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Finding the perfect home can be an exciting and daunting adventure. After all, you’ll likely be living in your new home for many years to come, so you must make an informed decision. As you search for your ideal property, several key factors must be considered. Here are some things to consider when shopping for your dream home.
Location, Location, Location When searching for a home, location is one of the most important factors to consider. Think about what kind of neighbourhood you’d like to live in and what type of amenities you require nearby — such as public transportation options, schools, grocery stores, parks, or medical facilities. You should also research the local crime rate and other potential safety issues that could affect your daily life. Size And Layout It’s essential to consider how much space you need and how you plan to use it. Do you want a certain number of bedrooms or bathrooms? Will your family be growing? Are there any special features that would make your life easier? It’s also worth considering the layout of the home; some properties might have good-sized rooms but limited storage space due to their design. Condition Of The Home When viewing potential homes, take time to check each room thoroughly for any signs of damage or wear-and-tear — such as water damage on ceilings or walls, cracks in foundations, and faulty electrical wiring systems — that could indicate underlying problems with the property. If any issues are found during your inspection process, calculate if they will cost too much money or effort to repair before making an offer on the house. Features And Amenities Next, think about the features and amenities that are important to you. For example, does it have a fence, or will you have to visit SSWM to buy the products and put it up yourself? Are there any energy-efficient appliances that you’d like to take advantage of? Are there any special features in the home, such as a swimming pool or outdoor patio, that you’d like to use for entertaining? This will help you determine if the home is a good fit for your lifestyle. Your Budget During your search for a new home, you need to know exactly how much money you can afford to spend — both upfront costs and ongoing expenses such as mortgage payments and utility bills — so that you don’t end up spending more than is necessary or getting into financial difficulties down the line. Ensure all costs associated with buying a new home are factored into your budget before signing any contracts. Resale Value When you buy a home, you’ll want to think about resale value in the future. If you plan on living in the home for many years, this may not be a significant concern; however, if you anticipate selling the property sooner rather than later, it’s worthwhile considering how desirable it will be to future buyers and what upgrades could be made that would boost its appeal. With a bit of research, you can be sure that you have selected the perfect property for your needs! There are many factors to consider when shopping for your dream home. Take the time to weigh each of these elements carefully and consider how they will affect your daily living experience before making any decisions.
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It’s important that when you redo your exterior of your house you are looking for ways to maximize a makeover and get it right the first time. You should also consider increasing the value of your property if you want to put it on the market one day. Improvements take time and you should start with the outside of your house before you move inside.
The reason for this is that - as companies like Cladding Monkey will tell you - the exterior is the first place people will judge when they see your home. Redoing the exterior does take time and it’s a smart way to give your house the makeover you need without the whole remodel! So, how should you make your exterior look good? The good news is that we have the tips you need to get it right the first time. Use the right paint. You can paint the exterior of your home but you need to make sure of buying an exterior paint colour and type. You need to apply a fresh coat of paint and that means a waterproof colour pot that has a high impact without the effort. If you use the best possible paints and primers, you’ll have something that stands well against the weather. A paint job is a small thing you can do but it’s also an amazing thing you can do! Call in the landscapers. You don't have to do this bit yourself. You can call in the experts to refresh the landscaping you’ve got and make a big difference to your home exterior. Consider adding new shrubbery and flower beds, gravelling and pots with plants in them. Pruning your existing plants will also help you to create new pathways and mulch and stones can really create a nicely inviting look. Add some new lighting. Upgrading or adding lighting to your home exterior is an easy way to make the exterior look good. You should take a look at what solar lighting can do for you and go from there. You’ll be surprised at how well lighting can be received and if you put lights along the pathways and the walls of the house you can ensure that the whole place looks great. Upgrade the windows. When was the last time you did this? Upgrading to double glazing or changing out the panes on the outside of the windows is a good idea. You should know that there are many window styles out there which gives you plenty of choice! You can upgrade the windows and be sure that you are making a good investment in the house. Change the front door. Another bold move is to completely strip down and repaint the front door, or change the door entirely by taking it out and installing a new one. A front door makes a statement and the colour you choose makes a good difference to the house, too. Try here first and then build around it! 
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Have you ever wanted to start a blog but needed to know where to begin? Or you've been blogging for a while but not seeing the growth or revenue you want. If so, this post is for you! So please keep reading to learn some simple tips for growing your blog and monetizing it.
Find Your Niche The first step to growing your blog is finding your niche. What are you passionate about? What do you want to write about? Once you've found your place, stick with it! That doesn't mean you can't write about other things occasionally, but for the most part, stick to writing about topics that fall within your niche. This will help attract readers interested in what you have to say. Post Consistently Another important tip for growing your blog is posting content consistently. This doesn't mean you have to post every day, but try to stick to a schedule as much as possible. Whether that means posting once a week or once a month, being consistent will help keep readers coming back for more. And, the more often you post, the better your chance of being discovered by new readers. Promote Your Blog More is needed to post content - you have to promote it too! Sharing your posts on social media is a great way to spread the word and expose your blog to new audiences. You can also join blogging forums or groups where you can interact with other bloggers and share your work. And remember SEO! Hiring an SEO agency can help you get higher rankings in search engine results, bringing more traffic to your blog. Monetizing Your Blog Once you've grown your blog and built a following, it's time to monetize it. You can make money from your blog, such as affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, running ads, selling products or services, and more. Find what works best for you, and start monetizing your blog today! Offer Value One of the best ways to grow your blog is by offering value to readers. This could mean providing helpful information, sharing exciting stories, or entertaining them. Whatever it is, ensure that each piece of content offers value to the reader. This will not only help keep them coming back for more, but it will also encourage them to share your content with others. Engage With Your Readers Finally, remember to engage with your readers! Responding to comments shows that you care about what they say and helps create a sense of community around your blog. Additionally, try reaching out to other bloggers in your niche and collaborate with them on posts or projects. Collaborating with other bloggers is a great way to get your name out there and attract new readers. Growing a successful blog takes time and effort, but it is possible! Following the tips outlined in this post, you can reach new heights with your blog and even start earning money! Remember: find your niche, post regularly, promote your content, offer value, and engage with your readership! Good luck!  Image credit: Negative Spacefrom Pexels If you have a blog, you might be earning a reasonable passive income from it. You might even rely on that extra income. So if someone were to hack your blog, plagiarize it, or otherwise change its useful income into something that didn’t bring you any money at all – and landed you in trouble to book – you would be devastated. Even if you have security measures on your blog, you can always improve them. Here are some ways to do just that.
