Wouldn’t it be of great concern or disappointment if you fail to make best blogging decisions for your blog and regret later?
I admit it. Do you?
You don’t have to be a pro to make best blogging decisions and expect results.
It works differently.
You are expert at what you do!
Okay, Let me guess:
You have an out of the box plan for your vibrant blogging niche, crafting million of blog post ideas that you think go viral in minutes, sufficient time and foolproof understanding of growing your blog in the right direction.
It’s okay, even if you don’t have any such blog plans.
Despite having outstanding plans to expand your blog, you need to take important blogging decisions to rank your blog well.
Do you agree?
Some of the links in the post are ‘affiliate links’. That means if you purchase an item through that link I earn a small commission for that. It won’t cost buyers anything extra at all.
Before I started out blogging on a paid platform, I used to spend hours online in determining how to start a profitable blog, the best hosting solutions, the best blogging platform, social media sites and of course, the productive tools.
I’m sure, you also did the same.
OR, you are still searching to make best blogging decisions that don’t make you feel regret in the end.
I understand.
Okay, let’s keep this short.
This post will dive deep into making best blogging decisions that help you to form an online blogging business and flourish.
If you’re still at the start a blog level, here’s the step by step tutorial of starting a profitable blog in next 10 minutes.
Below, I’m sharing my best blogging decisions so that it can work for your blogging career too.
Before you scroll down, download my free blogging ebook to grow your blog and increase your traffic.
If you appreciate it, feel free to spread the word.
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MAKE BEST BLOGGING DECISIONS THAT BRING INSANE RESULTS TO YOUR BLOG
It starts with a commitment to yourself that you are going to build an online platform to benefit your needs. Whether you are planning to start an e-commerce business, a wedding blog, a freelance service portfolio or even a money making blog you have to make the best blogging decisions to turn your blog into a profitable source of income.
In an effort to make you understand about taking best blogging decisions, I divided this post into minor parts.
So, it becomes easy for you.
Tip: Just read the post with concentration and see, if this makes you take an actionable step ahead. If you feel nothing, no worries.
PART 1- A CLEAR VISION AND MAKE IT HAPPEN
I’ve always admired when I see other bloggers making success stories and influencing thousands of people. It’s thrilling to visit successful blogs and get yourself inspired.
Online learning is one of my favorite hobbies. You can easily find me stalking blogs, websites, online networks, and definitely interactive content sites. By the way, I’m an avid reader. Honestly, I love reading emails too. Maybe, that’s one reason my email inbox is always full.
Before last year, I had a clear vision to start a WordPress.org blog with a simple domain name. However, I started blogging almost more than 2 years back with a free WordPress blog. Here’s my free blog ‘Arfa’s Blogging Book’.
If you are planning to start a blog or still at a free blogging platform I’d suggest you take the best ever decision of your blogging career by migrating or even starting a new blog on a self-hosted platform.
But, before that, make a clear vision about it.
PART 2: RESEARCH ON STARTING A PROFITABLE ONLINE BLOG
The next best blogging decision, I made, was comprehensive researching. But, it didn’t take more than a week for me to understand how blogging helps in building successful online businesses. Since I was already blogging for more than a year it was a simpler process.
But, I’m helping you out so that you don’t wait to search for another week or so to find the proven methods.
Domain
Selecting a domain name was a bit challenging for me. As I wasn’t ready to go with my name so I just made a quick search and came up with a name called ‘Epife’. I find it short, connecting, and easily remember-able.
Now, my blog is known to several people as EPIFE and it makes me feel happy about it.
If you are a creative thinker and can think of a blog name according to your personality, interests, niche then it’s amazing.
One of my favorite spot to buy affordable domains is NameCheap. Go to their site, and search for a variety of domain name suggestions for free. Register Your Domains Hassle-Free with Namecheap. It will cost around $11/year.
There are plenty of domain name generating tools online to provide hundreds of name ideas, combinations etc. To your surprise, it’s FREE to use those tools.
Web Hosting
After deciding a name, I hop over and pick Bluehost as the reliable web hosting company. I was amazed to know that I don’t need to purchase a domain name for now because it comes free with Bluehost hosting. It lessened my burden and I eventually made the decision. I was thrilled and bought web hosting with a free domain at such an affordable price. If you want to buy the basic hosting plan you can get the best rates of Bluehost at $3.95/month.
This post help you take all the steps from selecting a domain to publishing a blog post.
Learn the right way to blog with tutorial on starting a blog in next 10 minutes. If there’s anything still, just contact me.
Needless to mention, Siteground is another popular hosting company trusted by a number of users. Their services make clients go happy and satisfied.
You can grab the link and Sign up for Siteground. The hosting plans of Siteground start at $3.95. You can buy a plan that suits your requirement and start a profitable blog online.
