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Website Design

What CMS Should I Use?

What is CMS? (AKA Easy Website Builder)

All websites require a content management system, a CMS. In its primitive years, a website had to be developed from scratch.  Designers, developers, and programmers used to come together and write thousands of codes to develop a website. Such exhaustive procedures have become obsolete today. With different kinds of content management systems out there, developing a website has become much simpler, affordable and convenient.

Free Website Builders

Content management systems are essentially free website builders.
The programs are written, the codes are already there and you simply need to use the various sections or features of a content management system to create your own website.
For instance, you don’t need to write codes or know a programming language to upload a piece of content onto a website. You simply use the upload tool in a content management system, attach the file you wish to upload, set the fonts and layouts and your content will be uploaded in a matter of seconds.
From publishing all contents to editing and removing, pulling in plug-ins and creating the interactive features of a website, everything can be done using a content management system or CMS. The free website builders have made developing a website much more affordable, easy and controllable.
One doesn’t need to be a software engineer today to develop a website. But more important than being free website builders, a CMS is a handy tool for website owners. You don’t have to rely on a technical person or a web designer to do everything. A website owner can have the CMS log-in details and manage the entire website and the hosting account.

Types of CMS

There are many types of CMS and quite a few have become brands.
With several free website builders at your discretion, you will certainly want to choose the best. But choosing the best CMS is not that easy a task. You ought to know the options you have and you must be able to distinguish between different CMS solutions.
Here are the most popular CMS solutions that people use today.

  • Straight HTML

  • WordPress (Recommended)

  • Joomla

  • Drupal

  • DotNetNuke

  • Blogger

  • Artisteer.net

Choosing a CMS

Before you get down to choose a CMS, you must know a few basic things. You need to know on what basis you will be comparing one CMS with another.

  • Your CMS should be able to match your needs. You may want to develop a company website, a news site, a blog, a personal website or an entertainment website. You may want to have a hybrid website. You may want e-commerce features on the website. You need a CMS that is best for the type of website you will host.
  • Scalability is an important element. You would certainly want your website to grow and the CMS you choose should be able to allow that kind of scalability. It shouldn’t have a dearth of resources or put up hindrances in your growth story.
  • You need a CMS that has an active support community. The larger, more interactive and supportive the community, the better it is for you.
  • You need a CMS that is simple. Complicated CMS solutions will not be in your best interest and you will waste a lot of time and energy to just understand what is required of you and how the CMS functions.
  • Finally, you should consider the cost of the CMS and see if it fits your budget. Don’t have the price as the sole criterion, however.

Pros & Cons of CMS

All the free website builders or CMS solutions have their share of pros and cons. It is necessary for you to know which CMS offers what and which one is the best solution.

Straight HTML

Straight HTML has a few advantages. There is no elaborate setup process, you can upload your content simply and don’t have to do anything else unless you want to make some changes, there are very few security issues and the CMS is quite invulnerable to threats. There are some limitations as well such as there is no blog or any feature that supports commenting, the layout is quite stiff and cannot be changed easily, it relies on Artisteer for some of its functions, you cannot add or upload any content for any kind of web-based interface, it is not appealing visually and requires additional graphics program as well as HTML editor. Also, you need to be aware of HTML to use this CMS completely.

Joomla

Joomla has a simple interface and is quite easy to set up and install. There are many plug-ins which you can use on the site, the CMS is very easy to operate, it can support heavy traffic and you can build thousands of pages on a website with this CMS. Joomla works well for e-commerce sites and for multimedia contents on websites. There are a few shortcomings of Joomla such as the custom features are not very easy to add and the functionalities cannot be customized. Many plug-ins that are available are outdated and not very necessary.

Drupal

Drupal is a free CMS, it is stable, scalable and you can create hundreds of pages and manage unexpectedly high traffic. The shortcomings of Drupal are that you need to be trained to carry out the setup and there aren’t many plug-ins. There are various versions which overlap one another creating confusion, there is an exhaustive guide which one has to go through to understand the system and use it and there is a small community to offer support which often is not sufficient.
DotNetNuke has very lucid documentation and a very helpful support community, it is also good for developing custom applications, security is not an issue and the contents load up pretty fast. The CMS is however limited to Microsoft Windows Server, the setup process is quite complicated, plug-ins have to be bought or developed and a lot has to be learned to manage the CMS.