Change Your Login With the majority of blogging platforms, and especially WordPress, you’ll find that your default login name is set as ‘admin’. You should change this straight away to something completely different – something that doesn’t relate to you, your name, your address, or any other personal details. It can be a string of random letters and numbers if you prefer (and this is great for security reasons as it takes much longer to hack, and those attempting it may just move onto a site that is easier for them) as long as you can remember it. Set Automatic Backups Regular backups mean that your blog and its contents are relatively secure. Back the blog up to a cloud-based system for even more peace of mind. It means that you can restore the entire site at a click should anything go wrong. Password Authentication Keeping hackers away from a successful blog can be hard, which is why your security needs to be set as high as possible. Adding password protection to your admin folder can assist with this. Anyone who wants to log in will need the correct password and username, not just the user login name. It’s an extra level of protection that doesn’t take long to set up, but is worth doing to save your site and your income should the worst happen. Stop Copy And Paste If someone wants to steal your web content and pass it off as their own, in most cases, all they will need to do is highlight what they want, and copy it, ready to paste into their own blog template. They will copy even the formatting, so it’s an easy way for someone to create a blog on the back of your hard work! To prevent this from happening, use programs such as Copyscape to avoid this issue of copying and pasting. You can disable the ability for anyone to copy from your site, and it’s unlikely that a plagiarist will be bothered to type everything out for themselves, so your content will be kept as safe as possible. Don’t Advertise Your Version Of WordPress WordPress sites often publish a version number, allowing visitors to determine if you are using an outdated, unpatched version of WordPress. Exposing your WordPress site’s version number exposes it to security risks and attacks. While you can remove the WordPress version from your web page, you must make an extra change: go to your WordPress installation directory and remove the readme.html file, which also advertises the version of your WordPress site to the rest of the world. A lot of WordPress themes include login links that provide quick access to a login page. You do not need to expose your login page so that anybody, including hackers, can access it. As a result, if you have a theme that includes a login link, you should delete it. If you can’t get rid of it, think about altering the theme. Only Install Trusted Plugins Hackers might easily get access to your site through the plugins you download. When you install a plugin, you enable it to access core files in your WordPress dashboard. This is why you should exercise caution while installing plugins on your site. If you do run across a problem, someone who can execute a WordPress bug fix may be required. The following are four main considerations you should make before installing any plugin: 1. Make sure it’s listed in the WordPress.org plugins directory If you can’t locate the plugin in this directory, it’s either not authentic, or it’s a paid plugin. Do not be hesitant to download it once it is available in this location. 2. Examine the rating Examine the plugin’s star rating as well as the breakdown of votes. There may be a security issue if the plugin has more one-star reviews than five-star ratings. 3. The quantity of downloads Look for a well-known plugin. This can be defined by the amount of downloads for each plugin. Bad plugins seldom generate thousands of downloads since moderators will quickly delete them. 4. Look into third-party reviews As previously stated, paid plugins are not included in the directory, making it difficult to verify their credibility. So, while contemplating such plugins, read the evaluations of individuals who have used them to learn more.  Image credit: Picography from Pexels One of the great advantages of a blog is that you can own it in a way you can never own a social media platform. This means that you can choose every aspect of your blog’s look, feel, and functionality. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to finding the right home for your blog.
Your basic options Your first choice is whether you want to go with free hosting or paid-for hosting. If you go for paid-for hosting, your next choice is whether you want to go with all-in-one hosting or customized hosting. Once you’ve made these decisions, the rest is fine-tuning your selections until you have exactly the right set-up for you. Free hosting versus paid-for hosting Free may sound good but in the real world it comes with a lot of limitations. The biggest limitation is the fact that most of the free hosting platforms require you to use their domain. In other words, your blog’s address will be something like freehosting.com/yourblog as opposed to yourblog.com. The one notable exception to this is Blogger. This does allow you to use your own custom domain for free. It does take some work to set this up but there are easy-to-follow instructions online. Blogger has other limitations. For example, there are very limited options for customization. With that said, if you’re on a really tight budget Blogger may be worth a look. This would depend very much on your niche. For example, if you were creating a blog about sustainability, Blogger might be fine, at least to start with. If, by contrast, you wanted to be taken seriously as a digital marketing consultant, then you’d probably want to avoid Blogger. All-in-one hosting versus custom hosting For most people, the choice between free hosting and paid-for hosting will be pretty clear-cut. If you have the budget for it, paid-for hosting is almost always the better choice. If you don’t, you just have to do what you can with what you have. The choice between all-in-one and customized hosting can, however, be more challenging. All-in-one hosting can be the more expensive option. With that said, the difference may be smaller than it first appears once you add up the cost of buying everything separately. Also, you’ll usually have the option to pay monthly. Some of the customized hosting providers only support annual billing or charge much higher fees if you pay monthly. The main advantage of all-in-one hosting is that it’s convenient. In particular, security is entirely managed for you. That can be a huge benefit to bloggers with limited time and/or few technical skills. The main disadvantage of all-in-one hosting is that you have little scope for customizations. With custom hosting, it’s the opposite. You can set up your blog exactly how you like it but you are responsible for each part of it. Crucially, that includes security. Modern security needs to be “baked in” to every aspect of a website, including a blog. This means that if you don’t know what you’re doing, you may need to pay for help from someone who does.  Image credit: Unknown When it comes to starting a blog, there’s obviously a lot to think about - from the hosting service you use to the platform you build on, and everything in between. One thing that you may not have thought about or taken into account is how to create the perfect blogging environment at home.
