t Forget to Keep Customers Coming Back

After people have visited your site a few times, it’s important to continue to provide quality content to keep them coming back to your website. It’s also important to continue to provide value to your audience. To continue to do this, you should offer a resource that your target audience can’t get elsewhere.

For example, if you want to make money with a website, add an affiliate link to one of your posts. When someone visits your site and clicks on the affiliate link, you earn a commission when they purchase a product. As your visitors continue to visit your site, you can earn more commissions.

Make Sure You Understand Your Niche

Most websites will have some sort of explainer section on their website. An explainer section is a section on your website where you explain what your website is about. It can take a bit of work, but you’ll be able to figure out what you need to explain about your website if you think about your niche.

This can be a bit of work, but it’ll help you develop a deeper understanding of what your audience wants and what they can’t get elsewhere.

If you’re ready to start earning money with your website, these tips will help you get started. The next time you have an idea for an article or blog post that you want to write, use these tips to help you develop a blog that people will love to read.

How to Start Building an Online Business?

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Just like India has changed a lot over the past couple of decades, it is also changing at a rapid pace. The internet is at the core of the revolution. As access to internet is fast becoming ubiquitous, it is opening new opportunities for businesses to reach out to a wider set of customers.

Recent study by Almeida University, Brazil highlights the changes in the way in which people engage in online purchasing. According to the report, nearly 79 per cent of B2B market research was conducted online over the past five years and these surveys have shown that nearly 90 per cent of employees of today’s market research firms conduct online business research. This has triggered the need for an accessible business portal, to help customers who are looking for B2B solution from various companies.

Making The Right Choice

For any online business to be successful, it is very important to know how to choose the right software. In terms of selecting the best tool, there are several things that you should consider. One, should you choose an open-source web platform or would you prefer to use a closed one that requires specific technicalities. The choice is based on what suits your business requirements and how much expertise you have in coding and coding practices. This will help you attract more customers.

Second, you can choose a platform that will allow you to have customization. For instance, if you are running a service based business, you may require features such as marketing automation, as that is the core of your business. However, if your business is a web-based product, you can get by with less customization, but will have limited customization options. The last point to consider is your time. If you are a solo entrepreneur and need to run your business on a tight budget, it might be a good idea to go with a paid product that has advanced features. But if you are working with a team, it is advisable to go with the open-source platform as that comes with minimal complexity, speed, simplicity, and minimal maintenance.

Add to the Align with SEO, Lead Scoring, Social Media Optimisation

Once you have decided on the software, your next step is to select the right hosting service. Your hosting service should provide you with access to the most relevant services for your business. Whether you want to integrate your website with Google Analytics or use the web analytics service from Cpanel, you should select hosting service that offers you these capabilities.

When it comes to technical considerations, you should go with a hosting service provider that offers an SSL certificate for your website, as SSL helps protect your website from any vulnerabilities. You can then integrate an online business management solution with an e-commerce store, which should help you provide your customers with an easy-to-use shopping portal.

Apart from this, there are a lot of other features that you can get on a hosted solution, which might be more relevant for certain businesses than others. They include:

You can set up a social media publishing button on your website to help build a brand online

Website content management system: Many e-commerce websites run on an CMS, which automatically creates a blog in your website to help you post news about the product you sell, as well as provide customer reviews and chat features to connect with customers

Integration with marketing automation software: Many online businesses, for instance, are able to boost sales by engaging customers through marketing automation tools and A/B testing. This helps them understand their customers’ needs and how best to service them

Offer full-scale e-commerce solutions: E-commerce solutions offer a large variety of online stores that offer everything from wholesale to point-of-sale systems, as well as a wide range of business-to-business solutions to help you manage your accounting and bookkeeping

Access to a custom-made security solution: Cloud storage and data management offer a secure platform that enables you to store your customer and product data in a safe place. However, businesses tend to go with a third-party vendor to ensure that their data is adequately secured.

While a hosted solution might be the most affordable option, it also comes with a lot of benefits. It will save you a lot of time and effort, as it is easier to install and configure the software than to try to deal with various issues that arise when your website is being built and your hosting service is being installed. The hosting provider takes care of all the technicalities. Plus, as a hosted solution doesn’t require a technical team to manage it, it offers your business more flexibility.