Blogger

Blogger is free, it is easy to use and install, it is mobile friendly and you can get some help with search engine optimization. However, Blogger has very limited functionalities, there aren’t many plug-ins that you could use and the endless terms of service will confuse you and bind you in more ways than you can imagine.

Artisteer

Artisteer.net is free and you can have your domain name, the configuration is simple, you can manage more than one website with ease, there are Google Analytics support and some widgets which can provide some additional functionality. The shortcomings of Artisteer.net include lack of plug-ins, very little space and you don’t get all the control you need in your free website builders.

Last but certainly not least, WordPress

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS and it has a plethora of advantages. It is one of the simplest free website builders right now. It is very easy to install. You can enjoy one-click installs if your host supports such a feature. The community of WordPress is massive and there are developers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and companies on the network. You will never have any dearth of help when you use WordPress. There are books, classes, courses, blogs, videos and various kinds of endless informational resources which you can use to acquaint yourself with the CMS and to find solutions if you have any problem. If you need to hire a developer, technician or programmer to manage your CMS then there are plenty of professionals with desirable expertise and experience. WordPress has innumerable themes and it is one of the best free website builders when it comes to templates. The WordPress control panel is very easy to operate. There are a few shortcomings of WordPress. A few core functionalities cannot be customized without having substantial technical knowledge. Very large sites are not ideal for WordPress.

Our Recommended CMS

If you have to choose one CMS among the ones mentioned here, then WordPress should be the indisputable choice.

  • WordPress is the world’s largest content management system. It is the most popular, has maximum outreach and name recognition. If you take into consideration the top one million websites that use a content management system or have employed free website builders then a majority of those sites use WordPress. In other words, all other content management systems or free website builders, including all those that are mentioned above, collectively fall short of the market share of WordPress. If popularity and statistics are proof of the credibility, convenience, and efficiency of a CMS then WordPress wins the battle without any need of further debate.
  • WordPress is extremely easy to use. Those who are absolutely clueless about a CMS or what free website builders can do would find it convenient to use WordPress. There are no major hassles and no hiccups at all.
  • You get to control WordPress. You have your own control panel and admin access. You decide what you want to do, when you want to do and how you want to do it, often with simple one-clicks.
  • WordPress supports blogs, plug-ins, and customizations, there are numerous templates to choose from and it is supported by every web host in the world.

Conclusion: What CMS Should I Use?

Among all free website builders, WordPress has clearly emerged as the best and the most popular choice over the last five years.
The collective preference of millions of bloggers, developers, businesses and even news organizations and e-commerce sites cannot be wrong and WordPress has consistently evolved to ensure scalability is not a problem.
If you want the simplest and the most useful of free website builders then you can unquestionably and unworriedly opt for WordPress. You will enjoy simplicity but also have state of the art features, have convenience yet have unmatched efficiency.

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SEO

Helpful List of the Different Types of Web Hosting

A List of  Different Types Of Website Hosting Options Available

There are several types of web hosting. The differences are primarily based on the infrastructure that is used and the manner in which each web hosting account of all clients is managed by the host. There are primarily six types of web hosting – free, shared, dedicated, collocated, VPS and reseller. There are other types of web hosting such as cloud hosting and e-commerce hosting but they are a different classification. Cloud and e-commerce hosting can be free, shared, dedicated, collocated, VPS or reseller hosting accounts.

Free Web Hosting

Free web hosting is what WordPress.com and Google Blogger offers. You don’t have to pay anything to host a site. In some cases, you can buy a domain name and in some cases, you don’t even have to do that. You can go with a sub-domain from the site itself and host a few pages. Free web hosting is very convenient and certainly beneficial because there are no costs involved but it is not good for a company or for any website that has professional and commercial objectives. A fun website or a personal blog without any commercial interest can be set up with free web hosting. In free web hosting, there is very little space allotted to each website, the connections are slow and the websites can be down if something goes wrong with the host server, which would be beyond your control. Also, the company offering you free web hosting services is not accountable or answerable to you.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting is an arrangement where the same infrastructure is used for multiple clients. For instance, to host a website, you would need a database server, name server, disk space, bandwidth and you need to have a team of technicians or at least one admin taking care of the site at all times. In shared web hosting, one server is used for multiple clients. The same disk space would be split for multiple clients. One technician will look after several hosting accounts and the predefined bandwidth will be used by many websites at the same time. Shared web hosting is affordable or reasonable but it is not ideal for high profile sites or a website that draws a lot of traffic. Shared web hosting usually leads to slow operation of a website due to the crunch of infrastructural resources and space which is because many websites are hosted on the same systems.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated web hosting is the opposite of shared web hosting. Your website will be hosted exclusively. There will be exclusive servers, disk space, bandwidth, and an exclusive technician or team of technicians. Dedicated web hosting is more expensive than shared web hosting but there are many advantages. It is more secure than shared web hosting. This is partly because one website is hosted exclusively which isolates it from all other websites which could be affected by viruses or malware and that could affect the website in a shared environment. The other reason for enhanced security is that you can demand special security protocols or systems in a dedicated environment, something you cannot do in a shared environment because not everyone wants it or would want to pay for it. Sensitive sites or websites that draw a lot of traffic, have to be live at all times and has a brand value should always have dedicated web hosting.