The chances are that when you first started out you never expected your blog to turn into anything more than a hobby, and so you might not have thought about your blogging environment. While you can simply opt to blog from wherever you like, it’s important to think about creating a blogging area - think of it like your blogging home office if you will. Wondering what the perfect blogging environment should look like? Below is a guide to some of the simple steps you can take to create the perfect blogging environment, allowing you to take your blog from strength to strength. Set up a dedicated space First things first, it’s a good idea that you take the time to create a dedicated working space where you can blog from. Somewhere that allows you to sit and blog to your heart’s content without being interrupted. In an ideal world, this would be a dedicated room, however if this isn’t possible you could always create a mini blogging area in the corner of another room. For your space, you will need a few essentials, including a desk, ergonomic chair, a laptop, and any other useful accessories, such as a bluetooth mouse and potentially a laptop stand. Not sure what essentials you need? Take the time to work it out by getting inspiration online from other bloggers. Ensure the internet is fast and reliable It’s also vital that when it comes to creating the perfect blogging space that you set yourself up somewhere that has internet that’s fast and reliable. There’s nothing worse than trying to write a blog when your internet isn’t working properly and it takes ages for everything to load. If your WiFi isn’t reliable enough, then you might want to consider looking into using ethernet cabling instead, allowing you to have access to the fastest and most efficient internet access. Make the space comfortable If you want to be able to work productively, it’s vital that you ensure that the space is as comfortable and cosy as possible. It’s hard to work in a place where you don’t feel comfortable as it impacts your ability to work in a productive manner. So creating somewhere that you like to spend time in is important. Think about what you would like the space to be. Are you someone who loves minimalist design or are you someone who likes to have certain accessories dotted around, such as having lots of lovely greenery around, for instance? Create a space that’s the right fit for you and your blogging needs. Creating the perfect blogging environment at home is easier than you might think - it’s simply a case of getting the approach right.  Image credit: Daniel Reche from Pexels From time to time, just about everyone finds themselves in a situation where they want to make some significant change in their life, whether that means setting a New Years’ Resolution to get in better shape, or whether it means creating a startup business.
Whether you are considering a foray into the field of Digital Marketing, want to get more fit, or are interested in seeing more of the world, however, one thing that can end up getting in the way of a planned life change is a simple lack of energy. If you feel exhausted and unmotivated on a regular basis, actually moving forward and making any substantial kind of life change can seem very daunting. Here are some tips for getting the energy to make a life change. Use a habit tracker, and start by forcing yourself to go through the right basic steps each day At the start of any new endeavour, you're likely to find it difficult to consistently turn up and put in the effort required – and this could seem to drain your energy significantly more than it would otherwise. Particularly when you're feeling as though you don't have as much energy as you would like, however, using a habit tracker and starting off by forcing yourself to go through the right basic steps each day, can be very helpful. It's a good idea to start simple here, rather than to allow yourself to become overwhelmed by trying to do too much in one go. Consistency, and gaining momentum, is very important. Both for making a life change, and boosting your sense of energy. Put yourself in an environment that helps to encourage and motivate you When you put yourself in situations that help to facilitate the kind of behaviour you're trying to adopt, and especially when you surrounding yourself with individuals who embody the kind of change you're looking to make, you will tend to find that you are much more energetic and driven to move forward in the right direction. If, on the other hand, you want to get in great shape but don't know anyone who's into fitness, you are just going to tend to find it harder to be energised and to take the steps required to move in the right direction consistently. Take steps to surround yourself with the kind of people who can help to keep you motivated to make the change you're looking to make. Find energising hobbies and pastimes to add to your daily routine There are various hobbies and pastimes that you can adopt that are likely to help you to feel more energised on an everyday basis. Find which of these hobbies and pastimes work for you, and then make sure to add them into your everyday routine. Some of the kinds of things you might want to explore could include a yoga routine, regular outdoor strolls, or a chat with a loved one who always helps you to feel more upbeat.
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Blogging has been around for longer than you probably think, it went through a huge explosion in popularity and almost everyone seemingly owned a blog whether for fun or commercial purposes. This then turned on its head and discussions about the death of blogging started to come to the forefront of advertorial conversations, particularly as social media and microblogging became the new in thing. That said it is still thought that blogging has its place and what is more than blogging can benefit your business. Here are some of the benefits of blogging for your business.
It increases traffic to your website A website that includes a well written and SEO friendly blog section will attract traffic to the website. Ensuring that the blog content provides value to the readers will draw them to your website and once they are there you have increased your website site traffic but also your brand awareness and potential for advertising. A purchase may not be made there and then but you are now on potential customers radar. The stronger your website traffic the better it is for your business. For example; A clothing brand may create blog content regarding the latest fashion items or how to style particular outfits. This is adding value to their customers all the while attracting traffic to the website and using the blog content to advertise their products. Showcase your business Whatever your business is then blogging gives you a real opportunity to provide a detailed outlook of your company. You don’t have to fit gimmicks into short sentences or summarise your business in a catchy caption, you can take the time to really portray the message you want and the services you offer. What is more, you can use this platform to raise awareness of matters important and relevant to your business. For Example; sustainability consultants or environmentally friendly products have a great opportunity to use a blog section to expand upon their services or products. They can create blog content that showcases their ethical business and explains what they are about in detail and why. They can also use this channel to share important issues that either relate to their business or indeed the wider issues concerning their business, such as environmental awareness and sustainability. Longevity of the advertorial content One of the real added bonuses of blogging content is its shelf life. A blog post can be written and instead of fading into the ether over time, a well-written keyword-friendly post can actually gain more traction and better reach over long periods of time, potentially over several years. Older posts can gain authority and ranking over time and become more easily discoverable via search engines. Further, if these posts are regularly updated to reflect recent or current purposes of campaigns they can increase their search engine standing. There are very few other advertorial options that provide that shelf life for similar financial and time expenditure. Example; A keyword friendly recipe post (if relevant to your business) that is updated from time to time is a great way of adding value and attracting readers that will truly stand the test of time.  Image credit: Pixabay from Pexels If you have taken the time to create and populate your blog, then the chances are that the last thing you will want to see happen is for the traffic that has been coming in to read your blog, suddenly take a nosedive.