Over to you

In conclusion, the answer to the question “Should You Go With a Hosted or a Managed Service?” is an emphatic yes. Yes, you should go with a hosted solution, where all of the core technical aspects are handled by an expert. It is a lot cheaper, it is easy to install and configure, and offers a high level of security. Most importantly, it will save you a lot of time and effort.

Conclusion

As you can see, the decision to opt for a hosted solution is a good choice. You can significantly reduce your workload. Plus, it will let you save a lot of time.

Author Bio: Dang Yang is a professional web designer with more than eight years of experience in the information technology sector. He is currently the IT Marketing Manager at one of the biggest Chinese Q&A websites.

Ubuntu vs. Red Hat Linux

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Red Hat is being very critical of Ubuntu, accusing them of contributing enough to basic Linux development. They are right – Ubuntu does do less basic Linux development. However, Red Hat has substantial revenues from its various Linux distributions, as well as being much the larger company.

Red Hat is Neglecting the Desktop Market

If we look at the two, Red Hat has been concentrating on the corporate market, where users are prepared to pay an annual fee for the software because of Linux’s technical advantages regarding speed and resource usage over Windows. It has neglected the small-user desktop market, although it has provided Fedora, which is aimed at that market. Because of this bias, Red Hat is well-accepted in the server market, and the software is optimized for that market.

It costs $80 or more per year for the software and support, with software upgrades every seven years. Fedora is free, and support is available on their website. Software upgrades are done every six months.

Ubuntu is Strong on Desktop

Ubuntu has come in aiming at the desktop market, and users are getting accustomed to using Ubuntu, which is slightly different in use. It has a 6-month release cycle and supports any particular release for 18 months for free. It is easier to use than Red Hat or Fedora and can be used on desktops or servers. It offers a Windows installer so that it can be run under Windows.

Ubuntu will probably start charging for its server software

Comparing the Two

If one compares the two, it is clear that Red Hat/Fedora have a bias towards technically knowledgeable users and is not as straightforward in operation as Windows. Ubuntu is also more technically oriented, also attempting to close the gap and the Windows-installable version is a very clever ploy which is ostensibly aimed at Windows but seems to be aimed at the Linux Server/Enterprise market.

If you are a system administrator running Windows at home, you can now download a version of Linux and get used to using it. When you consider a server operating system, where Linux might be preferred because of its technical advantages which one are you going to buy – the one you know or one which is different but similar enough to make the commands confusing? Expect Ubuntu to become more user-friendly, with more Windows-like facilities.

Ubuntu is in the Game for the Long Term

This seems to be the real reason Red Hat is so concerned about Linux, not the inroads into the desktop market… They realize that Ubuntu is a long-term threat to their primary market. Moreover, they apparently see Ubuntu as a significant threat. Otherwise, they would not be so vitriolic in their attacks.

As far as the future of Linux is concerned, Ubuntu is probably the best hope for its becoming a real threat to Windows. The moves it has made may spur a thrust towards greater user-friendliness of the Linux operating system on the part of its competitors, and that would be coupled with a low price, be enough to make them a significant threat to Windows overall dominance and potent marketing strategy.

Perhaps they will spur Windows to cut price and offer a smaller, simplified, less resource-intensive and cheaper operating system, with fewer bells and whistles. This can only be good for computer-users everywhere.

GreenGeeks, the Hosting Company I’m Glad to Review

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There are a lot of web hosting companies out there. Some don’t even care about the environment. Some say they do care when in fact they do not. We are quite happy to report on a hosting company that’s green, good and cheap: it’s GreenGeeks!

Keep an Eye on Uptimes

The most important thing GreenGeeks will do for you is keeping your website online. That’s also called uptime in the industry. That’s the number one goal of a web hosting company: to make your website reachable by your customers or readers, depending on which type of site you have. A site that is rarely available or takes long to open can be shunned by shoppers, making all your effort to build business futile.

