Dear Reader,
No revolutionary blogging strategies here, but I do need your help. See, when I present the idea of WordPress to new bloggers, many cringe.
“That’s the hard one!”
This is why I’m opening up today’s post to you. If you blog on WordPress ORG or COM, why did you chose it? What about WordPress helps you achieve your blogging goals?
Post a comment and let us know.
Waves of new bloggers arrive at Dear Blogger each day, so just think – your comment could change somebody’s career.
And if you blog on Blogger, Tumblr, Weebly, Typepad, Wix, MySpace, Quora, Joomla or anywhere else, please share your experience too!
Here, I’ll start…
If i decide to self host through wordpress, should I go with bluehost?
Hi Martha,
Thanks for commenting. What are you blogging about?
BlueHost is a newer option, but I always hear bloggers feel more comfortable at HostGator. Their dashboard is a beginner-friendly and the crocodile is pretty cute π Also really easy, secure WP install.
I hid some discounts here:
https://dearblogger.org/where-to-blog
Happy to answer any more questions.
Hello, you have no idea how much I appreciate your prompt response. I am starting a mommy blog where I’ll be sharing/reviewing products. Where to shop for you baby for stylish pieces. Handmade items, baby recipes. etc. Would hostgater be a good platform?
Greg, I am ready to purchase my domain through hostgater with the link you have on your post but I’m a newbie and I’m wondering if I get the $3.95 a month, will I be able to self host? or would that be separate. I almost think starting a blog is not my thing but I am determined to learn.
Martha! Hi again,
HostGator is a good platform – I use them to host all my blogs and even professional websites for others.
The $3.96/month includes everything – domain and hosting and WordPress installation. That last part is free π
I see you’re having doubts. What I can say is your set of review products sounds like a winning combination. Some folks fail by just using Amazon, for example. There are costumers out there to more than cover your costs, you’ve just got to capture them!
Maybe this would help?
https://dearblogger.org/what-is-a-brand
I’ll be around all tonight for more questions.
Greg
I want to start by saying how impressed I am with this article. It was so easy to read that when I finished reading the “Longest Post Ever on WordPress” I felt like it had only taken me about 30 seconds. I would have imagined it taking me much longer to read such a long post. Kudos.
On a more serious note, self-hosted WordPress blogs are definitely the way to go. If you’re a beginner, just grab a theme and install it. If you’re more advanced, start customizing to your heart’s desire. For example, on my blog, I just got a hanging tassel to swing back and forth like it’s dangling in the wind using jQuery. I don’t think I would have had as easy a time doing that on Blogger. Plus, I read that post about the guy’s blog being deleted by blogger for falsely being accused of spam. That’s messed up. I don’t want to run that risk. I want to own my content.
Plus the number of plugins available for WordPress are just amazing. That’s a pretty important reason. Just search, click install, and watch a new feature magically appear on your blog.
Thanks for that, Nick. Totally, the length (and most of the wisdom) is in the comments.
This post also have a great background of idea. You are great, Greg. I have become your official fan.
I have started wordpress because I have more control over my blog-posts relatively to free blogger.com. I have not started any WordPress Org blog. But I want to launch a self-hosted blog.
I also want help, Greg. I wana start self-hosted blog. I want it to succeed like every blogger. I want to start it with a superb idea. So please share some ideas on the topic/niche I probably would want to blog about. I know I must blog about what I am passionate about. But still I want some ideas. Hope you help them. I will be following all of upcoming comments so that I may get help from you and other bloggers as well.
Thanks/
What’s up Abdul!
Glad you are my life-time fan! First off, your question is super common, and not an easy one to solve. Here are some questions I give people that really help me pick out my blogs too.
1) Can you write 10 different posts on the topic?
2) Is there an interested audience?
3) Are others writing on it?
4) Is it sustainable (some way to earn down the road)
The ideal case is a yes to all 4, but, if just 2 and 3 are a yes, you’ve at least got an original idea! Let me know what you think…and maybe others here can help out too!
Feel free to keep adding to this thread – hopefully we can figure this out.
Thanks for a positive and quick response and sorry from my side to respond back to this.
Thanks so much for these questions I would want to ask before choosing some topic to blog on. Answer to every question is, “Yes” except the 2nd one. And the answer to the 2nd question is also not a NO, rather I’m confused how to find an answer to that. I mean how can I find out that if topic of my choice has interested audience.
And my second point isΨβ if answer to all of the above given questions is a Yes, I should/might blog on that topic. Is the case same even if there’s huge competition in the niche.
Because I wana blog about how to live productiveΨβ it’s kinda self development blog like that of marcandangel.com, stevepavlina.com etc…. There’s huge competition there.