However, sometimes a dip in blog traffic can happen, and it is not always for the reason that you may think. So, to help you to figure out what might be happening, here are some of the possible reasons that your blog traffic has plummeted. You are not looking at how you are performing The best way to ensure that your blog performs as well as possible is to keep track of it and how well it is doing by measuring various important KPIs. When you look at your performance, you will see when the dips first start, which means that you can take steps to fix it and get people to read what you have to say. If you don't look at how well you are performing, things can only worsen, which could be tricky to fix in the future. Things aren't working properly Broken links, broken redirects, and slow loading times will never showcase you to your full potential. Many SEO specialists will say that broken redirects and links are one of the biggest downfalls of a website and a blog in particular. Of course, they do happen from time to time, but if you keep checking the performance of your blog, then you should pick up on them quickly, allowing you to fix them before they become too much of a problem. Natural changes Despite your best efforts in SEO and marketing, things can change over time. The types of searches your customers make will vary, and a keyword that once worked fine may not be working the same way now. One way to try and stop this from being the cause of a drop in your blog traffic is to keep on top of the trends and changes. You might not always know what changes are around the corner, but sometimes simply learning about trending terms is enough to improve. Your competitors are doing it better There is a good chance that as your traffic dips, there is a rise somewhere else. The trouble is, this other place will more than likely be your competitor's blog. So, keep an eye on what they are doing if you notice that things are going south for you. Of course, you should never duplicate their posts, but you can see which topics they are currently sharing and if they don't match yours, then maybe they are doing things better than you are. Worried that your blog posts are not performing as well as they once were? The important thing to remember is that it is up to you to try and fix them. Ignoring them and hoping that things will get better will never work and may even cause you much bigger problems in the long term. It is a well-known fact that Google ads are a great way to increase SEO. The google ads agency has been doing this for years, and they have seen many different kinds of strategies work overtime. What Google wants from you, as a company, is consistency. And what google will give you in return is more traffic and higher rankings on google search engine results pages (SERPS). So here are some tips on how to transition your small business into an established brand through google ads! Boosting Google ads can be advantageous for increasing your website's SEO. This is because it will allow you to reach more of your target audience, which means that the content on your site has a better chance at ranking on search results pages (SERPs). Something else that will really help to boost your traffic and get ahead of your competitors is issuing press releases, You should only do this when you have something important to share about your blog or your business, but when there is a genuine need to share, hiring decent press release writers to craft a compelling piece can drive more traffic your way and really take the spotlight off the competition.  Image credit: NordWood Themes on Unsplash Whether you write your blog to share personal anecdotes and stories or to promote your business, you should always be on the lookout for ways to take your blog to the next level. After all, this will allow you to widen your reach, increasing the number of followers and views you receive on each blog, which in turn, could lead to financial success.
However, with hundreds of new blogs popping up each and every day, it can be hard to find a way to stand out from the crowd. One way in which you can do just that is by running a youtube channel in conjunction with your blog, sharing content across both platforms. There are many benefits to this method. For example: Running a YouTube Channel helps you broaden your content. Thankfully, it’s easier than ever to embed youtube videos into your blogs. This means that your viewers will not have to leave your website to watch your latest video - be that a vlog or an advertisement. This means that you can reduce the chances of your viewers getting bored, as there is always something new for them to watch or read. Furthemore, videos are often more accessible than large blocks of text - meaning that you could begin to cater to a much wider audience. Running a YouTube Channel will lead to increased blog traffic. As your YouTube channel begins to grow or gain traction, your viewers may be on the lookout for other ways to engage with your content. Therefore, you can use your YouTube channel to increase your blog traffic by sharing links to your blog in your videos or discussing your latest blog in video format. Essentially, you can use YouTube as a platform to advertise your brand. However, if you are struggling to grow your YouTube following, don’t despair. You can use youtube automation to analyse your growth and put strategies in place to Running a YouTube Channel helps you connect with your audience. When you are trying to build a following, it’s important that you take the time to develop a strong relationship with your audience. In order for them to remain interested in you and your content, you need to ensure that you are friendly and approachable - and videos can be a great way to do this as they feel more personal than a traditional blog. Furthemore, you can connect with your customers by responding to or engaging with their comments or by streaming ‘live’ on YouTube. You can earn money through youtube. Another benefit to running a YouTube channel (aside from the fact that it is a lot of fun) is that it can help you achieve greater financial security. This is due to the fact that popular or successful channels can begin to earn income through views, or by adding advertisements to their blogs. In addition, you could also look into obtaining sponsorships - wherein you advertise or promote certain products or services to your viewers and receive compensation for your efforts.  Image credit: LinkedIn Sales Solutions from Unsplash Nowadays, it seems like the world is buzzing with blogs, and you can find millions of them all over the internet. They are a personal account of the blogger, their thoughts, observations, and comments. You can even sign up to be a blogger with the likes of Google. These few facts all seem to indicate that blogs are not just for people who want to put thoughts into writing. Instead, they have become a status symbol of sorts. If you are good enough at blogging, you can earn money by putting advertisements on your blog. In order to do so, you need to get a huge amount of traffic. And you need to do this for years to make money.
If you are someone who is new to blogging, or even if you are someone who has been blogging for a while, you may want to think about quitting your job and making money from blogs. The truth of the matter is that you can easily earn a living from blogging by simply sticking with it. If you are in need of cash, try blogging. If you are not in need of cash, then by all means continue your current job. Blogging is a form of making money, which can be done from home. However, to be able to make money from blogging, you need to be patient. If you are wanting to earn cash, first find your niche. Then, find a site that will allow you to put your ads on your blog. And to make money, you need to create a blog with following blogs within the same niche. The following is key for bloggers. For example, if your niche is dogs, then you need to create a blog for Golden Retrievers. This way, you increase the following of your blogs, and this will increase the traffic to your blog, which will in turn increase your earnings. Blog is a website made up of pages, and the posts that are published. It's the written content on a specific topic that is posted to the website, and can be visual in nature. It's a series of articles arranged in reverse chronological order. Blogging is the act of making blog posts, which are the items on a blog. Blogging is an online form of public writing, where people can post their thoughts and opinions on any topic they want. Blogging has evolved into a major part of internet marketing, and a form of advertising since it increased traffic and generated revenue. Blogging can also be a very effective marketing tool as well as a revenue generator. Bloggers earn a few bucks every month but the amount is more than sufficient for most bloggers. Blogger is an example of a blog that generates money. This blog is a personal blog, and is run by a 23 year old guy. The purpose of the blog is to provide resources for entrepreneurs who want to create a product from home, or create a product for distribution by Amazon. Blog for cash is a simple idea that is simple to implement, and it works. If you have a blog that generates cash, you will be able to do so because you have an opt-in form on your blog. If someone signs up to receive your free newsletter, you will be able to email them information about products you use and resources that can help them produce a profitable product. To blog for cash you need to have a blog that generates cash. The other option is to have a blog that is free, but not as effective as a blog that generates cash. The only way to find out is to try it. Write a blog for free, and you will not be able to see any results unless you write a blog that generates cash.  Image credit: Anete Lūsiņa from Unsplash If you are just getting started with blog marketing then you will probably be wondering what the point is of blogging. In fact if you are a new blog owner then you probably have questions such as how do I promote my blog, how to get people to pay attention to my blog and also where do I get the inspiration to write about what I am passionate about?