Collocated Web Hosting

This is a unique type of hosting wherein you hire a web host but you procure the server and have it placed in the facility of the web host. This allows you to own the server and make all the changes that you want. The web host will still be accountable for associated services and actual hosting of the site but you would own the primary infrastructure needed for hosting a website.

VPS Web Hosting

VPS is an acronym for a virtual private server. This is neither shared hosting nor collocated hosting. In VPS web hosting, you have a dedicated server but located offsite. You don’t get to own the server but it is dedicated to your needs and whatever software you want. This server will not be used for any other website and shall be completely dedicated to your website.

Reseller Web Hosting

This is not a technically different kind of hosting from the five aforementioned types of web hosting. Reseller web hosting is simply an opportunity for webmasters or small to medium companies to have the infrastructure of a major web host and be licensed to sell web hosting plans of their own using the larger infrastructure. It is similar to how normal retailers are given the reselling rights of various products by larger companies and manufacturers. Reseller web hosting can be shared, dedicated, collocated or VPS. It cannot be free as that is not saleable.

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SEO

Invest In The Best Hosting For Your Website

Why Good Hosting Is Important for Your Company Website

Once you have decided to create a site for your business, you choose a domain name and select the most ideal web hosting company to help you through. Some individuals overlooked the importance of good hosting to their companies that is why choosing a reputable company is being taken for granted.
You become overly confident that even though you failed to choose the best company you can still manage to keep going. This is not actually true at all times. Sticking to the wrong web hosting company entails many negative effects that will pose pessimistic impacts without you knowing. When the time you realized this, it is already too late.

The Negative Effects of Making the Wrong Web Hosting Choice

A company or business owners, most individuals are probably more concerned about maximizing profits. Your choice for a hosting company, therefore, matters so if you are thinking that making the wrong choice will not cause a negative impact to the consistent flow of cash or profit, well think again. To make you see things clearly, the worst things that can happen when you stick with the wrong hosting choice are outlined below:

Negative Impacts on SEO Ranking

One of your online goals is to get a high ranking on search results so that customers can access and locate you easily. If your website seems it does not exist and this goes down dramatically when search giants are attempting to visit, your ranking will surely be affected adversely. Aside from the worst downtime, slow websites can also hurt rankings and many SEO experts can attest to this.

Malware and Security Attacks

There is no really perfect solution in maintaining and keeping your site ultimately secured. However, a trusted web hosting company will back your data up to remote servers making it easy for you to retrieve data when your site is hacked. An ideal company can also give you assistance and technical support, security and maintenance round the clock. Seeing these aspects will make you realize the possibilities of contrasting effects that may occur when you choose the wrong hosting company.

Revenue Loss

In case your website goes down, potential clients and customers can no longer view and learn about your services, products, and blog posts. The worst effects can happen when you try to host an online store. You will surely lose out potential income or sales. Your losses might not be that big however these are still considered as revenue losses

Tips in Choosing the Most Ideal Web Hosting Company

In order to save yourself from all the negative effects of making the wrong choice, you need to be very careful and mindful when it comes to the process of selecting a hosting company. If you are still stuck in a web hosting company that does not offer significant results, it is about time to shift. There might be a long list of web hosting service providers but Host Gator is an excellent choice. Many have undertaken the following helpful steps and are lucky to end up with this reliable and functional web hosting:

Pricing Packages

Choose a company that offers pricing packages that match your needs and level of expertise. An ideal company must be capable of providing you with easy tools needed to set up and organize your site. These tools are essential in terms of delivering messages across the internet. You need to choose at least five prospects. Having multiple choices is not really bad however, you need to make thorough analysis and comparison and start to maximize your options.
You need to take down the features and benefits of every web host and choose the one that you are confident with. This can take some time but the effort is all worth it for the reasons that you are provided with the learning that can help you complete the tasks.