A Range of Products and Services

Most of you regular web hosting customers will be quite happy with a shared host. Our website runs on shared web hosting. But if your site happens to be bigger or resource hungry, you don’t have to pass on GreenGeeks. They also offer virtual private servers and dedicated servers. They had a try at the cloud, but that didn’t take off, so no cloud hosting on GreenGeeks.

Other Reviews

One thing you should note when reading through customer reviews is that consumers are more likely to write a review when they have a problem with the provider. So you will probably see some negative stuff out there, but hey, nobody is perfect. You will find that with every web hosting company, be it HostGator or any other big brand you can name. But for the most part, GreenGeeks reviews are quite positive and reflect the same image as we have seen of this company. And that’s mostly positive.

Constant Monitoring

I shouldn’t even write about this, it’s common sense, right? Wrong! Many of the budget hosting companies lacking this type of due diligence. They will monitor the servers that host your website, making sure that issues are discovered right away and can be handled with the least possible downtime.

Features for Businesses

Plans come with a horde of software that makes a business owner’s life easier. First, there are the e-commerce tools. Launching a web shop has never been simpler and can be done with a few clicks even for newbies. Emailing is also available so that you can look professional in your communication.

Backups for Bad Days

I have wiped out several of my websites by accident, and I didn’t have a backup. You will be served well by GreenGeeks in this matter. They make frequent backups that you can quickly restore.

Free Domain Names

If you don’t already own a domain name, GreenGeeks will register you one of your choice completely free of charge. That’s sweet of them, eh?

A Real Green Company

If that’s not enough, GreenGeeks is probably the most famous green hosting company. They buy green certificates, have a company culture that values being green and protecting the environment.

The bottom line is, we have tried GreenGeeks and are quite happy with them. If you are looking for a web host or considering changing your existing one, you should give GreenGeeks a call or just visit their website. We liked them, and you will too!

Make the Move: iPage is Worth It!

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There are numerous website hosting companies that provide unreliable service to hosting clients. They offer databases, but they are so slow, that no sane man would wait for the site to load. Then they offer free website builders, but the websites you produce in them look like they are from the nineties. Not all are equal, though, and we want to spread the word about the one we found to be excellent: iPage.

Moving to iPage is Easy

You might already have a web hosting account with a different web host. That’s ok! iPage helps you with moving your website, and they also offer free domain transfer. If you want a new domain name, they give it to you as well for free.

Getting the hang of iPage is easy, regardless of what hosting company has you dealt with. The control panel is very intuitive, and 24/7 support is always there to help you if you get stuck.

Looking for What?

Whatever you are looking for in a web hosting company, you will likely find it at iPage. They have MySQL databases, PHP, 1-Click Setup of popular open-source software and much more. You can easily configure servers via the control panel. Security and speed are all at your disposal.

It’s always a good idea to look around, though. I am not saying that iPage is the almighty company. They probably have their flaws too. That’s to be explored as I am quite happy with them so far. If you spend some time with them, don’t forget to write an iPage review and ping me if your experience has been good.

Get Serious about Security

No matter how professional you are, hackers are always on the lookout for a crack on the shield. They constantly try to find a vulnerability, be it a software issue or a weak password, to gain access to your hosting account and use it for their benefits. iPage has its solution for it. It’s called SiteLock. What it does is it finds and removes malware on your account. Most people think ‘Come on, I will never need that!’. I used to think like that too, but then about six months ago one of my websites was infected with a lot of malware. I had two choices:

  1. Find and remove malware manually
  2. Sign up for Sitelock and let it handle automatically.

Needless to say which one I have chosen.

Email Marketing Made Easy

Building a list is a great way to attain lifelong customers. Why make them buy once when you can sell your products to them again and again? And the best thing is, they have opted in, so they want to hear about you. Accordingly, iPage has several offers to cater for guys like you.

Adequate Support

iPage often sends their customer support reps to a comprehensive question and answer session to boost their skills. People who consecutively fail to pass will just not be employed. iPage web hosting is aware of that the first necessary side of their business is you the consumer. And they keep that in mind.

Going Mobile?

How about going mobile? They can help with that too. Although, me being a WordPress fan, I would suggest going with WordPress and a premium responsive theme. That takes care of it all.