Well, you should not have those questions right now. You have a good website that people are just passing by. So, the key to blogging success is knowing what your blog is all about. In fact you should ask yourself what you want your blog to do for you right now and then you should work on giving your blog value to your visitors. Before you start building your blog start asking yourself these questions What do I want my blog to do for me right now? It is all about the visitors, your blog is made up of good content that others pass by and eventually like and read. But what they REALLY want is for you to tell them what you know about a particular subject. You do that by writing about it over and over again and making it meaningful to your readers. When you have written several posts on a hot topic, the next thing to do is to keep writing about it. You will be amazed at how well your blog will do and how you can use it to get people to connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Tumblr and even Instagram and YouTube. It is the constant blogging that will make your money, just think if you keep writing about the same thing, you will get traffic. As they say, what happens on blogs stays on blogs and is no different on your blog. If you keep blogging about the same things, people will see that you have a knowledge on these things, and will start to see that you have relevant content on your blogs. The more you write the greater the chance some of your readers will find you on sites like Google and connect with you. If they do that then they will also click through to your own site. This is how you make money off your blog. Bloggers can also make money blogging about what they are passionate about through a variety of ways. This remote business option is great for those looking to work from home doing what they love. Now that you know what your blog is all about and why you are blogging, get out there and start blogging. Just think, what could be better?  Image credit: Andrew Neel from Unsplash It is no secret that blogging is fun and can be a great source of income. The question many people have is how to blog in order to make money. I have listed my tips to making money blogging below.
1) You should think about yourself and your family. You should make sure you understand the potential dangers of blogging. I have seen some blogs that are absolutely horrid and are not worth reading. I know a great blog was shutdown because of copyright infringements and other such things. It is your blog, so think about what is important to you. Is there something you wish to achieve? How about money? Perhaps you wish to make money blogging. The potential is there and you should weigh the pros and cons. 2) I am not a blogger that enjoys seeing blogs and pages in the search engines. I like sites that provide information on a particular topic. I think it is important for a person to be informed. You should not post anything just for the sake of making money. 3) You should consider adding a "donation box". If you have readers that are interested in buying products or services, why not provide a way for them to contribute. I am of the opinion that people are decent and they are good people. It is just that they are unaware of what you blog is about, or you might want to sell your products and services. By adding a donation box, you may make a great start to making money blogging. 4) You should think about your readers. You have a lot of people coming to your blog. How do you keep track of them all. Consider the question of how can you increase the blog readership? There are so many things to learn from bloggers. You can easily add a "tag" to your blog that will allow readers to a tag the content. You have a lot of options to add a "donation box" to your blog. 5) You should think about your niche. It is important for you to know your audience so you can easily cater to them. You should be able to cater to your readers needs and wants because that is what is best for them. 6) You should think about the search engines. You have to be indexed in the search engines because this is the key to succeeding in this business. 7) It is important for you to be consistent. There are many alternatives to making money blogging. Many alternative means to make money can be found on line. Some ways to generate an income are through pay per click ads, affiliate links, selling your own products and services etc.  Image credit: Ben Robbins from Unsplash Sometimes you get in a slump. You feel like the same ol' same ol' just isn't going to cut it. You start questioning yourself. What is going on? What am I doing? You try new things. You make changes. You try to motivate yourself. You ask for advice. But nothing seems to work. You are stuck in a rut. Can you get out of it?
When you feel like you are in a rut you need to find out why. If you don't know why you will keep repeating the same ol' same ol' and that is not acceptable to you. Sometimes you might even start questioning your parents. Your parents are there to help you and guide you. If they are not helping you is it so wrong for them to be guiding you in different directions? Maybe your parents have different ideas on how to make things better. Do you want to follow their different ideas or do you want to go your own way. Maybe you want to try something new. Be prepared for the unexpected. I'm not sure how to get out of my slump. But here are a few pointers which might help you out. If you follow these pointers you will start to see a different light. And this light will lead you to get out of your rut. 1. Understand and accept that what you are doing (or not doing) is your business This is the first thing you need to do is to accept and understand that what you are doing is your business. It is not anybody else's business to tell you what to do. Everybody is entitled to their own business. You are entitled to yours. If somebody else is running your business they are just running it in order to make you feel guilty. If they don't make you feel guilty they make you feel like you are useless and unimportant. When you accept that what you are doing or not doing is your business it is a lot easier to stop noticing it and the more you notice it the easier it will be to change it. When you can accept that what you are doing is not anybody else's business to do then you are ready to accept the guidance and help from the people who really do know what they are doing. 2. Take responsibility for your own business It is your own business. Whether you are doing well or poorly your business is up to you. If you need some help you can seek it from your family, friends or work colleagues. But do not ask your boss or your boss's boss to take responsibility for your performance or losses. It would just make you feel guilty. It is great when people recognize that their business is their own responsibility. They will give you proper direction and help to improve you performance and results. It is a great feeling when people take responsibility for their own business. When you take responsibility for your own business you will feel accomplished. Not only that but it will lead you to feel fulfilled and at peace with yourself. Feeling fulfilled and peaceful will help you maintain a healthy amount of behaviours. This will surely help you to stop thinking negatively about yourself. This will surely help you to start seeing the sun again and not just the dashboard of your car which is a very unhealthy place to live in. 