Technical Support

It is highly beneficial to choose a company that offers round the clock technical support. In case you and your web hosting service provider live in opposite worlds, see to it that you can still access technical support anytime you will need this.

Refund Policy

It is imperative to know the service level and refund guarantee. See to it that in case you are not satisfied, you can still get the money that you have paid for back or at least the portion of your fees that remains unused. There are some companies that are really not seriously concerned with this one. When you pay these companies, assume that the money will all be gone. It is therefore essential to choose a web hosting company offering refund policy or money back guarantee in case you are not satisfied with the service.

Unlimited Bandwidth

Do not get easily carried away by companies giving you the promise of unlimited bandwidth. Proper planning comes to play. However, before looking for a host, make sure to determine the amount of bandwidth and space you actually need. This makes the decision process easier. However, do not be lured about unlimited bandwidth because when you buy this, you actually get less.

Server Stability

Research a company and see if this involves a third party site. You also must determine how the company rates. There are three vital areas that need to be looked upon to as far as rates are concerned. These include downtime percentage which seems to be the most critical. Even if the needs for web hosting are not solely for the business purpose, excessive downtime will surely make it hard for you as well as for people who are trying to access and view your site. The acceptable downtime must be 40 minutes and every month and this is equal to about .1% of downtime. Anything above 1 to 2% signifies that something is really going on with your company. Whether it is external issues such as common hacking attempts or internal business issues, server stability should encourage and trigger you to move on.

Customer Service

This is also an important aspect to look upon to if you are aspiring for good hosting. You need to make extensive research regarding this matter and by doing so, you can easily figure out which company is capable of handling customer service or issues well. Taking, for instance, the case of scheduled server maintenance, this should be announced to customers always however, there are some companies fail to alert customers and this can really affect their online businesses.
Understanding the technical support availability is important knowing that this is the area where cutting cost is easier. If you are certain that you will need technical support during late hours, then you need to choose a company that offers customer’s service matching your unique needs.

Application

You can never tell when you might need this so as much as possible, research the quality and availability of server applications. Though you do not really intend to utilize the applications today, making them available for future use is extremely important.
If you are tired of sticking to a hosting company that does not work, then it is better to make a change and commit with the one that you are confident to work with. In situations like this, only one name can save you from the catastrophe and this is none other than Host Gator. There have been lots of changes in the business environment and competition can really be tough. Having a good hosting such as Host Gator is therefore important in order for your company or business to get on top of the competition.
If you have a business, you probably open about establishing a website just like other business individuals do but good hosting is important in keeping and maintaining this. Website and good hosting are an essential part of doing business and it is true that companies regardless of size and type can never survive a highly competitive environment without an effective website and excellent web hosting.
You do not need to be hesitant about hiring the service of the best web hosting company. In fact, you can take full advantage of these services for the benefit of your own company. The best web hosting company has all the means and capacities of providing services and web space. You can even avail for additional services in enhancing your company.
Another important thing is that good hosting is also important for Search Engine Optimization. If you have enough of the slowness and unreliability of your side, never be afraid to take the move. Shifting to another company is a beneficial and pragmatic option and this is perhaps the right thing to do. No need to spend lots of time to a hosting company that cannot really make your company grow and succeed.
Avail the good hosting offered by the best service provider and reap the surprising benefits linked with this shift or move. These obvious benefits include easy setup and migration, an organized and snappier site, better support, no downtime and great understanding linked to web hosting.
Your bad experiences with your previous hosting company can be valid reasons why you make a shift and go with a hosting company such as Host Gator that can give help and support that your company needs. You are advised to be more careful this time so that there will no longer be the chances of looking for another web hosting company again.

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SEO

Easy Tips On How To Choose a Domain Name

How To Choose Domain Name for Your New Website

How to choose a domain name doesn’t have to be hard. If you know what you want and know how to look for it then there is a methodological approach to how to choose a domain name. Many companies are inflexible with their stand that the domain name has to be the name of the company or the brand. That works in many cases and doesn’t work in many cases. Some companies are absolutely clueless what domain name they should go for. They are not even certain of the significance of a domain name. It is all these factors that you must bear in mind when you go about the methods of how to choose a domain name.