Cyber Monday Hosting Deals

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Is Christmas approaching and you are simply not done with your shopping? Well, not to worry! With Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming, the best deals of the year are just around the corner! Starting from Black Friday web hosting deals to various other offers, this day rings in a moment of great excitement for the buyers who are looking forth towards buying new services at the most discounted rates.

Going back historical notes, Black Friday ushers in the Christmas shopping season in places like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Mexico. With the day coming just after the Thanksgiving Day, Santa Claus parades is an additional source of excitement. Clearly, the whole mood is set for making the perfect gains!

So, in case you are into web hosting deals, then Black Friday brings you some of the best deals of the year at amazing rates.

What are you waiting for? Check out the offers that 2016 brings in for you!

Knowing the various hosting deals:

Here is a list of various Black Friday and Cyber Monday hosting deals along with their discount instructions that would surely help you to dig out those perfect deals that would make you happy for a whole year.

Check out their exclusive features and choose the offer that suits you just the best!

FatCow

FatCow Cyber Monday Offers

Founded back in 1998, the primary aim of FatCow has been catering to customer’s needs in the best possible manner. As one of the topmost web hosting companies, its primary focus has always been to ensure that customers have the best that is available, and their black Friday hosting deals are just golden enough to grab!

Specific features:

  • The domain registration is free of cost with a 30 days money back guarantee.
  • There are a number of themes and templates present that help in ensuring that you have the perfect one for your website.
  • With unlimited disk space and bandwidth, there are a number of pre-installed plugins present.
  • There is presence of Cloud Storage that ranges up to 1 GB.
  • As there is customised control panel present hence customer service is available 24×7.

With discount rates up to 60%, there are a number of other offers available in this web hosting deal. Note the discounts instructions to unveil them:

  • Check out the Home Page of the website and choose your hosting plan.
  • Fill in the payment details and avail the discounts.

Clearly, with this web hosting site, you can surely get the best black Friday (web) hosting deals.

GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks Black Friday Deals

Are you looking for an inclusive web hosting plan that would provide you with the best of services at amazing offers? GreenGeeks is the place to be! Coming with a 50% discounts on its web hosting plans; this is one deal that you just can’t afford to miss this Christmas!

Basic features:

  • There is availability of free domain name registration as well as transfer facility available.
  • On a singular account, one can have unlimited domains.
  • One can avail website migration as well as site building and SEO tools totally free of charge.
  • You can also have a secure IMAP/POP3 e-mail account.
  • There are chances of unlimited web space and data transfer.
  • There is a specific 30-day money back guarantee.

With all these features, you can simply click on the discounts instructions link of the site. This will further lead you back to the Home Page of GreenGeeks from where you can purchase this domain.

However, this black Friday (web) hosting deals is specifically for customers with a new account.

SiteGround

Siteground Black Friday Discount

Have you been searching for a website that provides you with quality support and best customer service? SiteGround brings your search to an end! With this web hosting site, you will get the best of features and offers at 70% discounts within your fist!

Special features:

  • This not only provides a free domain name but also regular backups.
  • With 10GB web space it provides free app installations.
  • It has free website builder options with 24×7 customer support.

So, get your domain now!

iPage

iPage Biggest Cyber Monday Discount

Being in this domain for quite a certain amount of time, iPage has surely emerged as one of the topmost web hosting companies of the market. In comparison to its previous presence, the revamped site has brought forth a number of offers this season for you to choose from.

With iPage, you can create that ideal online presence that could help you reach the heights of success.

Web hosting features:

  • This provides ample disc space to include a host of email addresses.
  • There is a singular domain registration, and it is done absolutely free of cost.
  • There is a money back policy for 30 days in case of certain specific circumstances.
  • Highly performing server speed with scalable bandwidth.
  • There is complete security cover with customer support being available 24×7.

Ways to reach the black Friday (web) hosting deals with iPage:

Providing an 85% discount you need to follow certain steps to get there.

  • Click on to the homepage of the site and check out that hosting plan that suits your requirements.
  • After this specific details of the owner needs to be included and payment is to be made.
  • The promo code needs to be attached to avail the discount.

Finally, the domain can be used. So, make sure that you follow the discounts instructions to avail the best deals.

