WordPress is the most popular CMS out there. And there are reasons behind it— the same ones that made you choose WordPress for starting your blog.
Reasons such as
- Easy User Management
- SEO compatibility
- Robust Security
- Simple and fluid design
- Availability of unlimited plugins and themes
makes WordPress the best.
But, does registering a domain, purchasing hosting, and installing WordPress make your blog ready for the boost? Absolutely not!
There are a few must-take steps to leverage the potential of WordPress and blogging in general. Here are four of those:
1. Install theme and plugins
The immediate step to take once the blog is live is to install some essential plugins and a quality theme.
Theme:
Your theme decides the UI/UX of your blog. An ideal theme has three qualities:
- Responsiveness: A quality that makes a theme look fantastic despite the device used to access the blog.
- Lightweight: Heavy themes take time to load, which no one likes.
- Purpose: A fashion blog and a news blog can’t have the same UI. An ideal theme serves the purpose of the blog.
Plugins:
Plugins are one of the reasons to choose WordPress over other CMS. A just-started WordPress site must have appropriate plugins, such as:
- Yoast SEO or Rankmath for search engine optimization.
- Updraftplus for backups.
- W3 total cache, WP Rocket, etc. for caching.
- Wordfence for security.
- Akismet for Anti-spam
Other plugins, like Page Builders, should be used whenever required. And plugins that affect the site speed should be eliminated.
Moreover, you can also add external codes to serve different purposes. For instance, using appropriate landing page builders such as Leadpages, you can implement persuasive landing pages on your blog to generate sales. For inspiration here are some landing page examples.
2. Fill up the mandatory pages
There are a few pages that boost the credibility, ranking, and decision-making of readers/buyers and Google(especially while applying for Adsense). One must publish them before starting the blogging part.
These pages include:
- About page
- Disclaimer
- Privacy policy
- GDPR policy
- Terms of Service
- Contact page
Fill those up and move on to the next step.
3. Start the process
Once you have performed the first two steps, get started with what you wanted to do.
Click on the “Add new post” and start typing. Write your heart out. But before that, learn a couple of things:
- SEO: This will help you write in a way Google admires.
- Writing: This will help you, well, write better.
Once the first article is live, share it(not spam it) wherever you can, and seek feedback. Moreover, start building an email list- This will help you sell products, services, or affiliate product/service in the future (through landing pages).
Of course, you didn’t start a blog without such intention(unless you just love writing). Once the reader-base starts building, get right to it, i.e., monetize. Few of the ways are:
- Advertisements: Apply for Adsense.
- Affiliate Marketing: Try Amazon affiliates or others.
- Selling: Create your product/service and ask(creatively) the readers to buy.
The first three steps are the entire process of a blogging journey, but one cannot succeed without the last step.
4. The last step: Find your zone
Succeeding as a blogger is a result of patience, persistence, and consistency. For that, you need to find your zone.
There are two steps to find an ideal zone:
- Write what you love: There are numerous niches one can profit from. Choose what you love and can write about the most.
- Find your literal zone: Treat blogging like a business. Have a distraction-free corner in the home, if you must. Or, rent a nearby coworking space to be productive. Either way, find your “Zen zone”.
That’s it.
Wrap up:
Blogging is a lucrative opportunity for those who are serious about the ins and outs of starting a blog. If you are one and are unfamiliar with what to do after hosting your domain, follow the above four steps immediately to get a kickstart.
If you are an experienced blogger, what is the one thing you would like to add to this list? Let me know in the comments below. We will discuss it there. Until then, I bid you adieu. Goodbye.