Think Of 5 Most Relevant Keywords

Having a website is not sufficient today. The website needs to be optimized, the contents should be relevant and should target keywords to be ranked high on search engine result pages and eventually your target audience must be able to find you for the most relevant keywords. If you are a marketing company then you need to figure out five most relevant keywords that best define your business and then play with those keywords to come up with a domain name. If you are in real estate or mortgage then you need to target keywords such as finance, interest rate, mortgage and home equity among others.

A Domain Name Should Be Unique

No matter what you sell or make, what your marketing strategies are and what kind of website you want, your domain name should be unique. Imagine Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest among others. These domain names are truly unique. The moment you hear such a unique domain name, you remember it. That’s your target, to have your audience remember your domain name.

Always Go For Dot-Com Domains

You may be convinced by some that alternative domains, such as dot-biz, dot-net or dot-us, would be good enough but there is absolutely no replacement of the dot-com phenomenon. People, till now, are still acquainted with adding a dot-com to any domain name by default. This will take a long time to change and till then you must look for domain names that are available in dot-com.

Domain Names Should Be Easy To Type

Why do you come across phone numbers displayed on mobile vans and hoardings with a word depicting the numbers after 1800? This is simply because when you dial that number it is easier to dial when you know a word instead of a number. Also, people can remember words or a word more conveniently. If you make typing your domain name easier, then people will find it convenient and will get to your site more often.

Domain Name Should Be Easy To Remember

Unique domain names, easy to type domain names and those that instantly create a connection with the target audience would be easy to remember. If every time a prospective customer has to look for your domain name or forget it and ask for help from others then your domain name is simply not good enough and you will lose a lot of potential clients in the process.

Short Domain Names Are Better, Barring Exceptions

A short domain name is easier to remember, it is easier to type and easier to mention to someone. You should go for a short domain unless you have a compulsion to opt for a long one. It is not so that long domain names don’t work at all. But if a domain name is long then it must be easy to read, remember and type.

A Domain Name Must Offer A Sneak Peek

A domain name must offer a sneak peek into the kind of website it is. Today, people are unlikely to spend time visiting your website unless they get an idea beforehand of what they are about to explore. AutoTrader or WebMD are some domains that are bang on while Zillow & Monster don’t offer any idea of what they are or what they have to put forth.

Avoid Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement pertaining to domains doesn’t happen too often but there is a faint possibility of someone having registered the domain or might have copyrighted it. You can check this on copyright.gov.

Avoid Special Characters

Keep things simple. No hyphens or any fancy special character. Remember how the typing of your domain name has to remain simple?

Domain Name Is The Gateway To Your Brand

You should choose a domain name that enhances your brand value. A domain name that is lame will not present a very desirable brand image. For instance, shoesnandboots.com or mortgageforyourhome.com is not a very desirable domain name if you wish to present your company as a brand. These domains may be good for optimization but not otherwise. Domain names like lendingtree.com or bankrate.com are brands. Interestingly, these domains are also great for optimization and can be easily remembered.

Act Fast

Domain names can be purchased very fast and easily because most of the time they are so inexpensive. So if you think of a good domain name purchase it as soon as possible! Thankfully to service providers like GoDaddy if the domain you want is not available they will suggest a different one which sometimes can be better than your original idea.

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SEO

Whats The Difference Between WordPress.org & WordPress.com?

WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com

WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system and blogging tool.
Millions of websites are already hosted using WordPress and there are many millions more that are about to be hosted now and in the near future.
The fact that WordPress is an open source software makes it all the more interesting because there can be infinite amendments and upgrades as time goes on, unlike closed systems that are not available for adventurous and ambitious developers to suggest or make changes to the software.
Now, there are two types of WordPress sites that you can host.
One is WordPress.com. When you put up your sites on WordPress.com, it is a free hosting account and you don’t need the hosting infrastructure. Your website will be hosted on WordPress servers.
The other one is WordPress.org. When you host on this domain, it has to be self-hosted, which implies that you need to have the hosting servers or you need to hire a web host to put up your website.

Differences in Wordpress.org vs. WordPress.com

If you have been wondering whether you should go with WordPress.org or WordPress.com, then you can really get some help from this list of differences. After all, you need to compare the pros and cons and only then can you make up your mind. Take a look at WordPress.org vs. WordPress.com and make an informed decision.