Do you have friends or colleagues who can help share the blog initially?
Here’s the deal: Every topic is already covered. That’s practically a fact with over 100,000 blog posts written each day. But being first to a reader, and being able to present information powerfully, that is where bloggers win.
Munch on that for a bit π
So very fine comment I have ever received. I will follow the deal, of course. Thanks a zillion again.
First, the Facebook comment box on top of this comment box is kinda confusing . . . any particular reason why you use both?
Also I am trying to figure out how to change the font of all my blog posts to Georgia like you suggest in your book, and I’ve found a way to do that through my template, but I’m having trouble because of the sheer amount of html. Any tips?
What’s up Kirra. Great to (blogging) meet ya.
On Blogger? I’ll research it and post an answer.
On WP.org, like in my theme, there’s Custom CSS. The idea with that is any code in there “takes over” everything else. For the sidebar, headers, links, fonts, etc.
Yeah some folks just only comment via FB or these standards ones, so I use both. Weird preferences π
What plugin do you use for the FB & twitter comments?
I coded the Facebook comments in using this WordPress guide by Thomas Frank:
http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-ultimate-guide-to-implementing-facebook-comments-on-your-blog/
The sharing buttons are from this plugin – really easy to install and customize:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/twitter-facebook-google-plusone-share/
On Blogger … Template > Customize > Advanced > Page Text … and Georgia is one of the standard options.
Now, if you have hard-coded something different into each individual posts using the post editor, that’s a little different. I don’t think you have many options except editing each post. (But it may be easier to edit the HTML-view of the posts, copy the contents to a text-editor, and do a universal find/replace on “old font name”
I’ll try that setting and see if it fixes it. I’m not surely the font is coded in my template I use, so I’ll just have to see what happens.
What’s up Mary!
Thanks for helping out – that’s community for ya!
I was afraid of getting my blog deleted. So shifted my blog to wordpress asap. It was a nice decision.
I got an email from one of my readers saying that his blog was deleted already from blogger for DOING NOTHING.
http://www.wpblogtips.com/fk-ya-blogger-com-my-readers-blog-just-got-deleted/
BEWARE blogger.com users
Readers – see Shahzad’s post, point #2
Shahzad – thanks for that resource!
Thanks for your reply Greg! I don’t where my pr 3 goes but i knew who’s the culprit, google lol! I hope MR G. will give it to me back soon:)
Hi, I stumbled your site when I google how to get my page rank 3 back. I got pr 3 on my site and 2 months ago was gone, your site contents was so helpful! Thanks for sharing!
What’s up Myrna!
Where’d it go? You’re welcome!
I think you’re losing your touch, Greg. What’s up?
If I am wrong, then I apologize…
At any rate, I love the free blog I have on WP! I’d also like to invite you to read this post, and take advantage of it! http://lorrainemariereguly.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/post-your-links-here-to-promote-yourself-and-your-blog/
What’s up Lorraine,
Thanks – I’m ok, no worries.
Just trying to find new ways to improve on my own while constantly challenging the community here, which isn’t always easy, or pretty!
You are putting out some real inspiration on that free blog – keep it up!
Thanks! I try!
Glad to hear you’re okay. You disappeared for a bit, and I missed you! π I thought maybe something went wrong with your recent move…
Just weeks of no hot water π‘
o. m. g.
SO sorry to hear that.
I think you better get yourself over to my blog and do some free promotion to cheer yourself up!
There’s so much to love with WordPress. Yes the themes and plugins too.
If you have a problem to solve you can almost always find a solution or plugin.
I wrote post on LifeLearningToday on setting up a wordpress blog for beginners.
I also recently bought “Gravity Forms” – not everyone will need it, but if you ever do it is a great premium plugin. I also like the premium theme: Catalyst. Very easy to use and customize. I use it on 3 of my blogs.
Hmm what else? Oh, for those with more than 1 WP blog to manage ManageWP is worth looking into.
What’s up Kris!
How would you explain plugins and themes to a total WordPress beginner?
Posted two links for you above as well, hope you saw em.
Yes, saw them. Thank you for the links.
Plugins – are drop-in functionality that you can easily add to your blog that allow you to do almost anything.
Themes- allow you to change the look and feel of your whole site in one go. Often they are customizable too even without knowing coding.
Tricky, but here is why I made WordPress my home:
The THEMES – If you think WordPress is βjust for experts,β try getting your hands on a new theme and see how easily you can change your entire look. They’re good for hiding your beginner-ness π
Here, I added a list of free themes you can download + install in a couple clicks.