Both web hosting companies have their own capacities. And, also these are the top companies too. So, it’s up to you to make a decision and start blogging right away.
Blogging Platform
People often ask, ‘What’s the best blogging platform?’. Few popular sites are WordPress, Wix, Squarespace and blogger. If you ask me, I’d definitely suggest you make your best blogging decision by choosing WordPress.
If you don’t believe you can do a quick search and see, how much people are loving WordPress. It comes with tons of free plugins, amazing dashboard, multiple themes and much more.
Blog Theme
It was yet another best decision I made for my blog. It’s Genesis framework. It made my website look more professional and clean. If you are thinking to invest in a blogging theme, you can consider Genesis. I was even got asked by a number of people what theme I’m using and how neat my blog is.
However, Elegant Themes is another favorite spot to buy beautiful themes. I would say it’s a perfect spot to find an interactive WordPress theme for your website. You can visit the site to view some wonderful themes which attract visitors. I’m sure you’ll absolutely love the layouts, designing, and colors. For more, you should check out my post on Elegant Themes Review : Best WordPress Themes For Every Niche.
Purchasing a blog theme is a one-time investment but definitely worth spending. If you are running short of budget, you can go for a customized theme later.
PART 3: JOIN SOCIAL NETWORKS
At several social sites, people ask about effective ways to connect with bloggers in the idea of establishing successful businesses. Blogging communities are purposely formed for offering limitless ideas, support, and opportunities.
I also found out a helpful free blogging platform which improved my blog engagement rate and more audience.
The audacious step or you could call it the best blogging decision, I took, was when I joined multitasking communities. I had spent hours locating groups but today, you are at an ease.
Helpful Read – 5 Cheap (Free) Social Media Scheduling Tools To Save Your Time
Facebook groups
Even, if you have started blogging lately you must have introduced to few facebook groups.
Want to get the list of top groups for more exposure to your blog?
Before you just download the list, I’d suggest you check out secret tactics to promote content in facebook groups.
By applying the techniques, mentioned in the linked post, you can effortlessly gain targeted traffic and interaction.
Grab my free list of 50 facebook groups below to help your online business.
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Pinterest Boards
Are you still neglecting the power of Pinterest group boards?
I’m sure, you’re not!
One of my pins got more than 1K re-pins. Few other pins are on way to reach 1K mark!
Well, if you’ve still not hold a grip on Pinterest then I’d suggest you check out this post on utilizing Pinterest group boards to grow traffic to your blog.
You can download the list of Pinterest group boards. It also has two of my groups, in case you wish to join 😉
Google Communities
You’d be surprised and maybe thinking, ‘Is Google Plus an approachable social platform to gain exposure?’
Definitely, YES!
I’ve seen profiles of most successful entrepreneurs, marketers, bloggers, writers and businessman on Google Plus. And, the followers are massive in numbers. So, you cannot ignore GOOGLE favorite platform.
This is true that I was clueless, like you, when I started blogging.
But, now I’m understanding platforms and using them at best.
I’ve just built a brand new Google Community, just for bloggers like you, who are struggling to get accepted or promote their blog content. I invite you here.
However, you can do a quick research on finding other communities too.
PART 4: USE SOCIAL MEDIA SCHEDULING TOOLS
As I grounded my feet more into learn about blogging and social media, I improved a lot. It was a few months back, almost 8 months, when I got to know I can actually schedule social media.
Sadly, I acted on utilizing tools later.
I’m glad I did and made another best blogging decision.
To schedule my twitter account, I mostly use Buffer and Hootsuite. I’m using the free version for now. Maybe, I’d for premium versions in coming months.
Sometimes, I use my facebook page tool to schedule my posts. It’s free too.
You can choose your favorite scheduling tool and spend an hour in a week to adding content.
PART 5: BUILD AN EMAIL LIST
Did I tell you, I love attending webinars?
Even, when I was at the early beginning stage of blogging with having 2-3 poor blogging posts on my site I used to attend online webinars.
It doesn’t matter if you are not looking to buy the service. You wouldn’t believe how much information they disseminate for free!
I’ve attended Melyssa Griffin’s webinars on email List and took my best ever blogging decision for building an email list.
I accept that I’m still implementing strategies to grow my email list further but I started it one day.
If you wanna know, I’m using mailerlite email marketing tool which is easy, interactive and free till 1000 subscribers. You can sign up using this link HERE.
PART 6: CREATE A BLOGGING SCHEDULE
Let me warn you.
You are committing a poor mistake if you are not setting UP a blog schedule. Things can still work for your blog but if you have a schedule to follow it’ll help your blog get noticed.
The best blogging decision, I made, was to publish less content but it should be value driven. From day first, I’m creating one post a week. Not more than that.