Bluehost

Best Bluehost Deals on Cyber Monday

As one of the most trusted web hostings sites, this Black Friday it beings to you the best of its services at a gala 75% discount. All you have to do is to check out their Home Page and find out which hosting plan suits your needs. All you have to do is to check out discounts instructions to ensure that you are on the right track regarding the offers provided.

Some of the outstanding features of this site:

  • In case you want a site that is extremely reliable and provides perfect service at every step, then nothing better than Bluehost.
  • The speciality of Bluehost rests in the fact that they are constantly there to provide customer service to people who have taken up their services. Their 24×7 customer support is a great respite!
  • The initial domain name comes for free, and there is no limitation regarding the domain hosting process.
  • With unlimited storage facility and bandwidth, you are bound to get the best of black Friday (web) hosting deals.

So, are you now aware of the deals? Get set go! Time is running out! Grab the offers now!

Do you shop for domains and website hosting often? Then this is the moment to take out your money. I am sure you will find a deal that is to your liking.

Evolve Theme Review: Avoid At All Cost

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I don’t like writing negative reviews, but this time a Themeforest seller really made me grab my laptop and type this up. I wanted a new theme for one of my websites, so I researched multipurpose themes.

I have found Evolve, which looked like a nice theme at first glance. But only at first glance.

Evolve from Themeforest

Let’s start at the documentation. It’s bad english. Simple as that.

The theme control panel is ugly as heck. Fields are out of line, and your layout options are very limited.

Control Panel

Sure you have some typography options, but that is limited only to font type. No font weight or line height. You have to use custom CSS for everything else.

Typography

How about speed? It’s terrible. I have plugged it into GtMetrix and it was a mess, around 50-60%. I can’t believe Themeforest let’s this theme be advertized as a premium theme.

And if you made the mistake of buying this theme, don’t forget to turn its SEO features off. For some reason the creator thought that it’s a good idea to use ‘Evolve Multipurpose WordPress Theme’ as the default title instead of let’s guess, the BLOG’S NAME maybe?

Settings

I don’t even want to go into details of the bugs on the frontend.Social

Ohh and on top of it all, it comes with a “free” Visual Composer. Unless you want updates. If you do it’s an additional $36.

Error

You will have to stick with an update notification until the creator of the theme decides to implement the new version of the plugin. How nice!

The Top 11 Myths About Blogging

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Here is the top myths I see from blogging, call it fair advice.

1. It’s easy.

Many new bloggers (myself included) think that blogging will come naturally.

Truth: Unless you can easily write about your topic (niche) then it will be very difficult to blog. As if the content is easy to write about (like news) then you may not be the only person covering it. Not saying that being unique will reward you.

Verdict: It can come easy, but most of the time it’s no icing on the cake.

2. Anyone can do it.

The internet is a vast place, since it is so large there has to be a spot for everyone right?

Truth: The internet is large, so you can easily can get lost in it. So while there is a spot for everyone, not everyone may want a spot after a while. You need to have a good topic, and a serious want to blog about the niche.

Verdict: It can be a double-edged sword. Unless you have serious will, you may quit.

3. If someone is covering it then I should to.

Again many people including me thought that well its (insert niche) its pretty popular I should get into it.

Truth: You will find out that the blogging world has already started ahead of you. In my niche (technology news) there are over 3,000 other blogs to fight against. I have to fight for viewers against Tech Crunch, Engadget, Wired, Popular Science, CNN, CNET, Revision 3, Ars Technica, Softpedia, Google News, and the list goes on and on.

Verdict: If the niche is popular (google search shows more than 100,000 results) then you will seriously have to fight for your piece of the pie.

4. It’s fine to copy other peoples content.

I and others all the time see blogs that are virtually clones of others.

Truth: The only time that it’s OK to copy someones content is when you are copying less than 10% of their content and linking to their post. As such its a summary. It is NOT OK to copy a complete blog (or several) word for word with or without a link. In the blogging world we call them splogs (spam blogs), or scrapers. They are blogs that offer no original content, and just copy the content for traffic so that there ads can in return make the copycat money of the host blogger.