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Just like Transformers, there’s more to video games than meets the eye. They’re mainly used for entertainment, but many titles also have lessons to teach through their storylines and gameplay. An invested player can walk away with more than they realize.
You can learn a lot from video games that can apply to your lived experiences; surviving a zombie attack with Resident Evil, ride a flying bike in Grand Theft Auto and scale a building in Assassin's Creed... all essential skills! 'Make Use Of' give you the rundown of some of the skills you can gain out there!  Image credit: Ivan Samkov from Pexels When you are trying to get more people to see your blog, the problems don't always present themselves. When you are blogging, the goal is simple, to get as many people to see your content and engage them. And for every successful blogger that is utilising it to their abilities, there are many people who just cannot get it to fly. What does it take to improve a blog, and what can we learn from those who have not been able to try and ascend to the next level?
The Lack of Quality Content We have to start with the content. After all, content is king. If you are blogging on the side, and you're doing it for fun, if you really want to make a success of it, you've got to keep pushing the envelope and make sure that you exude quality in every single way. Content, naturally, lends itself well to being shareable, but it's also about making sure that you are providing that engaging experience through your blog. When you address the variety of digital transformation solutions out there that completely reinvigorate blogs and businesses, they are more than aware of the importance of engaging content. This boils down to one simple thing: having an understanding of your industry. And if you are running a blog that provides a wide variety of subject matter, this is where you have to bring the experts in, and get people to guest post. But the best approach is to streamline your efforts because this means you can focus on one type of industry and one type of content. You Are Not Playing the Game If you think that all you need to be successful is to create a blog and make sure you get people to read it, there's more than meets the eye. You've got to play the game of networking. And this is where you have to adopt a more business-oriented mindset. Your blog is your product, but also, you are your product. This means you have to start thinking about how you promote yourself. Every little thing about your online personality will have significant repercussions. When you start to guest post on other people's sites, this is a fantastic way for you to promote your blog. If you start to guest post, you naturally begin to network with others, and you expand your pool of contacts. You Are Not Working to Monetize Your Blog If you do not have a successful blog, you may have to invest more into it, financially speaking. Enhancing awareness of your brand is about making sure that you strengthen your social media presence, but also, if you are not treating your blog seriously, investing in practices like affiliate marketing could be an ideal way for you to finally focus your attention on the blog. It's time to stop treating it like a side project. In order to make your blog successful, you have to be consistent and be dedicated. If you want to have a successful blog, you will have to understand why you are failing.
Food blogs are an amazing way to make your mark online with a pretty much guaranteed audience. After all, everyone’s gotta eat, and more of us than ever now turn to trusted online resources over traditional cookbooks. Get this right, and you could even be rubbing shoulders with top dogs like Gordon Ramsey in no time.
The trouble is that according to the latest exhaustive survey, there are as many as 16,588 food blogs online. In other words, anyone starting out here is certain to come up against a fair amount of competition and, sometimes, that alone means you struggle to truly get cooking (excuse the pun.) This can be disheartening, especially given the runaway food blogger success stories that often come to the fore. Luckily, it is possible to overcome even a lukewarm response for success later on, and doing so simply relies on considering whether your slow start is due to the following common mistakes. Failing to write your own recipes 
Image credit: Annie Spratt from Unsplash
Food blogs come in all forms, with some reviewing food, while others trace the process of cooking every recipe in existing cookbooks. The trouble is that blogs like these will always have a shelf-life. By comparison, the food bloggers who are really making their mark are doing so by putting their own recipes at the forefront. Following in their footsteps is, by far, your best chance at broadening your blog for ongoing appeal, and ensuring that readers return time and again, even if just to revisit that much-loved recipe.
No room for growth Ultimately, readers love a blog that they can grow with. As such, you should always be moving forward in some. There are an array of options here, with many food bloggers starting subscription boxes, launching cookbooks, or even selling to stores. Or, you may want to reach for the top with a restaurant business that sees you hiring a hospitality unit, employing an entire team, and even designing your own equipment using photo etching and expert advice. Either way, readers will want to know that your foody efforts are likely to come to something they can enjoy. Otherwise, it’s unlikely that you’ll gain the loyal following you need to find real success. Failing to leave your readers hungry Food blogs that are intermittent and afraid of the notorious ‘CTA’ (call to action) are never going to drive any urgency or passion. This will see people failing to engage, or even return. To avoid that, work at leaving your readers hungry. In some ways, a drive towards one of the business ideas mentioned can help, but you should take things even further, with regular recipe upload days, and a call for readers to take some action, be that social media shares, comments, or cooking challenges. Like cliffhangers at the end of a book, these efforts can make a huge difference to adding peril, excitement, and a general drive to return to your page. 
Image credit: Tamas Pap from Unsplash
So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to turn up the heat and get cooking at last.
 Image credit: NeONBRANDS from Unsplash As a blogger, you are going to have to find ways to get people to come to your blog. This is an area where all bloggers differ. There is a range of approaches to get people to your site, some involve direct marketing, while others focus more on building traffic. You will find that the two approaches differ greatly when it comes to how you get people to come to your blog. You will find that some bloggers tend to have a very active commenting community, whereas others find that a large amount of visitors will have to be nudged.
The two ways you can get people to come to your blog are: 1. Get them to see your blog as another media outlet with articles, videos, images etc. - This means you can make changes or improvements at anytime by making a post. This is one of the key points here. 2. Get them to come to your blog by nuzzling them - If you keep talking to people as an intermediary step, they will be prompted to visit. This blog is about getting people to visit your blog, and nuzzling them is one method that all bloggers find effective. A blog can be one of several blogs that is getting a lot of traffic, but these two approaches can help you get traffic to your blog. If you have to get them then you have to start by teaching them how to get to your blog. This means if you want people to get to your blog then teach them how to get there. This is a key point. If you want your blog to get a lot of traffic then you have to get them there. The best way to get people to get to your blog is by giving the best content he can find. This means you have to focus on the right things that will drive your readers there. Once this is done, you can direct them to the pages on your blog that will get them to enjoy the things you have to offer. Another way that you can get people to get to your blog is by building a reputation of good writing. You can do this by sharing good writing with readers on your own blog, or you can share it with other media outlets (like social media), and they will tag you or mention your blog. This means as you write you can leverage all the traffic you are getting.  Image credit: Pixabay from Pexels It’s not uncommon for bloggers to hit a wall and begin to wonder what steps that they need to take to keep moving forward. If you want to take your blog to the next level, we have some ideas that should hit the target beautifully.
