You’re ready to start a WordPress blog, but you don’t have unlimited resources to do it. We get it and we can help. The reasons for wanting to have an online presence can vary greatly. For example, maybe you have a strong desire to write, make money working from home, or need a way to drive traffic to your business.
A blog is a type of online magazine that allows you to post articles and other content as often as you want. Some of these websites look great, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re expensive.
What is your budget? Imagine this first
In reality, bloggers don’t have a “one size fits all” budget, but you should sit down and figure out your house before you start. The amount you decide to invest in your blog depends on your goals, your level of comfort, and your available income.
Do you want to keep costs to a minimum or can you justify the extra costs in the name of increased profits? Let’s say you’re just getting started and want to stick to a tight budget. Here’s what you need to use to get a quality WordPress blog from the field …
Start a WordPress blog on a budget
1. Buy a domain name
If you want to be taken seriously, you need a blog that you host yourself. You can get to the hosting part in an instant, but this starts with your own domain. Instead of using the free WordPress format that would look like www.yourblog.wordpress.com, you would have www.yourblog.com.
You pay an average of about $ 10 a year for domain registration fees. But you can get a free .com or .blog domain when you buy a WordPress hosting plan from WPWebHost. Choose something relevant, concise, memorable and choose .com whenever possible.
2. Find WordPress Hosting
Sure, you blog to your audience, but they won’t see your content if the search engines don’t make it available. Google doesn’t pay much attention to any blogging platform (WordPress.com or Blogger), so you need to find an affordable web host. Don’t let the idea of a web service scare you – most install WordPress at the touch of a button.
There is a common misconception that hosting a website is incredibly expensive. However, it is not. According to the study, the competitiveness of the shared hosting industry keeps prices very affordable. For example, the average entry-level shared hosting plan (which allows for a single website) is only $ 3.40 per month and the renewal price is $ 4.94 per month.
If you prefer a customized environment for your WordPress blog, WPWebHost offers bloggers $ 3.00 per month to host a single WordPress website. Not only can you get a cheap and affordable managed WordPress host, the option also has excellent features and server performance.
3. Buy a theme
The WordPress theme dominates the look of your website. This lets you choose colors, fonts, page layouts and more. There are thousands of free themes available, but this is not always the best option.
It would be a shame to invest a lot of time in customizing your blog and then a few months or a year later realize that the theme is not in line with the latest WordPress updates (they are published frequently). Or worse, you may find that the free theme contains malicious code that compromises your or your visitors ’information.
There are several reasons to choose a paid theme:
- The themes are of a higher quality
- You get better security and less risk of hidden code
- They provide updates to keep you up to date with WordPress and other online changes
- You get constant support for themes
The amount you spend on a topic can vary widely and doesn’t have to be a ton. You can order stylish themes for $ 89.
4. Premium Extensions
Once the theme is clear, it’s time to take a closer look at your extensions. There are a lot of free WordPress plug-ins that upload and optimize your blog. But sometimes it makes sense to go for upgrades and get premium versions of a few of these tools.
For example, an SEO-optimized website is the best way to get your blog to the top of the search engines. One of the extensions that you should seriously consider paying for (there is a free version) is Yoast SEO. Some of the premium features of the add-on include:
- optimizing for multiple keywords
- Warnings when your content expires
- Internal linking suggestions
- Content information
- Redirection
- Free support
Other extensions that are considering upgrades include those that address WordPress security, caching, and image optimization for better site download speeds.
5. Email campaigns
Gathering email addresses from blog readers is one of the best ways to grow your WordPress readership and start building revenue. Imagine when you’ve just posted an incredibly new post or have a time-sensitive offer for your readers, one way you can get their attention is with an email with a link.
If you have a tight budget, you can start building an email list for free with MailChimp. Here are some impressive features for the free program, and it allows you to create a list of up to 2000 subscribers.
Once you become more popular with this or want to send more than 12,000 emails a month, you will need to upgrade to a paid service. Some low-cost options include MailChimp’s paid plan and Constant Contact.
6. Director of Social Media
It’s hard to make a name for yourself online today without the help of social media. You should have social sharing buttons on your WordPress blog so visitors can share your content as well as links that go to your social media pages.
Being a blogger and being present on social media can be a little too much to deal with. Fortunately, you can get help using a social media timer to automate some tasks. A few budget-friendly examples are Buffer (free for up to 10 posts) and Hootsuite.
Conclusions
Creating and growing a blog can be a challenge, especially considering the millions of other WordPress bloggers who do the same. But you don’t need to know anything about web design to accomplish this. All you have to do is set a budget and be smart about how you spend your time and money.
Photo by William Iven of Pixabay
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