You could get your blog shut down, search engines blocking you, your host banning you, a copyright lawsuit against you, you may even land in jail. So don’t. Unless you are summarizing someones content with a link to the full post, then don’t do it at all.

In fact you can be a victim (we all have been) of people who copy your content without your permission.

While there are directory’s that allow you to fully copy content of a blog because they are free of copyright search engines still may flag you for duplicate content.

Verdict: Don’t unless it’s a pure summary leading to the post at the main blog.

5. It will make me rich.

There is Adsense, OpenX, Adbrite and tons of ad networks, so I should be able to make a profit from blogging.

Truth: While there is tons of ad networks, you also need blog traffic. If no one is visiting then you will make nothing. You also need high quality visitors so spamming links will not work.

To make money from blogging you need a blog that gets 10,000 views a day, and at least 3-10 people who respond to advertisements. Although if you ask them to click on your advertisements, you wont be advertising no more.

You could make money though from affiliate ads. (It’s those 125×125 ad blocks you see on blogs). You put up an 125×125 affiliate ad, and if someone purchases that product then you will get a large commission ($20-80).

You can also get paid to post, paid to review, paid to comment, etc etc but those are rare.

Verdict: There are tons of MFA (made for adsense) blogs that have ads all over. Don’t be one of them, built up a following then put up advertisements otherwise you will only make pennies per day.

6. There is a niche for everyone.

Technically yes.

Truth: While there is a niche for everyone you need to see if people will visit that niche, and how crowded it is.

Verdict: Do your research on your niche.

7. It doesn’t take much time.

Blogging seems like a easy 5 minute pay for all.

Truth: Blogging can take up to 35 hours per week depending on how many comments you get, your research, writing your topic, etc etc.

Verdict: It takes dedication to be a blogger.

8. It’s not expensive.

Blogging can be either free, or paid depending on what you want and need.

Truth: There are many free blog hosting platforms like wordpress.com, and blogspot.com. There is also tons of paid hosts like Godaddy, BlueHost, 1and1.com etc etc.

Each has its pros and cons. Like how much bandwidth/disk space you can use, and if you can display advertisements.

Paid hosting can range from $5/15 a month or $50-100 a year for 300GB-unlimited usage plans.

If you go paid you will have to pay for your own domain name, which free hosting provides (blah.wordpress.com, blah.blogspot.com etc).

Verdict: Again do your research. As different blogs have different needs.

9. Paid hosting is better than free hosting.

If it costs money then it must offer something better to pay for the cost.

Truth: Paid hosting allows you to have your own custom themes, your own custom html, custom javascript, MySQL databases you name it.

With free hosting they control what you can and can’t do.

In the case of wordpress.com you can’t use major HTML, or javascript, or upload custom themes. You also need to pay $10 for a domain name ($15 if you don’t already own one), $50 for no ads, $50 for custom video, and pay for more disk space.

Blogspot allows all the above (for free, no videos) but after 2GB in photos your can’t pay for more, you have to switch.

WordPress.org allows you all this with the same better editor then blogspot. WordPress.org allows you to have custom urls, themes, javascript, videos, you name it. Although you have to pay for everything your self, and you have no support.

Verdict: Depends on your needs/wants.

10. It’s easy to get traffic.

There is almost 100 billion page-views to blogs all over the world per day, it should be easy to get some right?

Truth: While social networks can bring you a flood of traffic unless your post is eye-catching many people won’t see it for some time.

That is why SEO (search engine optimization) is key. If search engines see your content they can bring in people who are looking for what you blog about.

Verdict: Don’t expect much, it takes time for a blog to be seen by the internet.

11. It doesn’t matter how often I blog.

Does it matter if I blog once day, every other day, every week, or once a month?

Truth: Depends on your niche. If you blog about blogging then you can get away with a posting 3 times a week. If its personal then its up to you. If its something like tech news you need to blog every day.

Verdict: See how often blogs in your niche blog that can tell you how often you need to blog to gain an audience.

So that  the top 10 myths about blogging, and as well my advice on each.

What Type of WordPress Host Do You Need?