Explore Guest Posts We’ve talked in the past about how to build up authority with your blog and that’s important. When you have authority, you’re going to gain more attention from people interested in viewing your content, but that’s not all. You’ll also gain attention from the media who are interested in using your blog as a source. One of the best ways to build up authority will certainly be through guest posts. You just need to make sure that you are forming these links with the right websites. Brand Choices Next, you should think about building up your business brand. You have to remember that your blog is a business and it does have a brand or at least it should. If you can establish a brand for your blog, it will instantly be more recognizable. There are a few ways that you can do this. However, one of the best would certainly be to explore sponsored merch and promotional merch. If you browse around, you’ll find that there are countless different possibilities for merch that you can plaster with the brand for your blog and spread the word. You could also take this one step further. Usually, sponsored merch is given away for free to loyal users and visitors. However, you might also want to think about exploring more possibilities like setting up a shop that is connected to your blog. To do this, you need to make sure that you look at the right eCommerce platforms. You should also consider speaking to a designer to ensure that this page can be added seamlessly to your blog. You might also need to consider using a different hosting service. Go Bigger With Content Finally, you might want to think about adding different types of content to your website. Within a few years, most of the content that you find online is going to be video. So it does make sense to start exploring vlogging possibilities. To do this, you just need a high quality set up and a few basic skills. You can find plenty of YouTube guides that could be perfect if you are interested in learning how to vlog sooner rather than later. You should also explore how to share this and reach the biggest audience possible across different platforms. We hope this helps you understand some of the key ways that you can take your blog to the next level. In doing so, you could earn more profits with your website and ensure that you can expand your audience to tremendous new levels. Ultimately, with the right steps here, your blog could be a key source of info for countless individuals online and you could become a major player in this industry.  Image credit: Pixel Creatures from Pixabay There are over 500 million blogs in the world at the moment and they are growing year on year. If you are just starting or you are a seasoned blogger, you will want to ensure your blog stands out from the crowd. Check out this post which shows you some ways to better your blog. Another important area that will help with your blog is increasing the Domain Authority. For those not familiar with this phrase, the Domain Authority is a calculation that rates your blog from 1 to 100. The higher you are on the scale the higher your blog will appear on search engine rankings. Also, if you wish to make money from your blog, the higher your Domain Authority the more you can ask for paid opportunities. Below are some ways you can improve your Domain Authority and get your blog higher up the rankings.
Link Building Building links to your site is a great way of increasing your Domain Authority. A word of caution though, you want backlinks from quality sites, sites that have a higher Domain Authority to your own. Focus your time on getting links that will improve your site, if you don’t have a lot of time to do this yourself, consider employing a link building service. Internal link building As well as getting backlinks from other websites, you can increase your Domain Authority through the internal structure of your blog. This means in each blog post you should include 2 or 3 links to other posts you have. This is such an easy way to build your internal link structure and get your Domain Authority moving in the right direction. Remove broken links Having broken links can impact your Domain Authority so go through all your posts and ensure all links are working. This may be time-consuming but it is worth it in the end. It’s an easy fix to ensure it doesn’t negatively impact your Domain Authority. Be an Authority in Your Niche Having quality articles is important, especially to your Domain Authority and to Google. Choose a niche and write high-quality posts within that area. An area that people will search for time and time again. If you are helping your audience Google may even use your article for a snippet which means you will be the very first link on page one. Search Engine Optimisation Ensure your blog is SEO optimized so that when search engines crawl your site they can see your content and offer this up to those who are searching. This means ensuring you have a meta title and meta description especially on your pictures, your home page and you make use of heading tags too. Once you start using all these tools they will become second nature and it will make all the difference to your Domain Authority. It can be daunting considering all these things to improve your Domain Authority but with practice and determination, you will increase the authority of your blog.  Image credit: Free-Photos from Pixabay All parents want the best for their children and for many parents this means giving their child the possibility of making it as a child star. From television, to modelling, to film; there are several opportunities for children to make it big from an early age. However, these are very unique markets, and you need to know your stuff before you and your child embark on this journey. Thus, keep reading to discover ten top tips for getting your kid into the world of stardom…
 Image credit: Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels The start of a new year can signal a time for big changes in your life. If you own a blog, it's a good time to begin thinking about ways you can improve it. One idea that springs to mind is the concept of broadening your content.
What does this mean? In essence, you seek ways of offering your readers more content in different ways. Instead of posting similar blogs every week, perhaps you look for ways to branch out and offer other forms of content. Here are a few ideas to whet your appetite: Video content Start adding videos to your blog as a way of giving people fresh content. Human beings respond well to videos, and it's a great way of reeling in a new audience. People may start visiting your blog that never would've gone on there before. It also opens a new revenue stream as you can upload the videos to a YouTube channel and potentially earn ad revenue. You still talk about similar things, but the video format lets you try new ideas. You can have other people in the videos, serving as a great way of interviewing others. It can be a podcast format, or you may want to make 'how-to' videos that are easier to follow than a blog. Or, you could even repurpose old content in the video format, getting more out of it! Ebooks For the most part, blog posts are short-form content. Even a 2,000-word blog post is relatively short-form, particularly when compared to things like ebooks. An ebook gives you a chance to cover topics in more detail and really dive deep into things. So, perhaps you should start publishing some? If you have topics that demand a lot of work and attention, an ebook can be a fantastic way of covering them. Plus, it serves as a marketing tactic to drive people to your blog and get them on a mailing list. You can work with a CGI company to draw up a product 'photo' of your ebook, then use it in adverts. Basically, people will see the book, and be inclined to click it. From here, you promise them a free download of the book if they just provide an email address. Instantly, you will gain lots of emails, which helps you market your blog and grow your audience. Alternatively, you could sell the ebooks for a small price, as a way of making more money. It depends on how much work went into the book and if you think it's worth selling it for money. Either way, ebooks are another way of broadening your content. Guest posts Last but not least, you can diversify your content through guest posts. Invite other bloggers to post on your site, offering your readers fresh insights and ideas. While they're still reading blog articles, the content itself can be very different from yours. The topics may be similar, but the style and angle of the writing give them something new to enjoy. Broadening your content is a smart way of keeping your audience engaged and entertained. It stops them from getting bored with the same old stuff, while also helping you draw new readers to your blog!  Image credit: Wallpaper Cave 2020 will always be known as a tough year and for some people, the toughest. Whether is was work, relationships, mental health, or physical fitness––we all learned a lot about ourselves and how we react to massive disruptions to our daily lives. The Rock Dwayne Johnson recently took to Instagram to share his thoughts on 2020. You can find the link via the feature in Men's Journal...
