Anyone can start a blog, but it takes a lot more to start a killer blog. And apart from creating a killer blog, you need to create a blog that converts.
Sounds like a challenging task, right? You bet!
You see, starting a blog is easy. All you need is to purchase a domain and sign up for a professional web hosting service. With today’s technology, you can start a killer blog under $50.
The biggest problem?
Any blogger can start a killer blog, but the blog isn’t good enough to convert visitors into paying customers.
On this blog, I always try to provide as much information as I could regarding blogging and today’s topic is all about ‘How To Start A Killer Blog That Converts.‘
And if you want to discover how to make serious money through blogging, I recommend you to sign up for my weekly newsletter below.
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1. Getting down to the basics
If you want to start a killer blog that converts, you need to have both of these basics to start on:
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- Catchy domain name (if you are very specific to a niche)
- A good web host
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Many bloggers take forever to choose a domain name. As a matter of fact, a domain name doesn’t play an important role regarding SEO (compared to last few years). A domain name must be:
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- Easy to remember
- Makes sense
- Provide a good understand of what the website is all about
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On the other hand, a good web host will go a long way. Therefore, always take some time to consider what they could offer.
Here are several features you must consider:
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- Backup option
- Security feature
- Support
- Pricing
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If you are looking for a shared hosting which is affordable with good customer service, there’s BlueHost that serves millions of blog owners around the world. But if you are concern about blog security and blog loading speed, I recommend going with WP Engine as they provide superior uptime and state-of-the-art security features.
2. Creating your preferred persona
A persona is the aspect of someone’s character that is presented to or perceived by others.
In this case, your preferred persona is your ideal reader. Here’s an example of this blog’s persona:
- Male
- Age between 18 to 35
- Students or working adult looking to build passive income
- Able to spend under $100 for starting up a blog
- Living in Asia
- Having basic knowledge in technology
A persona is important because it gives you an idea of who your potential blog reader is. It also helps you to create powerful blog posts that will resonate with them.
So, how can create a persona helps in starting a killer blog that converts?
The first steps that that with a proper persona, you are NOT overselling the persona with things he/she don’t need or could afford.
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Important takeaway: If you are constantly promoting or selling products to the wrong audience, you are not able to close many sales (or any sales at all). Your goal is to promote a specific product to those who truly needs it.
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As your blog grows, you can create multiple personas for your blog to scale accordingly.
3. Installing the right plugins
If you are planning to start a WordPress blog, one of the key features is to install the right plugins.
Here are several WordPress plugins that you need to have:
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- Social media
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Editorial calendar
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Part A: The importance of social media (plugins)
Did you know that social media plays a huge role in ensuring your blog converts? Well, indirectly yes.
Social media allows your blog visitors to share the posts they find useful on various social media platforms.
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This helps you to boost traffic and increases the chance to convert sales or email subscribers.
It is important to understand that to have a blog that converts, you need to start a killer blog first!
WordPress users are lucky because they have the option to choose the type of social media plugins to use. I’ve tested many, and the best is Social Warfare.
The settings are simple, and there are many different templates to choose from. At the price of $29, this is my best investment in social media for the year.
Part B: Search engine optimization (SEO) plugin
Starting a killer blog that converts is not possible without proper SEO. You might have done the following:
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- Did sufficient research on the topic
- Wrote an epic post
- Link out to relevant
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And after three days, the post doesn’t seem to get the attraction you wished for. If you are wondering what is wrong, it is most probably the post isn’t optimized for SEO.
This is where SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO comes into play. You don’t need to hire an SEO consultant to help you with optimizing content because Yoast SEO has provided you with all the information needed to ‘˜look good’ by the search engine.
Take a look at the image above. Yoast SEO will give you suggestions that you need to improve your post to stand a better chance of ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs). You can also use this guide to configure Yoast SEO properly.
All you need is to perform changes accordingly and the notification lights will change from red to green.
Part C: Editorial calendars
For starters, having editorial calendars are absolutely optional. If used correctly, they can help you plan out your content marketing strategy (which is vital for the success of creating a killer blog).
Here are two awesome editorial calendars you can use for WordPress:
Personally, I prefer Edit Flow over Editorial Calendar because it seems to be updated more often than the other.
4. Design your blog with awesome theme
Start a killer blog that converts.
The above is accomplish-able when you have an awesome website design. In this case, ‘awesome’ represents simplicity, fun and effective (without any specific orders).
The design of your website represents a whole lot of thing, and the most important is a website design represents your brand.
A good website design is important regardless if you are a professional content writer like me or a large organization.
If you are looking for turnkey website designs and clean coded, you can check out what StudioPress has to offer. If you are looking for a drag and drop website builder who focuses on conversion, Thrive Themes will be your ultimate choice.
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BONUS: Need help deciding a good WordPress theme? Here’s a complete review of two of the best WordPress themes in the market now. Thrive Themes vs Genesis Theme Framework.
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5. Choice of words
Let’s talk about starting a killer blog that converts and ‘converts‘ is the keyword here.
You may write a damn good post, but it is not effective if you are unable to convert visitors into paying customers.
The art of conversion evolves mainly around using the common words used by your potential customers.
Using common words would allow you to resonates with your customers.
If you need help with using the right words, here’s a good source from CopyBlogger, 5 Most Powerful Words in the English Language.
6. Having the right mindset
If you want to start a killer blog that converts, you need to have the right mindset. This means that you need to think like a reader yourself.
Here’s a little logic comes into play.
For starters, there aren’t many people who will purchase a product right off the first time when they encounter a sales copy.
They would take at least a few times of reading (reviews, comments, suggestions, etc.) before they can finally decide to purchase the product. And with that being said, you (as the seller) shouldn’t be overly pushy or salesy because the action will just turn them off.
So, how do you make sure you are not too salesy but able to convert them using blog posts?
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The answer is this: You need to understand their challenges and provide them with a solution, a solution that works!
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If you can provide such, you have just scored yourself a winner.
Are you ready to start a killer blog that converts?
Starting a killer blog that converts is not a tough job. However, it takes a lot of time and planning. You can start by starting a blogging schedule to plan your blogging strategy.
I hope you love visual as the below is an infographic on how you can start a blog in just five steps:
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