First

With WordPress.org you would get support for all kinds of themes. You can come up with unique themes, customize existing themes and can also modify the themes as you go ahead using them for your website.
In effect, you have full theme support.
With WordPress.com, you get limited theme support.
There are some free themes that you can use but you cannot customize them and there are very few you can actually choose from considering their quality even when there are quite many at your disposal. However, there are paid upgrades that you can opt for on WordPress.com to expand your theme options and support.

Second

You get all the plug-ins on WordPress.org.
You can use the free plug-ins, paid ones and customized ones that you may develop on your own. You actually get to explore WordPress with all its potential as a state of the art content management system.
With WordPress.com, there is no plug-in support.
You cannot use any paid or customized plug-ins. There are some built-in plug-ins and you have to be confined to that. However, here again, you have upgrades available which you can pay for and get more plug-ins and support for the same.

Third

WordPress.org will cost you money.
You have to pay for the domain and you need to pay the monthly charges to your web host. If you are hosting a website that is expecting a lot of traffic then you need a lot of bandwidth, disk space and the web host must offer you a horde of round the clock support services. This cost can be anywhere from a few scores to hundreds of dollars.
WordPress.com is absolutely free.
You get 3GB space for storage and you can have your own site. However, if you need an exclusive or customized domain and not a sub-domain then you need to pay and if you need any more storage space or additional services then too you have to pay.
The limitation with WordPress.com, although it is free, is that you cannot host a website that would be very busy. If you want to do that then you will end up paying hundreds of dollars anyway which is what you would have paid to your web host for a state of the art high traffic site on WordPress.org.

Fourth

You control all the monetization on WordPress.org, a luxury you don’t have on WordPress.com.
On WordPress.org You can customize the ads, choose what is going to go on your site and make all the decisions pertaining to money matters.
On WordPress.com, you cannot sell ads or put up ads unless you have more than 25,000 page views every month.
WordPress.org sites would need to be maintained and any cost will have to be taken care of by the website owner. With WordPress.com, one doesn’t need to bother about maintenance. The platform will update and upgrade itself, troubleshot and maintain itself as and when needed.
A WordPress.org site is an independent site and will not benefit from the network of WordPress or the traffic that the network draws by the virtue of its popularity.
With WordPress.com, you can get a share of the traffic or at least be noticeable in the network and that just might work to one’s advantage. Other site optimization requirements still apply to both platforms.

Conclusion

Weigh your priorities and see what you need and what you can do without. Following such an objective and comprehensive analysis, zero in on your choice.

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SEO

10 Easy Steps To Writing A Great Blog Post

blog writing formatblog writing format

Simple Steps To Writing an Excellent Blog Post

Are you planning to set up a blog for your business? Do you need to write blog posts that attract your target audience? If yes, this article is designed for you. Here are the 10 actionable steps that will help you create an excellent blog post that your audience will like and share;

1. Select a topic

Before you start writing a blog post, you need to decide on the topic that you want to write about. It is advisable that you choose a topic that you are passionate about and will enjoy to write it. Selecting a topic that you are passionate about will make writing even much easier.

2. Understand the Needs of Your Audience

You need to understand the kind of audience that will read your blog post. This will help you to craft a blog post that speaks their language and addresses their needs. This will make it possible for you to connect with your audience. You need to think about your target audience demographics including their age, personality traits, marital and education status.

3. Create a Working Title

Choose a title that resonates with your topic. It should convey a rough idea of what your topic is
all about.

4. Arrange the Content

Divide your content into various sections and give every section a heading. The heading should describe what the entire section is about. Make sure that each section educates your readers on a specific issue. As you write the headings, it is advisable that you add keynotes to be discussed in your posts. These notes will help you write the main post later on.

5. Write Your Intro

Your introduction is very crucial. It grabs the attention of your audience and keeps them hooked to reading your entire post. You need to capture the interest of your audience within the first few lines of your introduction. You must explain how your post will help to solve their problems.

6. The First Draft

Time to write your post has come! Go through the notes and heading you had made previously and expand on them. Don’t worry about grammar and spelling mistakes right now. Remember that
writing a blog post is not like doing a thesis paper. Always write blog posts in a friendly and personal tone and try to connect with your readers as much as possible.

7. Review

Read through your post and make notes about things that you will revisit later. Make sure that your post flows naturally from start to the end. Ensure that you have discussed all the major points in your blog post.

8. Tidy Up

Proofread your work keenly to spot any spelling or grammar mistakes and correct them instantly.
Remember that you need to give your readers an excellent first impression.