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If you are trying to pick out a web host for your WordPress blog, you are going to find yourself with countless options. The very first thing you will need to figure out is what type of hosting plan you need. Hosting options range from simple and cost-effective with no bells and whistles to complex, expensive, and feature-rich (and expensive). Let’s talk about the most common options you have and which users they are best for.

  • Shared hosting. This type of hosting is the cheapest. You may even find options that cost less than $2 a month to start out with (hosting costs always go up after an initial discount period). Just as you would guess, you are sharing server space with other sites. This means that you will usually have bandwidth limitations and may deal with slow speeds and a lack of flexibility. You will save money, though, so this may be the best choice for a hobby blog or for anyone who is on a budget. Just remember that this solution may not be as scalable or flexible as others.
  • Virtual Private Server (VPS). This type of hosting operates in a Linux environment, and is highly customizable since it runs through a virtual machine. This is a form of shared hosting, which may be a drawback since other users may be resource hogs. You will however find some very low costs if you are willing to manage your hosting yourself (best for technically savvy users). If you are able to pay more, you can enjoy managed VPS hosting.
  • Dedicated server. This is an option for a very serious blogger who has plenty to spend on hosting. Plans usually start out at around $100 a month. You are not sharing your hosting; you are essentially renting the hardware. This may be a smart choice if you are running your blog as a business. Most users do not need dedicating hosting, though.
  • Managed WordPress host. This may take the form of a dedicated or shared host. You will obviously be paying a premium for the service no matter what, but some plans are quite affordable (read an InMotion Hosting review to find out about one of the top recommended hosts). Basically, managed hosting is what you want to get if you are uninterested in dealing with all the back-end tasks and hassles associated with running your blog. The host takes care of all of those tasks for you so that you can concentrate on actually blogging. You get to enjoy advanced customization and numerous features to speed up your blog and improve its security.

OpenDNS vs. Google DNS

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For those who don’t know DNS is the technology where your ISP converts a domain name (like google.com) to its string of numbers (for 1.1.1.1 example).

The reason why Google wants to get into this is because most ISP’s DNS servers are slow, unreliable or allow attacks in. Now the question is, should you use Google for your DNS, or the well-known OpenDNS service instead?

Open DNS

  • It’s domain servers for you to use are 208.67.222.222, and 208.67.220.220
  • It has servers in Amsterdam, Chicago, Dallas, London, LA, Miami, New York, Palo Alto, Seattle, and Washington.
  • OpenDNS is currently serving 35 Billion DNS requests per day.

Pros:

  1. With servers all around the world it allows your DNS to resolve faster, and if one goes down, another will work for you.
  2. It has phishing protection so you are protected from fake websites.
  3. You can block websites individually or by one of the 40+ filters.
  4. Much more reliable then your ISP.
  5. If another OpenDNS user visited a website, but now its offline, if you have smart cache enabled it will continue to resolve (assuming it’s a dns issue).
  6. Many high end company’s, schools, and governments are using the service daily.
  7. Has plans (paid) for Enterprises.
  8. Its free basic service is only lacking faster customer support, and larger website blocking features.
  9. Websites can be voted by the users with category’s so that websites can be blocked if they are 18+, have ad ware, are gaming, or are high network load.
  10. Stats (Charts, requests, domains, blocked, etc).
  11. Has guides to help you set it up on your router or computer.
  12. Has an application to deal with dynamic IP’s.
  13. Hasn’t ever completely gone down in its 4 years.

Cons:

  1. Unless you purchase a plan if a url does not resolve you will see a page like Google with ads.
  2. The website voting can be highly inaccurate.
  3. Its phishing service Phishtank which is run by its users can take DAYS or even months to flag a url.

Overall, its a fantastic service that I am using, and I am very proud of.

Google DNS

  • It’s domain servers are 8.8.8.8, and 8.8.4.4
  • Is run on Google’s servers.
  • Extremely reliable
  • Privacy is kept in tact
  • Phishing protection
  • Handles 100 billion DNS querys a day
  • Set and go. No fuss no configuring.

Pros:

  1. It’s free
  2. It’s simple
  3. It’s from Google
  4. It’s reliable

Cons:

  1. Business users may find it too simple (i.e. no domain blocking)

Google DNS I prefer because of its speed. Opendns is good for users who want customization or need it.