Image credit: Pixabay on Pexels Whether you’re publishing a blog as a commercial endeavour or as a hobby, you’ll want to do everything you can to optimise your content and increase your readership. However, it isn’t always easy to know what changes to make or how to implement them. To make things easier, take a look at these simple ways to better your blog in 2021: Increase Page Loading Speeds Before you begin thinking about content for your website, you’ll want to ensure your blog is operating optimally. Page loading speeds have a considerable impact on your search engine rankings, so it’s important to make sure you’re not losing readers because your blog loads too slowly. By optimising your site structure or switching to a different hosting provider, you can increase page loading speeds and potentially boost your rankings. Create a Content Calendar If you create content when you have a great idea for a post or you publish new content based on breaking news, you run the risk of issuing repetitive content or only posting sporadically. Publishing new posts regularly gives users a reason to return to your blog frequently, so having a reliable posting schedule is beneficial. However, regular posting should never compromise the quality of your content. By creating a content calendar, you can ensure that you cover a range of topics, rather than inadvertently posting similar content on a frequent basis. Similarly, you can brainstorm ideas for original content in advance and ensure you’ve always got something fresh and new to write about. Incorporate Social Media Social media is an excellent tool for bloggers, so be sure to make the most of it. When you share the link to your posts on social media, you can increase brand awareness, generate more website traffic and build your audience. Additionally, social media allows you to communicate with other users about topics that are relevant to the theme of your blog. Of course, you aren’t the only person who can share links to your posts via social media. Adding social media buttons to every post allows readers to share your content quickly and easily, which helps you to reach a wider audience. Develop an SEO strategy If you want to attract new readers, you need to have an effective SEO strategy in place. With effective search engine optimisation, you can ensure that your blog posts appear at the top of search engine ranking pages (SERPs) when users search for relevant keywords and terms. Search engine optimisation can be labour intensive, so don’t panic if you don’t have the time or resources to plan and execute a strategy yourself. Professional SEO services are an easy and cost-effective way to access the expertise you need. With assistance from experienced SEO experts, you can ensure your blog becomes a go-to resource for users within your target audience. Image credit: Picography on Pexels Use Different Content Formats
Most bloggers rely on the written word to share information, put forth their opinions and engage with readers. However, this shouldn’t prevent you from using other forms of media on your blog. After all, a wall of text isn’t very enticing for users. By using images or infographics to break up your text and add visual content, you can make each post more appealing. Similarly, incorporating video content into your blog could be an effective way of appealing to a different demographic. How To, Step-by-Step and Q&A posts work well in video format and could give you an edge over other bloggers. Secure Backlinks Backlinks are a form of off-site SEO, so check that they’re included if you plan to outsource your search engine optimisation to a third-party specialist. Securing backlinks from websites with high domain authorities can increase your own rankings and lead to a subsequent increase in traffic. Additionally, backlinks help to direct readers straight to your blog, as well as increasing the authority and trustworthiness of your content. When your links are featured on reputable and popular sites, for example, your brand is elevated in the minds of both search engines and users. Take Your Blog to the Next Level When you’re creating, managing or maintaining a blog, it’s useful to have an overall strategy in mind. Whether you’re planning to monetise your posts, creating content for a company website or see blogging is a fun hobby, setting yourself a goal will help you to stay motivated. With the right planning and preparation, you can hone your content, increase your core readership and take your blog to the next level.  Image credit: Burst on Pexels Your blog is a place where people come to read interesting content and regardless of genre, a lot of blog sites can end up turning into full-time businesses. It’s important to think about the ways that you can improve your blogging, whether you’re still in the early days of your blog or if you’ve managed to finally go full-time with your blog. Here are four ways to improve your blogging business.
Define Your Audience When you’re blogging as a hobby, paying attention to your audience’s demographic might not necessarily be on your radar. Perhaps you’ve been writing for a while and write for the enjoyment of the topics you cover. It might be that you write for a specific industry, and you know somewhat about what your audience likes and doesn’t like. When you’re blogging professionally, it’s important to define your audience because the more content you create that your audience likes, the more views it’s going to get. When you look at your analytics, it’s worth implementing Google Analytics if you haven’t already implemented it on your site. Whatever host platform you use, it’s likely to give you at least some degree of knowledge on who your audience is and what they like and don’t like. Look specifically at things like bounce rates, which tell you how long they stay engaged on your website and specific pages. Get Promoting Every Aspect Of Your Business When you’re a business, you need to be promoting yourself from every angle. Whether it’s promoting the content via your personal social media pages or through paid advertisements on other high-ranking websites. Try to promote in every way you can, even during those occasions where you might be invited to conferences or events. These custom printed banners can be a great way to showcase your work and who you are as a business and individual. Never be ashamed or afraid of promoting yourself! Network With Other Bloggers Networking with other bloggers is important because there’s a lot that you can learn from other people within the industry. For example, if you’re just starting off in the industry, then you may find that networking with bloggers who have been established for a while, have plenty of advice to give you. You also never know who might be able to help you on your way up the career ladder of blogging. Always be grateful and appreciative of others you meet and collaborate with. You don’t know someone until you meet them properly. Focus On Quality Not Quantity Quality is a lot more important than quantity when it comes to blogging. Your audience wants to read high-quality content and not something that’s been thrown together without much thought. If you do that, then you’re likely to lose your following and your loyal followers are the ones that are the most important. Improving your blogging business is important and so it’s good to use these tips to help get the most out of it where it’s possible. |
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July 2023
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