9. Optimize Your Content for On-Page SEO

There is no point in writing an excellent blog post yet no one will see it online. Make sure that your page is optimized for major search engines like Google, Bing etc. Follow the best On-page SEO practices to ensure that your post is seen online. Offer high-quality content to your readers while adding the primary keywords to the headers.

10. Add a Call-to-Action (CTA)

Once your audience has finished reading your excellent blog post, try to encourage them to take action. For example you may request them to sign up for your newsletter or subscribe to your mailing list.

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SEO

What Your About Page Needs To Be About

What Should Be In The About Page Of Your Website?

You have been tirelessly working to ensure everything is in order for your grand business blog launch. It has been an overwhelming yet exciting journey and now you can proudly say you have a social media identity, a business logo and all you need to trigger the curiosity of the world towards your brand. But there’s still one thing remaining and that’s letting your audience know a little bit more about you. And what better way to ensure that than coming up with the “About page?”
Yes, you definitely require one. In fact, you MUST have one.
And that’s why we have dedicated this article to educate you on how to come up with the “About Me Page”. Read carefully so that you make yours one of the most outstanding pages on your blog.

What Should The About Me Page Include?

Contrary to common assumptions that the About Page is all about you as a business, it should actually be about both you and your audience. They have to feel like part of you. And you have to trigger that sense of belonging right from the beginning by clearly highlighting why you both need each other What do you have in common? Because it has all the power to either elevate your status or lead to our total failure. You decide.
Achieving this might not be a walk in the park, but you still have the power to. Want to know how? Here’s the perfect order to follow;

  1. Know Who You’re Speaking To
  2. Understand Their Dire Needs
  3. How Does Your Work Relate To Their Needs?
  4. What’s Your Expectation Of Them?

Let’s now get a comprehensive look at each of the above points;

1: Know Who You’re Speaking To

Before you draft anything, this is one of the biggest questions you should be able to answer. And you should know that every time you spend time drafting a blog post, you are doing it for your readers. So it’s all about them and their needs.
Have a clear picture of who they are, their age, education level, income rates, etc. This will help you write to and for them. Being specific is the way to go.

2: Understand Their Dire Needs

Now that you’re specific about your audience, you should let them know that you totally relate with where they are coming from and your blog is dedicated to helping them deal with their everyday issues. Gather in your mind all the possible situations that can befall them and fix them.
You can divide their needs into two;
#1: What negative issues are they facing now? It could be anything from unproductive marketing strategies, worsening eating habits, undesirable body image to low self-esteem, etc
#2: What do they describe as an ultimately positive experience? Is it feeling content? Eating delicious meals? Visiting places? etc
This will help you know how to smartly turn their negatives into positives. So you typically have to create a connection between #1 and #2. Here’s what you can come up for someone who’s struggling with unhealthy eating;
” Like you, we love delicious meals. And that sometimes gets us indulging in some unhealthy eating habits as most of the foods out there are fast foods. That’s why we came up with a list of “quick to fix meals” recipes to help us fix sumptuous meals at the comfort of our homes. We both need to stay healthy if we want to enjoy life”
Craft your story in a way that will inspire people into being ” together in this” with you.

3: How Does Your Work Relate To Their Needs?

Share with them that one experience that drove you into starting your blog. That one unheard of story. The negative of them all, the challenges you faced and how you overcame. Let them see that they can also do it. Your story should help them see you as a bridge from their present point to their ideal future. Let the emotions run high.

4: What’s Your Expectation Of Them?

Don’t be shy to let them know what you expect of them. Do you want them to subscribe to your services? Turn notifications on? Read your posts? Make it easy for them.

Conclusion

Now that you know whom you will be addressing, their dire needs, what you will do for them and what you expect them to do, it’s time to exhale all those feelings you have been harboring inside, by create a mind-blowing and luring About Page for your blog/website. Let your star shine!