But, I’m planning to add a little twist to my schedule and produce more content on monthly basis. Tighten up yourself, Arfa!
PART 7: COURSES TO ENCOURAGE SELF-LEARNING
The best thing that helped me grow my blog rapidly is ‘online courses’. It goes for both free and paid online courses that were easy to follow. No matter whatever blogging niche is, we all need mentors to up-level our blog performance.
I love UDEMY for producing highly informative courses for various categories. From social media marketing to basic English language, Udemy has got tremendous lessons to educate. And, they are cheap and full of value. Whenever there goes a sale, I took few courses and cover up my month. Isn’t that great?
You can visit UDEMY now and see what goes perfectly to you.
(You can sign up for my email list too in order to get promotions of Udemy courses)
Want online courses bundle for free?
Head over to this most-viewed post featuring 40+ Free Online Courses For Bloggers + Entrepreneurs To Boost Your Website. It contains totally free resources for advanced learning.
PART 8: UTILIZE BEST TOOLS TO IMPROVE MY BLOGGING EXPERIENCE
Once, you have a blog get yourself pumped up for using great tools either free or paid. At the beginning level, you must be scared to invest in paid tools or paying for monthly subscriptions but soon you’ll realize that paid tools worth every penny.
My favorite tool is Grammarly. That’s simply amazing! Whether you do blog writing or freelance writing, this tool works brilliantly.
Have small typo mistakes? Use Grammarly.
It comes with both free and premium versions. The free version is a good to start with and once you are satisfied, you can upgrade it to enjoy outstanding services. You can sign up for Grammarly here.
PART 9: TAKE BREAKS TO RELAX
I’m shamelessly revealing another secret today.
You must be surprised to know that I almost took 5 months break in my 11 months of blogging. My sister was going to get married and I wanted to make the day best for her. I’m satisfied today that I took the gap.
Needless to mention, I had to put restless hours doing blogging recently to fill the gap and produce killer content.
PART 10: DON’T QUIT OTHER SIDE HUSTLES (at an early stage of blogging)
I accept it was arduous to continue my freelance writing alongside blogging.
I had a little downswing too but I regained it.
Of course, I wanted to do freelancing as a side hustle and now, blogging and writing make a complete match for me. Honestly, this blog has given much to me including freelance clients too. Lots more to come, Arfa!
I’m proud for coming up with another best blogging decision to hone my skills as a freelance writer.
Helpful – 21 Freelance Job Sites For Beginners Who Work From Home
What is your best ever blogging decision that worked insanely for your blog?
Maybe, it could be your ultimate decision of starting a blog or even, writing on topics that you actually love. Let others know about your great success.
Also, let me know any productive tip that worked for your blog or any tool you might think is a time-saving device.
I would love to know your best decisions that might have increased traffic to your site or give your blog an attractive design or maybe allow you to be happy about it.
Dude, it could be anything.
Let me know in the comments.
Would you mind sharing these important decisions so your fans can benefit out of it? Please
Phaytea says
Hi Arfa, lovely content as always. Using social media has been an excellent tool for my blog.. I follow your other blog and only just realised you run this too…I also wrote about it.. ☺☺☺
John says
Thanks for sharing the information. I have learned a lot here which I will Implement on my blog.
Janice | MostlyBlogging says
Hi,
I am off to read your “secret” Facebook strategy post. I write about these topics too. Thanks,
Janice
Linda Luke says
Great ideas! I haven’t tried Google communities yet and will take a look at them. I am also not a big Pinterest person, but I guess that can change too.
Thank you for all of the great tips you provide.
Andrea says
This is a great detailed post on how to really make good blogging decisions! Superb! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Lanae Bond says
Thank you for the advice! It is difficult to try to do everything on your own, so good advice is always needed!
Arfa Nazeer says
I agree, Lanae. It’s always a great idea to get advice and recommendations from others.
Andres says
These isbgreat info! Thank you for sharing! I do feel I have to explore the Google communities a bit more. I have a G+ account and I don’t use it (don’t even know where to start, lol). Making good decisions when it comes to blogging is hard as there is sooo much info out there and sometimes it can feel overwhelming.
Carla Crudup says
I love this article!
So helpful and a great resource for new bloggers! Excellent and thank you!
Arfa Nazeer says
Thanks, Carla! I’m glad you loved this post.
Erin Cotter says
Hi! I love your content and find it so helpful! In the growth stages of my blog now, and looking forward to being able to spend more time with it. It is definitely worth it for me to start creating a blogging schedule, i think it will help me stick to my routine posts. I’m joining your group on Facebook! I found your blog on Pinterest! So glad I found you! And I agree grammarly is the best!
Arfa Nazeer says
Thanks, Erin! I really appreciate that you took out time and read the post. Awesome, the Facebook group is a great way to connect and inspire.