Categories
Marketing

A List of Power Words To Make Powerful Headlines

The Secret Ingredient to Powerful Headlines: Power Words

You made it! Your website now appears on Google search results. Terrific! Now, how can you optimize your title so that people click and read your content?
Competition is stiff!
Your website is one of many that appear on a search result. You and other websites are competing for the searchers’ attention. There are many ways of getting a click—some not so great. Thanks to research and analytics, researchers set out to improve their brand visibility and they wanted to understand if there is a word formula that attracted clicks. The answer they came up with was—yes, there are words that can be used to increase a website’s CTR (Click Through Rate).
Power words are exactly that, words that have been shown to increase more traffic to blog posts and articles. As a writer, you want to make the best first impression to your readers—and that’s with titles. Crafting a magnetic title is something of a science—requiring a delicate balance between engaging and revealing just enough to pull the reader in to read more. Using power words into titles optimizes a good title, to an effective one.
The secret is to seamlessly integrate power words is to match it well with the content behind it, depending on your website niche. For instance, you’re an expert freelance writer, sell that through your title with words such as “expert,” “guaranteed,” “exclusive,” and any other that creates interest. If you’re giving out free advice, highlight that! People love free stuff, and it’s no surprise who doesn’t?
These words give your searcher a snapshot of your content, create a sense of intrigue, and draws them in to find out more. It’s about the first impression and sustaining quality content to generate more leads in the future.
To help you become a master title creator, we’ve put together a list of 170+ words you can integrate to your titles to increase your CTR and convert those scrolling searchers to clicks, visits, and email subscribers. Enjoy the list below:

170+ Power Words:

  1. Absolutely
  2. Adorable
  3. Advice
  4. Alert
  5. Amazing
  6. Announcing
  7. Approved
  8. Astonishing
  9. Attractive
  10. Authentic
  11. Bargain
  12. Beautiful
  13. Better
  14. Big
  15. Bonanza
  16. Bottom Line
  17. Breakthrough
  18. Challenge
  19. Colorful
  20. Colossal
  21. Compare
  22. Competitive
  23. Complete
  24. Compromise
  25. Confidential
  26. Crammed
  27. Daring
  28. Delighted
  29. Delivered
  30. Destiny
  31. Direct
  32. Discount
  33. Download
  34. Easily
  35. Easy
  36. Edge
  37. Emerging
  38. Endorsed
  39. Energetic
  40. Enormous
  41. Excellent
  42. Exciting
  43. Exclusive
  44. Expert
  45. Exploit
  46. Famous
  47. Fascinating
  48. Focus
  49. Fortune
  50. Free
  51. Full
  52. Fundamentals
  53. Genuine
  54. Gift
  55. Gigantic
  56. Greatest
  57. Growth
  58. Guaranteed
  59. Helpful
  60. High-Tech
  61. Highest
  62. How To
  63. Huge
  64. Hurry
  65. Imagination
  66. Immediately
  67. Important
  68. Improved
  69. Informative
  70. Innovative
  71. Insider
  72. Instructive
  73. Interesting
  74. Introducing
  75. It’s Here
  76. Just Arrived
  77. Largest
  78. Last Chance
  79. Last Minute
  80. Latest
  81. Launching
  82. Lavishly
  83. Liberal
  84. Lifetime
  85. Limited
  86. Love
  87. Lowest
  88. Luxury
  89. Magic
  90. Mainstream
  91. Mammoth
  92. Miracle
  93. Monumental
  94. New
  95. Noted
  96. Now
  97. Obsession
  98. Odd
  99. Opportunities
  100. Outstanding
  101. Perspective
  102. Pioneering
  103. Popular
  104. Portfolio
  105. Powerful
  106. Practical
  107. Professional
  108. Profitable
  109. Promising
  110. Proven
  111. Quality
  112. Quick
  113. Quickly
  114. Rare
  115. Reduced
  116. Refundable
  117. Reliable
  118. Remarkable
  119. Revealing
  120. Revisited
  121. Revolutionary
  122. Reward
  123. Sale
  124. Sampler
  125. Scarce
  126. Secrets
  127. Security
  128. Selected
  129. Sensational
  130. Shrewd
  131. Simple
  132. Simplified
  133. Simplistic
  134. Sizable
  135. Skill
  136. Soar
  137. Special
  138. Special Offer
  139. Spotlight
  140. Startling
  141. Strange
  142. Strong
  143. Sturdy
  144. Successful
  145. Suddenly
  146. Superior
  147. Sure Fire
  148. Surging
  149. Surprise
  150. Survival
  151. Technology
  152. Terrific
  153. Tested
  154. The Truth About
  155. Timely
  156. Tremendous
  157. Ultimate
  158. Unconditional
  159. Underpriced
  160. Unique
  161. Unlimited
  162. Unlock
  163. Unparalleled
  164. Unsurpassed
  165. Unusual
  166. Urgent
  167. Useful
  168. Valuable
  169. Value
  170. Wanted
  171. Wealth
  172. Weird
  173. Willpower
  174. Wonderful
  175. Zinger

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